{One of Those Weekends}

I've always gotten Memorial Day and Labor Day confused.  It's one of the many things I get confused about.  Several years ago, I figured out a way to keep it all straight for myself:  Memorial Day is in May and they both start with "M".  Somehow, however, I think the two holidays must have similarities for me.

Remember my post from Memorial Day weekend?  I had another one of those weekends!  I feel like time somehow stood still and there was enough time to do almost everything that I wanted or needed to do.  (I did not mop my hardwood.  And I really wanted/ needed to.)

Saturday, I slept in.  My mom came and took the kids to my grandmother's for a visit.  The weather was glorious.  They went to a park and played.  Then they went back to my grandmother's to ride their bikes.  While they were gone I cleaned.  I met them in town and retrieved the kids so mom could be on her way home.  

Brandon was going to a UFC fight so the kids and I stayed home.  Ellie's big secret was that we popped popcorn and ate it on the couch.  The jig is up now since Brandon is one of my 5 faithful readers.  Brandon hates the smell of microwave popcorn.  Go figure. But we very much enjoyed eating popcorn while we watched Olivia and the Backyardigans.

Sunday, we went to church and then to Gander Mountain to get Ellie her very first deer hunting outfit.  Ahh...makes a Mama proud.  

How cute is she???

Then we came home and my mom came to sew with me.  Evidently, I am a solitary sewer.  We didn't accomplish much.  I really think that sewing is kind of solitary.  And everyone has their own system.  But I did get two shirts done yesterday.

My goal was to get some things done for fall for the kids.  I keep a list two miles long of all the things I want to sew and I just never seem to make a dent in it.  But this weekend, I did. 

Today, I was able to do four shirts for Ellie, three shirts for Mason and a shirt for Charlie.  Woot!!!  And I threw in a few loads of laundry in between.

Here are a few of the shirts:

Mason's birthday tee

Getting ready for football season.  Go WKU!

And this one for Mason was probably my favorite of the weekend.  I am counting on Nana for some brown corduroy pants to go with it and we have "Boutique on a Budget"!  And I say it's my favorite, but I did one for Ellie to match a skirt I got at the crazy Kellys Kids sale a couple of years ago and it is very cute too!


All in all, it was a great weekend and I have decided that every weekend should be 3 days.  4 days of work and 3 days of weekend is just a better ratio.  Not to get political or anything, but the whole idea is just crazy enough that I think it seems like something our current Pres would jump on.  Just sayin'.

{A List}

1. My patience and tolerance is at a major LOW.  I have no time for silliness, foolery or anything that gets in my way.  I was so NOT in the mood for road work this morning.

Yes, road work.  My roads are just one step above gravel.  Why the need to work on them at 7:20 am?

No fewer than 43 people tried to pull out in front of me this morning. What?  You think it was 2?  Ok, maybe it was 2.

And then I got irritated by the woman who I see walking every morning.  She irritates me because she doesn't move her arms when she walks.

And you know what else is tremendously irritating to me?  The fact that Eminem is making a comeback.  What is up with that?

Obviously my irritation is warranted.

2.  Mason is obsessed with Corvettes.  I showed him a yellow Corvette one day to try to distract his attention from asking me for a "chocolate cookie", which he asks for all. the. time.  (We don't even have chocolate cookies in our house.  Cross my heart.  I have no clue where he got this.)

So I say "WOW!  See that yellow car?  That's a Corvette."  

Now Mason sees Corvettes everywhere.  Only they aren't Corvettes.  And they may or may not be yellow.

And really, I don't care.  I just say "Oh wow, that's cool."  Ellie, on the other hand, has no time for looking at cars that are billed as Corvettes, but turn out to be Hondas.  No time at all. Disappointment sets in because evidently my kids are really into Corvettes.

Her disappointment turns into an all out screaming match that "NO THAT IS NOT A CORVETTE!  MASON YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!"  She's Stickler, Jr., she is.

3.  My kids battle constantly.  Con. Stant. Ly.  Ellie doesn't get enough play time to suit her needs.  She retreats to her room to play "baby" or "daycare" or "school" as soon as we hit the door in the afternoon.  IF Mason follows her rules, she will let him play.  IF he won't follow the rules, she will waylay him.

I hear you.  You're saying, "Awe, poor Mason."  Don't be fooled.  Mason antagonizes.  She says "Put that down" and he says "Come make me."  So she does.  Then he cries.  Then I comfort him.  Then he goes back for more.  I'm at a loss.


4.  I have an inability to get organized.  What?  The? Heck?  Seriously, ya'll.  Why can't I get it together.  I feel like I am always chasing my tail.

And I just realized last week that I really have no excuse.  There is no house building.  Brandon hasn't been traveling for a few weeks.  My social calendar is pretty empty.  But I cannot get it together!

I have narrowed it down to a few possible causes:  1.  My three roommates who always want meals and don't do their own laundry.  Or pick up after themselves.  2.  The lack of a live-in housekeeper (Or even JACKIE.  If anyone sees Jackie, tell her I want to get back together!)  3.  My full-time job that takes up like 40 hours of prime time during my week.

5.  I realized two days ago that next week is Labor Day.

And I did a happy dance.

Then I realized that the forecast is calling for a HIGH of 77 degrees and I said Howalooya and Amen!

{Decisions}

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Since we started kindergarten, there have been a lot of things that have changed.  We have much busier mornings.  Ellie has way less free time (I hate this the most for her) because we get home later and we have homework.

I try to plan ahead.  I pack everything in her lunch that I can the night before and plan the other things I will put in.  I fix the coffee so I can just turn it on.  (Yes, I have become a coffee drinker...another post)  And then there are the dreaded decisions about what to wear...

Our BIGGEST fights have been over what she will wear.  I pick something, something I even pick TWO outfits and give her a choice, and it is never what she wants.

So in a lightbulb moment the weekend before school started, I came up with a plan:

On Sunday evening, we go to her room and we pick 5 OR 6 outfits (in case she feels she needs an option) for the week.  I cleaned off a shelf in her closet and that shelf is dedicated to her weekly clothes.  In the mornings, I tell her to go pick her outfit for the day.  I can rest assured that all outfits have been previously approved by management and she feels like she has gobs of choices.

This absolutely and completely WORKS FOR ME.

Now, if ya'll can figure out a way I can A. get her to go to bed earlier and B. NOT roll over and whine "It is too hard for me to wake up."  Please enlighten me.

***
Visit We are THAT Family for other great tips!

{V-U-L-C-H-E-R}

I realize that some blogs you read probably have an order to them.  The ones I read do!  There are Menu Plan Mondays and Works for Me Wednesday.  Better yet, Wordless Wednesdays when all that is posted is a picture.  Ok, those usually get on my nerves.   But around here, you get RANDOM because I am random and you chose to read.

There are reading groups in Kindergarten.  Again, I am just able to piece together information from the tiny shreds that Ellie choses to share, BUT from what I gather...at some point each day, the children in each group gather and do literacy related activities.  Ellie's group usually work on a letter.  They divide their paper into quarters and they all participate as the teacher talks about words that start with the designated letter of the day.  They also come up with one word on their own and write it on the back of their paper.

The teacher writes the words and draws a picture on the "active board" (this is a new-fangled chalk board that is somehow connected to the computer).  Last week they worked on "V" words.  We had valentine, violin, vulcher, vampire and vowel (Ellie came up with this one on her own and wrote A-E-I-O-U as her picture!).

Now you're looking at vulcher and thinking "GAH I wish that girl could spell."  However, my dear readers, I can spell.  I actually pride myself on my ability to spell.  So when I was looking over Ellie's work, I was somewhat confused.

Vulcher?  So I say to my dear sweet husband, "Honeypie, how do you spell vulture?"  My sweetie replies "V-U-L-T-U-R-E?  Isn't that right, Snookums?"  I respond, "Yes, dear, that's what I thought. Oh well."

And seriously, I was over it.  WHO knows how this vulcher thing transpired.  Good grief!   Ellie's teacher has been teaching for years.  The woman is tired.  She slipped.  We all slip.  Lord knows I do not want the responsibility of teaching these children to read and write and spell.  Who am I to criticize or question?

But then there's my sweetie.  My love muffin.  My Honeypie.  Some people might just call him a stickler.  Your shaking your head.  You can hardly believe I would say this.  Yes, I know...he seems laid back, even easy going.  Not one to correct others or point out flaws.  But behind closed doors, well.....OH WHO AM I KIDDING???  He was really born to be in law enforcement.

Given the prospect of forever hindering Ellie's ability to spell VULTURE, well, my dear one just could not sit by and let this mistake be looked over.  He needed answers.

We started with Ellie.  I suggested that perhaps she had sounded it out phonetically.  Because really, ya'll, I just COULD NOT imagine that her teacher had done this.  I really couldn't.

As we dug deeper, we found that the teacher was out that day.  And the student teacher did reading group that day.  Ah ha...

So my Love Muffin says he's writing a note.  He (and Barney Fyfe) cannot sit by and let this wrong go unanswered.  He felt this needed to be brought to someone's attention, lest they go through life spelling Vulcher wrong.

I requested that he call his dad, a veteran teacher who is also married to a veteran teacher.  My thought is that my dear father-in-law would talk some sense into his son.  he could talk to him from a teacher's perspective.  I was sure he would make him see that this was not a hill we needed to collectively die on.  He would tell him that note writing about mistakes might be saved for later in the year when Ellie has written an essay on some intense subject matter that gets graded badly.  THEN he can go talk that over with the teacher.  But why bother with vulcher?

And I should have known how it would all turn out.

Brandon and his dad feel the same way about pretty much everything and Brandon's dad thinks it's kind of funny that Brandon gets so worked up about most matters.  You know how Andy always thought it was funny how worked up Barney got over Otis' antics?  I mean Andy agreed that Otis shouldn't be going around in that condition, but he might not have worried about it as much as Barney did.  And when Barney would haul Otis in and go over the rules "here at the Rock" with Otis, Andy would kind of sit back and chuckle to himself because....OK. You get the idea.

And how did a kindergarten story turn into a story about town drunks and Andy Griffith?

My father-in-law told Brandon he "wasn't surprised" and that a note probably "wouldn't hurt, but wouldn't make much difference."  Brandon took that as "GO AHEAD SON.  I AM FULLY BEHIND YOU ON THIS ONE."  And then my father-in-law kind of chuckled.

The note was quite mild.  He basically said that we saw the paper and weren't sure if Ellie sounded it out or copied it from the active board.  And he requested some explanation.

THE RESPONSE
So how would you respond?

Ellie's teacher responded with "LOL!  Mrs. X responded on Ellie's group work paper."

Mrs. X (the student teacher) responded with something along the lines of "I am soooo sorry!  I guess I've never written "Vulture" and I sounded it out phonetically.  Thanks for pointing that out!"

I breathed a sigh of relief.  I mean L O L indeed.  I thanked my stars they would not start Ellie on long division and then give her F's when she wasn't able to do the work.  And I chuckled.  I also breathed a sigh of relief that they took my "Barney's" note as a note from a stickler.  They were lighthearted about it.  They didn't get their feelings hurt.  Whew.

Barney didn't completely agree.  He said they seemed to take it a little too lightheartedly.  Because WHO can go through life not knowing how to spell vulture?  Right?

I hope they are ready for their year with Barney's kid in their class!
  

{Independence}

I get bits and pieces of Ellie's days at school over long periods of time.  I can question, interrogate, annoy, and badger her and she will give me hardly anything newsworthy.  Perhaps my "annoy" and "badger" skills aren't very good.  We'll ask Brandon.  Ok, nevermind we won't.  Anyway...No matter how much I ask, most days she will not give me a play by play of her day.  In my family, we call this the "He Said/ She Said" of her day.

However, at random times in the course of life, Ellie will share the He Said/ She Said.  And you must know that I am a keen interrogator so I take these opportunities and run with them.  Sunday night, we had such an interaction.

NOW, I must preface this for my mom and my good friend, Laura who may or may not be reading this and who may or may not have a kid in Ellie's class.  DON'T PANIC.  The  story you are about to read freaked me out.  I am pretty sure I lost sleep over it.  But I have come to terms with it as a right of passage.  You will too.

So Sunday night I was putting Ellie to bed and she was relaying some more information to me about her visit to the school nurse on Thursday.  Thursday morning, Ellie woke up with in irritated eye.  She rubbed and rubbed her eye, I told her to stop, she didn't and I guess her teacher had to cover all bases and send her to the nurse.  The nurse determined it was "allergies" which turned out to be exactly right.  I'm glad we have a school nurse with a good head on her shoulders.

So Sunday night, Ellie is telling me more about the story and she mentions that there was a boy who came while she was in the nurses office and she heard someone say he had been throwing up.  I immediately went into "Well if you see someone throw up, you GET AWAY FROM THEM.  Did you sit by him???"  "No, I didn't sit by him.  But I heard them say he was throwing up."  "Well you just stay away from anyone who is throwing up, ok?"  She agreed.

She goes on to tell me that she was accompanied to the nurse's office by the teacher assistant in her classroom.  "Mrs. X took me to the school nurses office.  She had something to take to the office so she let me walk back to the classroom by myself."

THUD.  "Mama, are you ok?  WAKE UP MAMA!"  She administered smelling salts and I immediately launched into my interrogation. With the utmost calm, of course.

"She let you walk back by yourself?  Are you sure about that?  Tell me how that went."  
"Well, Mrs. X said 'I have some things to take to the office.  Do you know the way to the classroom?'  And I did so I said yes and she said 'ok, you can go by yourself.'"

I couldn't really help myself so I blurted out "IF SOMEONE EVER COMES UP TO YOU IN THE HALLWAY AND SAYS 'Little girl come the bathroom with me' YOU SCREAM FIRE AND RUN!"

Ellie looks at me with a puzzled look and says "WHY would I say fire?"

"Because that's the only thing that will get their attention!" I calmly replied.  It was all really really calm.

I went on to tell her how important it is to go exactly where she is supposed to go and not make any stops.  And to only talk to people she knows. She went on to tell me how cool school is and how she never got to go places by herself in preschool. Yeah, real cool.  Totally Totally cool.

I kissed my angel good night and told her to get some rest.  Then I went upstairs and began to ponder the information I had just been given.

I went over the conversation I was going to have with the teachers. Did they make an unfortunate mistake in judgement that would never happen again?  Was this standard procedure?  I'd suggest that I didn't feel kids were ready for this step until Middle School or perhaps not even until High School.  What happened to the Buddy System???

I decided Ellie must have relayed the story incorrectly.  Perhaps she had taken to telling tall tales.  Perhaps this was just another wonderful side effect form school.  A vivid imagination and the ability to cause her Mama to have a heart attack.

And then I decided I might as well go on and call the principal too.  And the school board.  I decided to launch a thorough investigation into school security complete with secret shoppers.  Then I decided none of that was worth the trouble and I might as well just home school her.

Then I woke up.  I remembered that Ellie wasn't the first kid to enter kindergarten there and won't be the last.  I remembered a few weeks ago when I sashayed into the school to bring her school supplies and I was chased down by the school secretary.   And called by name.  And told to sign in whenever I entered the school.  On the second day of school.  By someone I don't remember meeting.

BUT GAH this is hard.  I have gone from knowing her exact whereabouts every second of her life since the day she was born to THIS loosy goosy letting babies walk by themselves to their classrooms place.  I'm going to go out on a limb and guess they don't make them clean their plates at lunch either.  You know I bet they don't even care if they EAT lunch on ice cream Friday.  What a wild place!!!!


Ellie asked if I would drop her off at the mall to meet her friends on Friday night.  I haven't completely decided yet.

My New Name

Wow!  I know it's been a while.  I guess school is keeping us all busy.  We have been busy busy busy.  What has been going on, you ask?  Here goes:

1. My cousin Skyler got married two weeks ago.  Skyler and Brittney's engagement has fueled our social life this summer.  We've had engagement parties, showers, rehearsals, dinners, and finally the BIG EVENT.  Ellie was the flower girl and Mason was the ring bearer.  They both did fantastic.  Ellie was not able to drop her petals on her way down the aisle because Mason had a little stage fright so she put her hand on his back and nudged him all the way down the aisle.  (Yes I almost cried it was so sweet).  But being the queen of quick thinking that she is, she dropped her petals on the way out.

2. Brandon left for Brazil the day after the wedding and was gone for a week.  He returned last Saturday.  We were very glad to have him HOME!

3. Last week the daycare was closed for teacher training.  Mason and Charlie spent most of the week with Nana.  Brandon did keep Mason on Thursday.  On Thursday, Mason had his first visit to a real barber.  And a visit to the doctor to find out he had "croup".  The doctor prescribed steroids.  I knew things were bad when I got the following text from mom on Friday:  "Do you think I could give him some motrin or tylenol to help him calm down?"  My mom handles pretty much everything but Mason was somewhat possessed.  By the time I got home at about 5:15, he was out of control.  I can't believe she was able to do it all day!  I'm pretty sure he could have lifted a car.  I called the after hours service at the doctor's office and was told that I could half his dose since he was already better.  That made all the difference and he had a good weekend.

Charlie and all of his cousins: Mason- 2, Ellie-5, Molly-7 and Luke-3

4.  Yesterday was Charlie's christening.   Tim's parents, Nicole, Molly and Luke all came up to celebrate.  All of the kids get along so well and they had a blast.  Molly went to Sunday school with Ellie and Luke went to Sunday school with Mason.  After church, everyone came back to my house for "My Big Fat Italian Christening".  Mom and Dad made two kinds of lasagna and manicotti, salad and bread sticks.  Wonderful food and great company.

My house is all clean for the week so here we go again...

In other news, Ellie is still loving school.  A few funny things:

• I got a call Friday from my aunt.  Ellie had a balance on her cafeteria account and was not going to be able to buy ice cream as the special Friday treat.  Here's the thing- I have packed Ellie's lunch every day!  I could not figure out what she had bought.  My aunt investigated and found that when asked "Ellie are you hungry, do you want breakfast?"  Ellie said "YES!"  So they fed her and charged it to her account.  Thankfully, my aunt paid the balance and she was able to buy ice cream!
• My mom asked Ellie if she was learning to read in reading group.  Ellie told her "Nana, I can already read.  How can they teach me something I already know???"  Well, duh!
• Ellie found a Mason jar yesterday.  She was EXTREMELY upset that it had Mason's name on it and not hers.

Mason is doing well.  He is 100% better as far as his cough so hopefully that will hold for a while.  His humor is neverending.  This morning, he called me Your Highness on the way to school.  And I kinda liked it.  I might drop the "Mama" and go with "Your Highness".

{Back to School}

Well, my baby girl started Kindergarten on Tuesday.  We all did surprisingly well. I had a few tears, but she was just fine.  We got to school and got our car rider tag, went to the gym and saw two of my aunts.  We were directed to take her to her classroom where her teacher was waiting for her with her nametag.  We went into the classroom and helped her find a seat and said our goodbyes and that was that.  I have a kindergartener!

When I picked her up, she was a bit worn out and not really ready to talk.  But throughout the evening, she shared more and more of her day.  Kindergarten is very exciting.  She was actually up before I even had to wake her this morning, ready to go.

Ellie and Mason seemed to really miss one another on Tuesday.  They went out on the porch and played.  We could hear some new terms being used by Ellie (all positive) and at one point, we looked out and saw the above.  It's hard to see, but Mason is sitting in a chair and Ellie is kneeling in front of him, talking.  This looks EXACTLY like what we have seen her new teacher do with children and it really tickled us.  

I am thrilled about Ellie's school.  I have an aunt and a cousin who work there and several friends who also work there and several more friends whose children go to school with Ellie. Having come from 5 years of being "Jennifer's little girl" at pre-school, it's nice that Ellie hasn't become just a number and that people know her.  I am thrilled about the ability to communicate with her teacher.  She is available by email, by a daily communication sheet that the kids bring home and she gave us her home number (but I really don't want to use that)!  Did I mention that Ellie's teacher is this year's Kleenex spokesperson, is in our state teacher's hall of fame, and the National Teacher's hall of fame.  She's, like, TOTALLY awesome.  Which, coincidentally, is the one word that Ellie felt best described her first day of school.