It's Finals Week...

I don't know whether to be elated or highly frustrated...

Three assignments, One test, A term project, and Four final exams, and the semester will finally end...

And maybe then I can write something worthwhile...

Lisa

The Lost Tooth...

... And I Mean Really Lost...

This morning, while we were eating breakfast, Seth got this pained look on his face. Phil asked him what was wrong, and he replied that it hurt every time he took a bite. So, Phil told him to open his mouth, and it became evident that the reason it hurt was because he was losing his very first tooth!

And there was much rejoicing in our household, because Seth is 6 1/2 years old, and he was getting rather irritated that he had never lost a tooth. The rejoicing was followed by much swishing around of water and spitting...

Within a few minutes, Seth had yanked his tooth out! We took some pics, because we always take pics, and then we put the tooth aside for safe keeping. And that was that... or so we thought...

Except, it wasn't really... Seth couldn't seem to keep his mind off the lost tooth. Throughout the day, he would go check on it... and pick it up... and we kept reminding him to put it back so he wouldn't lose it.

But Seth didn't really want to put it back. So at some point... when neither Mom nor Dad was looking... He picked it up and took off with it.

Now... unbeknown to us, the tooth spent some time with Seth throughout the day. Seth read "Ranger Rick"... and so did the tooth. Seth beat up on his sister... and so did the tooth. Seth played Legos with his brother... and so did the tooth. It was a very busy tooth.

We sat down for dinner later than usual. We had pizza. It was not homemade pizza... but frozen pizza is good too... After dinner, we started to get the kids ready for bed, because, like I said, it was later than usual. And we went to get the tooth...

Except... the tooth wasn't there!

After Phil and I spent a few minutes going back and forth saying, "I didn't move the tooth, did you move the tooth?" and, "No, I didn't move the tooth, did you move the tooth?" we finally looked at Seth. And let me stop here to tell you that Seth is not a child who lies very often. I would like to say that it is because he is a very honest child, and perhaps that has something to do with it. However, the truth is, Seth just isn't a very good liar. He gets tears in his eyes and starts to look around the room, and he just gets caught. So, Seth doesn't really lie. Perhaps he should taken lessons from his sister... then again... maybe not...

At any rate, we asked Seth, "Did you take the tooth?" And the story began to unfold...

The story unfolded very slowly... as in it took a couple of hours slowly... But finally we narrowed down the time frame in which the tooth was lost. And... even more finally... we figured out that maybe it got stuck in one of the legos (duplos, actually). Caleb has a whole set of Thomas the Tank Engine duplos, and as it turns out, Seth gave the tooth a ride in Toby.

So Phil snuck into Caleb's room (Caleb was already sleeping, or he never would have let us play with his legos without him) and got the legos. And he dumped them all out. And we went through them one by one. In most normal households, this would not have been so time consuming, but we kind of have a lot of legos. But when we got to the last lego, there was still no tooth.

I think we were just about ready to give up, but there were a couple of serious issues here...

First, we are sort of sentimental. OK... we are really sentimental. It was disturbing to us that we didn't have the very first tooth that our first child had lost... and lost. We didn't really want to give up the hunt. Second, we were a little concerned about the fact that Caleb eats everything! It was a distinct possibility that he had eaten the tooth... or that he would if he was the first to find it. And third, Seth needed something to put under his pillow for the tooth fairy, and we didn't figure she'd take Grace and leave enough money...

Still, I was about to give up and tell him to go to bed. And then I looked down among all the other crumbs on the living room floor, and I thought... "Hey, that kinda looks like a tooth!" And so I pushed it with my toe, and it felt hard, so I stooped down to pick it up. And... sure enough... the tooth it was...

So I put it in a ziplock bag. And I told Seth that he'd better keep it there, because the tooth fairy was not going to leave any money if she couldn't find the tooth. And so help me, when I reach my hand under his pillow tonight, that tooth had better be in that bag!


Lisa

Bodily Fluids Can Be Entertaining...

Well, it's been a while since I've made a "real" post on here. After today, it's probably going to be a while again... sorry. But there are a few people out there who want an "update" on how life is going around here, so here it comes...

I have a little over two weeks of school left. I am having an educational meltdown of sorts. If I spend a whole lot of time blogging and not a whole lot of time submitting homework assignments, I am going to destroy my GPA. Actually, no. My GPA is not going to look pretty after this semester, anyway. But if I don't get the work done, I am seriously going to be putting my financial aid in jeopardy, and I certainly cannot afford that.

The kids have pretty much finished up eveything they need to do for Kindergarten and First grade... and a good portion of what they need to do for Second grade. Here I remind you that Grace is only five years old, and Seth was not yet "compulsory school age", this Fall. I will be declaring "summer vacation" soon, because we are seriously out of stuff to do...

I have spent the last two days covered in spit-up, vomit, and pee, compliments of Caleb and Ian. One of these days, Caleb is going to be potty trained. Until then, I am going to have to get the refrigerator lock fixed... yes... the refrigerator. I am not 100% sure what happened, this morning, but I think Caleb pulled his diaper off and then when to the fridge for a drink. In the process, he... uh... sprayed the floor in front of the fridge and the bottom shelf, as well. Thankfully, it is getting close to grocery shopping time, so it's not like there was any food within reach, anyway... ugh. This goes down as one of those things I just never imagined I'd have to clean up. I think he was pretty proud that he didn't get his diaper wet... You know... someday when my kids are older and I no longer have to spend all of my time cleaning up bodily fluids, I am going to buy satin sheets.

I have been working on my book, as well, and can't seem to make myself take a break from it until school is out. I am around page 94. I do have one chapter that is going to have to be completely re-written, though. That means I'm not getting a whole lot of sleep between the book and the very hungry caterpillar... uh... baby. Ian eats a lot...

Overall, I think life is alright. I am tired... as in really tired. But I am happy.

Look for another post in a couple of weeks.

Lisa

Everybody Sing Now...

I'm dreaming of a white April...

Oh wait... ugh... Why is it snowing?

I was reminded, tonight, that at least the pollen index is low. For that I am thankful...

Lisa

Traditionally, I love the day after Easter...

...It is, after all, the greatest candy sale day of the year. But today I was disappointed...

If they had a significant amount of nutritional value, I could live on Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs. Unfortunately, they do not. So, I do not.

Today, there were no Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs left. Well... at least not the original chocolate kind. I do have a couple of packages of fudge covered ones in my possession. Is there anyone out there with plain chocolate who wants to trade before I eat all of these?

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We spent ours with family, so it was very nice. The Easter Bunny brought Caleb a CD that features Spin Doctors, Weird Al, and Hootie... uh... There's a real interesting story behind that one... We actually made it to "building church" three out of four Sundays, too. We would have had four in a row, but some (sort of unforseen) circumstances threw our plan off a bit. We ate turkey... and mashed potatoes... and homemade cheesecake.

Lisa

Conversation of the day:

Me: "Now, if only I could play beach volleyball"
Phil: "And if only I could cut off the heads of Orks"

Yeah... I guess you had to be there...

Lisa

It Was A Busy Weekend...

• ...and then it was a busy Monday... and now it is a busy Tuesday, but I figure I've got to write sometime!
  
  Seth had his first basketball game on Saturday. I think he had fun, but it is a little frustrating when so many very little people are trying to learn to play a sport of any kind. Seth really loves basketball, and he was irritated by the kids who didn't stay in their positions and didn't even try to dribble the ball. Other than the "injury" he sustained, I think it went pretty well, though. Here are a couple of pics:
  

  
  

  Grace and I skipped gymnastics last night, and I'm beginning to wonder how long this schedule can keep working. We need a gymnastics program in our own town... ugh!
  
  School is in full swing now, for everyone. I am more interested in my classes this term, so that should help. I am still procrastinating, though. The kids are way ahead of where they need to be, but we still have to meet attendance requirements, so I'm getting creative with our lesson plans at this point. By March I don't know what we're going to do!
  
  Caleb has been full of funny things to say lately, but unfortunately I haven't written any of them down. I have to get better at that again.
  
  Ian is growing like a weed! He smiled yesterday... aw... It was so cute!
  
  OK... OK... Someone in this house needs to go learn something now...
  
  Lisa

  Comments (1)

  • 

    It is ok! I agree... We need to get together sometime!!

    Love ya! ~Shandi

    • 1/23/2007 9:19 AM
    • Shanderific08 (message)
    • reply

Why Dishwashers Are...

... Basically Useless

I am kind of weird about certain things. I like to feed my children homemade snacks. It doesn't mean we never pick up fruit snacks or Little Debbies. I'd just rather bake, most of the time. I also like to do my own dishes... by hand. We lived in our current house for about eight months before I used the dishwasher. I don't like spots on my silverware, and I don't like re-washing half the dishes, because they don't look very clean. But sometimes the dishwasher comes in handy.

This afternoon, I was exhausted. I have heard it said that it would be nice if babies came with instruction manuals. Frankly, it would have been nice if Ian had come with a cow. He likes to eat... a lot. I am pretty sure he took only occasional breaks between 4 am and noon. I was dozing sometimes, so he may have been, too.

At about quarter after twelve, it occurred to me that the other people who live in my house might want to eat, too, so I started making pizza... and breadsticks... and cookies. We actually sat down around 2:00, because I did much of this with only one hand.

After we ate, I realized a couple of key things. First, Ian had fallen asleep at some point, draped over my arm. I set him down. And, second, the kitchen was a mess. Ordinarily, this is a pretty good combination, because I have both hands free to clean. But I didn't want to clean. I wanted to sleep! Sleeping wasn't exactly an option, so I decided I at least wanted to spend some times with my bigger kids, while the baby slept. I quickly swept the floor and loaded the dishes into the dishwasher.

I squeezed... and shook... and hit the container that was supposed to have dishwasher soap in it, but almost nothing came out. So I figured I might as well just load the thing up with regular dish soap. If you use a dishwasher regularly, you are probably already laughing, but I hadn't realized what a humorous adventure I was about to have.

I quickly checked my e-mail... wrote a response... and returned to the kitchen... which was, of course, covered in suds at this point. I stood there feeling kind of stunned for a moment, and then I told Phil that the kitchen was covered in soap suds. He was willing to blame the kids for messing with the dishwasher, but I confessed. Then I shook my head, laughed, and started mopping up the suds with dish towels. Caleb came into the kitchen and laid down on the floor on his belly so he could watch.

As of this writing, I still haven't actually opened the dishwasher. I am afraid of what I will find. In the end, I don't think it saved me any time to use the dishwasher, today, and that is irritating, because I am still tired, and I'd like to go to sleep!

I'm not sure there is a great moral to this story. Lots of wonderful, upstanding people use dishwashers. But I guess it doesn't pay, for me at least, to cut corners. I need to do the job right the first time, or I end up with a real mess.

Being a mommy to four little people is exhausting sometimes. I think I need to invest in more frozen pizza.

Lisa

It's almost time...

I have been working on a book for the past 18 months. Well... that's not exactly true. It goes something more like this... I stay up until midnight working on the book one night. Then I stay up until 2:00 or 3:00 am working on the book the next night. Then I don't touch the book for three or four months. I start thinking about the book again, and the process begins again. And it goes on... and on... and on...

But I think I am really supposed to finish this book. Like, right now.

When it is finished, I am going to publish it myself. This is for a couple of reasons. First of all, I don't have the patience (or maybe the endurance) to suffer through long publishing processes that would probably end with a pile of rejection letters. And second, I don't want anyone to do anything to change my book.

Perhaps no one will read it. I guess I am OK with that, but I still hope someone reads it anyway.

It will be very honest... and very raw. And with that in mind, it will also be written completely from my own point of view, so I'm pretty sure there will be people who feel it is less than honest. That's because there are many... many sides to the story. I doubt those people will read the book anyhow, but just in case, I have changed their names... and the names of their churches... and the names of their towns.

I am telling you all of this, because I am currently caught up in the chapters that are the heart and soul of the story. And it is very difficult to write. And I want to make sure I have "done justice" to this part of the journey, if nothing else.

I fully expect to be less sarcastic and less cynical when I have finished. I am already well on my way. But I will still have a dry sense of humor, because that's just the way I am.

So, please send up some prayers for me while I finish this project. I'll let you know when it's done, just in case you want to read it.

Lisa

So... Let me tell ya about last week.

It was my intent to write this when I got my pictures developed. Unfortunately, I have learned that if you are going to buy a disposable water camera, you should by Kodak only. My water pics. turned out lousy. I will not be posting them here, after all!

We visited Great Wolf Lodge on Wednesday. Not this past Wednesday... the one before. If you are going to visit Great Wolf Lodge, you should do it on a Wednesday, because the rooms are something like half price! We arrived early and were able to check right in, even though it was supposed to be a few hours until the official check-in time. That was super! Phil's mom and dad came with us and accidentally ended up in a handicapped room with no bath tub. That was my mistake... and a big one at that! They were good sports. We stayed in a "Kid's Cabin" room, because our family is too big to fit in "normal" rooms at this point. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever!

After Phil dragged all of our luggage up to our room, we got everyone ready to go to the waterpark and called Grandma and Grandpa. Were we ever in for an adventure! Taking four non-swimming little people to a waterpark definitely requires four adults... especially when a three month old is part of the group!

After snapping Seth, Grace, and Caleb into life jackets, we were off! Unfortunately, about 5-10 minutes into our fun, Seth tripped on a slippery set of stairs and landed on his face. This required a trip to the first aid station to track down some ice and fill out an accident report. It resulted in a terribly bruised, fat lip. I felt awfully sorry for him. However, Seth wanted to get right back out there and play, so the injury was minor, in his opinion.

We enjoyed plenty of water fun, including Ian's first trip in a lazy river (and I do mean a very lazy river) and Seth's first solo trip down a really big water slide. Grandma was a huge help holding Ian for several hours and splashing in the baby pool with Caleb. Grace just about ran Grandpa into the ground taking him up the steps to the double tube slide over... and over... and over again. And, Phil and I even got to spend an hour by ourselves in the evening. It had been a long time since I'd been in a hot tub, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I want one of my own... hehehe...

We enjoyed the arcade and came home with plenty of "prizes". We ate at Gitchigomie Grill, inside the lodge. The food was good, but I think I'd walk across the parking lot to Steak-N-Shake if we visit again. We took pics. with the bear in the lobby. We heard the singing moose. And we sat through the great clocktower show from which our children gained insight into new age theology...

Overall, I'd say that Great Wolf Lodge is an excellent experience for families with young children... well... minus the new age theology! Families with teens or groups without little kids might want to try one of the other indoor waterparks, but I have never been to another one in the area, so I really can't make a recommendation.

When we got home, we ate pizza, washed diapers, and packed for another "mini-trip"!

On Saturday morning, we went to my "Paw's" 80th birthday party! It was awesome, because he was completely surprised. We ate at Old Country Buffet, where Phil, Grace, and I ate too much... Seth ate every variety of bread known to man... and Caleb decorated himself with blue frosting from the birthday cake! Caleb also took off running through the restaurant... including through an employee area... but I finally caught him. (As a side note... Since then, Caleb has run through Applebee's, only to be caught by Seth, since Phil was stuck in the middle of a very large booth and I was feeding Ian. He also made a mad dash for the McDs kitchen, and I nearly left him there to work for the afternoon!)

After we ate, the party moved to Paw and Glenda's house, where we had even more snacks, and we watched the slideshow DVD I put together. It must have been a hit, because I need to make five copies of it and get them sent out sometime soon!

The real... ahem... fun was only beginning, though. We went to have some family portraits taken, and let's just say my kids were too tired... and wired... at this point. Caleb bounced off the walls (nearly literally), while Ian screamed, and Seth and Grace nearly pushed Paw off the posing stool. We still got some decent pics. I was, however, beyond tired and crabby by the end of the night. I do not do tired and crabby well. If you are ever in the same general area as I am in when I am tired and crabby, please do not talk to me. It is for your own health and well being that I issue this warning...

We went to Phil's mom and dad's house next, to spend the night. Once we got the kids to sleep, I stayed up and made fun of Christian programming. I am notorious for this. If you like Christian programming, please don't take offense. Remember, I was tired and crabby. I am thinking of sending an application in to the "Christian idol" competition, though... Oh, nevermind. If you weren't there, this makes little sense...

I finally went to bed when it became obvious to me that I was completely incoherant. And with that, I ask you, why do people drink? I mean, I can become completely incoherant just naturally... Maybe it is a gift...

We went to our home church the next morning, which feels more and more like it isn't our home church every time we visit. The new paint in the children's church room is awesome, though...

Later in the day, we packed up, made a final stop to get Gus' breadsticks, and went home.

Monday morning, the scale was not kind. However, I have lost 5 1/2 lbs. since then, so I am OK with that.

This past week, we were insanely busy. Thankfully, both gymnastics and soccer are over now, so we have a bit of a "breather" before we start in again with every activity under the sun. I am especially sick of school (mine... not the kids' so much) in case you haven't noticed in my last few posts. I was going to take a summer class, but I have changed my mind. I need a break!

Well... this was long... and long overdue, but now it is written. And soon it will be posted. And I am just about to cross that tired and crabby line, so I'd better hurry!

Lisa