Blood, Sweat, and Tears.. and dead things

You know the time when you decide to say yes more often, and be a better mom?  The time when the kids say "Can we ride bikes to school?" And you say "SURE!" and you just know it's going to be great! You'll get some exercise! The kids will be happy! And some of the excess energy (ha! I just typed injury by accident - foreshadowing perhaps..) out of the crazy boys.  Win for everyone, right?

Well let's examine the reality. The reality involves one child falling off the scooter multiple times.  One time he was pretty badly scraped up, and guess who didn't have any band aids.  Yep - this one... right here.  All told, the ride to school wasn't too terrible aside from the bleeding. The real fun was on the way home.

It started out with me helping Ben with his helmet. I knelt down on the grass and got attacked by ants.  They were all over my feet so now I'm itchy and welty.  Fun! Then, Zack fell again.  This time, I was smart and had band aids. Alas, I only shoved TWO band aids in my pockets and this job clearly required 3 or 4. By this time, my bigger boys had given up on us and ridden home with some friends.

Along the way, Ben saw a possum ( I think, maybe a raccoon?) lying at the side of the road.  He asked me about it and I explained that it had died and he bursted into tears. After I talked to him for a bit, he brightened up and said "Maybe we just need to take him to the hospital? Is there a hospital for animals?"  To which I tried to explain that the animal was dead and there was nothing that could be done without be completely morbid with my 5 year old.  He was OK.  He decided as we left that maybe it could come back to life.  SIGH. I didn't correct him.

Then it rained.

Fine, it was just a sprinkle. A more dramatic end would be that it poured and we all got soaking wet, but reality is it just sprinkled. We've snacked and neosporined, and now everyone is playing outside and hopefully will remain uninjured.

I think tomorrow we will drive.

More Funny Stuff

So today was McDonald's night for the kids school.  You know, where part of the proceeds go to the kids' school and they get to see their teachers at McDonald's.  For my boys this is the single most exciting thing EVER.  Because seeing teachers outside of school is just so exciting and different! (Because they don't quite yet realize that teachers have their own kids and families and lives and stuff. It's a cute thing to see how giddy they are.  If we run into a teacher at Publix forget about it!  Teachers need groceries??? Who knew?)

Anyway.  We saw all the teachers, except one. Ben's teacher wasn't there during the same time we were, and it didn't occur to me it would even be an issue.  It was totally an issue. Even though he saw his math teacher, and other teachers that work with him it was simply NOT okay that he didn't see his Language Arts teacher.  As we walked out the door, he burst into tears in a most dramatic way. I was feeling pretty good, after a good day, and then getting to talk with some of the most awesome human beings (teachers are AMAZING people, by the way. My boys are blessed with good ones - the best!) So, I was trying to think of a way to deal with ridiculousness without getting grumpy or ruining everyone's day.  So completely without thinking about it, and after trying many different rational ways to help my boy feel better, I said "Okay Ben, here's the deal. I get it that you are sad Mrs. B wasn't there. But it's time to be done with the crying. So, I'm going to count to three and you are going to let out your very loudest cry, and then you are going to move on."  We were still in our parking place, so I was watching his reaction in the rear view. He had to fight soooooo very hard not to crack a smile.  I braced for the very loudest cry, but it never came.  He was simply fine after that.

I think sometimes, if we can just confuse them to the very limit, it works to our advantage.

 I'm still laughing that it worked. It probably WON'T work next time... but at least the crying stopped.

Kindergarten Tales

A few minutes ago, Ben announced to me that his clip got moved to yellow.  Obviously, I asked why. He said for chatting. I told him he shouldn't talk while his teacher is talking.  He told me his teacher was testing kids outside and Ms. M came into class.  I asked what Ms. M looked like and he said she had an afro.  Hmmm.  I couldn't think of any subs with afros.  I asked if she was old or young and he didn't know, but when I asked if it was dark hair or blond hair he said it was pink and purple.  This makes me wonder about the validity of the whole story, because I know a lot of teachers at the school, and I have NEVER seen a sub with a pink and purple afro.

What will I do with him?

Amazing

We went to the beach today. It amazes me still, that in a day  we can pack up, hit the beach, and make it home by dinner.  Every time I drive to Kevin's office over the Howard Frankland I am amazed that I really live here.  Anyway, after a perfect day at the beach, on the way home I realized Eric's glasses were missing.  After some sleuthing of the 4 adults in the car we pieced it together that they were probably sitting in the spot where we were loading stuff out of the boat, and back in the van.  The absolutely amazing miracle part of it all, is that when Kevin and Eric went back to check if they were salvageable, they were sitting untouched and unscathed.  Amazing! 

I am grateful!

Rudeness

I am in.a.mood. 

My basic demeanor lends me toward being happy. I get stressed and anxious, sure. I worry about stuff that I can't control and I think I might be a little on the hyper side. For the most part I identify myself as a happy person. I let things roll off my back.  I go with the flow.  And sometimes... rude people really piss me off.

So I went to Wal-Mart.  This goes against my rule of "Never go to Wal-Mart on the weekend because all the crazies are there and Rebecca, you are simply going to get irritated."  I really should just FOLLOW my rules and life would be good.  But I had already been to Publix today, and another of my crazy character traits is I get all weird about going to the same store twice in one day.  I don't know why I care. It doesn't even matter.  Anyway, needed a couple of things I had forgotten and went on to the store. 

The situation that occurred had nothing to do with Wal-Mart. It had to do with some crazy lady who was determined to get a parking space.   My philosophy on parking is I'd rather walk than stalk a spot and wait for someone to unload their stuff.  Walking is HEALTHY.  Waiting is kind of a waste of time. And time is precious because due to my inability to organize and remember what I need to buy on a given day I seem to never have enough.

So here's what happened.  I am driving in the parking lot looking for a space.  Not necessarily a close space just a space.  I rounded the corner and there was a car pulling out.  There was also a car that had fully passed the car pulling out just sitting there.  In the way, so the guy couldn't even pull out.  I sat there and waited for the lady to pull on up and go for the next space, but she didn't. I guess in her mind she got their first.  In my mind she needed to move on because she was past the point of no return. Right? Am I wrong?  So I sat there and felt my blood pressure rise because I don't do confrontation but I felt this very strong urge to stand my ground.  She waved me to go around her and I smiled and waved that she should go on.  She glared at me. I sat there. Then she started backing up all the while glaring at me as if to bully me to move.  I continued to stand my ground and then she did something I couldn't believe.  Maybe it's just because I couldn't pull this particular backing up maneuver.. or maybe that I would never, ever have the audacity to do this... she swerved around me and continued backing. There wasn't room for her there.  I was scared the crazy lady was going to hit me at this point and ended up honking my horn and moving on. You should have seen the look on her face when I honked. As if I was the unreasonable one here.

My analysis of this situation (because oh my goodness, I am the Queen of rehashing and over analysis) is as follows:

1. She was crazy.  Or maybe not. Maybe she just really wanted that parking space.  She was thin, so I doubt she was lazy. Perhaps it was because she had gotten there first.  Yet, the rule I follow is if I am past the space when I see the person is leaving and someone is behind me I figure it's my loss and the next guy gets the space.

2. The poor guy who was trapped in the parking space was probably doubly annoyed at our little standoff.  And rightly so.

3.  I completely overreacted. 

I was so embarrassed that I didn't even go into Wal-Mart. I ran into CVS on the way home since I really only needed a couple of things.

I am slightly irritated that I ended up bailing out.  But clearly this other lady wasn't backing down. She's probably celebrating her victory right now. The funny thing is I didn't even care about the parking space (really!)  I just was so appalled at her bossy, rude behavior.  In the end, none of it matters. I'm laughing now at how upset I became over something so silly.  But it seems like politeness is becoming a lost art.  That's what disturbs me the most.

Summer Time Wrap Up

So this summer has been absolutely nothing like I envisioned. It  hasn't been bad, just as often happens the reality is different from the expectation.

We were going to spend lots of afternoons at the pool.  Instead, a lot of times by the time we got our chores done it was raining, so we've had to find inside stuff to do.

I had a whole schedule lined out. We were going to  have reading time every day and handwriting practice and a host of other scheduled items.  I never actually got around to any of it.  The boys did read most days because they are avid readers.

I devoted more time than I anticipated to getting paperwork ready for nursing school. Which the boys patiently endured. (Thank you boys!)

My patience has at times worn beyond thin. Then I've recovered and moved on.

The boys have fought way more than I expected. But they are learning to work these things out on their own (now to get them to work it out without smacking each other!)

The really funny thing is, that seems to happen to me often, is that we are kind of in a good groove now.  Wake up, chores, relax, go play. In the groove just in time to start back to school. I'm not ready. I think they might be though.

Puppies

So when people used to tell me having a puppy was like having a baby and I'd scoff because babies are PEOPLE and puppies are DOGS.  I still see that distinction, but I can now also totally see the parallels.  Let's explore:
Babies get you up at night. They need to eat and be changed.  You sleepily feed them and change them and if you are reallllllly lucky you can sleep for a few hours before waking up again.  I still remember this phase and it is very very hard, and completely harder than puppydom, so if you are in the middle of the newborn phase please don't take this the wrong way.  Puppies get you up at night.  They have to pee.  You have to get up, get shoes, meander outdoors and stand there while you wait for them to do their business, and then if you are lucky, they fall asleep and you can do the same.

Actually, I never ever thought I'd be so in tune with the bathroom habits of an animal. It's all consuming.  I was never actually good at potty training.  It eventually got done.  Right now we do pretty well, as long as I am very nearly OCD about what the dog is doing.  We spend a LOT of time outside.  Figuring out how to get her to "ask out" is eluding me.  I have several doggie training books on hold at the library. If books can't fix it I don't know what can!  It's not bad but I am a very type B personality, and if I have to obsess about stuff for too long it takes a toll on me. 

The rest of living with a baby dog is more like having a two year old than a newborn.  They like to chew, they love to get into stuff. Just when you thought you had everything picked up, you find them chewing on something that you missed (this may be exacerbated by the 4 boy factor.) And the energy! She runs like lightning. Then two seconds later she's out like a light. Yep, much like a little 2 year old.

But despite it all she's CUTE! And we are all a little smitten with the new little creature in our family.