What's up with snide people???

I struggle to correct people when I should correct them! Because of this, I am always completely awe-struck at people who feel the need to chastise and correct others with no authority to do so.

Today I had another chance to go into Will's classroom to help with LRC time. As I was upstairs getting my shoes on to leave, Drew threw up. He wasn't 'sick', just seems to be following a trend of random throwing up that our family currently has! So, I was running a few minutes slow because I had to get him and the floor cleaned up. I was pretty thrilled with myself, though, because I made it to the classroom quickly. I signed in at the office at 8:32, and was in the classroom by 8:35 (I was supposed to be there at 8:30).

After I took the first group of kids down to the LRC, I was in the classroom waiting for the next group of children to line up and the classroom AIDE came over to me and says, with raised eyebrows:

"Our library time begins at 8:30. . ."
The tone of her voice was so snide, I was taken aback!
I felt like saying, "Oh, I THOUGHT it began at 8:35 - thank you so much for letting me know!"

Besides being a rude thing to say, in my opinion, I think that the TEACHER should be talking to parents about things like that, NOT the aide! I wonder what Will's teacher would say if she knew her classroom aide was belittiling her parent volunteers?!?

I completely agree that I need to be on time. I have always been early up to this point. I just wonder if it threw the classroom morning schedule off by THAT much???

And I am mostly just struck by the nerve of some people!

This is one of my very favorite quotes:

"Should you notice that another person is extremely tall, or overweight, eats too much, or declines convival drinks, ought to be married, ought not to be pregnant - see if you can refrain from bringing these astonishing observations to that persons attention".
-Judith Martin

So. . . someone who is 5 minutes late does NOT need it pointed out to her!

Dining. . .with children (or, really great ways to spoil a perfectly good meal).

I love to cook. I like to eat. I like to serve food to my family and watch them enjoy a nice meal or treat. Tonight, I thought I made an exceptionally nice dinner. I made Steak Diane (a really yummy beef recipe, where you use a fabulous cut of meat, season it with lemon pepper, worshestershire sauce and lemon juice and then pan sear it), mashed potatoes, and peas. Not only was the food good - I will be the first to admit to sometimes popping open a can of clam chowder - but the boys were being particularly pleasant. Everyone seems to be pretty much over the sickness that has plagued us for the past few weeks. The boys were all staying seated at their places, and they all seemed to be eating their dinner without too much complaining.

Suddenly, out of the blue, Nathan starts throwing up. I don't know if he's coming down with something, or if he just ate too big of a bite, or what. But, there was throw up across the entire dinner table. Matthew, who has the weakest stomach of any kid I know, looks at Nate vomiting, and then he starts throwing up. William, not to be outdone, pushes his chair away from the table, stands up, and promptly throws up all over the floor. :-) {{{sigh}}}

So, if any of you desire a way to add a little adventure to your next meal, I'll be happy to loan my boys to you.

Oh, and Drew's my current favorite kid tonight! :-)

Freezing on the Yuppie farm

You might think from the title of this post that our family visited a farm whereon some enterprising farmer was raising Yuppies. Actually, it is about our family (being a Yuppie family - see overpriced outerwear below) spending $50 to visit a 'farm.' Not only were the requisite overpriced apples and pumpking present (yes, every year we pay twice as much as the grocery store charges to do the work of picking our own fruit), but there was also a petting zoo, an 'amazing maze of maize', a tricycle tractor racetrack and a giant sandbox filled with dried corn.

I think part of the reason we think this tradition is so funny is that Warren grew up as (sort of) a country boy! He was raised in Idaho. Although his family didn't farm, you just can't grow up in Idaho without a bit of Idaho sticking with you! He got out of school for potato harvest and the first day of deer hunting season! As Warren is fond of saying (usually whenever he backs a trailer into a tight space, or builds a potato gun, or guts a fish),

"You can take the boy out of Idaho, but you can't take Idaho out of the boy!"

So this is our way of bringing a little bit of 'Idaho' to our boys - only without any mountains, or any potatoes, or any true crops, and with lots of Volvo wagons and minivans in the parking lot. :-)

Andrew, inside a little hay bale maze.

Matthew in the petting zoo. He coaxed this little calf out from behind the shed.

William and Gracie feed a goat.

Andrew on the tricycle tractor track.

Nathan 'driving' his tractor.

Ready. . . . ., Set. . . . ., Go!!!

I have so enjoyed Nate and Drew since they have turned 3! What a difference a year makes. Two year old twins were one of the greatest challenges of my life. Although they were darling, two toddlers who have a hard time listening and absolutely no fear create a lot of work for mom - just to keep them alive!

Now, though, they play together all day long. They seldom fight. They ask for one another all the time, and are just pleasant little people.

One of my favorite new skills is them riding their bikes. We walk up to the bus stop at the corner of our street three times each day (the morning bus, the afternoon kindergarten bus, and the later afternoon bus for Matt). Each time we are getting ready, Nate and Drew beg to ride their bikes. They have these two little tricycles and it is so cute to see them race down the sidewalk. They have matching helmets, and with their heads leaning toward their handlebars (everyone knows that leaning forward makes you go faster), they are so cute! Andrew can go a bit faster than Nathan, so he will stop, wait for Nate to catch up and then say, "one, two, three four, five, six seben!" For some reason, 7 is the number that means, "GO!" Then they take off - only for Drew to get a little bit ahead, wait for Nate, and start the whole routine again. We also have an extra seat that turns one of the trike's into a 'two-seater.' I need to get a picture of them on that! But here are two photos of them riding up to the bus stop on their seperate little bikes - sorry the photos turned out a bit blurry!

Waiting for slow-poke mom, so we can cross the street.

Racing away - Will at the top of the sidewalk, Drew in front of Nate.

Our families affect on Sacrament meeting

Today, because Matt was sick, and Will is just getting over being sick, our family decided to take a sick day. Everyone stayed home from church and rested. I just got a call from Warren's cousin, who is in another ward that attends in our building at the same time as our ward. She was just gushing about our Ward's sacrament meeting. She heard it because she was in the mother's lounge nursing her baby during our sacrament. I guess the Spirit was so strong and people came out of the meeting crying, etc.... Apparently, for our ward to have an extremely spiritual testimony meeting experience, our noisy little boys just need to stay home! :-)

Overheard this morning

William was in Nate and Drew's room early this morning and they were having a conversation. Whenever I hear one of these snippets between brothers, I laugh at the way my boys minds work! Remember last night the boys had a babysitter.

Nate: "Will, where's Katie?"
Will: "Babysitters are gone in the morning, Nate."
Nate: "Where she go?"
Will: "It's like MAGIC!!! When you go to sleep, your babysitter is here, but when you wake up, she is gone - it's MAGIC."

A real life date!

Warren has had a heck of a month this month. Work has been just crazy for him! Last week was the worst yet! He billed 92 (NINETY-TWO!!!) hours. I think it is probably the worst week, hours wise, that he has had.

Today, though, was such a fabulous Saturday! For one thing the weather was perfect. One of those crisp fall days where a light long sleeve shirt is perfect. The sun was bright and it was just a glorious day. This morning we went to get bagels as a family and we ate them outside of Einstein's. Then I did a few things downtown while Warren went with the boys and the dog on a nice long walk. Will had a soccer game this afternoon and after the game Warren and I went on a DATE! We wanted to attend a session at the Temple. As we were hurrying there, I told Warren the wrong direction (I was just SURE you took the 94, rather than stay on the 294 - I'm hoping for a GPS for Christmas......). Anyhow, we ended up in bumper to bumper traffic for AGES with no way to get back to the correct freeway! Finally, after some fancy map-navigation on my part :-) we arrived at the Temple. We hit the 6:00 session instead of the 5:00, but it gave us an extra hour to talk in the car, so it all turned out just fine. I feel recharged and calm - I love the way the Temple does that for me. As I was sitting in the Temple, all I could think about was how good it felt to sit in a QUIET and CLEAN room! With our four wild little men, that is a rare occurance in itself! After our session we went out to dinner to Claim Jumpers. It was a great date!

From the mouths of babes

Kids are so CUTE!!! This year I signed up to be a helper for Will's Kindergarten class in the LRC (library). Really, I had no idea what this volunteer opportunity would entail, but if I had, I would have signed up earlier! The parent volunteer leads groups of children down to the LRC, sits on the 'story-time' rocking chair, reads the children a story, and then helps them check out a book. I love reading to kids. Sometimes I think I should be a children's librarian instead of a speech-language pathologist! They were so attentive and made the most darling comments about the book. Then I got to help them all choose books about princesses, spiders, monster trucks, and Batman.

The best (well, most ego-building) part of the whole experience was right at the beginning. I walked into the class, and Will's teacher introduced me. One of the little girls turned around, looked at me and said, "You're Pretty!" {{{Blush}}} Maybe I should be a Kindergarten teacher, instead! :-)

The end of an era - the being embarassed about our yard era.

It's DONE!!! The landscaping is done. I am fully amazed at how quickly 4 men who have the correct tools and know what they are doing can do a job that would take us weeks and weeks to do. In 1/2 a day all the flower beds were evened out, a large ugly arborvitae was removed, a small retaining wall was built, our lawn was evened out and seeded, and perhaps 25 plants were planted. Everything was mulched, and our two downspouts in the front were buried. It looks so much better! Here are some photos:

Here we have a hydrangea on the right, 3 shrub roses in front of the boxwood and a dwarf Korean lilac bush on the left.

This Rose of Sharon, with daylillies underneath replaced this ENORMOUS, spidery arborvitae - it was about 5 feet around - YUCK!

This photo shows the new retaining wall, with boxwoods on the top level. Underneath we have a vibernum, a brand spanking new ROCK, 5 minuet weigelia's, and several hostas underneath the birch tree.

Here is the full view!

I am hoping that tomorrow I can find some time to go get some mums to add some color to our fall landscape. I just think it looks so much better! Yea!!!

A need for speed

A few weekends ago some friends invited us to go spend an afternoon riding their Ski-doos. While I am becoming a BIG CHICKEN, my boys are not! They love to go anywhere fast - and if it's on the water, riding a teeny-tiny, super fast machine, all the better.