Drew asked for a screwdriver today so he could take stuff apart. I think he managed to dismantle 3 things this evening before bedtime...and naturally has only reassembled two of them. Bruce said he took apart half the items in his house as a child, so I guess it's genetic. I still prefer the "it's magic" explanation to how things work myself. Everything from electricity to phone lines to how they get those little ships inside bottles. It's all magic and if you try to actually explain it to me you'll likely find me covering my ears and saying "La la la la la la" at the top of my lungs.
Another Drew funny for today. I saw him with a box of Cheese-Its and asked him to put them away and get a fruit or vegetable instead. He said, "But mom--it says right here on the box that this has a full serving of vegetables." And sure enough, it did...because he'd taken a pen and written that very information right on top of the box.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
From March 13, 2011
Me: "Erin, your giant stuffed polar bear will not come to life and attack you in the middle of the night. Get some sleep."
Erin: "All right! All right! But if I wake up tomorrow and I'm dead, you'll be sorry!"
Erin: "All right! All right! But if I wake up tomorrow and I'm dead, you'll be sorry!"
Mad about MAD
Drew got introduced to Mad Magazine awhile back now. It was love at first sight. He got a CD with all the old editions, a subscription to the new ones, and faithfully watches the 15 minute tv program now airing on Cartoon Network. The fold-ins in particular intrigue him. He loves printing off the old ones and folding them. Even more than that, though, he likes making his own. Seriously, the kid must make 2-3 a day (down from the original 5-10 he was cranking out at first). Most of them are pretty darned good.
From January 30, 2011
You heard it here first, folks: Andrew informed me of his desire to be a "Sensation" and has been working over an hour on lyrics and music to an original song called "C-O-O-L Spells Cool."
New member of the family
Our house is literally turning into a zoo. Sometime last fall Bruce picked up a couple of rabbits (Alex and Hopper). Hopper met an untimely demise a few weeks ago, so now we have 2 new ones in its place: Katelyn and Black Beauty. As it turns out, I think rabbits are absolutely adorable--from a DISTANCE. I'm terrified of them close up and have barely touched them. Go figure.
Our cat count is up to 4: Salem, Tanner, Cookie, and Streudel. Salem is too old to tolerate the others but the youngest 3 all get along famously. They have great personalities and are adorable as the dickens.
Since Drew just signed up for 4-H, we now have pigs. He named them "Leonard" and "Sheldon" in honor of The Big Bang Theory. Because of the cold, they had to stay in our garage in a makeshift pen for several days. Now they are in a larger, more pig-friendly location down the road (Bob and Jeannine Quirk's). I think Bruce takes care of them a heckuva lot more than Drew does.
Our newest member is a Yorkie named Sillery's Paducah of York, or "Dukey" for short. We got him from Eric and Jainy Gulley's litter. He is a typical terrier--yippy, half nuts. He's also as cute as a bug. So far he's doing great with his pen (and sleeps all night) but the house training thing is another story entirely. He goes potty outside just fine, but then he potties inside as well. His bladder must be the size of a pea. Anyhow, I'll be happy when his puppiest days are behind him and we don't have a million chewed up things on the floor to vacuum up anymore.
Our cat count is up to 4: Salem, Tanner, Cookie, and Streudel. Salem is too old to tolerate the others but the youngest 3 all get along famously. They have great personalities and are adorable as the dickens.
Since Drew just signed up for 4-H, we now have pigs. He named them "Leonard" and "Sheldon" in honor of The Big Bang Theory. Because of the cold, they had to stay in our garage in a makeshift pen for several days. Now they are in a larger, more pig-friendly location down the road (Bob and Jeannine Quirk's). I think Bruce takes care of them a heckuva lot more than Drew does.
Our newest member is a Yorkie named Sillery's Paducah of York, or "Dukey" for short. We got him from Eric and Jainy Gulley's litter. He is a typical terrier--yippy, half nuts. He's also as cute as a bug. So far he's doing great with his pen (and sleeps all night) but the house training thing is another story entirely. He goes potty outside just fine, but then he potties inside as well. His bladder must be the size of a pea. Anyhow, I'll be happy when his puppiest days are behind him and we don't have a million chewed up things on the floor to vacuum up anymore.
Reading Counts!
Andrew was one of the top 15 Reading Counts points-getters in 3rd grade this year! We were so proud of him. He was supposed to get a cool free field trip to a movie and McDonald's (followed by halftime recognition at the F.C. basketball game that night). Unfortunately, that date fell smack dab in the middle of the nasty snow/ice storm that plagued half the midwest in late January/early February. They did not reschedule, although Mrs. Orr did reward the students later with a Subway lunch at school. Recently Drew told me that he's reading books that are mostly 6th grade level. His library teacher complimented his reading ability and said he's doing fantastic. Maybe I'll quit nagging him about only reading comics at home.
Erin's big birthday bash
Andrew had his first (and only) big birthday bash when he was 6 so we naturally had to do the same for Erin. We reserved the Mellott church's youth center and then invited half of Fountain County.
She ended up with about 9 kids at the party and had a fantastic time. We tried to stick with classic, non-expensive activities (Twister, freeze dance). If I had known for sure that we had a managable number of kids, we might have planned things a little differently.
One of the biggest hits was the Barbie cake, made by Janet (my mother-in-law). It was the kind where a real Barbie's head is inside a body made of cake. Erin was in seventh heaven! Since she has so many toys already, we had a book exchange instead. I was so proud of Erin that she understood why we did this.
She ended up with about 9 kids at the party and had a fantastic time. We tried to stick with classic, non-expensive activities (Twister, freeze dance). If I had known for sure that we had a managable number of kids, we might have planned things a little differently.
One of the biggest hits was the Barbie cake, made by Janet (my mother-in-law). It was the kind where a real Barbie's head is inside a body made of cake. Erin was in seventh heaven! Since she has so many toys already, we had a book exchange instead. I was so proud of Erin that she understood why we did this.
Christmas 2010
It seems as though we've had more trouble getting a family get-together at Christmas than I have getting a good-fitting bra. A few years back, Bruce woke up vomiting...Christmas canceled. Another year I came down with it...Christmas canceled. In 2009, Grandpa Kennedy was in the hospital with 3 life-threatening infections...Christmas postponed.
This year it was Dad and Uncle John's turn. Dad was in the hospital up until the 24th with some odd strokelike symptoms. Uncle John was feeling crummy from cancer treatments. In the end, we decided to just have the Johnson clan (meaning my family, Adam's family, Mom and Dad) over on Christmas day. It turned out fine, but the days leading up to it were not days I care to repeat. Ever.
Anyhow, Christmas itself was relatively uneventful. Drew's big presents were video games, Legos, and a CD-ROM with 50 years' worth of Mad Magazine on it. Erin got 10,000 things with 50,000 little pieces (Barbie ensembles, Squinkies, Littlest Pet Shop). What I asked for was new shutters for the house, knowing they wouldn't exactly be getting installed until spring. Bruce did buy 2 shutters so that I'd have something to look at! Bruce's big present actually came a couple of weeks earlier when he and his brother, Brian, went to Minnesota to see a live Vikings game.
Incidentally, it is now March 20 and I still have no hung shutters. But they just went on sale at Menard's today--so I may get them just in time for my birthday!
This year it was Dad and Uncle John's turn. Dad was in the hospital up until the 24th with some odd strokelike symptoms. Uncle John was feeling crummy from cancer treatments. In the end, we decided to just have the Johnson clan (meaning my family, Adam's family, Mom and Dad) over on Christmas day. It turned out fine, but the days leading up to it were not days I care to repeat. Ever.
Anyhow, Christmas itself was relatively uneventful. Drew's big presents were video games, Legos, and a CD-ROM with 50 years' worth of Mad Magazine on it. Erin got 10,000 things with 50,000 little pieces (Barbie ensembles, Squinkies, Littlest Pet Shop). What I asked for was new shutters for the house, knowing they wouldn't exactly be getting installed until spring. Bruce did buy 2 shutters so that I'd have something to look at! Bruce's big present actually came a couple of weeks earlier when he and his brother, Brian, went to Minnesota to see a live Vikings game.
Incidentally, it is now March 20 and I still have no hung shutters. But they just went on sale at Menard's today--so I may get them just in time for my birthday!
Andrew, Popcorn salesman guru
Drew was quite the li'l salesman this fall. He managed to sell over $1000 of boy scout popcorn, which was the 2nd highest in the entire pack. For his efforts, he won free tickets and concessions to a U of I women's basketball game. I took the kids (sans Bruce, who was still in the throes of back pain) for a mini-vacation in Champaign that weekend. We stayed at a Drury Inn...the kids may have liked that as well as anything else we did! We went to a Harlem Globetrotters game (which Drew LOVED), to Adam and Reg's house to play with the cousins, and then to Assembly Hall. The women lost in OT, which was a bummer, but it was a good game and lots of fun to watch.
Drew also won a high-end marshmallow shooter for selling so much popcorn. They could use these things in Libya; it's that freaking complicated.
Drew also won a high-end marshmallow shooter for selling so much popcorn. They could use these things in Libya; it's that freaking complicated.
Bruce's back surgery
Back when Bruce was teaching at F.C., there was an incident with a student that caused his back to get out of whack. It was a bulging disk in the lumbar/saccral area. He probably should have immediately dealt with it then, but instead put it off and tried to deal with the pain. Eventually it did get bad enough that he went to a dr. and a physical therapist. By this time he had numbness in his toes and couldn't even walk properly. They didn't do much to help him but the worst of the pain subsided for awhile.
Last fall it began flaring up again and went from being tolerable to something that had him in absolute agony. He got a referral to a neurosurgeon who took scans again and immediately scheduled surgery. He had a lumbar discectomy on December 28-just in time to use the last of our "good" insurance plan. According to the dr., it was a more complicated surgery than he'd expected due to some calcium deposits in the ligaments around the disc. He may never recover feeling in his toes, as that may have been permanent nerve damage. However, he is feeling so much better these days and suffers no pain.
Last fall it began flaring up again and went from being tolerable to something that had him in absolute agony. He got a referral to a neurosurgeon who took scans again and immediately scheduled surgery. He had a lumbar discectomy on December 28-just in time to use the last of our "good" insurance plan. According to the dr., it was a more complicated surgery than he'd expected due to some calcium deposits in the ligaments around the disc. He may never recover feeling in his toes, as that may have been permanent nerve damage. However, he is feeling so much better these days and suffers no pain.
Happy trees just got happier
Somehow Andrew caught a few minutes of Bob Ross' "Joy of Painting" tv show back in December. He's never been interested much in art but he found that show fascinating. He now has 14 episodes on the DVR and races home on Wednesdays to catch the show in reruns.
From November 28, 2010
Ah, gotta love those stalling tactics at bedtime. Erin just came down for the umpteenth time, self-declaring it "bathroompalooza."
From November 22, 2010
Erin's friend: "Your car may just be the messiest." Me: "Gee, thanks." Erin's friend: "Hey, at least you won!"
From November 18, 2010
Erin just found a book she'd forgotten about and plans to take it to the Purdue game so she will be "un-bored".
From November 4, 2010
Drew's friend, after seeing me hug him at school: "You're so lucky to have a mom who works at the school. You're a lucky man, Drew. You're a lucky man." Drew: "Eh, it has its advantages and disadvantages."
From October 16, 2010
Having watched Gremlins for the first time last night, Erin is now yelling warnings at the characters: "Move that water!" "Don't feed them! I tell you, put that chicken away!" "I wouldn't do that if I were you!"
Soccer, fall 2010
Soccer is one sport I can get into at the children's level, for some reason (unlike some sports--that's right, I'm looking at you, baseball). This past fall both children signed up again and thanks to some crazy bottom of the barrel scraping, I was the coach for Erin's team of 4-6 year olds. My knowledge of soccer pretty much consisted of: kick the ball toward a goal and don't use your hands. However, soccer at that level doesn't require much more knowledge than that. My group was--how to put this best?--spirited. At one practice I somehow ended up at the bottom of a soccer kid dogpile, struggling to even breathe as they laughed themselves silly atop of me. But they were also awesome and we had a good time. It helped that Danica Kirkpatrick stepped up to help and was an awesome right-hand woman.
Andrew's 6-10 year old team, coached by Jay Estes, also had fun. It was a young team, however, and there weren't too many tallies in the W column for them. Drew started as a goalie (along with Cole Kirkpatrick) and did a really good job. Eventually they brought in another boy and Drew was relegated to 3rd man. He had a positive attitude about it, though, and the coach was pretty complimentary about his playing. He is beginning to get an understanding of the rules of the sport.
Andrew's 6-10 year old team, coached by Jay Estes, also had fun. It was a young team, however, and there weren't too many tallies in the W column for them. Drew started as a goalie (along with Cole Kirkpatrick) and did a really good job. Eventually they brought in another boy and Drew was relegated to 3rd man. He had a positive attitude about it, though, and the coach was pretty complimentary about his playing. He is beginning to get an understanding of the rules of the sport.
From September 17, 2010
Our first ER visit was on this day. Erin was playing at the school playground and her hands slipped on the monkey bars. She fell and landed face first, not even breaking the fall with her hands. There was blood everywhere and it freaked us out pretty badly. Once she was all cleaned up and got the checkup, it was more obvious that the blood had come from her labial frenulum (the hangy thing between your top lip and top front 2 teeth) and some from her nose. She looked like Karl Malden, though, and we had to wait a few weeks to know if her nose had been broken or needed fixed (it wasn't). Naturally school pictures were just a few days later. At least it will give her a funny story to tell her kids someday.
Under the "awwww" category: Her entire class wrote her "Get well" cards and Mrs. Payton personally delivered them, along with an ice pop for her tender mouth and a stuffed animal from another class. Erin pored over each card for what seemed like hours, then made each child a personalized "thank you" card. She tried to make each one unique. Apparently nothing says "thank you" like a transformer with the chicken pox.
Under the "awwww" category: Her entire class wrote her "Get well" cards and Mrs. Payton personally delivered them, along with an ice pop for her tender mouth and a stuffed animal from another class. Erin pored over each card for what seemed like hours, then made each child a personalized "thank you" card. She tried to make each one unique. Apparently nothing says "thank you" like a transformer with the chicken pox.
From September 12, 2010
Erin, to Grandpa Johnson near the end of a card game: "I can make this easy for you or I can make this rough."
From September 10, 2010
Shin guards: good for soccer, even better as a cast for a five year who enjoys pretending she's been in a crippling accident.
From August 28, 2010
I need to be more mindful of the goofy things I do with the kids, lest I have to repeat them 100,000 times. My latest regret: making the bar of soap in their bathtub "complaining soap" that gripes every time the kids use it. Oy, it was funny the first dozen times...
From August 25, 2010
You just have to love the things that come out of students' mouths!
Me, to kindergarten language group: "My name is Mrs. Sillery. It sounds like celery. But please...don't eat me." (Much laughter ensues, as kindergarten students are easy to amuse.) Lesson follows. Afterward: "Does anyone remember my name?" Adorable girl in group, trimphantly: "I know! I know! Mrs. Lettuce!"
Me, to kindergarten language group: "My name is Mrs. Sillery. It sounds like celery. But please...don't eat me." (Much laughter ensues, as kindergarten students are easy to amuse.) Lesson follows. Afterward: "Does anyone remember my name?" Adorable girl in group, trimphantly: "I know! I know! Mrs. Lettuce!"
From August 16-17, 2010
I'd almost forgotten this! Our school decided to give the returning students "red carpet treatment" on the first day back. We all took pictures like paparazzi and clapped and cheered for kids. It turned out very cute (but our hands were sore after clapping for over 600 kids!). Anyhow, a couple of people had noted that Andrew looked very solemn and serious as he did his walk down the red carpet. As it turns out, he was just trying to pose a la Derek Zoolander.
From August 10, 2010
I just finished playing several rounds of "Connect 4 by 4" with Erin. Gotta love the way kids word things sometimes. (She still sleeps in a "nightingown".)
From August 8, 2010
Erin was mortified this morning by the realization that her cat, Mittens, was naked. She rectified that problem by putting a pink Webkinz shirt on her.
From July 2010 (still playing catchup)
Drew is playing Weird Al videos on Youtube. I have taught him so very well.
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