Helping Herself

Scrapping Friends Again

By Ryan

Cloudy. With a Chance of Meatballs

We've had some wet weather this weekend, so it seemed fitting to take the kids to see the newly released Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. It was a cute, funny kid's movie with positive messages about believing in yourself, not giving up on your dreams, and love within a family. All this without being the tiniest bit highbrow. The messages are delivered amidst snowstorms of ice cream, giant pancakes, and fountains of nacho cheese! Also provides a bit of subtle commentary about the perils of our "super size" food portion culture. But mostly it's just plain funny. And the 3D effects actually add to the movie experience. We went with the Huntley's and all 5 kids and both moms agreed that it was worth the cost of seeing in the theater. So we give it 7 thumbs up!

The Thing About Dishwashers

Dishwashers are a wonderful invention. I certainly can't imagine not having one with a family of five! I know that the year and a half that Kevin and I did not have one before we were married resulted in some ridiculous dish issues (ask us about the bathtub in Mt. Airy some time if you really want a laugh). And that was just two of us! But the thing about dishwashers is, they only work if you actually put the dishes inside them. Which requires emptying the clean ones when it's done with its magic. And sometimes, especially on weekends, those tasks just don't get done. Well, they get done, but sometimes the dishes pile up throughout the entire day in the sink and on the counter until the machine is finally emptied after dinner time, and then it gets completely filled up again.  Today was one of those days. But VT beat Miami, so who really cares?

Who Needs Movie Stores?

Now that our local grocery store has a Redbox, we are no longer frequenting Family Video or Blockbuster before our family movie nights. We simply pop on line in the morning, choose the movie we want to reserve, pick it up within the next few hours, and it is waiting for us when we stop by after picking up pizza from our favorite pie joint (Sebastiano's). It is so easy, and so convenient, and only costs $1.00 per night! And there are never late fees. Also is wonderful when we're taking road trips--we can rent a slew of new movies and watch them on the way to where we're going and drop them off at any Redbox near our destination. Once again, "man I wish I'd thought of that!"

Hope for Moms of Picky Eaters

As a toddler, and a pre-schooler, and even an early elementary-aged child, Ryan has been a generally picky eater. I am happy to report that these habits have been improving gradually over the past few years, but recently we seem to have reached some type of milestone that is resulting in his becoming much more willing to try just about any new food I place before him. He is eating salad (!), and broccoli, and barbecue, and adds spicy condiments to foods. My son for whom I used to order McDonald's cheeseburgers "plain, hold the meat," is now devouring steaks--preferably medium rare, and cheeseburgers--preferably with bacon. And lately instead of asking for cereal or pancakes for breakfast, he is requesting "scrambled eggs and toast, and maybe a little bacon if you have it, mom." And he is eating all of these things in significantly larger quantities. And chasing them with large glasses of milk. I think perhaps he is growing? I know that my grocery bill certainly has been...

They're Home!

Bella enjoys the peace and quiet while the kids are at school. But as soon as they're home she is downstairs with them. Today she climbed into Livy's backpack. Livy was so excited that she had climbed in and made me take a picture.

Early Release

Our schools have cut back on teacher work days a bit this year. Instead of entire days, they are doing half-days, so the kids are released at 11 a.m. I don't think the kids realize that they are losing out on having a whole day off. They are so excited about coming home early! They were home and done with lunch and homework by noon, and Ryan was outside with his friends playing kickball. The girls were playing with their best neighborhood friends too.

Fire Ants

One of the things that I do not like about where we live (and there aren't many things that fall into the 'dislike' category) are fire ants. I had never experienced these nasty little bugs until moving to North Carolina. They are horrible! And their mounds seem to pop up whenever we have a lot of rain. I don't know if they get flooded from their old nests or if the soil is softened so they can make new ones. Whatever it is, the mounds seem to pop up over night sometimes. I walked through one mound that was hidden in the grass while mowing and had about 20 of them crawling up my ankles and biting me. Let me tell you, those little buggers hurt! This picture shows you an untouched mound, and then I poked a hole in it. You can kind of see them boiling up and out of the nest, and all those little rice-like things are eggs. Yuck. I snapped a picture first, but then I dumped in some fire ant poison. Die, fire ants, die!

Time Lapse Photography

Okay, so not really time lapse, but sort of! I was mowing this morning after things finally had dried out a bit. The past 4 days have been rather wet, which is good because we've needed the rain. I saw this perfectly adorable mushroom in our side yard, and had to take a picture of it. Then this afternoon after the girls returned from dance, this is how my cute little mushroom looked! Still perfectly formed, but look how it opened. That's just cool. And cute. And I'm sure it will be stomped on by some little munchkin in the near future. After all, that's what I always did when I saw these kinds of mushrooms when I was a kid. Now I just shoot 'em. :)

Concentration

The girls are having so much fun with jewelry lately. They are setting up "stores" everywhere with costume jewelry, and while they wear some of it themselves, mostly they are putting it on ALL their stuffed animals. Livy is working on a particularly challenging clasp on a necklace for her pig. Katy is showing remarkable restraint not reaching in and 'helping' (aka doing it herself).

The Face of Victory

The Virginia Tech football game against Nebraska was hard to watch. Our offense just couldn't get anything going. Fortunately our defense kept the score low on Nebraska's side too. With less than 2 minutes left in the game, the score stood at 10-15, Nebraska. So when Tyrod Taylor, the VT quarterback, threw an 81-yard pass to get the ball on the 3-yard line, we went a little crazy! And then we sat on pins and needles as Taylor was sacked and lost 8 yards. With only 33 seconds left in the game, Taylor managed to throw the ball to his teammate, Dyrell Roberts, in the endzone. Touchdown, Hokies! The score was now 16-15, VT. The 2-point attempt did not succeed, so we continued to sweat the last 21 seconds of the game while Nebraska regained possession. I ran to grab my camera, and it was so worth it! Can you guess who won the game?

It IS Easy Being Green, Just Not Cheap

For the past several years, we have not been recycling. It has made me cringe every time I throw away items that we used to recycle. But there were no curbside recycling services in our neighborhood. That has finally changed and we are now recycling again. It costs us $12 a month for the service, which seems a little high. Of course, these types of fees were just part of our county taxes in Virginia, so it wasn't as obvious. It may actually be a very reasonable rate. It's about the same amount that we pay for our monthly garbage pick up. So our refuse collection budget has doubled, even though we are disposing of the same amount of stuff. It kind of irks me, to be honest, but at least I can stop cringing and feel as if I'm doing a little something for our environment.

Progress

The girls have been taking tumbling classes for 5 weeks and the improvement they are demonstrating is really remarkable. Katy's cartwheel is just about perfect, and Olivia is doing backbends without a spotter! I don't know if this progress is a function of the small class size, their teacher's skill, their ability to learn or a combination of all of these. Regardless, we love the demonstrations they can't wait to give us each week when they return from class. And if the amount of time they spend practicing is any indication, they love learning these new skills. I can't even imagine what they will be capable of doing by the end of this year!

After the Rush

On school days I'm up at 6 a.m. and spend the next 45 minutes running around like a chicken with its head cut off to make sure the kids are out the door for the bus on time. Several days a week I take the kids to the bus stop (we share morning bus duty with the Shraga family and alternate days). Once the kids are gone, I clean up the kitchen, start a pot of coffee and spend a few minutes with Kevin before he leaves for his day. And by 7:15 a.m. it is quiet. So I sit down and eat my cereal, read a bit and savor my coffee while drinking in the silence.

Allergy Season

I can always tell that my birthday is near when my ragweed allergy starts to bother me. Unfortunately, Ryan has seemed to develop this allergy as well. We have both been pretty miserable the past few weeks. According to our local news it is the worst ragweed season in several years. We both have to take several medications to help the symptoms, and I'm grateful that there are things that can help. But frankly it has been so bad for me this year that I'm still feeling all kinds of itching even with the Astelin and Zyrtec. I have to add in Benadryl at night so that I can sleep. While I most definitely don't want cold weather to begin, I wouldn't mind a quick one night coldsnap with some heavy frost to kill the weed off! And then back to the 70 degree days that we are thoroughly enjoying right now despite the sneezing.

Ready for Fall

Since we tend to go a bit over the top with the Halloween decorations in October, I have started getting my "pretty" fall decor out in September, before Autumn officially starts. Kevin got my bucket down this weekend and I had fun changing up the look of our home this morning.

Life is Good

I poked my head out to check on the boys in the back yard. Brandon, Jake, Gavin and Ryan were playing football. Ryan asked, "Mom, can we maybe have something to drink that isn't water?" How could I refuse? So I made a gallon of lemonade. It was gone within 15 minutes. Guess they were thirsty!

The Worm

Ryan is not much of a dancer. Honestly has no desire to be either. But the boy can do "the worm." And loves showing us how good he is whenever his sisters start to break out any of their dance moves.

Lunchtime at 6:20 a.m.

Mornings are an intense time of getting three children dressed, fed, hair fixed, and snacks and lunches made and packed. I know that I could do some of this stuff the night before, but honestly once the kids are in bed, dishes done and the kitchen is cleaned up, the last thing I feel like doing is packing snacks and lunches. Plus I think that sandwiches get kind of icky if they sit too long. So I do it in the morning. Fortunately I'm fairly efficient at food prep and get quite an assembly line going. And the kids can do a lot of their dressing independently--I just need to remind them that they need to get their teeth brushed, hair brushed and shoes on. We DO pick out clothes the night before which makes a big difference.

ETA: I didn't realize until I was editing this picture that it was September 11th. Part of me felt really sad that I hadn't thought to take a picture that was more patriotic in nature. I debated taking a different picture later in the day, but then I realized that my picture selection told a story in itself about the healing of our nation 8 years after the terrorist attacks. For the most part we have gone back to living our lives, and only really think of those types of things when we travel by air. In a way I feel grateful that we have returned to some normalcy, but it saddens me to think that this normalcy is symbolic of our nation's growing complacency. And I dread the day that once again I turn on the news and am faced with horrors similar to, or worse than, those of September 11, 2001.

Homework Time

As I've stated previously, I make the kids do their homework as soon as they get home from school. Ryan's homework load has increased a fair amount from third grade, but it's really not a significant change. However, the girls' did not have homework in kindergarten, and they now have 30-45 minutes of work each day in addition to their independent reading time! It seems like a little much for first graders, but so far they seem to enjoy being big kids like their brother. I get them a snack and then set up shop at the kitchen table offering assistance as needed. This is also the time I go through their folders and review their day's work as well as school and PTO correspondence. As they complete each worksheet, I check over it to make sure they got everything right and to help with anything they may have had trouble with (like mixed up b's and d's and backwards 3's and upside down 6's and 9's!). Please don't ever call me and expect an answer between 2:45 and 3:45 in the afternoon during the week anymore! It is a busy time, and they require my full attention. I'm so glad that I'm here to be able to help them with this, and to hopefully instill good habits for the future. But once Ryan goes too much further in math, I'm going to potentially be in trouble... Know any good algebra textbooks that I can use for brushing up my 'skills?'

Reading Logs

First graders are required to maintain a reading log to record what they have read each night. They are supposed to be reading 20 minutes a day. We don't have tons of books that are reading-level appropriate, but fortunately they are allowed to bring home a book from their classroom library each night. We still try to read to them too, but now all three kids are in their rooms having reading time before bed.

Grandparent Times

The girls came home from school last week with a homework assignment that required them to interview a grandparent for a newspaper worksheet called "The Grandparent Times." The project is in celebration of grandparents' day (one of those greeting card holidays invented by Hallmark to raise revenue--bah). Anyway, we were fortunate enough to actually have one of their grandparents here for them to interview in person. There was a spot on the worksheet for a picture of them with their grandparent, and I think these turned out great!

Our Cold Hot Tub

Kevin discovered a wasp's nest under the cover of our hot tub early this summer when he went to clean it. He decided to just empty it and clean it, but not to refill it until the weather became more hot tubby. Well, we are starting to feel a chill in the air in the evenings as our temps dip into the low 60's. Makes for great sleeping, and is enjoyable for hot tubbing. So he filled it this weekend. The kids were so excited and couldn't wait to get in as soon as it was filled. We warned them that it had been filled with well water and would not be heated yet. They didn't seem to mind one lick (after all our day time temps are still in the mid 80's), and had a ball in our cold, hot tub.

Tradition in the Making

Ever since getting our fire pit, it seems that we always roast marshmallows and make s'mores whenever we have guests visiting from out of town. Says a lot about the beautiful weather down here, and is becoming a sweet tradition that we all enjoy.

Let's Go! Hokies!

We slept in a bit later than we had hoped this morning, but we still made it to ESPN's GameDay (in Centennial Park) by just a little after 10 a.m. after having an amazing breakfast at the hotel.

GameDay was a great way to get geared up and excited for the game. Thousands of fans representing both teams were in attendance yelling and rooting for their schools. Unfortunately Lee Corso and the crew ended their broadcast by picking Alabama to win the match up.

After GameDay, we still had 8 hours to spend until kick-off! We went over to the FanZone, sponsored by Chick-Fil-A, and then back to some bars in the CNN building. Dinner was at the Tech Tailgate and was delicious barbecue. Then we headed back to Centennial Park to watch a free Collective Soul concert. Then we wandered over towards the Georgia Dome, just a few blocks away, to get ready for the big game.

It was a tight game until the last 6 minutes. Unfortunately Alabama did end up rolling over the Hokies, but it was a terrific day nonetheless.

Raisin' H*ll in the ATL

Kevin and I got to spend the weekend in Atlanta to watch the opening football game of the season featuring Virginia Tech (ranked 7) and Alabama (ranked 5). We left the kids with Grandma, Aunt Helen and Aunt Jeannie and hit the road around 3. We rolled into town just before 7. Traffic was pretty heavy once we got outside of the city--turns out there was a Brittany Spears concert that night, another large football game on Saturday at Georgia Tech, and a NASCAR race on Sunday. The city was hopping! And we were right in the middle of the action at the Embassy Suites situated right on Centennial Park (think the 1996 Olympics). We felt like giddy kids as we checked in and headed to our suite on the 7th floor. We haven't been away together without the kids in over 4 years! After settling in we headed out to join the excitement and have some dinner. Of course we pooped out by 10:30. Oh well, a good night's sleep was in order because Saturday was going to be a l-o-n-g day.

Rolling for a Leaning Jowler

Have you ever played Pass the Pigs? It's a fun little game that consists of rolling two small pig-shaped die. You score points depending upon how they land (razor back, trotter, snouter, leaning jowler, sides and various combinations thereof). There's a bit of luck and a bit of gambling involved when you decide whether to keep rolling or bank your points from that turn. The kids have loved playing it since we got it. In fact, we play it at least once a day. And Katy has got some serious luck!

Gap-Toothed Grinner

When kids lose their first teeth, it's cute, and kind of exciting. But unless they are giving a HUGE grin, it's really not that noticeable. But this girl is now sporting a real gap-toothed grin. You can see how it was loose and had moved a bit in the first picture (taken the night before), but when she woke up, her tooth had fallen out while she was sleeping! Oh, and the other front tooth is feeling wobbly now too. Wonder if she'll be singing a certain song around Christmas time?

Ooooo. Fish!

If you can't find Midnight, chances are he's in one of two places: under Kevin's and my bed, or sitting on the toilet watching the fish. He is so happy that we decided to install this lovely form of entertainment just for his viewing pleasure...