4 Miles

This weekend was a touch of grace in (what feels to be) a long winter. I'm sure it's no longer than any other year, it just seems we've had storm after storm (and lately most are Mondays/Tuesdays when I'm driving an hour away to teach!). So to have sunshine and temperatures in the 50s on Friday–oh what a treat! We pulled out the big wheel and car and went for a walk.

It was cold enough that winter coats were still needed (but no hoods or mittens!) and there was still snow in some places, but it was wonderful to enjoy the fresh air. And nice to celebrate our "Leap Day". Saturday, it was nice to welcome in March! And then Sunday….Sunday gave me hope that spring is close! Sunday it was in the 60s and we only needed jackets! And then it even got too warm for jackets!!! We went for another walk, this time with James, to the playground.  I was excited to see green tips starting to come up (yes, they're only an inch high, but the flowers are starting to come up!).

Monday I taught Class #5 (out of 12) for the General Biology class I'm teaching. It went better than the last class I taught (two weeks, and I'm looking forward to next week–because we're doing topics I enjoy and taught a lot. DNA Transcription & Translation! The Cell Cycle! Meiosis! Ok, I'll stop now! :-D 

Today, well…we're back to winter. After raining for about 12 hours, it got cold enough to turn to ice. This afternoon we've had freezing rain mixed with sleet. I can't believe I'm happy that it's finally cold enough to turn to snow (the ice plus the high winds have been making me nervous). My MOPS group got canceled so it's nice to cozy up at home with a cup of tea and relax and watch an exciting basket ball game (Purdue v. Ohio State).  But, I have test corrections to grade, so I need to get back to that. 

So far the boys are acting fine. Fussy, but fine. I'm thinking the fussing is cabin fever is from mom being too sick to do much with for part of the week. (Or at least I'm hoping!)

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Will had a substitue teacher in pre-school yesterday. He told us "there were structions left on what to do and they were wrong!" When I asked what he meant, he told me they said to have circle time, then the story and then snack! I asked what they usually do and he said usually they have circle time, the story, then craft and THEN the snack. I asked him if he told the teacher they weren't supposed to have snack yet. He said "Nah!" "Well, why not?" I asked him. "I wanted to eat the snack!" he quickly told me.

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Alex has started to count things. His way of couting? "one, two, five, six, seven, eight, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven-teen!" (no how many of the objects are there). Also, yesterday he was "playing" the piano (more like banging gently) and singing with great gusto, "With a duck, duck here and a duck, duck there! Everywhere a duck, duck!"

I'm sure after my earlier post (from yesterday) you were wondering what I ended up doing in the afternoon! I gave up on cleaing or working and we went outside to play in the 2-3 inches of snow we'd gotten the night before. Plus, it had "warmed up" to 20 (the two previous days the windchills had been in the neg. single digits, so this did seem warm!)  

Here, Alex proves it's NEVER too cold to slide (no matter WHAT Mommy says):

After playing outside for awhile, we went over to Daddy's office to sled down the hill. Sadly, the hill faces the south and so the sun had melted enough snow off that we just couldn't do it that well. So we hiked around the pond. It was great to be outside!

One more picture from Tuesday. Sunday the boys had a bath before church. James spiked Will's hair. After two days of sleeping on it, Will had developed a "faux hawk" (a fake mohawk). This picture doesn't quite do it justice (the only other one I took was blurry),  but it was cracking me up.

We made it through week #3 of teaching!  Once again, driving home, I drove home through snow showers on Monday night. Nice how this is happening on Mondays! Actually, we got more snow last night (enough to cover the grass! Will is very happy!) and are supposed to get snow/ice tomorrow and Friday. 

We also made it through a long weekend of no preschool (Will had Friday and Monday off).  I had hoped to do something special with the boys, but the Valentine's celebration on Thursday was about it. Friday was a needed day at home, trying to get caught up on laundry and cleaning.

Saturday James went out and bought a new TV.  A big, flat screen HDTV.  It was in celebration of paying off the well (from last May that broke) and a furnace in our rented home, and still having cash left over from our tax rebates.  And it was because our previous TV was about 11 years old and had to be hooked up to the VCR for you to be able to see anything. And the VCD (also 11 years old) was starting to act up/eat tapes and not work at various times.  And the TV had died once but then surprised us by working again, but we were thinking it'd be gone for good soon.  (Enough justifications for you?  Not quite for us–it's also our Valentines' & Anniversary gift to each other. But James said it couldn't count towards his Birthday gift–darn it! Now I'll have to come up with an idea of what to get him! ;-)  If you have seen our TV cabinet, we joked about how small the old TV looked in it. This fits it in just right. (That's a reference to a commerical we used to laugh at where the husband gets a TV and the wife says "But it doesn't fit–There's still room!" and he has quite a fun time running and getting a bigger TV.)

Sunday James and the boys enjoyed watching the first NASCAR race of the season. They all enjoyed watching it on the big TV.

So that's what we've been up to. I was working like crazy for the office + school, and once again I'm projectless for the office. So I guess I should go grade the tests they took on Monday. Or get the power point together! Or work on the cleaning that NEVER seems to be done.

James and I got to go out for a Valentine's Date on Tuesday night. Despite some snow, we dropped the boys off at our Date Night. (we were one of two couples who dropped kids off!  Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow will keep us away from Date Night! I was glad we weren't the ONLY ones–then I would have felt really guilty!) We enjoyed a nice dinner then. So today was more of a chance to have a fun day with the boys.

I have two main memories of Valentine's Day growing up: getting up in the morning and finding MY OWN heart of chocolate candy, and Mom making a heart cake. I have resolved to keep those up! Will helped out by getting me a heart shaped pan for me for Christmas. He couldn't wait for me to use it today. The boys got their heart box of candy and were allowed to have one before breakfast! YUM!  This afternoon, during nap time, I made the cake and we decorated it right before dinner. As you can see, we spent a LONG time working on it.  Don't you want a bite?

I did try to take a few of the cinnamon hearts off the top and move to the side, but there are still a large number on top. No matter the appearance, the cake was declared good by both boys.  As usual, you can click on any of the pictures to see them better.

I also figure, while I'm taking the time to update the blog, I should put up a bit about this week! I'd been meaning to post about teaching Monday night (Thinking the title would be One More Down, 11 To Go!). That makes it sound totally horrible! It wasn't…but the night did have its ups and down.  I felt I started off really well. But, I didn't feel it ended well…part of it was because I was teaching a topic I haven't ever taught (we didn't get into the specifics of Photosynthesis at the high school level). So even thought I spent the week working on it, we'll it wasn't the same as the Cell–that I'd taught for years! Anyway, it IS my first time and there are going to be ups and downs.  The crazy part was the weather. We'd been warned about this big storm that was going to come through Monday night…first it was the evening, then it was late night. So I packed the kids up and we went home that night, so we wouldn't get snowed in at my parent's house.  Both boys were awake the whole drive and it took a bit longer because we managed to have one small snow squall follow us the whole drive home.  I woke up Tuesday morning and there was NOTHING! Just a dusting! I was a bit annoyed, but it was nice to be home. Anyway, it did turn out to be more snow, mixed with freezing rain, so it was nice to not have to drive in it. And, it wasn't bad enough to delay schools the next day, so Will's Pre-school Valentine's Party happened as planned (unlike last year–last year we had the big February "Blizzard" the day before V-Day and we were trying to get Alex home from the hospital!).  So that's been two storms that were forecasted to be big ones that let us down. Maybe the dusting we're supposed to have tomorrow will surprise us!  But, they are forecasting rain/snow for next Monday again! What's up with the storms on Mondays?!?

So, we're busy here. We're all busy eating too much sweet stuff (we ARE brushing their teeth, Mom, I promise!). I'm busy planning school stuff, busy working for James' office, and I just realized the video's we had from the library were due today . I wonder if I take them back now (at 11 pm) if they'll not charge me the $1/day fines!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

You can't see that he also got the inside of his ear as well.  And the desk. And some papers on the desk. <sigh> We had gotten one out for something this morning and I just forgot to put it away. You would think after the coloring on the couch I would remember!

Things have moved into crazy mode around here.  I started teaching on Monday. (One class, a 5 credit hour General Biology class.)  It seemed to go well. I have lots of room for improvement, but am looking forward to going back next week (I figure that's a good sign). It was fun to be back in the lab again, fun to be teaching again, but wow–3 hours is a long time! Yet still not enough to get everything in! I was happy only one student fell asleep.

Also, I've started getting projects from the office again. Thus, no blog updates.  There just isn't time right now! If I'm not working at the computer, I'm playing trains with the boys, reading them stories, making up crafts or activities to do (we're going to get those February birthday cards out ANY DAY now Rachel & Serena–even though we're about a week past your birthdays!) doing laundry, making supper–well you get the idea!

Tonight Will was telling James he doesn't have a Mommy. He has a MOM. When he was little she was his Mommy, but now Grandma Lo is a MOM.  And Grandpa Miles is his DAD, not his Daddy.  Glad we got that cleared up!  He's been asking all kinds of questions about everything, and sometimes my answers come back to haunt me. For example, he was asking me about the moon. We talked about how the moon moves around the earth and the earth moves around the sun, etc. The other day we were driving to preschool and he and Alex could see the moon. When we turned right, he said "Mommy! The moon turned with us!"  I told him the moon didn't turn, we turned, the moon doesn't move. He said "Yes, the moon moves around the earth." Um…yes. So I did say that.  Today he told me "Let's Rock 'n Roll!" (Something heard in Bob the Builder) is Spanish for "Go forward".  I stammered for a minute and then just decided to agree with him. Sometimes, it's just easier.

In case you can't tell, that's Jesus watching over the trains.

Edited to add: When I asked Will about it this morning, he told me Jesus was telling the trains to stop and go. 

Wednesday Alex and I were driving home from taking Will to preschool. Alex asked (as he often does) "Where Will?". I told him Will was at preschool and then he asked about Daddy. Daddy was at the office. I asked him "Where's Alex?" In a "Silly Mommy!" tone he answer "In da CAR!"

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Yesterday I accidently called Alex "Will" (I do that pretty often lately).  Then I said "You're not Will, you're Alex!" He replied, "No, I BABY Alex!" I tried to tell him he's a big boy now, he's not my baby, but he insisted that he is BABY Alex.  

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This morning, on the way to preschool, Will said "I can't stop yawning, Mommy!" I asked him if he was tired. He said quickly, "No, these aren't tired yawns, they're morning yawns."

I wish I could say I haven't written much in the last few weeks because we have been so busy doing exciting and fulfilling things. Or because I've been working on writing an AMAZING blog post that would win me lots of "blog awards".  Sadly (as you're about to see) that is not the case. But, because I use this to remember what happened, and because I am SO SICK of seeing that redneck thing, it's time for me to write something. So, here it comes (cue introduction music of your choice) Random Tidbits of Information!

First, the Weather Edition:

• Two weeks ago we had a few days in the 60s! Beautiful warm days that we spent some time outside in. One day involved rain ALL day. But it was a warm rain! So I tried to push encourage the boys to play outside. Alex was game and out as soon as I got his jacket and shoes on. Will wouldn't go (even with the promise of being able to play in his fireman raincoat). Alex had a great time jumping in puddles, splashing in the sandbox (he had taken the lid off the day before) and came back in soaked. Pants, shoes, socks all completely soaked.  But it was warm!
• Now we're having record cold…but since this has hit most of the country, I think most people have heard about it. Yesterday at 10 am it was 8. Sunny but REALLY cold and windy which made it even worse. Last night we got down into the negatives (but not sure of the actual total right now).  This will be short lived though, we're supposed to get up to a balmy 33 tomorrow! At least there is no snow. While Will is sad ("we need to have enough snow to cover ALL the bits of grass!") I'm glad! I would hate to have them wanting to play out in the snow when it is this bitter cold out. We are supposed to get some snow Tuesday–we'll see if is enough to make Will happy and to play in.
• And, as we're in this ARTIC CHILL (as the weather guys are calling it) I can't help but think "I was supposed to be in sunny, warm Kenya right now!" 

Now, the Family Edition:

• I got to start working for James' company last week (the main reason for no blog posts).  It was for two projects that I finished today. I'm hoping for a few more, but not counting on it.
• Our front door has some decorative glass in it…with the sunshine we've had, we have several rainbows that move across the floor in the living room as the sun moves each day.  The first time Alex notice this, he started yelling "ma mow!" (Which sounded a lot like his cinnamon roll "Min-a-men wol") It took me a few moments to realized he was yelling "Rainbow!"  He has a great time rediscovering it and yelling/pointing it out for us.
• Will has been cracking us up with funny things, but for the life of me I can't remember any of them right now (and I told myself I needed to remember it so I could write it down! Two of them were going to and from church this morning–is the memory the first to go?).  And I don't want to leave him off. So here's a funny thing–we were told by one of his Sunday School teachers he may be an accountant. He LOVES to play with the money & toy cash register they have for free play in his class. I think part of it is his realization that money buys things. And bless his capitalistic little heart, he likes things! We're going to start working on a system where he can earn some money…I'm just not quite sure what yet.
• So, I have two weeks before I start teaching. I'm hoping to do some major organizing/sorting/getting things ready for a spring garage sale during that time. I'm writing it here thinking it's more likely to happen then if I just think it!

That's about it. We're trying to stay warm and I'm trying to come up with ways to keep us from getting cabin fever too much. We'll let you know how it goes! :-)