Monday, March 30, 2009

The Bluebonnets are Beautiful, but They Give Me Such a Headache

It's March. In Texas. You know what that means.

It's bluebonnet season.

Yeah. Every family in the state now has new wonderful photos of their children amongst the beauty that is the Texas state flower.

Except us.

Now everybody just sit right here and look at the camera. I am holding the camera. It's not in the ground. Sit down Elizabeth. SIT. DOWN.



SIT. DOWN. COME. BACK. Can somebody get the girl?



What I meant was just plop her right on down there and make her stay there. I really just wanted a picture of the children but whatever. Another picture where it appears they have no mama. Or personality.



Okay. Forget the girl. Go ahead and frolic girl. We'll get good pictures of your brothers. That's right. We don't need you.



What's with you people? I. Am holding the camera. You. Are to look at me. These are the bluebonnets! You are Texans. You are required by law to love them and look good in them!



*Sigh*

Okay, okay. I'll take just one of each of you. How hard can that be? This will work. Yeah. Sure.



Seriously?



Wait! Elizabeth is loving the flowers. Listen to her talking about the pitty powers. Move out of my way boys!



No, Sister! Stay. Pitty Powers. Grrrrr....



Here. Just take my picture. I need a new Facebook profile. Wait. Maybe my lovely daughter will sit with me. Here, baby, baby. Really? You only took one and it's a good one? I can't wait to see it.

That? Is a good one? We are so not on the same page with this dude.



Okay. I've figured out how to finally get a good picture.



It'll look wonderful on my mantle.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Spring Break in Pictures

HAHAHA! April Fools! Early.

There aren't any pictures because I forgot my camera. Both cameras. And of course my kids posed and smiled and frolicked in the flowers because I had. no. camera. All three of my kids sitting by a campfire with little marshmallow sticks in their hands with their arms around each other grinning ear to ear. No picture. My boys walking down the street swinging their little sister between them with all the uproarious laughter. No video. Of course.

Man, spring break flew by in a flash.

It's Wednesday and I'm still trying to ease us back into our regularly scheduled programming.

The littles would sleep until nine each morning if we didn't have to drive the big kid to school and last week they did just that. They so enjoyed their extra couple of hours of sugar-plum slumber last week (and their mommy did too). They were pleasant (mostly) all day and getting them to sleep at night was never a problem. Now that we're back to the old, early morning grind, I have to wake them at 7:30. They scream all the way to the car. They are grumpy almost all morning. And then they fall asleep in the car as soon as I pull out of the driveway to pick their brother up at school. Oh, they are pretty pleasant then, after that short snooze, but their second wind keeps them running like the Energizer bunny until well after ten each night. It's enough to make me consider homeschooling.

Jacob hadn't gotten a demerit for almost a month and now has had at least one each day since he's been back. He was pushed out of a swing by his usual bully boy this week and instead of slinking away, he faced him and told him to stop. When the kid said no, Jacob raised his hand to smack him. Of course the teacher only saw that part. Jacob missed the rest of recess while bully boy played the rest of the time mocking him as he'd run by. I don't condone violence and am appalled that my child would try to strike another, but at the same time, I am glad he stood up for himself. I mean, if no one else is going to help him, he has to help himself. We're having a teacher conference on Friday. I'll let you know how that goes.

It may take me all week to get settled back in from our little vacation. I have tons of things I want to blog about, but I can't put coherent thoughts together at the moment. I feel like I'm developing ADD myself.....oh, is that Olivia? Cute little pig in clothes. Snort. I love Olivia, but I miss Blue. What happened to Blue? Or Bob the Builder? Or the Rubberdubbers? I'd take any of those over Yo Gabba Gabba and that creepy Wubbzy any day.

See.

Maybe next week, I'll be able to think straight.

Monday, March 16, 2009

More Photos by Adam







Or alternatively titled, Time-to-get-off-the-computer-and-out-of-the-chair-and-spend-spring-break-with-your-children

So I'm going to do just that.

See you next week.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

I'm going to the rodeo tonight. Going to see Reba McIntire.

With another adult.

Another adult who is not my husband.

With a friend who called me first to share her free tickets.

I've been in Texas ten years. This is the first time anyone has invited me anywhere.

I have a friend people. Watch out.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Weird, Revisited

So the birthday and party have come and gone. Good-bye seven, Hello eight. New numbers, new presents, but same old shit. If you've been reading me forever, like Tracey, then you already know where this post is going.

What the hell is wrong with people?

Okay, now I can begin.

I didn't really know what to do about the party invitations this year. When Jacob was in kindergarten we invited the entire class. He in turn was invited to twelve other little parties and as a result of that and the afternoon play dates, the kids and their parents formed some bonds. The class was close. Jacob had fourteen other kids who accepted him for his quirks and their parents who loved him just for him. In first grade, not so much. Oh, he still had his kindergarten three to look out for him, but the new kids weren't as understanding and neither were their parents. Only the kindergarten kids came to his party although I invited the entire class. He only got six party invitations last year. Now he's in second grade with only one other kindergarten kid in his class. He hasn't been invited to any parties. Since half the kids have already turned eight, I figured he was being excluded some, but I talked myself into thinking that maybe not everyone has parties and two were over the holiday break so he wasn't really missing much. Was he?

Well, turns out he really was.

In early February when I began putting this shindig together, Jacob and I went to the party store to pick out invitations (Star Wars, go figure) and I was doing the math in my head to figure out how many packs we needed to invite the entire class plus his new neighborhood friends and he about had meltdown. "I DO NOT want to invite G or C or even K to my party! They are MEAN to me" and then the pent up anxieties and frustrations of six months of recess torment came spilling out for all the customers and employees to hear. WOW. I had no idea. Now, don't go thinking I was oblivious because I didn't care. I've had conferences with the teacher and inquired daily to the son and all I got was "Everything's great. I love school." Okey-dokey then.

So apparently G and C and K have deemed Jacob "weird" and do things like steal his shoes and spit on his papers and punch him in the gut when he's trying to use the bathroom. All of this happens at recess. Usually. Obviously the teacher doesn't see this because she doesn't do recess. That's her planning time. They have parent volunteers who do recess. I asked Jacob if he told the recess teacher he was getting hurt and he said when he did, he was told he was being rude and made to run laps for twenty minutes. And then she told him he was being "weird" when he ran off to run. The parent volunteer just happens to be K's mom. Uh-huh.

Yes, yes, yes. I told the teacher about this and she said she spoke with all involved and they all denied it and, really, what can she do? She wasn't there. No one can prove it except my son and he's "weird" and I guess a side effect of "weird" is lying. At least to them.

Okay, so I've run off on a little tangent here. Yada, yada, yada, Jacob isn't as accepted as I thought he was, whatever, we can deal.

Anyway. The invitations. So Jacob is desperate not to have these three kids IN. HIS. NEW. HOUSE. OH. GAWD. THE. HORRORS! So I tell him I'll figure something out. So I meet with his teacher to ask for suggestions. I told her the deal. I wanted to know if the kids talked party shop in their down time because if so, I was inviting the entire class. I didn't want anyone to feel left out because they weren't invited. And that's when she proceeded to tell me that, well, that kid and that kid and that one over there and she and she and he all had parties and everyone in the class was invited. Their parents said so.

Everyone, that is, except Jacob. And his little kindergarten buddy.

Little kindergarten buddy's mom and I. We be pissed.

I mean. WTF? This is CHRISTIAN SCHOOL?

Disclaimer: I love the education and attention my son is receiving at the christian school. He will continue to go there for as long as we think it is doing him good. and we do think it is doing him good. The other kids? Eh. Please don't suggest we take him away from there. He may be eaten anywhere else.

So anyway, I pretty much then sat down with him, eliminated the kids who already had birthdays plus the kids who didn't invite him last year and that left me with four boys. And one was little kindergarten buddy. I mailed the invitations to their homes. I only received an RSVP from K buddy's mom where we spent an hour wasting my cell minutes wondering WHY? WHY? WHY?

And then last Monday Jacob comes home from school in a pretty chipper mood and says,

Jacob: "Ch... can't come to my party, but he says he's still my friend. He's my best friend at school, Mom. I like him and he's really nice to me and he doesn't listen to G, C, and K when they tell him not to like me"

And from what I've seen of the kid, he IS really friendly and good to Jacob.


Me: "Well, that's okay, Jacob. Sometimes people have things to do on the weekends."

Jacob: "Chr.. had his birthday party last weekend. He said he couldn't invite me because there was not enough room in his house. I told him that was okay that we had a big house and he could come to our house sometime."

Me: (in my head) HE WASN'T INVITED TO ANOTHER FRICKING PARTY? "Yes, baby. If you want Ch... to come play one day I'll call his mom and arrange it. Maybe over spring break"

Jacob: "Everyone else in class went to Ch... party. Even G and C and K. Even THE GIRLS. But there wasn't enough room for me and E (little K buddy) Ch...' mom said so."

Me: "Uh-huh"

And then a few days later, Jacob came to sit by me while I was playing scavenger hunt getting things done and said this to me:

Jacob: "E told me today that he asked the other kids why they called me weird and stuff and G and C told him it was because I was stupid and weird things made me happy and I have too many warts. (He does have a slew of mosaic warts all over his fingers. He got them from Laura. We've never minded them until, well, that very second) And they told him they would be friends with him if he stopped being friends with me.

Me: (Must. Call. Parents) "I'm sorry. You feel bad about that huh?"

Jacob: "Yeah, but I feel bad for E too. I don't want him to miss out on being friends with them because of me"

Me: Nothing. I had nothing.

I had to excuse myself to the bathroom and sob like like a tiny baby.

When I composed myself we looked up warts on the wikipedia (where I found out just what kind of warts we were dealing with) and am making an appointment with the pediatrician and dermatologist tomorrow. I know removing those horrible warts aren't going to instantly make him accepted, but at least that is something I can fix for him right now in this moment.

Then he told me some other things about how last year's best buddy can only be friends with him on play dates and parties because he doesn't want the other kids to think he's weird for being friends with him. Apparently he no longer talks to him at all at school. I was ticked about that at first and wanted to call his mom who is my friend and tell her what was going on. But I realized, hey, many adults are intolerant of differences and look the other way with the same fears. How can I expect a seven year old to stand up and take a stand for his friend? Then I had to go and sob for first grade friend. How horrible for him.

Jacob had a blast at his party. All his neighborhood friends (plus two cousins who weren't invited) came and the jumpy house man got caught in traffic so we jumped for two extra hours. He has enough new Lego sets to last him until summer vacation. His best kindergarten buddies were here and played Star Wars not because they wanted to, but because it was Jacob's birthday and they knew HE wanted to. He had the huge cookie instead of cake just like he requested. Blue frosting and all. For an excited eight year old, he was very well behaved.

And when I tucked him bed last night I let him know that I was pleased with his behavior and he wanted to know if I thought he was weird. I mean, what do you say to that? I told him I thought weird was another way of saying unique. Unique is good. Unique makes you, you. You can be whoever you want to be. You can do whatever makes YOU happy. And maybe other people are weird for not knowing that.

I guess we're all a little weird.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Happy Eighth Birthday Jacob!

Jacob at one....



two...



three...



four...



five...



six...



seven....



and eight.



Lub, lub little man

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Angel Food is Good

It's been a long, exhausting week.

My husband comes home today, but I'm not really happy to see him.

I'm mad at him. And I don't know when I'll stop being mad at him. In fact, mad doesn't really describe it. Disgusted is more like it.

I'm tired. My body hurts. And I have the eighth birthday on Wednesday, not to mention the party on Saturday. Did I mention I was tired?

So this may be my only post this week.

But I couldn't let the week pass without sharing this with you.

Do you know about Angel Food Ministries?

Go ahead, check it out. I'll wait while you see if they have a distribution site in your area. You should really see if they do.

For $55.00, two men loaded two boxes of food into my car. I didn't even have to get out. In those two boxes were:

4--6oz sirloin steaks
2 lb boneless chicken breast
4 boneless pork chops
2 lb chicken nuggets
Salisbury Steak frozen entry
12oz bacon
l lb beef hotdogs
1 lb frozen stir fry veggies
1 lb carrots
32oz Shelf Stable Milk
35 oz Crinkle cut fries
Mac and Cheese box
1 lb rice
1 lb bean soup mix
Dozen eggs
3lb russet potatoes
3 lb sweet potatoes
2lb onions
l lb carrots
1 cabbage
3 lb red delicious apples
2 Anjou pears
1 Pineapple
4 gala apples
4 oranges
and half a vanilla cream bundt cake

But we no longer have the bundt cake because the kids and I ate it all. I didn't feel like sharing it with him.

How cool is that?

I can do alot with that.

But since a grocery list isn't everyone's idea of good blogging, you can check here for my personal grocery game posts.

But I totally won't talk about how I went on a huge shopping spree to drown my aching sorrows last week. I did find some great deals hitting every resale shop in town, but it cost me. Or rather, it cost the husband, but you know, they say shopping makes you feel better. Or it's symptom of depression, or something. I just figured if my husband got to slap down the cash for a last minute plane ticket, the kids and I could have fun at the Lego store. I mean, I'm just saying.

But that doesn't count.

And now we'll go eat pineapple. Before the plane lands.