Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Scary, Scary Stuff

I got such a sad, depressing letter from JR's teacher yesterday. I figured this day was coming, but I was hoping maybe it wouldn't.

*big sigh huffy breath*
JR will be having spelling tests every Friday.

Yep, the famous spelling test. Oh the fun memories I have studying spelling words as a little girl. Those Thursday nights were always filled with such happiness and laughter.
Just...
so.
much.
fun.

And I don't even want to know what Jason made on spelling tests as a kid. I knew spelling was not his forte' when he once asked me how to spell 'Christmas'. I also knew where he got his spelling genes when Jason's dad called and asked him how to spell 'Sherry'. (Which is Jason's mom's name!)

But really, who needs to study spelling words now that we have God's gift to the world, spellcheck? Yes, everyone needs to know their homophones, homonyms, and homographs. (I'm always petrified I'm going to use 'their', 'they're', or 'there' incorrectly when I'm writing in a hurry.) But if the kids have to have spelling tests, can't they just be to see if they can get close enough for spell check to fix it?

I'll keep you updated on how studying "our" spelling words goes. But if you hear wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from our direction, JR's cries are just slightly more pitiful than mine.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Pop Test

You know how I love math, so here's a question for you.

If the muddiness of JR's shoes is in direct correlation with how much fun he had on his campout, what would be his level of enjoyment?
If you answered "seriously loved it", then you're right! I'm not sure he could have had more fun.
(If you want to see pictures from the actual campout, check out my Scout Blog.)

Saturday, August 28, 2010

I Don't Camp

Yet another reason my Durango Card might be snatched away from me at any second...I'm not a camper. And when I say people are really into camping here, I'm talking about overhearing moms discussing "mother/daughter campouts", and girls weekends that are *gasp* camping. So when I told the Cub Scout parents that I would "be in charge", I prefaced it with...'but I'm not going camping.' Thankfully, other parents have steped in for the camping thing, and JR is leaving in a little while for his first Scout campout. He's been counting down the days since last week, and although I'm not going with him, I thought I'd make him a breakfast to start the day off right.

And just in case you can't tell what my "cooking" is supposed to be: It's a camper in a sleeping bag. See it now?

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Fire Up

So it wasn't the bouncy castle, giant slide, or snow cones that won Ingy fan favorite at the picnic. (Although snow cones got my vote.)
Kyle loved the life flight hospital helicopter, but I was so busy trying to keep him from pushing all the buttons while he was "driving" and telling them he wanted to "go for a ride", that I couldn't get any pictures.
I do have pictures of the firetrucks. (Which were also a big hit.) They even let Kyle sound the alarm (which is a foot pedal) multiple times. Oh, and FYI, I don't recommend standing in front of the truck when the siren blares...I'm pretty sure Jason and I now have a significant amount of hearing loss.





Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Dunkin' (But Not Donuts)

With all the pressure of an activity-less JR, back to school, and recent facial injuries I completely forgot about Jason's company picnic. I'll post Kyle and Reed's highlight of the picnic tomorrow, but here's something I just don't get to see everyday.


Oh yes. That would be my husband in a dunking booth. And what did I think of that? Well, I probably enjoyed my husband's time in the dunking booth as much as he would enjoy mine. (Is that politically correct, or what?)

JR was dying to get dunked, so they let him give it a go, too.


Looks like successful dunkees to me.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Another Facial

So I'm guessing I'm going to have to start a new weekly featurette entitled:
Look What Kyle and/or Reed Did to Their Face(s).
Before I start today's tale, let me first give you a back story in photographic form.

Here's what Kyle's bed looks like. (He's in it, with Buzz Lightyear, eating a piece of toast.) Toast aside, he's demonstrating what he and the bed are supposed to look like while sleeping.



After hearing a huge crash-bang-boom last night, I ran into their room to find his bed like this. (Picture taken this morning, staged for blog reenactment.)


I was so in shock that Kyle was able to move his bed, and so scared by the screams and blood I saw on the floor, that it was Jason who had to step into action and pick him up.

Kyle didn't just jump out of his bed, he jumped over (or from on top of) the railing side of his bed. He landed in between the drawers and the toy castle. Although he probably hit one or both on his way down


since he looks like this....


This picture was taken this morning, so you can imagine what last night looked like. (And don't worry about his teeth, he was still busy with his toast.)

I couldn't even look at Kyle last night, but thankfully while Jason was on doctor duty, I had some comic relief from the other two. When the fall happened Jason and I were watching Bachelor Pad (don't judge) and eating popcorn. Of course the popcorn was left unattended on the coffee table when we heard the crash. JR and Reed were quick to jump out of bed and give a few seconds of sympathy, but then I noticed they were gone and it was awfully quiet. That's when I found the two of them shoveling fist-fulls of popcorn in their mouths as fast as they could. So much for brotherly love!



In all seriousness, he's totally fine. (I had our pediatrician look at him in our driveway this morning.) But I'm really considering buying stock in Neosporin and Band-Aids.

Monday, August 23, 2010

And Here's The Proper Post

I got JR settled in his class without a hitch this morning, due largely in part to Kyle and Reed's backpacks. (As you can see they thought the water fountains were amazing. ) You might notice the tail coming off Kyle's backpack. The backpacks are monkeys, and that tail doubles as a leash...hence the reason we were able to get in and out without making a scene.

JR said he had a good day, not a lot of details, so we're going with no news is good news. Here he is after getting off the bus.

I got him a cake donut pan as a first day of school surprise. He was thrilled and wanted to get right to work making donuts as soon as he got home...and took off his shirt.


I just had to get a close up since they came out so cute!

Hot Off The Presses

I figure these first day of school pictures should hold the grandmothers over until I have time for a proper post.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

It's Done

I asked JR what he wanted to do today on his last day of freedom, and after a list a mile long of inappropriate and/or impossible choices (Denver, Yellowstone, MawMaw and PawPaw's house, Phoenix, a glider ride) he chose to go up to the mountain. Jason and I were quick to jump on that option since who knows what he would have come up with next. So here's JR blowin' out the last day of summer in style!




I had to magnify the face on that last picture, classic JR.


Jason and I took turns racing JR on the Alpine Slide. (The other one was the lucky recipient of a bombardment of "please can I slide, I want to slide, I want my slide" since the other two are still too little to participate.)

JR in the lead
I've almost caught him
And we're even!
And though Jason and I gave it our best shot, JR is still the Ingy Alpine Slide Champ.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Private Practice

And now...for the rest of the story.

Sure we had a great day on Thursday, but Thursday night brought on a whole new story to share.

My sinuses have been bothering me, but they were so bad on Thursday my top left-side teeth were hurting. Now many of you may be wondering...How can this be a story? Why didn't you just take a Zyrtec and call it a day?

Well, it's not that simple. You see, I'm a product of a mixed marriage. There's my dad who has no problem going to the doctor, and has a shelf of meds that I affectionately refer to as "the drug buffet". Then there's my German Jew Presbyterian Somewhat of a Christian Scientist mom. If she's going to the doctor, there's something seriously wrong. Throw in a 3-year stint in Beijing where I found some of the Eastern Medicine practices completely fascinating, and yeah, my personal health care beliefs are confused.

On top of all my issues, Jason was out of town this week, so I wasn't going to be able to take anything and "call it a night" until I had everybody in bed. So I thought to myself, "What would the Chinese do?"

Here's what I came up with:
I have a pillow that came with a spa package and it said to put it in the microwave for 3 minutes. Now, I'm guessing this pillow is filled with popcorn, cause I'm fairly certain a couple of the kernels popped.

Reed: Mommy, what's that smell?
Me: It's my pillow. My face hurts.
JR: Is there popcorn in that pillow?
Me: I think so.
JR: Can we open it and eat it?
Me: No. It's not for eating.
Reed: Popcorn? I like popcorn. I want to eat popcorn.
Me: Yeah. But we don't have popcorn.
Reed: What's that smell?
(Similar comments continued until bedtime.)

I put the pillow over my eyes and nose, which essentially left 3 kids unsupervised. Thankfully, they were watching Wipeout so I told JR, "JR, I can't see anything. If anybody runs away, you're in charge of telling me."

So as a homage to Terri Hatcher's "I don't use botox" self portraits, here's what I looked like Thursday night.

I don't know if it was the pillow, the Chinese face massage I performed on myself, or the knock-out drug I finally got to take about 8:00, but I woke up Friday feeling a million times better.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Things Are Still Going Swimmingly

My sorority sister, Kari (and her family), are vacaying in Telluride this week, so we decided to meet up in Ouray to try out the hot springs. The drive to Ouray is super beautiful/terrifying. And when you're the driver, I'd say it's 30% beautiful and 70% terrifying (especially for a Texan).
In case you were wondering, "Switzerland of America" is 5,000 some odd miles from the real Switzerland. (According to the sign I saw at the springs.)



See the railing? When we were getting back in the car Kyle actually told me, "Mommy, don't hit that." Even he knows when we're just a little too high up.


Unfortunately Kari and I didn't get a picture together, but here are all our boys. (And yes, we're still both in shock there's not a girl anywhere in the mix. Nobody likes a good dance routine like we do!) I also can't believe this is the only picture we got at the hot springs. The springs are surrounded by gorgeous mountains, and our background is an iron fence and towel. Nice.


Speaking of pitiful photo backdrops...On the way home JR and I decided a stop at the Big Foot Museum in Silverton (or as Reed calls it "Silver Town") would be a good idea.


Yep, Kyle spotted another one.
And where's Reed you might ask? He was right next to me. No way he was getting near one of these guys.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Day 3 and We're Rolling Along

Day 3 of "No JR Activities Week" has come and gone and we are doing fan-tastic. (And I'm actually being completely serious.) It's gone so well, in fact, that I'm forewarning you....I have nothing to report. *crickets chirp*

Although on an exciting note, look what Kyle and Reed were issued when we went "Bowling Ball" today.

Their first bowling shoes!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Naughty Number Nine

1. I know I've mentioned many-a-time before that I am not a math person.
2. I have also mentioned that I'm thankful beyond measure that JR seems to have inherited his daddy's math brain.

So with those two issues reiterated, here's how our dinner conversation went last night:

(Quick backstory: JR's been working through some cheapy workbooks I bought so he could keep his reading and math skills up this summer.)

Me: Can you believe JR can count by 9's? I couldn't count by 9's if you made me.
Jason: 9's are easy. It's just 10 minus 1, right JR?
Me: (I think for a second.) Yeah, that doesn't work for me. 20 minus 1 is 19, not 18, so that doesn't even make sense.
Jason: Where did you get 20?
Me: You told me it's tens minus one.
Jason. No. Just think logically... (I tuned out the "logical" explanation, but then he proceeded to count by 9's up into the 100's)
Me: No really, stop. I don't want to learn to count by 9's. I just want you to be impressed that your son can do it. Go ahead JR, show Daddy.

JR does.
Reed begins counting his fingers.
(At this point my heart starts racing since waaaay too many numbers are being shouted out for my math-phobic liking. My baby, Kyle, knew better than to upset me with numbers. He just kept eating his 4th pickle of the night. )

Jason: I am impressed. That's awesome, JR.
Me: Good job, Reed.

Later, after JR is gone:

Me: Okay, so I know you're going to laugh at me, so just go ahead and laugh, but division is next in JR's book. And, um, so division is just the opposite of multiplication, right?
Jason: Do you know how to divide?
Me: Yes, I know how to divide! I'm just not really sure how to teach it.

Jason then starts giving me examples of division problems. Of course what I heard was The Peanuts teacher's voice, 'waa. waa. waa. waa. waa.' Although I did hear something about 12 divided by 4, so I was quick to holler out '3!' since I knew that was right. (And please don't comment if it's not.)

So what did all that math talk teach me? (Besides how to count by 9's.)
Basically, that there's really no need to rush division. I mean, the summer's almost over, right? I'm thinkin' we can just make some more decorative cookies instead!

Monday, August 16, 2010

A True Flop of a Cookie

JR and I made flip-flop cookies today. They're somewhat labor intensive (only because they're so small it makes them hard to work with), so I'm glad we made them while Kyle and Reed were napping. I can't imagine the mess if those two had been involved. Aren't they cute on their bed of "sand"?


Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Final Countdown

JR starts school a week from tomorrow, which leaves me a full 5 days in which he has no scheduled activities/camps/vacation/or grandparent entertainment. I'm actually seriously nervous about how to entertain him since the instant he opens his eyes he starts asking, 'What can I do?' So be sure to check back this week to see how I'M doing!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

What Could Taste Better?

Sure we could have eaten dinner at a 5-star restaurant for the same price, but how could that even begin to compare with:

giant turkey legs



roasted corn


cotton candy, fresh squeezed lemonade, popcorn, and a snowcone. (Not pictured do to the stickiness, messiness, and all around high-maintenance-on-my-part nature of these items.)

The one thing the La Plata County Fair did seem to be missing was a deep fried food cart. There were no deep fried Twinkies, Oreos, or cookie dough to be found. Being this is Durango I guess I should have been on the lookout for the deep fried locally farmed organic celery sticks.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

In Case You were Wondering

It takes an hour and twenty minutes for Kyle to ride his (battery powered) motorcycle (as seen here) to the mailbox and back. Now in all honesty, I can't actually confirm this statistic, it was given to me by Jason.


Also, Bigwheels aren't exactly easy to ride tandem. I was so proud of Reed when he invited Kyle to ride with him that I was really hoping it would work. They went backwards much better than forward....but that might have something to do with the downhill nature of our driveway.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I Knew, I Know

I knew I was in Texas when I saw:

That last word is "patrol". And yes, they still ask you questions (and check inside the car) even when you have Colorado licenses plates and you're loaded down with pack-n-plays, kids, and a dog.


Speaking of the dog....


Hadn't seen anything like this in awhile.

Or this. You can find this sign on I-45 (the interstate between Houston and Dallas) about an hour outside of Dallas.

Kyle found JR's old boots at my parents' house and wore them everywhere.



This is one of those North Texas storms you have to keep an eye on this time of year. You never know when a tornado will drop down out of these clouds.


And I know I'm back in Colorado since here's what my front yard looked like the other night.
And this came out after the daily afternoon "monsoon".

Monday, August 9, 2010

Even More Flora

Since Durangoans like things to be "local", and I showed you Denver flowers yesterday, I figure I better get with the program and give the local flora some airtime.
I don't drive to the north side of town very often, so I was shocked how beautiful the front of Serious Texas BBQ looked. (And if you're thinking, didn't you just go to Serious Texas BBQ the other day? Why, yes. Yes I did. But even though I live in a town without a Target, I do live in a town with 2 Serious Texas BBQs. I know. I've learned not to ask questions anymore.) Anyway, after I dropped JR off to catch the bus to mountain camp, I made the babies jump out and pose for pictures. Here's the best one I got. And though they weren't in the mood for picture posing, look how pretty their background is.



Here's what every other picture I took looked like. Kyle spotted some motorcycles coming down the road. And then some big trucks...



Finally he just started screaming out "car! car!". You can tell Reed was trying really hard to pose, but those motorcycles, trucks, and cars were just too tempting to look at!