Friday, August 28, 2009

The Moon and Stars

Siblings. It is amazing over what they can get upset at each other.

Driving home tonight from dinner out in an air conditioned restaurant (thank you TDaddy!) and buying Tboy some new soccer cleats for his first soccer game tomorrow morning, we noticed the moon up in the dark sky.

And whose side of the car was Mr. Moon on? Why whomever he likes the most of course!

In case you were wondering, it can make a person really rather upset to realize that Mr. Moon doesn't like you as much as he likes your sibling.


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Tgirl, "Star light, star bright, First star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight."

Tboy, "Amen?"

Monday, August 24, 2009

Back-To-School BBQ

Tonight my school did away with the more formal Back-To-School Night that we have traditionally done.

In the past we have had a meeting with all the faculty and staff getting together with all of the parents and kids in the worship center of the elementary campus. This year we had a big BBQ at the Middle School/High School campus for everyone with free food, a couple of bounce houses, face painting and a small petting zoo. The high school kids sold desserts and drinks to raise money for various mission trips and the school sold booster club memberships and school tshirts and sweatshirts. It was a huge success.

Families were mingling. Kids were running around crazy having a great time. It was a relaxed and fun atmosphere.

Tgirl got to hang out with her best friend. They really enjoyed bouncing and racing in the inflatables and feeding the llama, goats, pony, and sheep in the petting zoo. (Llamas make the strangest noises! I had never seen one up close in person before tonight. At times it sounded like it was saying"mmmmmm" as it ate feed from children's hands!) Their only complaint was that we didn't have time for face painting.

Tboy enjoyed hanging out and bouncing around with the big kids and petting the bunnies - the llama was a bit much for him, especially when it started making it's noises.

Earlier this afternoon the elementary students got to bring their supplies into the classroom, meet the teachers and buy their PE uniforms at school.

Tgirl ended up with an adult size small pair of PE shorts. They are a little big in the waist, though they aren't loose enough to fall off her, but are hugely long going down nearly to her knees! The youth mediums were way too tight in the waist and they were out of youth larges. I hope these shorts work for her!

I still haven't found sweats for PE and the ones with the school logo on them that were offered for sale with the uniforms were way too expensive. Hopefully I have a little more time to search before it gets cold and she needs the sweats.

First day of school is tomorrow...

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Human Scoreboard

Tboy really loves baseball. He loves playing it in every form possible: on a real field, in a backyard, in the house with real bats and balls (arg!), in the house with imaginary bats and balls (much better :) ), and on the Wii.

He also loves to watch professional baseball on TV.

His favorite team, like TDaddy's, is the Giants.

He keeps us informed of what is going on in the game, at times on a pitch by pitch basis. :) Even when you are sitting watching the game with him. :)

Perhaps he will be a sportscaster when he grows up?

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Back-To-School Shopping

We are mostly done with our back to school shopping.

Tgirl has 5 pairs of new pants, 7 shirts, 1 dress, 1 skort, and 2 pairs of capris. We have also purchased nearly all of the supplies on her list (paper, pencils, etc.) except for a spiral bound pad of 3x5 cards.

Tboy has 4 new pairs of jeans, 2 shirts, and one pair of sweatpants that are still a little too big for him.

Yes, I do see the inequality there.

However, he is still in preschool and doesn't have a list of supplies that he needs to buy. Being in preschool, he also doesn't have much of a dress code (other than he has to wear tennis shoes all the time to stay safe on the playground). I am enjoying that while I can. Next year, when he starts kindergarten, it will be totally different.

And, unlike Tgirl, he gets hand-me-downs. From two different people. She doesn't get any. I love hand-me-downs. I love how they save me money!

We only have a few more things to buy... shoes and a new backpack for each of them, and Tgirl still needs a gym bag, gym uniform, gym sweats, a lunchbox, and the specific Bible that her class will be using.

Overall, I am happy with how quickly, and reasonably priced, our shopping has been this year. Tgirl and I went out yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours at Khols and Walmart (I really do not like Walmart. Yes, they have good prices. But in my opinion, that is all they have going for them. The stores always seem to be somewhat messy, the shelves are not well stocked, the employees aren't helpful or are clueless, and don't even get me started on the clientele!). Then today both the kids and I spent a couple of hours at Target finishing off Tgirl's supply list and getting the bulk of their clothes.

Can I just say thank God for the Nintendo DS while in the dressing room with a 4 year old boy while his sister tries on clothes. Seriously. It is a huge help. Huge!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Fluffalo

What on earth? you may be wondering...

Fluffalo.

Ok, so most of the English speaking world calls them Buffalo. But in this house we call them fluffalo. That is what Tboy calls them.

Don't you just love the little mispronunciations that most every child uses? They don't know any better. And I'm glad. I enjoy knowing a bit of what the world sounds like in his head.

I will be very sad when Tboy speaks clear and perfectly pronounced English. It will mean he is growing up. :(

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Bedtime Fallguy

The children have been pushing bedtime lately.

They are put to bed on time. And then the "fun" begins.

They (each individually) get up to tell us they can't sleep, they have various aches and pains that were not there minutes before bedtime, they are thirsty, they need to go to the bathroom, the music stopped, they can't sleep, they need a certain stuffed animal... The only reason they don't tell us they are hungry is that we have a permanent sign up in our house "There is no eating after bedtime. Do not ask." (When the sign first went up, Tboy would get up just to ask to have the sign read to him.)

At one point last night they had each been up twice. Tgirl ended her second time with a question about where Patches (a small stuffed dog) was.

Very soon afterward, Tboy came out wondering where Patches was. I asked him if Tgirl had sent him.

"Yes"

Spoken firmly, "You do not have to do what she tells you when you know Mama and Daddy say no. Now go back to bed!"

As he opened the door of their room to go back in to bed I heard him complain to Tgirl, "I told you I would too get in trouble!"

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Out of Gas

What exactly is the point of the display in the car that tells me I have so many miles left of gas in the tank when it is not honest?

The thing said I could drive 20 more miles on the gas I had in the tank.

But when Tgirl and I came out of her piano lesson this evening the thing would not start. It was, for all intensive purposes, out of gas.

And where exactly in the tank is the gauge that monitors how much gas is left in there? Is it in the back of the tank so that when you are parked on an uphill slope the gas pools back there and tells you you have more than you really do? Which is what happened the last time I ran out of gas at work (It was nearly 2 years ago - no, I am not in the habit of running out of gas in the car!) Or is it in the front so that when facing downhill, as we were outside the piano teacher's house, the car can lie to me and tell me I have enough gas to drive for twenty more miles at the same time that it refuses to start.

Regardless of where that monitor is or how it works, it has problems with being totally truthful.

Tgirl and I went back to Miss J's (the piano teacher) door to ask to please borrow a sweatshirt for Tgirl for the walk to the gas station. Miss J very kindly offered us the gas in the garage that she has for her lawn mower. Only, she didn't know how to get the gas to come out of the nozzle so that it would go into the car's tank. And neither did I. So we experimented a bit, resulting in me getting gas all over my hands, before finally figuring it out.

All's well that ends well so they say.

Does anyone know how to get the smell of gas off one's hands? Washing for a long time in excessive amounts of dish soap and antibacterial hand soap does not work. Neither does washing in ketchup. The stench has dissipated, but is not gone. I now have very dry hands that smell of gas.

(Hey, if tomato juice works to get out skunk smell when nothing else will, then theoretically ketchup should work on the smell of gas. Right? Wrong.)