Everything I need to know I learned in . . .

So this week it has been made clear to me that I did not learn everything I need to know in Kindergarten. Everything I need to know I learned from School House Rock. No matter what I am doing with the kids in school there is a School House Rock song. I know this because whatever concept we are learning someone starts singing. An example:

Elisa: Okay Ernie, I need you to draw a line between the complete subject and the complete predicate.

Ernie: (singing)Mister Morton is the subject of the
sentence, and what the predicate says,
he does.

I have also been making Henry watch Multiplication Rock a couple of times a week. It is way better than the CD I bought with his math that skip counts to the tune of The Ants Come Marching In.

Maybe next year when I file my intent to home school, when it asks what curriculum I am using I will just write in School House Rock!

I Dreamed a Dream

It is only 6:20 in the morning and I am already irritated at Stuart. I am also tired and cranky. I am not tired because of the hard work out I did at the gym. I had to skip that, I was too tired when I woke up. I was exhausted and cranky when I woke up because I spent the night on an international flight to England. Why were we going to England? I have no idea. All I know is that my children were on their worst behavior and Stuart was tired so he slept the whole way leaving me to deal with the lot of them. So I woke up tired with having to put up with this all night. This is not the first time I have woken up mad at Stuart for something I dreamed about. He spent the morning reminding me that it wasn't really him. I must have some deep seeded issues. And the kicker is, we didn't even make it to England. We got off the plane in France. No wonder I am cranky.

Holy Crow! Is this an update?

Now, nobody get too excited. I am not sure how long this update thing will last. I read one of my friends blog updates and she had not updated in nine months. She mused that she could have had a baby since her last blog update. That is the bar I have now set for myself. As long as I could not have had a baby between updates, I am doing good.

So what have we been up to in the ooh, seven months? Same thing as always. Sad huh? We did the same things every other family did. Got a Wii for Christmas, (If Henry was allowed he would spend every waking minute of the day with that box. Sometimes when I know that I need to leave for a few hours, I will deprive him of games for a few days, then while I am gone he is guaranteed not to move.) In January Disney came out with a great offer for military families, so we decided to take the kids. A week later we loaded the car and woke the kids up at midnight and went for a week. We did not tell the kids beforehand. That turned out, in hindsight to be a stroke of genius. Since the kids did not know we were going, I did not have to spend a week scolding them about their behavior. There were not empty threats like, "Clean this room or we will not go!" or "If you want to go to Disney you will unload this dishwasher in the next five minutes." It made for a great trip.

What other fun stuff we have done? Stuart surprised me with a weekend away for our anniversary. The first time in 18 years he has ever done anything like that. He took me to Virginia Beach. He figures he is good for another 18 years. Truth is I like to tease him about his lack of holiday gift giving, but I know everyday that I got the best gift in tricking him into marrying me so I have no complaints. We have also gone to a couple of National Baseball games. Kitty and I took the kids on opening day. I love opening day. The world just feels better when it is baseball season.

It is a good thing that I love baseball as much as I do because that is about all our schedule has on it right now. Both the boys are playing, but because of their age difference they are in different divisions. That means we sometimes have to be at two different fields at the same time. And Molly now has swim team practice four nights a week so some days I need to have three people to three different places at the same time. It makes for some interesting evenings

All in all things are good here.

Crossroads

I have spent a lot of time this week pondering age. Stuart turned 43 last Sunday. We had a nice day with friends from out of town, kopoma, and pumpkin pie. I also found some pictures of friends I went to high school with on the internet and dang if they didn't look, well, they looked old. The thing that has me really freaked out though is an episode of CMT's Crossroads featuring Taylor Swift and Def Leppard. I love those old Def Leppard songs, they sure take me back. And I love Taylor Swift, I think I can relate to her...and then it hit me. I look more like Def Leppard than Taylor Swift!! When did this happen? I mean I was sure looking at those pictures of my friend that there was no way I looked like that, but I must. Weird. Oh Well I suppose that is what time does to us all. I just plan on not letting it get to me, beside this little rant, and as long as I keep feeling young I will be young. Now if you will excuse me I have to go stop Stuart from buying an '81 Trans Am off of ebay.

A Little Less Morbid

I thought I would add some Halloween pictures to shove Stuart and Hank's morbid pictures down the page a little.

The boys were Johnny Reb and Billy Yank and Molly was a pirate. We put her costume together with Goodwill items and cheap fabric from Wal-mart. And we raided her brothers pirate stash. We thought it looked pretty good.
Molly went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat, and the boys, Stuart and I stayed home and went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. The boys wanted to stay home. It was fun. Jeff, Katie and David came with us. David was a little Indy Jones. After trick-or-treating we all went to Dairy Queen. Had to have our pumpkin pie blizzard!

Back by Popular Demand

Okay, so maybe one or two people asked about the blog. I hesitated starting a blog because I know how I am. I have no follow through. It seems like so much has happened in the last few weeks that I can never catch up, so why bother. I am going to bother though.

Let's see, where to begin? How 'bout with Hank's baptism. It was early Saturday morning October 4. Just family and a few friends came. It was a nice quiet affair. It was especially nice because Jake was able to be there. Hank was so cute. He was very excited and happy to be following the Savior's example.

We have been to Gettysburg twice this month. We love it. The Battlefield is 24 square miles. We went over the Columbus day weekend and had such a good time that when Mom and Doug came for a visit this last week we took them. Ernie and Henry are being Civil War soldiers for Halloween so they wore there costumes and did re-enactments along the different sites at the battlefield. Their favorites were pretending to "fix bayonets" on Little Round Top, playing dead in the Wheatfield, and re-enacting Picketts Charge as a tour group walked up. Yeah, I know, my kids are different.

On our way to Gettysburg we found a great apple orchard. In the last month we have eaten a bushel of apples. They were the best apples any of us have ever had. For three days straight we had some version of bread and apples for every meal. I really should not admit to things like that.

We had a nice visit with Mom and Doug. Along with taking them to Gettysburg we also hit the newest and greatest tourist attraction in our area, Wegman's. For those of you who are not in the know, Wegman's is a grocery store. I take everyone there. We have lunch and then wander around. Did you know you can buy truffles for only $400 a pound? It sounds funny, but there really is nothing like it.

The kid's did their second Marine Corps Marathon Healthy Kids Fun Run. They had a great time, made better by the fact that we went to Noodle Man for lunch afterwards. That is the other place I take everyone. Alright, the name of the restaurant is not really Noodle Man but China Town Express. We call it Noodle Man because there is a man who stands in the window hand pulling noodles. He takes a chunk of dough and with nothing but his hands turns it into strings of noodles in about 30 seconds. It's like magic. A grocery store and a run down Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. I know how to show people a good time.

It seem's like we have been really busy, but I guess not. This week we are gearing up for Halloween. It should be lots of fun. Molly and I made a pirate costume for her and the boys are gearing up for the war that pitted brother against brother. I think they only wanted to do it because I finally let them get the muskets they had begging for for they last two years. I guess that is all I've got.

PS by Stu

The photo at the top of a Confederate sharpshooter was taken by Alexander Gardner after the battle of Gettysburg at the area known as Devil's Den. The original photo was staged by Alexander Gardner and re-staged by Henry and I.

One-Upping

Normally I would not do this on my blog, but this is just too important to ignore. In response to Mel's blog, if you want the whole story about after the Keith Urban concert, call ME! Who knows, if I get enough requests, I may just post it here.