Giving Up On That Whole "Positive Thinking" Plan.

Remember that emotional breakdown I predicted earlier?
It didn't take long for it to make an appearance.

Like when I decided to make my day better by finishing the pergola I've been (slowly) putting together for like, forever.

It was super awesome, and when we finished, we took a proud step back to admire,

and Aaron said, "Uhhh....is it slanted? It looks slanted."

Huh?

Yes. It IS slanted.
There is a 6 inch SLOPE in my beams.

How did this happen?!

I didn't measure correctly, that's how. The beams hang differently on the hardware at opposite ends of the pergola. So when I used the same measurement for both ends, I ended up with one end 6 inches higher than the other, and the whole thing slopes. How did I over look something so obvious in my planning?

I cried.

And when I think about how I have to take it apart, cut 6 inches off the posts, and put everything back up, it makes me cry more.

I'm just. so. over. unfinished house projects, right now.

I told Aaron to hire an Amigo to help him fix the pergola problem, because I can't look at it anymore. He wasn't on board.

When (if) I ever DO finish this stupid pergola, you can bet I will have NO problem dropping $50 on some pretty outdoor string lights to hang from it. Because I am going to host one big, fat, celebration of a BBQ.

C is for Criticism

I got my assignment back.

My 2 page paper came back with a C grade and 4 pages of single spaced (brutal) criticism.

I see a few very late nights, a lot of chocolate, and probably an emotional meltdown in my near future.


In other news, The Cox Cable guys accidentally cut off the phone access cable to our house and hit a water line with the backhoe. The archaeological tunnel site that is my front yard is now 4 ft deep in water. Our water was shut off this morning, they "fixed" the problem, but now the bathroom sinks are low-flow, and one of our toilets will not work at all. They've called a plumber to come out Monday to fix it.

I got on the phone and complained to Cox, who apologized but let me know that the guys burying the cable have been subcontracted, and don't actually Cox employees. I pointed out that they are still paid by Cox, and looking out the window at my swamp of a yard really makes me want to switch to a different internet company.

After an hour on the phone, I managed to get a month of free internet service out of the deal. They plan to follow up on Monday about the plumber.

It looks like they're filling in the holes, now.
They said that they should be done with the construction in our yard today or tomorrow.

Sugar Coma

Can I just tell you how much I love this little girl?
A lot. She is by far, the funniest person in our family.
Plus she's totally awesome.

I know those seem like really general things to say, but they really sum her up. She's the first to laugh when you get hurt, but the first to come to the defense of another. She's FULL (like, overflowing) with personality. She's a great little side kick. She's easy going, full of things to say, and has the best facial expressions. Tiny and feisty and silly and snuggly and some days she is an absolute stinker, but she is so stinking cute that it doesn't matter how rotten she gets...she's got me absolutely, totally, 100 percent wrapped around her finger.

I love you, Quincy Bee.

Just TAKE it!

So apparently, last night I woke up Aaron insisting that he take the alarm clock from me. He says I kept smacking his shoulder, telling him to wake up. Then I'd wave my arm around, holding out an imaginary alarm clock in his direction, saying, "Here! Would you take this, please?! Just put it on the dresser!" and wouldn't quit until he finally "took" the nothing from my hands.

I have NO recollection of this, whatsoever.

A Day in the Life

6:40 wake up to Corbin crying, realize we've overslept, run around house frantically trying to get Reese ready for school

6:47 take Corbin out of his crib so he'll stop screaming every time we pass his room and don't rescue him from baby jail. Put him on the floor in front of some toys

6:48 rush outside and get Reese on school bus, just in time. She is half awake, but she's dressed and has breakfast in her hands.

6:50 Carry shoeless Quincy back in the house and make breakfast

7:00 I smell something...

7:00:01 Follow the trail to one baby wearing a diaper that has exploded. Realize he must not have been changed into a fresh diaper before bed, and I didn't change him right when he woke up, so now the poo is creeping up the back of what used to be a white onesie.

7:01 pick up gross baby. Check carpet for signs of damage. Dry heave. Attempt to change diaper. Dry heave. Give up on the diaper change idea and put fully clothed baby into bathtub.

7:05 Hose baby off. Remove wet (ruined) clothing. Watch in horror as a dollop of poo slides out of clothing and into bath water.

7:05:01 Freak out.

7:05:02 Baby fills plastic cup with bathwater and drinks it.

7:05:03 Look to the sky and say, "Seriously?!"

7:06 Empty tub. clean tub. Clean baby again. Think about calling Mom.

7:10 throw away baby's clothes. Throw away my clothes.

7:15 step on a few of these
in the hallway, and think, "hmmm..."

7:16 Follow trail to master bathroom, to find that the remainder of the box has been poured into the toilet, where they expanded and solidified the contents of the toilet bowl.

7:17 "is that.....?" Yes. Yes it is. Toilet had been used, and there's a dookie suspended in the bowl like a pineapple ring in a jello-mold.

7:17:01 flush toilet. Immediately regret decision.

7:18 unclog toilet, clean toilet. Cry. Laugh. Curse whoever didn't flush.

7:25 toilet is clean, but water level still won't return to normal. Put the lid down and just walk away, grateful that there are two toilets in the house.

8:30 Q gets dropped off at school

9:00-10:30 P90X and Hip Hop Abs with Darcie. Laugh at how weak I am, sample Pumpkin flavored Hersheys (what the awesome?!), discover that Corbin has pooped AGAIN, diaper breaks and he crawls away while I'm changing him, but secretly, I am glad because the workout gets paused and I need a breather or I'll never survive the "Superman/Banana" segment.

10:30 come home to a driveway blocked by several tractors, backhoes, caterpillars, and other large monstrous trucks scattered across my driveway and lawn.

10:35 guys move trucks, I pull into the driveway, and then get blocked back in!

10:40 "uggg, sorry guys, but I'm leaving again in like half an hour".
guys: "we'll move when you come back out"
me: I think you should move 10 minutes before I come back out, so I don't have to wait for you.
guys: no problem. Sorry about the hole in your lawn.

what?
10:41 discover 4 x 4 x 6 ft HOLE in the lawn, and mountain of dirt next to it, then notice that the whole front of my yard is under 6 inches of water. (they are burying cables).

10:42 try not to be irritated. Buried cable = less snapped power lines in an ice storm.
And it's not like I have a super nice front yard.
But, but...it's still MY yard, and there are crepe myrtle branches broken off and there are people smoking in my yard, and there are trucks everywhere and really...it's a big giant muddy mess
I give up on any hope of still throwing together a garage sale by tomorrow. Besides, where would they park? You can't even get down my street, and everything is covered in mud.

11:00 shower, think about how pissed creepy keith is going to be when they tear up HIS yard. bwahahahaha

11:10 get out of shower, get dressed, and THEN realize that I still have NO BLINDS in my front window. I took the old one's down when I painted my bedroom a few weeks ago, and I haven't installed a new set. Normally, this doesn't matter, because the window is neck high, but today...well today there are a few guys on trucks on my lawn like 15 feet away.
Yeah. Them. They probably saw me naked.

11:30 pick up Quincy

12:00 Q naps, Corbin just cries in his bed for a really long time. I go in there and pick him up for a snuggle.
wait...he is still clothed, but where is his diaper? His onesie is still snapped closed, how the heck did he get the diaper off?
I finally find it shoved between the crib and the wall. Good thing I used a high quality, scrub-worthy paint on Corbin's room.
Laugh, cry, call my mom.

1:00-3:00
With both Corbin and Quincy asleep I sit down and get my paper on Kingship in Ancient Israel written. It's a beast, and I haven't spent this much time with my nose in the Old Testament in awhile. In the end I feel like I have a very well written paper. This is the assignment that was due the week I missed class, so I am excited to finally hand it in tonight and be totally caught up.

3:15 Reese comes home, Quincy and Corbin wake up

4:00
5:00 Dinner: last minute cilantro lime rice, black beans, and salad that turns out SO YUMMY.
5:15 Kids refuse to eat the rice because there are "leaves and yucky stuff in it".
I cave and feed them corn dogs.

6:15-8:45 World Civ. Which I am looking forward to because
a) there is no poop there
2) tonight was "meet the pres of NWACC night and Dr. T is bringing pizza to class.
d) I've texted a couple of night owl gal pals to see if anyone wants to meet up for a late movie after class.

I excitedly hand in my essay.
Unexcitedly listen as Dr. T returns everyone else's marked up essays accompanied by a "most of you failed this essay, but there were a few C's" discussion.

Uh oh.

He goes on to state that if we have failed, he has failed, and that's a problem. This week's assignment is to re-write the kingship essay according to his edits and critiques.
I can't very well do that without him grading it first. But knowing that this essay isn't exactly my best work, (I did throw it together in two hours) I just ask for it back. He says he'd love to grade it first, and will email it back to me, so I can more successfully do this week's rewrite.

So now I am waiting on that, which is no fun, because who likes to wait around for criticism? I know I should expect it, because it is an assignment and all, but I realized tonight from the looks on my classmate's faces, and reading a few of the comments left on their papers, that I was sorely mistaken when I assumed that this course would be an "easy A".

The lecture was about Confucianism, Daoism, and how bad energy attracts more bad energy.
Uh, looking at my day, I'm thinking that's pretty accurate.

My night owl gals were both unavailable for a movie,.
I head over to my friend, Katie's and hold her sweet 3 day old baby for a little while.
She is totally perfect, and how an any day that ends with holding a newborn turn out to be that bad?

I head home determined to channel up some of that elusive positive energy.

I came home to a sleeping family, and an entire pan of goodies in my kitchen. Like, a whole pan. Brownies, candy bars, pound cake, etc. (good thing I did two workouts today!) and a nice little note from my friend. Little things can make such a big difference.

Today:
The girls woke up at 4:30am because one of them needed to go potty, then Quincy went crazy and wouldn't let anyone go back to sleep. I told them if they stayed in their bedroom until 5am, they could have brownies for breakfast. They thought was Christmas.
Corbin has emptied the trash once, and knocked a full glass of water off the counter. But he's taken his diaper of and covered himself and his crib in poop only once, today.

Of course, it's only 10am...
but those are just little things, and I'm thinking positively.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Friendly Frogs: My Home is a Special Place

My Home is a Special Place

Preschool is going great, and the kids are really getting used to the flow of our classroom and how things work around here.
Today was the first Stay and Play of the year, and it went perfectly. The kids enjoyed playing board games (Lucky Ducks, Candyland Castle, and Lets Go Fishing), eating lunch outside with their friends, being able to float from activity to activity without having to clean up until the end, and the additional playtime outside. Great Day!

Letter: H is for House

Share: Bring or wear something Brown: today's assortment included a brown bear, 2 horses, Tow Mater, a big plastic brown crayon, and a brown puppy Jedi Knight.

Color: Brown

Shape: Triangle (Can you find a triangle on the toy house? On the candy house? In our classroom?)

Literature: Where Do I Live? By Cartwheel Books, I Love My Nest By P.D Eastman

Sensory: Play dough!
Recipe in previous post on preschool blog

Dramatic Play: The 3 Little Pigs
Reese helped me paint this backdrop yesterday.
She was really excited about it because her class did a nursery rhyme/fairy tale unit recently and they learned this story. She even volunteered her "big bad wolf" hat from Kindergarten for the Friendly Frogs to use. Cute.
The kids took turns with the roles and acted out the story of the 3 Little Pigs. I think Children's Theater has to be one of my favorite things ever. Why on earth do those Toddlers and Tiara parents spend so much cash on acting coaches? Kids are natural born dramatics, and today I had the pleasure of directing the show. It wasn't long before they didn't need my direction.

Uggh-blogger is giving me an error message every time I try upload more videos. Luckily, I'd already downloaded this one is from Stay and Play, but it's missing Baylee and Sam: I'll try again to add the rest of the videos later. They are too fun!



My favorite part, "I'm that guy." [as he points to the little wolf drawing on the backdrop with his toe]
Fine Motor: House Puzzles-the parts of a house and matching animals to their homes

Snack: Fruit assortment (thanks, Jace!)

Art: Candy Houses...oh the fun we had. Parents, I'm sorry if your kids are hyper this afternoon. It's my fault.
Some of their candy might have been eaten before it made it to the candy house.
Special thanks to the Frogs who brought candy!



Math: Dog House Pattern Match
This is a really cute game created by the people who made Cranuim. Each child gets a card with several doghouses on it. I draw a card that has a shape, a pattern, or a color on it. When every child has found the house on their card with the corresponding shape, pattern, or color, they all get a little cardboard puppy to put in their house. We played until every child had dogs in 3 houses in a row on their card.



Language Arts: Sign Language: House

Practical Life: Hand washing-provide the children smelly soaps (lemon, orange, honey, and watermelon) to sample while they practice washing their hands properly. Discuss the benefits of good hygiene.

Music & Movement: This is the House that Jack Built with tools and Music Leader's choice with the dancing ribbons

Gross Motor: Tool Time! Provide a set of play tools for the children to “build” a house with

Max decides the table is broken and needs to be fixed into a "star wars table".
I have a great video of this that I'll be sure to post later.

Well look at that, Max. You guessed "three" and you were so happy when we found a 3 on the tape measure!
Goodbye Friends


Next Week: I Can Get Ready For Bed...Don't Forget to wear your Jammies to school!