Spaghetti Strikes Again!

And this is why we make sure spaghetti night and shower night fall on the same day of the week:

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First World "Problems"

Two Saturday evenings ago we were getting the boys ready for bath/shower time. Josh had the younger 2 in the tub, and I had Zeke in my room, waiting to take a shower. While Zeke and I were hanging out, Josh came in and asked me to turn off the shower because he was having a hard time getting the water in the tub warm. I told him I hadn't turned on the shower yet as I usually wait until he turns off the tub water since Zeke's showers take 1/3 of the time the other boys' bath takes. So I then sat in the bathroom with the boys in the tub while Josh went down to check on the water heater. Which, looked like this:

Oh yeah! So we got the boys out I the tub, told Zeke to just put on his pajamas (which he just could not understand), and then Josh called housing. One of the maintenance guys came by, took a look, and said he'd be back in the morning with a new water heater for us.  However, this meant no showers before church in the morning.

 

Now, rather than using this opportunity to focus on and pray for those in other places who don't have clean water to drink, let alone bathe with, I grumbled about dirty I was and how there was NO WAY I was going to go chapel without having showered (of course, my last shower had been Friday morning, so I was feeling a little extra dirty).  I was thankful it happened before Josh left so he was home to help deal with it, but I was cranky that it happened at all.

 

I did go to chapel that Sunday though.  We all did, except for Josh, who stayed home to help the maintenance guy remove the old heater and install the new one.  It took the whole morning, and a small portion of the afternoon, but by the time nap time was over Sunday afternoon, we had hot water again!

 

There's just one thing.  The water isn't getting "hot enough".  It's hot, don't get me wrong, but here I go again with my first world problems - it's not hot enough.  I turn the shower knob all the way up and it's not enough.  I like my showers HOT.  We keep the house kind of chilly at night and so I like to get in a shower that is going to warm me up right to my bones.  This new heater isn't doing that.  So now I have to call housing again to have them come out and adjust the thermostat by the new heater.  But I sort of feel like a brat because, hey, at least I have hot water, right?  Sigh.  Me and my first world "problems".

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Do You Believe In Magic?

Hey all.  Sorry for the little break in posting.  Josh didn't come home, I just decided to take off Sunday, as a day of rest, and then yesterday I came down with this awful head cold and just didn't feel like getting on the old blog.  I'm feeling better-ish today, but still don't have anything really to say.

 

That being said, I read this story over the summer (it was linked through epbot.com), and I was thinking about it again just yesterday, and decided to share it here.  It's a little bit long, but it is SO worth reading.  Now, grab a box of tissues and clear your schedule for the next 15 minutes or so (again, I promise it is worth it), and settle in and read THIS STORY.

What The Face?!

And the hits just keep on coming.  Today was a very good day.  The boys played SO well together ALL morning long.  I mean, from 8am until 11am there was practically no fighting, no games got out of control, and I was able to enjoy the morning and my boys and even knit a little bit.

 

After an early lunch and short "nap time" the boys and I went down to my mom's for the afternoon.  It was a little belated birthday celebration for her and we had a really good time.  However, in the 10 minutes between dinner and cake, the wee one fell down some of the stairs in my mom's basement (only the bottom 2 if I had to guess) and did this to his eye:

Here's a second picture in case the first one isn't good enough.  I think between the 2 of them, you get the idea.

And oh, how he did cry!  At least he got some cake shortly after as a consolation.  Actually, 2 minutes after snuggling and wiping his snot and drool all over my shirt, he saw the other kids playing some game and decided he was ready to join back in.  I almost can't wait to see what it looks like in the morning.  I'll share another picture if it's worse.

 

While we're on the subject of "things that happened to my kids' faces while we were at my mom's today", take a look at sweet Dee Dee's face:

Those would be mosquito bites.  As far as I know, he's the ONLY ONE who got bit by mosquitoes today.  It's OC-TO-BER bugs!  Go away and leave my sweet boy alone!  And apparently, when this boy gets bit, his bites tend to turn into little welts.  He also has 2 on the back of his neck.  Craziness I tell you!

 

My poor kids.  Let's hope this next week without Daddy goes WAY better.

This Is Why We Had Icepops Tonight

So as I was picking up Deacon from school today, Zeke came out of the stairwell nearest the front office crying, with blood smeared all over his face. Apparently he fell in the "boy's bathroom upstairs" (his wording) and busted his lip.  The school nurse told him he was a lucky boy to have his mommy there when it happened to help him feel better quickly.  She's very sweet - we like the school nurse here very much. 

 

However, due to his body overheating with all the excitement, and with him getting himself all kinds of worked up, Zeke broke out in a little rash all over, so the nurse sent him home with me, saying that I had to take him to the doctor and get a note saying he's okay to return to school - that the rash isn't anything contagious. But of course, he calmed down and the splotches were gone by the time we got home. So then I was a little bent out of shape at the prospect of having to take him to the doctor's that night (because by that point in the day an evening appointment would most likely be all I would be able to get) for a "rash" that no longer existed.

 

Not wanting to deal with that, I called the school nurse back and explained how the splotches were gone.  She agreed that it was probably just an "anxiety rash" but protocal says if a rash shows up, the child has to be seen and cleared by a doctor.  After a few minutes of discussion (I don't want to make you go out there for nothing, but I sort of have to) the nurse said not to take him today and she'll check him again Monday.  Sweet! But, if anything happens, or if it shows up again before Monday, I'm not allowed to send him to school, and then I'll have to take him to see the doctor.

 

Oh, the fun we have when Josh is away!

 

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Of All the Places!

Sorry for the break in posting there.  Josh actually had a few full weeks at home.  But he's gone again now, for practically the entire month of October, so buckle up because there's going to be a pretty steady flow of posting coming at you.

 

I'm starting with Back to School Night.  A few weeks ago we went to B2SN at the boys' school.  It's always nice to hear good things about your kids. Apparently both boys are adjusting well, and doing great things in school already.  Both teachers seem really nice and I'm excited to see how this year goes.

 

I think I posted this in the first day of school post, but when I picked up Deacon after his first day of his school, his report of the day was that "kids called out and didn't stay in their places."  I bring this back up because when we were talking to Zeke's teacher she said that on the first day Zeke was SO EXCITED to be back at school that he had a hard time staying in his seat and kept calling out.  Deacon would have been SO embarrassed if he knew his own brother was behaving in the manner he found so abhorrent in his classmates.

 

By far the funniest thing we saw that evening though was a display outside of Deacon's class.  It was labeled "Oh the Places You Will Go" and there were pictures of each kindergartener and they named a special place they went over the summer.  A bunch of kids had Hershey Park on their carts, one kid had China (whaaat?!) and Deacon, well, Deacon put this:

 

 

The commissary?! Really, Deacon?! THAT'S the special place you went over the summer?  Oh son, you are a funny kid.

 

In speech news, we met up with Zeke's speech therapist and she was amazed at how much his speech improved over the summer.  Of the 7 goals she has for him for the year, he's already mastered 4 of them!  I also got a call this morning from the school's speech pathologist who let me know that Deacon needs a little help with his phonetic skills, so she'll be taking him (and a few other kids from his class) out of class for 20 minutes a day to work with them for as long as they need it.

 

Otherwise, both boys are loving school.  Deacon was so pumped to have homework the other day he insisted on doing it as soon as he got home.  He wouldn't even eat lunch first.  Zeke, on the other hand, is all, "I'll wait until you're making dinner to do it."  And I'm loving having Deacon in school.  This past week he's walked to bus stop with me, holding my hand the entire time, instead of running ahead like the other boys do.  And when I pick him up, each and every day, he runs and tackles me, saying rather excitedly, "MOMMY! I was missing you today!"  Really makes a girl feel good ya know.

 

But now my oldest is asking me to sit and read with him, so I'm going to go ahead and take him up on that.  Especially since the other boys are playing elsewhere in the house rather nicely.  Toodle-pip y'all!