three day blog

Poor Anthony has the stomach flu. Let me tell you a little something about our Anthony.  He hates to vomit...he even banned me from saying the word, he hates it so much.  He gets it from me.  I haven't done any of...you know what since 2001.  Yes I am proud of that.  Irene took after Edgard and is the "anything to make you feel better" camp of thinking.   But back to Anthony....  Edgard and I thought we would give him some activated charcoal to help him along, considering he is literally willing himself not to upchuck. We had to break the pill open in water because he doesn't do the whole pill swallowing thing well either. He took one gulp and it grossed him out so much he vomi...well... let's just say it was a very successful venture.  He successed and successed.  He successed into the garbage and successed into the toilet.  Anthony is now clutching his gatorade to his chest as we wanders around the house humming. He feels ...

It is Irene's 4th birthday today.   So far she is still cute so that is good.   I suspect that one of these birthday we will wake up to realize she is all arms and legs and very klutzy like her mom.   But for now she is still cute---so we celebrate.

Just in case you were all in doubt about the level to which we have twisted our children.... I offer you Anthony's homemade thanksgiving day card... So have a happy Thancksgiving and remember to be thanck full because you never know what is lurking right behind you.

I am taking the opportunity to show off the kiddos in their Halloween costumes because they rarely look this cute on a daily basis. *sigh* As you can see Anthony is taking his roll as knight, and protector of princess Irene, very seriously. Well--he started taking it more seriously after I told him to stop slaying his sister with his sword. Irene was protecting herself of course, but it was still disconcerting to see such a sweet princess cold cocking a knight... After that little interlude, we went to our church's harvest party and the kids had too much candy--and it instantly put them to sleep like sugar always does... er wait...? The reality was that after they got home they bounced around like mexican jumping beans---not as high as daddy though, because they are only half mexican but still enough to drive us both crazy. I hope you all had a great Halloween and I hope you are %100 more ready than I am for the upcoming holidays.

See my water rats? When you live in rainy Oregon where you get nine months of rain...you just have to make do. I remember my days as a puddle jumper. Those were the best times to play. Heck with those boring sunny days...

So after a fun few hours in the hospital and multiple attempts at x-rays on a child who only stands on her tiptoes....we got a diagnosis. Irene has pneumonia! What do you mean this sounds familiar ??? You would think that I might take pity on her at a time like this and wouldn't make her talk or sing songs since she has lost her voice , right ? And now enjoy a song from Irene ( starr ing pneum onia) : Just a friendly little hint...you might need to turn the volume UP!!!

  Well I thought homeschool was going okay, but this morning Anthony asked me what language Archibald, from veggie tales, speaks.  When I told him english, he said  "eng...what?"     As Anthony's teacher....should I be worried?

So I am doing this whole homeschool thing and I am really thinking... what's the big deal??? This is so easy. I don't get all the stress and complaining that I am hearing from other homeschool moms. This is a piece of cake! So I'll let you know how day two goes.

I am now embarking on year two of irrevocably ruining my son's academic career.  Otherwise known as:  Rachel does homeschool.  The program that I am doing consists of classes three days a week with an actual teacher with actual brains. He is taking creative writing, beginning piano, and beginning drawing. I am not sure...but we may be a little heavy on the creative side.  For academics, we are doing a curriculum called Calvert . I just received the box today and this thing has everything---down to the very pencils....so I guess I could have saved that $0.99 at Walmart. But my favorite thing is that there is a guide that tells me what everything is for. Thank goodness.  I hope it has pictures... ...and an instructional dvd... ....and a real live teacher.  The great thing is that all of t his is for free because we are getting the Calvert through an online academy that is a fully accredited public school. A public school without the evil influen...

So what do you do on a Saturday, home alone with the kids, with nothing but a cellphone camera and some imagination? You take some pictures..... ...send them to your husband, and make him think that you plunked down his hard earned money on some unneeded and expensive new toy for the children. It is at this point, around the third frantic interrogation text message, that you can start laughing...and I don't mean your everyday laughter... this is where you can pull out the evil villainous laughter you have been practicing since 5th grade. Go ahead....you've earned it.

I have been trying to think of the good parts of pneumonia, and the only thing I could come up with was, that the best thing about pneumonia is not having it at all. Too late. One really nice thing that has come out of it was this beautiful and romantic bouquet. Thanks Mom. The other thing that is admittedly nice is guilt-free computer time. Who is going to guilt a sickly woman with a potentially fatal infection, right? Besides when would they ask me to give up my laptop...between the paroxysms of coughing or all the choking? This has been interesting, though. I have found that with a little help from my mom willpower and more help from Edgard some ingenuity, you can pretty much parent completely from the comfort of your soggy week old sheets. Just a note: the sheets in the picture are not the previously discussed week old soggy sheets but a brand new set that Edgard put on when I called him from the doctor's office to tell him of my pneumonia. Hey... I could add tha...

So I have really been thinking a lot about the whole working mother/stay at home mother "feud." Just lately I have taken a part time job as an administrative assistant. It is a two days a week job that is supposed to last through the summer. My mother babysits half the time and the teenage sister of my boss babysits the other. What has gotten me aggravated though, are all the well-intentioned people that are saying "oh, it is so good for you to get away from your children." I probably wouldn't get quite as annoyed if they were saying that it is good for me to get out into adult interaction... this is very true... ....but they always, without fail, say: "away from my children." I know I am a bit biased, but my kids are really great and I don't have any desire to get away from them . Whenever I need a break, my husband will stay with them or even takes them out so I can have the house to myself (where I usually indulge in wild house cle...

Is it just me, or does my son resemble Gilbert Gottfried?

My son Anthony , it turns out, is a genius. It is always comfortable to have at least one of these in the family. And since it very apparently wasn't going to be me---I am glad that one of my children is. I have for you exhibit A: At first glance it appears to be the typical scrawl of an average 6 year old. Not so, though. Take a second look and the genius of it gradually comes into focus. First you have the main part of the picture which shows a painter--as evidenced by the objects I have pointed out. Here I have circled the easel as to draw your attention to the fact the painter is at work on a self portrait. In this other circle, which is rather difficult to see, there is a second painter painting his own self portrait. Now he is dealing with the subject of infinity... I know, right? And if you notice on this last circle...all this genius can be had for a mere one dollar! I bet you were thinking he wouldn't charge me, his own mother. But if you know Anthony then ...

I tried braids in Irene's hair and found that I don't need the wire for the Pippi Longstocking look. ...mugging for the camera...

I want my children to have all the things I couldn't afford. Then I want to move in with them. ~Phyllis Diller~

I am now aged and decrepit. Today I turn 30. I remember after my dad turned thirty, my mom would say that it was harder for him to get drumming jobs because he was too old. I am...now...too old to get drumming jobs. I don't play, but still...there is something that sucks about knowing you are too old to do something. In actuality I do know how young thirty is. It just will take some getting used to...this knowledge that I sound old to anyone still in their 20's. Young punks! My mom got me one of those booklets that showed me what was going on the year I was born. I don't know about you, but my birth year (1978) was a bit hazy to me. She all but ripped the booklet out of my hands and kept saying "oh yeah, do you remember that?" ...no mom, actually I don't remember that...I was to busy processing milk that year. What they really need for those booklets is to go by decades. I needed a do you remember the 80's ... That I remember all too pla...

I don't think there is ever a good time to hear your 6 year old son, piping up from the backseat of the car: "I'm going to be a father soon."

We have gotten some major things done on our list. For one thing, Edgard is nearly done with the fence. I am definitely a firm believer in the good fences make good neighbors. Especially when your neighbor has decided to completely redo his yard the year before but only got as far as cutting the sod off. The weeds, I kid you not, are as tall as my son. Not the nicest thing to look at. And then, when you add in that we have let our backyard go while concentrating on the front yard and the inside of the house...well it wasn't pretty to look at. So now putting a fence up, we will only see half a horrible yard...ours. Even that is starting to shape up. We bought 3 mature trees to plant in front of the fence so that when the leaves come out we cannot even see over. Are you starting to guess I am a hermit? I am. I like my privacy. The other big development is the muscles in my arms. I have personally rototilled a section of our yard where I plan to plant some mock...

Even if my children didn't make it abundantly clear, everyday, that they very much live here...there would be subtle hints.