Doomsday preppers..

Kent & I were flipping channels & stumbled upon 'Doomsday Preppers'. I'd seen it advertised, but never watched it (and admittedly, only made it through about half the show tonight). The thing I don't get - these people are wanting to be 'prepared' for some sort of disaster - the people featured tonight wanted to be prepared for an attack on our electrical infrastructure that would essentially shut down the US grid, resulting in chaos. So they dug a "foxhole" (their term) under their garage and had enough food stockpiles for 6 weeks, as well as other things (food, fuel, toilet paper) etc that could be bartered.

Well, yeah...that'd fine and dandy and all - but what do you do after 6 weeks? We changed the channel, but it appeared like the next segment was going to talk about how they escape on a boat......eh....not finding that realistic.

Here's what I don't get - why do people feel the need to be prepared by buying and saving things as their only source of preparedness? This show said the guy spent $70,000 on his setup..Ok fine - if you're going to spend that kind of money, why not buy a few acres of land in the country and learn the skills you need to be self-sufficient - grow/raise/preserve your own food?

It baffles me how few skills people seem to have anymore. I've become more aware of this over the last several years as I have a pretty handy husband who has helped friends out doing various things....not to mention all the stuff he does for me. He replace a faulty light switch in our bedroom....took out ceiling lights and installed ceiling fans. He can fix our cars (most of the time). Today he & dad replaced the phone/DSL lines running into the house so we could move our wireless router inside.

I'm not faulting those who don't know how to do those things - because odds are it's because they've never been taught. But it baffles me at how many people have NO INTEREST in learning to do things themselves, and would rather pay someone else to do them.

Again, not making judgements....just baffled at the priorities of modern-day society.

Why

Kent's Mom, Step-dad and grandma are here visiting for a week. I was explaining to Alex how everyone was related...that grandma is daddy's mommy, and great-grandma (ge-ge) is grandma's mommy etc. He kept asking "Why" the whole time...finally I got frustrated and asked him "well...why am I your mommy?"

He responded "because I NEED one!!" (as if it were obvious) - LOL! :-)

Made me feel so...needed. :-)

Little Mouse

Most kids have an imaginary friend at some point in their lives. My son has an imaginary mouse. I don't know where he came up with "Little Mouse" (that's its name) but I just love hearing the tales (no pun intended) and adventures of "Little Mouse".

I don't believe he's seen or heard of Stuart Little.

I love Little Mouse though :-) 

New Bike

It's an amazing thing watching your children grow up. Tonight Alex learned to ride a bike without training wheels in about 5 minutes. I'm not kidding. We took him over to the hill, started on the north side. First try - fell immediately. 2nd try - fell immediately. 3rd try - went all the way to the far side of the garden. And that was it! He still needs a bit of help getting started but really one little push and he's gone.

I'm a very proud Mommy tonight

Late May update

I've been basking in the joys of freedom from work and school now for almost 2 weeks. 2 more weeks until I'm back at it. Thankfully I'm only teaching one class this summer, and only taking one class as well.

Swimming on his own (in 4 ft end of the big pool - where he can't touch!)

Little pool - working on sit-dives

I was about a half second late with the camera, but he jumped off of the platform. His favorite part of the lesson.

Alex is still in swimming lessons, although we might take the summer off and explore some other activities. He really likes his teacher, but gets intimidated because the teacher likes to goof around with them in the water and sometimes Alex takes him literally (thinking he really WILL throw him in the pool, and not trusting that he's teasing). Both the teacher and I have sat down and talked to him about it but I'm not too concerned as his teacher said he wasn't going to be teaching on Sundays anymore. So I don't know who we'll have.

Will have to blog about his first Tball game later.

One more week

Until I'm free!! Well....free for about 3 weeks, then summer semester starts. Just the same I am more than ready for the break.

A quick update from last week - we decided to move Alex's loft bed in front of his window. This will allow him to lay in bed and look out the window (what he was trying to do both times he fell out) without the danger of him falling out. So far it seems to be working - he looks out the window until he falls asleep.

This week is his first t-ball game, I'm pretty excited for it. I hope he enjoys it. His last practice he seemed to really have fun - not only was he obeying his coaches, he was doing so enthusiastically! He has been grumbling about going to swimming lately. He moved up a class (Pike Plus) and I think he is just adjusting to going from being able to do everything that was asked of him (Pike) to being back at the 'beginner' stage again. Although Kent & I do not want to force the kid to do something he doesn't want to do, I see swimming as a life skill first, a sport second. He's going to keep going. Once he can swim to the point where I am comfortable he won't drown if he were to fall in a pool, he doesn't have to go anymore. I'm not concerned about him doing swim team or any of that. I just want him to learn (more or less) how to not drown.

So back to me - almost ready to wrap up the year at both LLCC and UIS. I have now finished 2 of my 10 courses for my doctoral program, and will be taking another course this summer. As of right now I am planning on only taking 1 class this fall (my required class) but I have come across several adjunct teaching opportunities that I am going to apply for. Don't get me wrong - I love LLCC, but every semester it seems iffy as to if I'll get more than 1 or 2 classes (I really  need 3 per semester to be able to pay for my UIS class without having to yank my monthly savings account contribution). I have no intent of leaving LLCC but if I could pick up 1 or 2 other classes elsewhere that would provide enough income for me to take 2 classes/semester and get this wrapped up more quickly. So as soon as I'm finished with my last paper for my class I need to start working on my cover letters and update my CV. Hoping and praying I can figure out how to make all of this work and ultimately trusting that God knows the path ahead of me and will take care of us. I refuse to take out student loans to pay for this degree (which I estimate will take $20,000) and am just going to have to be content living on a tight budget for a while. I know it will be worth it to graduate debt free and be able to immediately start building our house (or buy one, if I'm not able to find a job here). Would much rather stay here and build on our property than to have to move. If you know me, I refuse to live in town so that limits things as well!

My kid has no fear.

No pictures this week. Sorry.

So we built Alex a loft bed. He has a rather small bedroom (compared to Haley's tiny room...that's what happens when you're firstborn). He has a fairly large train table which takes up a lot of room. We decided a loft bed would be an excellent option for him as he would have a lot of room to play underneath it.

We built it, using some plans we bought from menards as a rough guide (We mainly robbed the supply list and possibly used step 1...then deviated). Alex's ceiling slopes, and he has a ceiling fan, so I wanted a custom bed. I figured it was cheaper to make it ourselves than to purchase a loft bed (really expensive) or buy a bunk bed (slightly cheaper) and modify.

He's been doing great in it, he's got rails so he won't roll out. Good thing too because he's usually asleep riht up against the outside rail.

Saturday night, about 5 minutes after we put him to bed, I hear a crash followed by a scream. I run in to find him laying in a heap on the floor, on his back, on a small pile of toys next to the window. He'd been messing with it and fell out (and from the way he was laying...I'm pretty sure he did a full somersault in the air as his head was pointed the opposite direction it should have been.

So I scooped him up, cuddled him. Kissed his boo boos (fairly impressive set of small bruises on his back - thanks to the toys) and discussed what happened. I put him back to bed, he immediately went to sleep. Last night (Sunday night) - went right to sleep.

Tonight - didn't go right to sleep. After several trips down there to put him back in bed, and several more times of him getting OUT of bed (he has more excuses than I can recall at this point)...I finally warmed up his rice sack, crawled up on the bed, tucked him in, gave him a hug and had him promise me he would go to sleep. He promised, and sounded sincere (hey, sometimes it works!). 10 minutes later I hear a crash and a scream. I go in and find him in a pile on the floor with the curtain rod dangling. He was definitely hurt - thankfully not bad. He's got a very impressive bruise/scrape on the left side of this chest. So I scooped him up, cuddled him. Kissed his boo boos and discussed what happened (see a pattern here)? I took him in the bathroom to show him the nasty bruise on his chest. That's gonna really hurt in the morning. I sent him out to sit on the couch b/c his crash and screams woke up Haley...so I had to calm her down and get her back in bed. She came out and gave Alex a hug. She seemed genuinely worried about him.

So I had Alex help me pick up the toys and told him he was no longer sleeping on the loft - we were going to wake up daddy and have him help me move his mattress to the floor. (Side note - I did have the toys picked up in the area that he fell.....learned that lesson Saturday night - so he just hit the floor...and curtain rod he pulled down with him).

So he was upset. He was very quiet, sad, and he knows he screwed up. I didn't lecture him, I didn't yell - just discussed with him what happened, and why I don't want to risk it happening again. I made sure he knew I wasn't mad - just disappointed and sad that he didn't keep his promise to go to sleep.

Haven't decided what I'm going to do. The bed is over 5" tall - the top of his rail is above my eye level. That's a long way to fall. I'm not sure he if he learned his lesson. He apologized very sincerely to me for breaking his promise.

Love my little guy.

Trying to figure out the odds of him making it to adulthood without breaking his neck.....

April Showers!

We definitely experienced some much-needed April showers this week!

Other than Alex having T-Ball practice mid-week, it was pretty uneventful...or typical. Lots going on, just nothing out of the ordinary. I will try to remember to bring my camera to t-ball this week so I can include some great pictures!

I got a couple of great ones of Alex & Haley in Haley's crib. He LOVES being the first to go in her room in the mornings. I have to open the door (protector on the knob to keep him from going in and disturbing her while she sleeps) and quickly move before she sees me. Once she sees mom she wants OUT of the crib and that just ruins Alex's special time with her. After hearing them giggle for a while, and Alex come to my room to request "goldfish (crackers) and a pillow" I went down and took a couple of pictures of them. 

It rained all morning/early afternoon on Saturday. The sun came out in the afternoon and it warmed up enough I let the kids play outside in the puddles. After running and splashing they decided they were done, so I brought them in, cleaned them up and put dry clothes on them. 10 minutes later they were back in the puddles. :-)  This time they took some of their toy boats they play with in the bathtub out to sail!

There are few things that make my heart melt as much as seeing my 

two babies playing and giggling together. They loved that puddle!

So in other news, Kent hauled his first load of scrap this year. He helped the neighbors clean out their shed in exchange for everything metal in it. After he loaded everything up he brought the trailer over to our house so he could leave early Saturday morning (this was the week before, prior to zoo trip....just now remembering to tell you about it). Mom and I were outside and inspected and then stole of some of his scrap! :-)

A big cauldron, a tin cauldron, and a tin watering can. All will be scrubbed and repainted and used for flowers!

An iron stand. Not sure exactly what I'll put in it, but it's cool looking! Also needs repainted.

With spring coming its getting easier to find fresh veggies again. I scored some corn on the cob at the grocery store. Alex loves corn on the cob, as do Kent  & I. Last year Haley had to settle for corn OFF the cob. I cut hers up at first, but when she saw the rest of us eating it she threw a fit and wanted her own cob. She ended up eating TWO entire ears, plus nibbled some of Alex's kernels he left on his when he was done!! 

Just had to include a picture of my monstrous egg. Makes me hurt just thinking about it!

The carton wouldn't shut!!! Will have to use it for something special. And big. I love my chickens!

Easter Weekend

So we decided to spend the Saturday before Easter in St Louis with Kent's dad's side of the family at the zoo. We hadn't been to the zoo since I was pregnant with Haley (so Alex certainly didn't remember it - he was 2 1/2 then!).

The kids did great and we all had an awesome time. Kent's dad and step-mom, his brother Cory and his girlfriend, and Kent's step-sister Kelly and her family all joined us. It was very crowded - about 72 degrees, perfect weather! We took the wagon instead of a stroller and I'm glad we did. The wagon was perfect for the kids to hop in and out looking at animals, and gave them plenty of room to munch on snacks, drink juice boxes etc.

Just arrived! Getting ready to look at the animals!

Looking at some animals with daddy and Michelle

Waiting in line for the penguin house! Uncle Cory's favorite (and one of Mommy's!)

I had a lot of fun trying to catch a picture of a hippo underwater with Haley in the foreground. I always forget how big the hippos are - they are massive!

This picture does not give justice to the actual size of that hippo.

Waiting in line to ride the train!

Alex patiently waited all day for a train ride.

Less than 5 minutes after leaving zoo. Princess was worn out! Her favorite part was seeing the "elfedents" (elephants)

Alex was tired, but not so tired that he fell asleep on the way to get dinner

We spent the day before Easter in St Louis because we were going to spend Easter Sunday having my mom's side of the family over for dinner. But first we went to church for an Easter egg hunt!

Looking for eggs with the cousins on the hill behind Grandma's house

We tried this last year and the kids were everywhere. They are FINALLY getting old enough to at least sit in one spot for 5 seconds. Next year we'll work on posing and smiling at the same time! All the cousins - Alex, Haley, Lauren, Olivia, Mallori and Levi

What's more fun than cousins in a bale of hay? Tera, Sami & Me!

Despite the fact that she was sitting in an ant hill, Haley really loved sitting in the hay bale too.

Alex, Lauren (front) and Mallori and Haley (back) going for a ride on the gator. 

I often look at friends that live elsewhere - in warmer climates and more exotic places and think it would be so beautiful to live somewhere else. But you can't get this - family - elsewhere. I'm so thankful my kids will grow up with lots of cousins to play with.

Spring Break and Transworld 2012

Even though it's been spring break (from LLCC - UIS is next week) I've been so busy I'm not sure where the week has gone! So here's a recap:

One, I'm starting to recognize my love-hate relationship with facebook. And it's starting to be more of a hate relationship. The only thing keeping me on there is the fact that so many people use it to contact me instead of e-mail. I really want to start blogging more to record my thoughts rather than rely on facebook for communication with the 'outside world'. So that is a goal of mine - wean myself off of facebook permanently. I'd like to go back to being a bit more isolated and mentally present here, rather than mentally present elsewhere.

Took Alex to get his first filling on Wednesday - he was so brave. It broke my heart. He was fine with the drilling, but wasn't going to let them put the actual filling in (the part that doesn't hurt!). We finally got it taken care of and then I took him to see The Lorax at the movie theater. He was so down when we left - he loved the movie but was so sad we couldn't stay and watch another one. 

So last night we had a great meeting at church with Scott and lots of other people who are interested in the future of the kids programs. He's got a lot of 'out of the box' ideas but I find comfort in that - he was hired to be 'out there' and I'm glad that we seem to have predicted THAT much correctly - we wanted someone to do things differently and who wasn't afraid to make drastic changes. I, for one, and very excited about the future of RUMC.....for the first time in a long time.

Today we went to Transworld in St Louis. Started the day off rough - left a half-hour late and discovered a nail in my back tire. Luckily a kid at Midas was able to fix it in about 10 minutes before they opened. we didn't even have to get out of the car. So we had an uneventful ride to St Louis, dropped the kids off with Michelle. I brought strawberries to distract Haley when we left and it worked - she didn't really get upset at being left there for a couple of hours (and then it was more being tired - and she ended up falling asleep). We went downtown and finally found the group and walked around with them. Its more fun to go with friends.   Oh - we did buy some contacts to wear for the haunted house :-). That is excited. I'm petrified to put them in, but we'll see how it goes.

John did text me to see if we wanted to go out to eat with the group, but we had the kids with us and didn't want to ruin the 'adult time' they all had so we went to eat with his dad & Michelle. Tried to meet up with Cory but he was busy so we just came home.

The best part of the day was finding out Kent doesn't have to work tomorrow :-) Tomorrow I'm going to a kids clothing sale in the morning and hope to spend the rest of the day working on Alex's loft bed. Tomorrow night we are taking him to see Willy Wonka at the HS.

Sunday Alex starts swimming again and we have dinners for 8...er...10...actuallly 21+!

Spring is coming!

It was cold yesterday, but today it was almost 60 out! Dreadfully windy but it is Illinois. One of the good things about having the privacy fence - we can still play in the backyard without being pestered by the wind too much.

February is over and we're getting ready to move on to March and...SPRING! I'm so ready for sunshine, summer, warm weather, fresh veggies, the farmer's market, swimming and playing outside.

Last week Kent's mom & step-dad came to visit for a long weekend. They took advantage of the Direct Air flights from Lakeland to Springfield and came in on Friday night and stayed until Monday. On Saturday night we went to Osaka with several of their friends, and afterwards they took the kids home so Kent & I went and wandered around Scheel's for about an hour, just enjoying some time together.

Publish Post

Not a whole lot out of the ordinary happened over the last week - and not much really expected this week. Haley is beginning to put words together into short sentences. She'll say "bye bye cat" or "bye bye _____" (whatever she's talking to). She'll say I want (juice/milk/cheese stick etc). She's still addicted to cheese.

Teaching little sister

Alex decided to build a tower out of the wooden blocks this evening - he did it in the kitchen while I was fixing supper since they balanced better on the hard floor. He left the room and Haley walked in....upon seeing a tower that was at least 10 blocks tall, what do you think she did? Of course, she knocked it down! Exactly what every 19 month old would do. Then she started playing with the blocks. Alex walked in and saw the mess and was ready to flip out so I told him that I was so sorry, Mommy accidentally knocked over his tower (he was calling it a castle - but it was just a tower). I told him Haley was trying to fix it for him. After apologizing a few more times and getting a quick lecture from the 4 year old as to why I wasn't supposed to knock it down, he sat down and started teaching her how to build a tower. She could stack 3 blocks but after that would usually knock it down. I grabbed my camera and got some pictures of them. It was so cute.

My favorite thing about having two children is watching them interact and love each other. As much as they drive each other crazy and fight - my kids definitely have a bond and love each other.

Goal is to update this thing every weekend.

We'll see how long that lasts. I've been pretty good at updating my couponing/savings blog....I oughta be able to blabber about life in general more often on here!

Life is BUSY. This is by far the busiest semester I've had in a very long time. I'm very thankful I decided to stick with taking one class this semester, because there is no way I would have the time to do anything else.

I'm teaching 3 classes again. Two are in Taylorville, one meets MWF and the other just MW. I'm also teaching a class on Thursdays in Litchfield. The Litchfield class and the MW class are both 201 - State & Local politics. I've taught this before, and really enjoy it - but only 1 semester, over a year ago, and with a different book. So significantly more time is needed to prep for those classes than the MWF 101 class.

I'm also on the Staff/Parish committee at church, which is in charge of hiring/overseeing the staff. We are in the process of hiring a new full-time Youth/Children's Director and also anticipating getting a new pastor as our current one is retiring.  So dealing with both of those situations has taken up time.

Finally a friend of mine's son is going through some difficult medical issues. A benefit is being organized, and I had a few things to do for it. And it doesn't help I was sick with strep at the beginning of the week and was pretty much out of commission for a full two and a half days. Thankfully I'm better now.