My First Committee

I must now take a moment to feel completely weirded out by the fact that I'm a grown up and I was asked to be on my first grown-up committee. And it was for one of my favorite places. Yay!
I got an email from the Head Librarian at our library and she asked me if I would like to participate in the 2010-2013 Library Planning Committee. Lunch would be provided...the only catch is that it's a workshoppy sort of session (those are my own words) and that it would be from 1-5? (those were her words) and lunch was at 12. I immediately talked to my HC. Nrrrt! Scratch that. Insert "should have" in there somewhere. In a whirl of being flattered that she would even care what I thought, and elation at being on my first grown-up committee, I emailed her back and told her I'd do it. My HC didn't have to be at work until 4. He could watch the baby and pick Ian up from school and then I could keep them at the library for what little time remained.
Well, ha ha ha and fiddle dee dee. Guess who found out he had court at 1? And guess who, when I was busy sleeping in, woke me up at 9:30 to tell me that he had to go to another court session at 10:00 and he just found out? Well, he really did just find out, the courts don't do nice things around here like give notice. So I was left to work out the details of my afternoon. So I did what anyone would have done in my position. I loaded up a huge bag full of baby toys, snacks and a sippy cup. And I went to the library.
And it was a lot bigger deal than I thought it would be. Librarians from schools and other schools and educators and Friends of the Library and council members and the Regional Director of the Eastern Oklahoma District Library system from Muskogee. The local bank manager, the guy who processed our mortgage. The school superintendent. School board members. Biiiiiig deals. And real reporters from real papers (instead of my freelance library work). It was introduction time. Everyone had a big something to add after their name. Everyone looked at me, the youngest one in the room (by a good amount), who had brought her cute but noisy baby. I gave my name. Then I added a dazzling smile and said "Library Patron." Because by golly, my library card is the most loved and used thing in my wallet, other than the odd tissue. Everyone smiled and nodded. They moved on to the other movers and shakers in the room. And we got down to business. And boy was it a looooong business.
You know those huge drawing sheets, like the ones they used to use on Win, Lose or Draw on TV? The big ones that you draw on with smelly permanent markers and then tear off? Well, after groupthinking and commenting and discussing, the room filled up 5 or 6 of those things. Then we stopped for snacktime and I had to go get Ian from school.

I picked him up and went home to change a poopy diaper. I had forgotten wipes and thought it would be pushing the envelope a little too far to change the mud in front of those still eating spinach dip and carrot sticks. I told Ian we were going back to the library until Mommy was finished with the "boring grownup meeting." He was thrilled. He loves the preschool computer and the big blocks and the bean bags and giant books. He was a perfect gentleman and SueAnn, the head librarian went to get him so he could have snacks too.
You could just about see haloes over their heads and EVERYONE in the room commented about what good kids I have and how I must be a great mother. Wow. Well, we try. And we bribe with soda and sweets. But we're still mystified as to how everyone behaved for so long. Finally it was over and we loaded up and went home.
So wow. I was on my first grownup committee and I really think that I am helping to make a difference in our community. And it feels Good.

*For those interested parties, please note that this is one of the only pictures we have of Erin with her eyes open. Also note the red tint of the photo. I had my finger over the flash (which flashes 3 separate times!), which caused the discoloration, but led to open eyes. Sigh.

Bust 'Em Up Bowling

This past week was cold. Reeeeally, really cold. As you can see, Berry's water bucket was frozen over. And we had to get all bundled up to take Ian to school.

It even snowed once or twice, but only enough to completely distract Ian and make him not want to go inside the school building. But Ian has been counting down all week and wishing for it to be Saturday.
And finally, it was.
Saturday was our friend Tra's (pronounced 'Tray') 9th birthday party. It was the first time that Ian has been bowling and he loved it.


Brian and Girric were there also. Girric is Ian's friend and they love to play and fight with each other.






This is Tra. He's the birthday boy.





The first thing to do was to try and find a ball that Ian could pick up. He and Girric chose these great bright orange ones.




Then they put it in the ball return. Ian wondered why. He was concerned that someone else would use his ball. This is another example of how sharing helps smooth the way in the real world. This is where I stopped taking pictures. Here's why:



While trying to get the kids to sit and arrange turns, one exuberant kid dropped his bowling ball. It bounced, thank God, and then landed on my toe. It really really hurt. So I was relocated to sitting in the corner and entertaining Erin while another grown up stepped in and got the kids playing.


Then the grownups organized a game, which I watched. Turns out my big toe was just bruised, but it had a very vibrant mark on it and still hurts when I put weight on it. No high heels for church this morning.


Anyway, after a while, Ian got tired of shot-putting his ball down the lane (his legs are too short to granny-style it) and asked me for the camera. These are pictures that he took. Too bad Daddy didn't make it into any of them. He was too busy wowing everyone with his bowling prowess. :) I was still sitting in the corner with Erin. Yeehaw.
Oh well. Everyone had a great time. As you can see.

Inside Fishing

This is the latest game that we are stuck on....

Fishing Girls A fun little fishing game! .

Play more games on Miniclip-Games.net

Mismatching and Messes

I think the mismatching went rather well, don't you?? And of course we got to school and everyone else had on relatively normal clothes with mismatching socks. Go figure. The teachers had forgotten all about it and hadn't even worn their jeans.
But when we got Ian from school, we discovered Something Important in his folder.
REPORT CARDS!
It is his first report card and he didn't care one whit about it. HC got it first and was squinting at the tiny print and rows of skills and the corresponding letter. S = Satisfactory, W = Working on Skill, N = Needs Improvement.
There were 42 skills and only 2 Ns. For scissor using and for gluing/pasting correctly. There were 5 Ws. One of those was for skipping. Poor kid. THAT'S hereditary. Uncle Steven had a hard time skipping. I think it's one of those things he kinda skimmed over all his life, because I haven't seen him skipping since. Ian just said "The girls skip. I run fast." And that's all he had to say about that.
But the teacher left a comment in the comment section and I quote: "Ian is doing great this year. The things that he needs improvement on are due to his later birthday. I wouldn't worry about it; he will get it as he gets older."
There are a lot of kids who are already 5 or turning 5 all year. I'm not worried at all. The longer it takes for him to use scissors, the longer I don't have to worry about impromptu haircuts on dogs or little sisters.

For the ones who mismatch and stay home, we spent our day a little differently.

Erin was climbing where she shouldn't have been.








And making messes.


And I was following, trying to pick up. I'm not going to show an 'after' picture, because not much has changed.
And now I am going to turn the heaters back on. Because after our heat wave that got us up to the 50s today, it will be cooooold tonight. And I'm starting to feel it already.

Penelope Pig Picnic--Updated

Update below!


School is back in full swing. We've had homework: new words to learn, "Mother" and "Sally" and today some cutting with scissors to do. You know the world is changing when you have to explain to your 4 year old that Mother and Mom and Mama and Mommy all mean the same thing. He didn't question Sally as much as he questioned why we've been calling her "Baby" in every story until now.
But I digress.
Tomorrow is a special day because Ian's class will be having a Penelope Pig Picnic at lunch time. I can only assume that Penelope Pig is the character of a book they read during storytime. The whole class will be eating on old blankets in the classroom and there is a stipulation. The children have to bring their lunch and they have to bring items that start with the letter "P". Then the teacher gave a rather strict admonishment that I am curious about. She said to let the children think of their own "P" items.
So for the first half hour after I read Ian the letter from the teacher, he said "Popcorn." Boy are we SO glad for that Jiffy Pop that Gramma and Papaw got at Thanksgiving. It was really hard not to start barrelling off "P" items, but I got a brain wave. I told him to go find the popcorn and then look in the pantry and in the fridge for anything that started with "P". He got distracted halfway, so I had to steer him back to the pantry and help him find the popcorn.
He found some Peanut butter. Yay!
We went to the fridge. He found pickles. Yay! Yay! We looked for fruit that started with "P". He thought of peaches, but he couldn't find any. Mommy found a fruit cup that had peaches, pears and pineapple in it. I was a hero!
Then Ian asked for Punch juice to drink. We couldn't find any Juicy Juice Fruit Punch, which is what Punch juice is. But I did find some sugar-free Fruit Punch mix that we made up this afternoon.
I think Ian is more excited about taking his lunch box than anything else, though.
There were things that he thought of that did not make the cut like Peas, porkchops, peppers and a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. He opted for pbj instead, though I don't see anything wrong with my PB & P childhood favorite.
I did help, I admit it, but it was Ian's idea to put it into his lunch box. I made some Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars today, because we are out of everything sweet and my HC was starting to bang his head against the wall in despair.
And I stuck some peppermints in the lunch box too.
I can't wait to hear about it tomorrow. I am really waiting to see which parent sends a pomegranate or a passionfruit or a pulled pork sandwich on pumpernickel.

Update: The picnic was a great success, but the only thing Ian will tell me about is popcorn, peanut butter sandwiches and pickles. And now he wants pizza.
Oh and next week is Homecoming (again?!) and Monday is Mismatch Day. We'll see what Ian picks out.

Blah-Choo

Well, after getting everyone else mostly recovered, it's my turn to sneeze, wheeze, drip and spin. Well, my head is spinning, figuratively. And due to some kind of insanity, there's no school tomorrow! Monday is supposed to be some kind of Teacher Work Day. So school starts back on Tuesday instead.
Then it's January as usual. MLK Jr Day is not a school holiday here. I don't know why. There are one or two African Americans in our entire county. That probably has something to do with it. But the sad, and sometimes amusing, truth is that I live in one of those areas (the misled majority is Democrat) that did not vote for Obama because "he is a Black Muslim." I heard that 6% of Texas holds that belief as well.
Anyway, if I don't seem very cohesive, it's because my brain is stuffy, along with my sinuses and nose. So I got Ian ready for church this morning, called one of his friends and arranged for him to be picked up and transported to church, and woke my HC up. Then I went to bed. When I woke up, it was after 2. Erin had already napped and gotten up. Ian had been home and gone again, to his friend's house to play with his new Power Wheels Gator and freeze outside. My HC had stuffed Erin with every kind of goody he could think of to buy her silence and happiness. How did I know? Follow the trail of crumbs, the caches of half-eaten Cheez-Its and gooey bits of fruit snacks. Of course after he went to work, I had to deal with the gastrointestinal distress that comes from having way too much junk food.
She had yogurt for supper.
I made myself some Potato Cheese soup, a comfort food for me, since no one else in my house will eat any kind of soup. I had a small bowl and realized that I wasn't hungry. If only we felt that way every day, the world would be a size 6. Until then, I have to find a Tupperware for my leftovers. I don't think there is one. We have melted a lot of Tupperware in the dishwasher. When they say "top rack only" they mean it!
I hope everyone, including me, has a good Monday. And I really hope I feel better tomorrow, because no one has any clean underwear left. It's Mommy's fault because she took a sick day.

Rrrrrt!

That's a common sound heard in our house, but you have to say it while skidding across the kitchen floor in your socks, right before you run into someone, something or fall over. Now it is screeched while driving our new (used) race car. At least until you encounter road[yard]-kill. :)