Firsts

A busy week of firsts. Yesterday was Evan's assessment day for Kindergarten. I kept him home with me in the morning. He was super excited to be able to have time to watch TV before we left. At one point, he turned to me and said, "Mommy, I love you." I said, "Why, because you get to watch TV?" He said, "No, because you're my mommy." So I guess he senses from me that something is different--that life is changing.

We packed all of his school supplies up and hauled them over to the school. His school does testing for the students before they start the year...I guess to get an idea of where they are lacking or excelling. As we waited, we put all of the school supplies away and then Evan found the paper owl on the wall with his name on it...he called it a Zombie Owl because it was green. Evan went off with a teacher-type to be assessed. Leaving me in this miniature-sized chair to wait for him. When he came back, I asked him if he got all the questions right. And he said, No, that he didn't know how to read the words. After that, I took him to daycare and went off to work.

Last night, the kids and I had a little McDonald's picnic in our neighbors' yard (with the neighbors... LOL). Then Evan and his Dad started having a sword fight (not a euphemism...but also not real swords obviously), Evan tripped and got his first real knee scrape. He has had a few little bumps and bits of blood, but this was hard core, about a quarter sized scrape and it was all bloody. I saw him go down and then screech. But when he saw the blood, he made a bee line to me. I chuckled with my neighbor about how *now* he comes to mom. But by then he was in my face SCREAMING bloody murder. SCREAMING so loud that I am sure people in a 4 block radius were concerned. SCREAMING so much that he had drool running down his chin. What did I do? My first maternal instinct? To cover my mouth and laugh my damn ass off. In fact, I continue to laugh every time I think of him screaming like his leg had been cut off. I got him all cleaned up and tried to tell him that this was the first of many skinned knees. He continued to howl until the very second that I placed that bandaid on his leg. Then he was fine.

He was walking with a limp this morning. LOL.

So today was the first day of Kindergarten. I am working from home so that I am able to take Evan and pick him up on his first day. He got to pick a movie to watch this morning (Toy Story 3...not a good choice for Moms that are sending their kids off to kindergarten today). Then we packed up his back pack and headed over to the school with what I thought would be plenty of time. WRONG. Every single parent apparently takes their kids to school on the first day. I had to park 5 blocks away and then we needed to run to make sure we got there in time. They have designated line up spots, but damned if the kids can tell where since there are so many 6 feet tall people standing around. By this time, Evan was anxious to go and kept asking why it was taking so long. He found the little boy he knows from day care (the Bully!) who will be in his class.

The teachers announced that it was time to walk in, I said good bye and that I would see him for our lunch date. He walked off.

He looked over his shoulder and said, "I love you, Mom." My sweet boy was trying to reassure *me* on his first day of school.

Unwanted Attention

Blogger finally got some stats enabled on the blogs, so you can see which of your blogs are getting the most attention. I continuously get hits for one blog entry that is about 4 sentences long. It was entitled Quit D!ck!ng around and Do Some Work. People from all over the world come and read this inane post that has really no point. Probably because it has the word D!ck in it. *eye roll* So I deleted it. There was no point to it really anyhow.

I am in the middle of what feels like the longest week ever. It is feast or famine with the work. I was super busy the last couple of days, and then today is much slower.

My aunt passed away on Monday morning. I am particularly sad for my Dad. I cannot imagine losing my sister. I am also sad for her husband and children. I was hoping to go to the service, but not sure I will be able to go because next week is such a mess. I guess we will see.

In the car, Evan overheard me talking on the phone about my aunt dying and he said, "Your aunt died? The one you told me about?" I told him yes and he turned to Delilah and said, "Delilah, our aunt died today. She had a terrible disease." She gasped and said, "Oh. That sad." There is no way she can even know what she is saying, but she knew enough from his tone that it was a sad thing. Love them. :)

James and I went with our friend, Christie, rafting this weekend. It was really fun. In our boat, we had the three of us, our guide, and another older couple. We did our paddling practice on land and then our guide said, "Ok, let's get in the water!" Christie and I looked at each other, terrified. Paddling on land wasn't enough?! But we got in the water and away we went. The water was very cold...as our guide said, "8 hours ago this was snow." I will definitely do it again next summer. Maybe a different run next time.

Next week, my Kindergartener will start school. I am curious how he got to be school aged already.

Today I really like my kids :P

I have nothing but warm fuzzies for them today....that will likely change around 4:30 when we walk in the door and immediately I am expected to comply with requests for tv, game, snack, juice simultaneously. But right now, I am thinking of how sweet and cute they are.

Last night, we did my latest meal from the Six O'Clock Scramble...it was Mini Pizzas on Tortillas. I had done versions of them years ago. I had the kids make their own pizzas. Evan was especially into it. Normally, he doesn't like pepperoni because it is "spicy." But I bought some turkey pepperoni that he really liked. He made quite the pizza for himself. He kept saying, "This is going to be soooo yummy for me to eat." Then, Delilah actually made a pizza for her daddy (because I had already made hers thinking she wouldn't want pepperoni...I was wrong). I think this is the first time she has ever helped me cook. She got a real kick out of it. And while we were eating, she kept saying, "I cooked a pizza." Both kids ate a ton.

I had to have Evan sign some paperwork for his school (agreeing to use the computers in the correct way....as James said, "Yeah, I am sure that will hold up in court."). So then Delilah wanted to write her name. So I got her a paper and she made all these precise little squiggles and would say random letters that she thought she was making. She looked at her pen and realized that there was this little button on top. She pushed it and the pen part disappeared. And then she laughed. It was so neat getting to be a part of her discovering something that we take for granted.

I had to go to Evan's Kindergarten today to get some papers signed and pay his fees (Sidebar: Yes, FEES. In kindergarten. I am not sure when this started happening. I checked with my mom and she doesn't remember having to pay fees. It was public school...shit is free. Even the bus costs extra money. Craziness. I guess school funding doesn't go as far as it used to. And I did a non-scientific poll of my internet friends who live across the US and the majority of them were astounded as well. In AZ, you dont' even have to pay for school supplies. End Sidebar.) My little guy is growing up. I just can't believe it. I was so nervous walking in there to get everything taken care of. Like it was my first day of school. Life will be a-changing in about 2 weeks.

A couple of nights ago, James and I were watching tv and Evan hollered from his bedroom, "Mom, I am really getting bored of all my books." LOL. We bought a couple new ones for him, but it hasn't been enough. He has been coming down nightly to ask James for comic books. I feel iffy about it because I don't like the graphic images of sex or violence. James swears these are ok for Evan to look at. Last night, I tried to put Evan off by saying, "I think your dad is running low on comics for you." Evan said, "No, he has millions of them."

The other things going on my life: My aunt is very ill. This is my dad's oldest sister. She was always the best aunt to have growing up. She was one of those grown ups who always was (or pretended to be) super interested in what you had to say. That was so important to a kid like me. I wanted grown ups to take me seriously. Sadly, it seems as though she will not make it much longer. I hope that she can be without pain or fear. I am really sad that my kids will never know her.

We had the head of our agency to our office on Monday. Nothing really new was said. But it was clear that he really is trying to do what is best for the government and our agency...and trying to lessen the pain on the individuals. I guess we will find out more by October.

Good clean fun

We went to the water park today. We opted to get a cabana. Which is really just a tent with some chairs and a table in there. It was pricey but totally worth it when you have fair skin or a baby in your party. We met some friends from soccer. Evan and Asher were on their first soccer team together over two years ago and we have kept hanging out with the family. They have a 10 month old, and she even got to nap in the cabana. So it was perfect.

We also ran into another friend. My friend from home, Kala, and her boyfriend and son. We can't plan time together, but it was wonderful to randomly run into them and get to spend time together. We really had fun.

Now we are off to IKEA for the first time ever. Really excited.

Delilah got a new princess book. She just found a picture of Ariel's wedding and said, "There's Ariel and her daddy kissing." Uh no. LOL

Keep Calm and Carry On

Someone at my work has hung up this poster:

These type of posters were used in England during WWII. I think the sentiment is just perfect. In addition to the threat of a loss of job hanging over our heads, we are also under construction. We work all day with the sound of jackhammers going. I have to pack my entire cube up by the end of the month and temporarily move to another floor. It is probably a good time to go through all the crap I have accumulated over the last few years and throw it away. We did get some good news today...well good for us. My big boss did not get the job that would take him away from this agency. So bad for him, good for us.

Last night James and I went to see Crazy, Stupid, Love as part of our date night. It was a cute movie. A little longer than I would have liked. Plus, we were both irate at these teenagers who talked through the entire damn movie. We had our neighbor girl over to babysit. Evan told me this morning that both sisters were over at some point. They do a good job. They played games with the kids. But it is easy to see that my kids manipulate the shit out of those poor girls. Delilah was in bed with every single thing in her room in her bed, including a sippy cup of chocolate milk. Delilah woke up asking for her babysitters and cried when I said they were gone. They must have had fun.

Tomorrow, I am taking the day off so that we can take the kids to a waterpark. We went one day last year and the kids really enjoyed it. This time we are meeting some friends over there too. Should be a good time.

The other day, James was talking to Delilah and said, "Oh look it's My Little Pony." To which she got all mad and said, "No! It's MY little pony." Ahahaha. It never fails to amuse.