Watermelon

We're at Lough's for Memorial Day fun, and not seeing them eating, Jeremy asked if our kids even eat watermelon, when Jacob picked up an already eaten rind and proceeded to gnaw the last bits of red flesh from it. Yeah, our kids like watermelon.


-- Post From My iPhone

Memorial Day

This morning Liz did some early chats to free up our day time, so it was the boys and I for breakfast.  I whipped up some adequate Strawberry Banana Pancakes while the boys got creative on the bar stools.  I believe this was a three-driver car, which was, of course, perfect for my three race car-driving boys.  They were actually a little disappointed to not have a fourth person to slide into that fourth berth.  After breakfast they unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, cleaned up the living room, and now we're ready for a fun day!

SO TIRED!

After staying up late on his birthday Jacob was exhausted!  He started acting very tired including hitting and kicking.  After a good round of kicks it was time for timeout, so I put him on the chair and told him he was on timeout.  He was less than pleased but then began to just scream.  I worked hard to ignore him while he served out his time.  Suddenly, it was quiet, so I looked over to make sure everything was alright.  To my surprise he was out, in the upright position.  So cute!  And now so quiet!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Jacob has been very excited for his birthday for several days now.  He has repeatedly told us that he would like cookies, pizza and cake--yellow cake with yellow frosting on his birthday.  The boys had fun choosing cars to give him and we gave him some more cars and some sand toys!  We even let him open the sand toys early, so he could take them to the park while we played tennis!  Then, he got to stay up late to play with his new cars!  He had a great birthday with pizza, cake and cookies!  

Now I need to run to burn all of that off. :)

The best birthday party ever . . .

I always dread planning and carrying out birthday parties but this year we tried something new for Michael's birthday party.  We invited all of his friends to meet us at a park.  They just played the whole time and had a blast.  We did pizza and cake but that was about it.  I would do this again and would recommend it to others!

Negotiating

There are few things in life that I truly detest and negotiating is one of them.  I am of the opinion that we just say what we mean and not play games.  With that said a few days ago we had to decide what offer to put on the house you now see we have purchased.  We weighed our options and decided just to offer what we really wanted to buy the house for.  We didn't low ball we didn't go just a few thousand lower than we meant, we just chose what we wanted and offered it.  And to our great relief they accepted the offer as is.  It proved to me that it is possible to avoid the horrible negotiating game that so many choose to play.  Silly people!  :)

Welcome Home!

Contract signed, all conditions accepted.  We close July 15.  We're going out to dinner tonight to celebrate!  You can find full details on Realtor.com.  We have big plans for this thirty year old beauty that include a wall relocation upstairs, some wood flooring, a wall of shallow cupboards, and tons of paint.  

FIELD TRIP!

Friday night was an academic first for me: FIELD TRIP!  I'm teaching a summer session course in which we meet three hours each day for three weeks then call it a term.  It 's a little intense, but it's a great way to sink into something, and time flies; I'm already more than a third done.  On Friday, rather than holding our traditional three hour morning class, we moved class to the evening and went as a group to see the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra perform their Pops concert.  It was familiar pieces, a great deal of enthusiasm from the conductor, and a great time for all of us.  Unfortunately half of the class had to work, but the guys and I had fun nonetheless (Yes, all the women cancelled, so it was guys' night at the symphony.  You'll never hear that phrase again . . .)  We topped off the evening with a hundred mile drive in an intense and likely tornadic storm, and a quick stop at Hardee's for a little late night sustenance.  Good times.

Closing Song

We had four hymns today, and all but the last one was one of those two line wonders.  I really like those little hymnlets, especially if I'm wrestling one or more of my children during them.  For the closing song, however, we had a rousing Spirit of God, which the older boys tolerated reasonably well, and the youngest endured.  As we rounded the bend, goal line in sight, we sang with fervor

"Henceforth . . ."

still singing

"and forever . . ."

all is well

"Amen and . . ."

we're going to make it!

"AMEN!"

finally!  Followed immediately by Jacob's ecstatic

"I LIKE TO MOVE IT MOVE IT!"

Amen, indeed.

Last Weekend

I spent my last Saturday dressed like this.

I'm not going to lie to you—I kind of liked it.  I look so, well, Doctoral, and I love it.  Don't you just love the velvet stripes down the front?  One day I'll try to get a bigger pink hood to go with these amazing pouffy sleeves and jaunty cap.

Chef!

Yesterday Jacob and I made dessert for our fun Quattro de Mayo dinner of grilled chicken asparagus and potatoes.  It was a fun little dinner, just the thirteen of us (the Sister Missionaries came as well) and jacob did a great job mixing the cake, even if he did spill a little on the counter!

Picnic

A few weeks ago Liz and I enjoyed a lovely date during which we went on a picnic by a lake and then went to the College play. It was delightful overall, and I think we're going to enjoy the warm weather and picnicking instead of doing the restaurant thing. It saves money, calories, and lets us enjoy the beautiful weather that has finally settled on the area.

During our picnic we noticed the resident geese, including a lovely little family with new goslings. I wanted to feed them (yes, I know you should never feed "wild" geese—which these definitely weren't—but I couldn't help myself.) So I chose a rather attractive and mild couple and tossed them some of the pita left over from our dinner. Soon the little family became interested, so the Dad waddled on over while Mom protected the gaggle, hissing occasionally lest we think we were anything more than dinner service. With the hissing Liz became more cautious, and rightfully so, because soon another couple waddled over and were quickly rebuffed in a flurry of wings and a cacophony of honks and hisses. We decided it was time to let the geese solve their own family problems and put our pita away and slowly backed ourselves out of that situation. I didn't want to be the victim of an angry goosing. Would you?

Last day of classes

The regular year has ended. Mixed emotions about that one.



-- Post From My iPhone