The preschool bus

Ashley's preschool comes around with a bus to pick up all the kids for school. There's this neighbor boy of ours who is in his first year of preschool at what he only knows as "Ashley's school" since he saw her there when he toured with his mom last year. She has been sitting by him on the bus every day to and from school so he would feel comfortable. He told his mom it's the way he knows he is getting on and off at the right places; Ashley gets on and off too. He said he knows he's on the right bus because Ashley is on it too. He knows the bus driver will take him to the right house because Ashley will make it happen, somehow.
Today Ashley got on the bus and sat down in the first seat. Next to someone who was already there. Alex, the neighbor boy, had to sit somewhere else. He chose the seat right behind Ashley. Hopefully he still knows where to go!
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YES

I know I posted that same blog twice, more or less. But I got a blackberry and forgot that I could (and did) post things from it to the blog. So you got the update twice on some people and once on others. But how else would I have remembered to tell you how freaking great the kids are on their first days of school?

a super quick update

Things have been crazy in every one's neck of the woods. Life is great down here in Swine Flu-Ville. There's rumored to be about 2500 kids who have had or do have it but it has not yet touched this house. yay!!

The kids are back in school, Alex got his first male teacher, Mr. Church, who is fantastic. They put him in the 5th grade math class since he was the top scoring student in his grade last year in the math section of the WASL but it's proving to be a harder challenge than it should be so we're emailing Mr. Church to get him moved back to 4th grade math. I just can't see how he is supposed to spend 4 hours a night on homework for just math and keep his love of math alive. He's missing part of the foundation that he should have learned in 4th grade math so this should help a lot.

Annie got Mrs. Koerner for 1st grade. This was her teacher for K, too. She had a baby this summer and will officially join her class in the end of October. For now she has Mr. Mcaffrey (or something like that) who she is loving also. Mrs. Koerner was great for Annie's personality so I'm not sad to see her have her again this year at all. Annie is all kinds of smart, too, and is doing great!

Ashley just started preschool again yesterday and is in a class with Miss Molly and Miss Stephanie has her teachers. She has a couple of kids from her class last year and a whole lot of kids she knows from our apartment complex. The downside is there are 15 boys and only 5 girls. Miss Molly had a similar class last year and said it can get crazy really fast. But I think it will be fantastic for her. She continues to struggle with transition times by throwing fits are bedtime. We have learned a fairly effective way to deal with them, though, and until she figures out how to outsmart us with the current tactic, it seems to be working and curbing the duration.

School for me is going fast and crazy but really good. I should graduate in May and then have 2 summer courses to officially finish my course load. Or something. Maybe I'll just graduate in August and not deal with the funky graduation stuff by walking early.

Aiden's doing his stay at home dad thing again this year and seems to be enjoying it. Today is only the second day of Ashley being gone and him being alone for the morning so we'll see how he holds out.

That's life for now. Gotta run to class again so hope everything is great for you guys.

Back to school

Today Alex starts 4th grade. It's his first year having a male teacher which I think will be good for him. Mr. Church and I met when I was doing my spring break observation and he was really helpful to me at that time and he talked openly about teaching (it was his first year) and seemed to have a lot of great ideas and energy. I think my baby will enjoy this year.
Annie is officially in first grade!! I might freak out but it's so what she needs, to be in full day school with her own desk (no more K tables!! She's excited) and all her friends back. Her K teacher, Mrs. Koerner, will also be her 1st grade teacher. She's on maternity leave until October but then she's back and will be awesome for Annie again. We enjoyed working with her last year and her personality is perfect for Annie; she is warm and friendly but also not touchy feely. If Annie had been with a mushy teacher, she would have sat around and learned nothing. We'll see if motherhood has changed that part of her, I guess.
I started back yesterday to WSU. My schedule's crazy, the classes seem fine, and it's my for really reals Senior Year!!! Now I just have a couple more hoops before I get to be done. Until I go back in a year for my MIT but let's not talk about it now.
Ashley is not starting back to preschool for 2 more weeks. She's more than ready to collect her "just me and Aiden and a lot of Mom" time and then head to school. She'll have a new teacher this year as her old teacher got married and left for Colorado. She'll blow them away with her self taught reading she's cultivated. The other day she read me the whole first part of Fox In Socks. She's 4! Must be a 3rd kid thing. I did the same thing out of impatience and frustration of being left out.
Aiden will man the house this year playing Mr.Mom and get ready to enroll at WSU next year.
Hopefully we're ready!....
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Blood Red Moon

Twice in the last week we have had a blood red moon. It is freaky. My pictures do not do it justice but I busted out the tripod last night to try. I'll get better.

Time for another photo update!!!

In absolutely no particular order comes these pictures to you. Enjoy viewing our recent weeks of summer!

This is Ashley and I having a kiss.
Annie and I hugging after an exceptionally long afternoon of just getting home from Brandon's for 2 weeks and breaking down a bazillion times. You can see the sleepiness all over her eyes!

The swings were not up on our new playground-of-death before they left so the first thing they did was get on and swing!

I went through this phase. There's multiple close-ups of my face or pieces in here. Whatever, I think it's fun.

Brandon's girlfriend's parents have this truck. Minus the tow part, it's Tow-Mater from Cars. So the kids HAD to climb in and get a picture in Mater.

He must be blinking but he's so serious looking up there. He's turned out to be quite a little gymnast on that bar!

Just getting up. Or down. Whatever. From the other side you can see his fully formed 6 pack!

Annie ready to get off now. She was trying to convince the big kid who got her up to get her down but I wanted a picture first.

She did like it before she didn't.

Ashley is trying to see what Annie's doing. I think it's such an Ashley picture.

Alex trying to figure out the crossword puzzle at Shari's. It's cute because he hasn't figured out the answers are on the sheet so he's always impressed when I know exactly the right word to try in the spaces. Sometimes it's really not what you'd think so I'm glad they have the answers there!

Ashley was counting for hide and seek but was so excited by her warped face in the doorknob she could barely remember to count. She still got to 10 before I got the picture framed. I still like how this turned out.

A Mom and Ashley hug.

This is totally an Ashley face. Mostly it's an "I caught you doing something" face. You can almost hear the "ooooohhhhh ho ho!" come out of her mouth!

There's her cheese ball smile!

Annie wanted a kiss picture. So she made her eyes all big (it's a long story). It looks like I'm pinching her or something but I'm not. I swear, it's all on her own.

Ashley suckered me into helping her hang. The look on her face is annoyance with me as I was just then told to take my hands off so she could do it by herself!

But I didn't go far!

Alex is just cute. And somehow I don't get enough pictures of him. So I post the ones I get.

He's just so damned handsome!

And we have Annie's goofball face. She's actually hamming it up about something else right here but I don't care. I'm letting you draw your own assumptions. Because I love this face when she makes it.

I also love the heck out of this face!

And we're back to Ashley swinging. It's what she would do all day every day if we let her. The best part is she knows how to pump but she gets tired and starts asking us to push her. So the little boys come over and push her gently. One in particular is really sweet about it. They were in pre-school together and are just sweet friends.

And my giant close-up smile. There's eyeball pictures too, somewhere on facebook. But I'll let you find those on your own.

Last but certainly not least is Aiden. While the kids were gone we spent a lot of time with Goretti's family. This is her kids' guitar. Aiden put the strap on and played. So I took a blackmail picture that is just really cute.

And a video of Alex on the bar.

Hey Sonic, it's Knuckles

Alex's best friend, Jared, moved to California in June. Tonight Jared called to talk to Alex. I thought this would be a fairly short conversation. I was wrong.
After first getting the update on the bug situation in California (they have a lot of squashed snails all over the road)(And unsquashed ones everywhere else)(and large spiders), they moved on to discuss everything else they could think of. We didn't think the conversation could go for very long. But they managed to talk for 40 minutes.
Well, Jared talked. Since he moved in the summer time he must not have made a lot of friends yet. I was left thinking he has saved up all his words for the last 2 months.
Still, it was good practice for Alex talking on the phone. He tends to breathe directly into the mouthpiece. He gets it from his father. So anytime he gets to chat, it can't get worse!
And, he didn't morph into a 40 year old contractor at any point so that's a plus.
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Sella's

Is so far out of my league right now.

But I just read a blog about pizza. Now I want some.

I recently learned the Safeway deli pizza is not bad, a little pricey but pretty dang good.

I might have to go visit them for a minute.

craaaaap.

I wonder if they make garlic and extra cheese kind?

I have to wonder what it is like at Brandon's house. Here's why:
1. Annie wanted something to drink on Monday with lunch. She asked for a capri sun but they had been in the car and were hot. So she asked "do you guys have anything else like juice that we could drink?".
I corrected her and told her it should be " do WE have anything else...". It is her house too!
Don't get me started on why everything is asked for all 3 of them. If Annie wants juice, can't she ask for it without having to make it be a request for everyone?!
2. They live out of a suitcase while they visit. That baby has a dresser. It will be born in DECEMBER! But my kids get to feel like they are definitely in the way and VISITING while they live from a suitcase.
And....! That baby will sleep in their room when it's born but will move to sleep with Morgan when they come to visit. Good to know they'll be crammed in with the crib and never feel like they are further disturbing the household.
3. Alex was getting cereal ready with me today and went to get the milk. While he stood waiting for me to pour it he commented on how they weren't even allowed to get stuff out of the fridge or pour their own milk. I was only pouring because it is really full. Otherwise we're big believers in teaching self-reliance and cleaning up any resulting mess TOGETHER.
Maybe Morgan thought she was being nice and doing it for them. I doubt it. I would bet she just wanted to protect the carpet in her trailer.
4. A lot more little things. Like Ashley is confused about why she should wipe her bum without help (Brandon has a poop issue)(in regards to letting the kids wipe their own).
And on and on.
I really just want to cry when I think about their time away.

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The kids are back

Alex lived through his concert experience, and we got the kids back yesterday around noon. It was 11:23 to be exact but who's paying that much attention?

We plopped them in the car and drove home. We played outside, checked on our garden (I should post a picture of the amazing amount of peas we have picked!), and then decided to set up our pool.

Brandon has a big deal pool at his trailer space so the kids were used to playing in that, NOT in the $13 pre-formed plastic thing at our backyard. It did not take long for Bossy Annie to make an appearance. She turned into Pouty Annie when she was called on it.

Shortly afterward, Tearful Ashley also showed up.

Alex was the most well behaved of the bunch. And by far.

Bedtime was a thought in the back of my mind until Annie lost it later that night for the 14th time since getting home.

I asked if she was tired and she was positive she was NOT tired. It's just that Grandma Laura, with whom they stayed for the last weekend before coming home (with Brandon) babysat them on Friday night so Brandon could go out with his brother and sis in law.
"And she made us go to bed at 11:30!!!"

Yup, it was bedtime.

But in all seriousness, I'm so glad they are home. I didn't post much while they were gone because I don't think anyone wants to read about how I cried myself to sleep every night for the first week and then just stayed up so late the second week I would eventually just pass out from exhaustion. It's about all I did. Depression is not so very blog worthy.

But today I got woken up at 7 in the morning by Ashley yelling down the hall for me to come here. I found her in the bathroom, she wanted me to see her poop and check her butt. I guess they didn't eat much corn at her dad's house. It's her favorite and she ate A LOT during dinner last night. And it showed this morning. y'know? It freaked her out a bit.

Then we watched Strawberry Shortcake and now we're going outside to play.

Life is so good.