Happy Halloween

As per my own Halloween tradition, I took the day off work to prep for tonight's festivities and attend the parade/party at Wesley's school. I love not working on Halloween.

Wesley the Hulk enjoying the class party

The principal (Dorothy), the assistant principal (Scarecrow) and the rest of the office staff

Sho, Kei, Wesley and Ryan ready to trick or treat

Heading off in the cold and rain to get some treats

It was a MISERABLE night for trick or treating - cold and rainy and just all around yucky. We barely made it around the block before the kids were totally and completely done. I think they maybe trick or treated for 40 minutes.  But they had fun and that's what counts.

On the way home Ryan piped up from the backseat, "Mommy, you need to work on not yelling, Wesley needs to work on not sassing and I need to work on behaving. What does Daddy need to work on?"

Wesley had the answer to that. "Daddy doesn't need to work on anything! He does it all right!"

I can't argue with that. Duane is practically perfect to me and apparently the boys feel the same.

When to Become "That Parent"?

So I'm having a little bit of a problem with Wesley's class at school. Remember how Wesley got his teeth knocked last week? Well, yesterday Wesley informed me that his desk at school has been moved. He now sits between two known trouble makers in class, one of whom is the boy who knocked Wesley's teeth out.

Wesley believes the whole teeth thing was an accident but he has become very wary of the boy. The day after the teeth thing, the boy sat next to Wesley in art class. Nothing happened and the boy was nice to Wesley, but Wesley didn't like sitting by him. When his seat was moved yesterday, he immediately came home and asked me to write a note to his teacher about the new seating arrangement.

"Did anything bad happen with E?" I asked. "Was he mean to you?"

"No, but he just gets in trouble a lot."

Today Wesley told us that E. was making fart noises on Wesley's arm and that he didn't like it.

My first thought was give it a week and see if things settle down, but I hate the thought of Wesley being uncomfortable in his class.  It's obviously bothering him to be around this boy. 

Do I send a note in? Wait and talk to Wesley's teacher at our conference in two weeks? I'd appreciate advice here.

The Butler Didn't Do It

We went house hunting again last night. Actually, we went on a whirlwind house hunt, looking at about 8 houses in about three houses. Needless to say, our normal weeknight routine has been shot to pieces the last couple of weeks and we didn't even get home until after 9:00 last night. That doesn't sound too late, I know, but it's half an hour after the boys bedtime and Wesley still had homework to do. I think he got to bed about 9:30.

Since bedtime was late last night, I had to wake the boys up this morning. These kids do not respond well to someone waking them out of a dead sleep. I knew I'd have some grumpy kids on my hands, but I think I may have underestimated Wesley's grump factor.

Wesley started to get dressed and threw his clothes into the hamper in his room. As he did so, he noticed the previous days dirty clothes in the hamper. Now, that may not sound strange to you, but Duane does laundry every day and it's kind of unusual to have very many dirty clothes in the hamper, if any.

"Yesterday's clothes are in my hamper," Wesley growled.

"Yes, they are," I said.

Wesley continued to complain, "But my hamper is going to get full."

I sighed. "If it bothers you that much, do your own laundry."

Wrong thing to say. "Daddy does the laundry," Wesley insisted before raising his voice even further. "Why didn't Daddy do my laundry!?"

That was the last straw for me. "Wesley, you know we were out late last night. Someone is going to buy our house at the end of November and we don't have a house to move into yet. Do you want to end up living in a box under a bridge because we don't have house?"

Considering how sensitive Wesley is, it's probably a minor miracle that he didn't burst into tears at my oh so elegant and patient answer.  Instead, he just crossed his arms, scowled and said, "No..."

"Well, I guess you just might have dirty laundry for a few days," I said.

If he was tall enough to reach the controls he would be doing his own laundry tonight.

One Proud Turtle

I only took a couple of pictures at Ryan's preschool Halloween parade, but this is the money shot.

That is one proud Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle! And to think, when he woke up this morning, he said he wasn't going to wear his costume today.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

The first words out of my mouth after hearing Wesley had been punched by another child and lost two teeth was not, "And what did you do to E.?" 

I have not started going to bed when the boys do. That would be extra embarrassing since we upped their bedtime by half an hour.

I have not become absolutely obsessive about my pedometer and trying to hit at least 10,000 steps a day. And I certainly don't think I'm going to continue wearing it after the step challenge is over.

I was not a little bit flattered when I was carded while buying cold medicine.

Starting from Scratch

The sellers took the other offer. We just couldn't compete with a cash offer and no contingency. Back to the drawing board for us.

First Grader

Wesley's first grade picture. Every time I see it I hear Joey from "Friends" saying, "How you doin'?"

Wrench in the Plans

Last night we discovered that there is another offer on the house we bid on Friday. It's kind of funny how this news affected me. Earlier last week Duane and I thought we had found our house, but the second walk thru showed a lot of problems we completely missed (or dismissed) the first time around. The house we bid on was on our OK list, but until we saw it again on Friday, it wasn't necessarily on the top of the heap.

Now the idea of not getting it really shakes us up. We have both been doing some decorating in our minds and seeing what some cosmetic work could really do to the place. The thought that someone else wants it makes me feel sick.

And of course, we have no way of knowing what their offer was. Well, we know that it isn't contingent anything the way ours is contingent on the sale of our house (slated to close Nov. 30th). We talked to our realtor last night and decided that the best way to handle it was to verbally give our absolute best offer, then officially submit it in writing today. Basically by submitting our best offer, we are saying "This is it from us. We aren't going to negotiate for weeks or get into a bidding war." 

It might seem a little radical to submit our absolute best offer at this point, but there were several things motivating our decision. I do not handle stress well, which is not a big surprise to any of my readers. We do not want this to go on and on. Our realtor says this offer shows how serious we are and, quite frankly, if they don't sell it to us at our best offer, they were never going to sell it to us. After we came back with our best offer, I immediately felt better. It was like I had given everything I could and it is no longer in my hands. I actually felt some peace.

So now we continue to wait.  Duane is able to pretty much let go and I wish I could so the same. My first instinct is to immediately come up with a plan B. I have already found a couple other houses I wouldn't mind looking at if our offer falls through. I am mentally finding a place for our cats to live and thinking about where we'd store furniture while we bunked with my parents for awhile. None of it is ideal, but I feel better if I think I have a game plan.

The bidding war is our of hands now. And I'm good with that. One of our pastors reminds us that God's plans are not always our plans and His time is not necessiarly our time. I cannot force this issue, no matter how much I may want to. It wouldn't do any good. I do believe God has a plan for us and He wants what is good for us. I'm trying very hard to pray instead of stress, even though stressing is my first instinct in situations like this. So I ask for your prayers, and if you are not a praying person, I ask for your good thoughts.

Deep down I know it all be okay no matter what happens.

Maybe Moving On

We made an offer on a house today. It's a three bedroom brick ranch in a really nice neighborhood. In fact, it's pretty much the neighborhood I grew up in. It's a little surreal, but since I've always wanted to move back there, it's a good surreal.

We actually looked at the house twice today. The second time we had to take Ryan with us and he LOVED the place. He had a huge smile as he raced through it and checked out the bedrooms and basement. 

This afternoon on our way to pick up Duane from work, Ryan announced, "I can't wait to move into our new house!"

I explained to him that it isn't our new house yet and that it might not be.

"We told the people who own the house how much we'd like to pay for it. Now they get to tell us if it's enough money or not. Houses are very expensive," I told him.

"Well, I have lots of money," Ryan responded. 

He's right. To a four-year-old's mind, he's rich! Just not as rich as we'd need him to be. Still, I'm really happy he liked the house enough to offer up his savings.

The Defender

We have a new super hero in our house. I call him "The Defender." He may look like a typical four year old, but that's just a clever disguise. He's ready to fight perceived injustice wherever it may be.

This morning I reminded Wesley not to play ninja at school. I also told him that I'd like it if he was very careful around the boy who was involved in yesterday's incident.

Wesley agreed with me, but Ryan turned into The Defender.

Ryan scrunched up his face and said, "When I see the boy who did that to my brother, I'm gonna.." Then he shook his little fists.

I'm not condoning violence, but I love that Ryan is ready to stand up for his big brother. Beware the Defender!

My Head is Spinning

Duane and I took today off work to go look at houses with our realtor. We had a busy busy morning and must have looked at at least eight houses. There is one that we like the location of and it has good "bones" but it needs a lot of updating. There is another that we really like and we like the location, but it needs some attention as well (will need new windows in the next year or two) and it's in the upper end of our comfort zone for purchasing. The problem is that it has that "home" feel to it. Duane and I could both picture our family living there and it made me happy. I think it made both of us happy. Plus Wesley wouldn't have to change schools, Ryan would be guaranteed a spot in Wesley's current school and they could eventually walk to school.

We didn't get to look at all the houses we planned to today (more on that later), so we are going to look at two others on Friday. And here's where I'm torn. The other two houses are in the suburb where I work, which is a very nice area. They are less money and a bit smaller (200-400 square feet depending on the house), but appear to need less work, at least from the pictures, and have some other good features. The taxes are higher, but we'd be spending less money up front.

Then there is the school thing. Both areas have excellent schools (I have checked the state report cards), but it's so hard to even think of Wesley leaving the school he is at if we moved to the suburb. Yes, I know that kids are resilient and that he'd adapt and probably even be very happy, but I also know that it would be really rough on him. He'd have to leave part way through the school year and be thrust into a class where he knows no one. He's be bussed to another part of town to attend a larger school in the suburb's school district and I'm not sure I like that either. And I have made great friends at Wesley's school. If we move out of the district I'm afraid I'd lose my friends too.

Am I selfish for wanting to stay where we don't have to switch schools? Even if we have to spend more money on a house that needs some cosmetic work? Assuming we could do it that is?

EDIT: Turns out I read the district map wrong and the boys would not be bussed out of the neighborhood in the suburb. Still doesn't make things much easier.

It's probably a good thing that we had to stop the great house hunt a bit early. As Duane and I started looking at houses in the suburb, we got a call from one of the nurse's at Wesley's school. He had been "punched in the mouth" (Wesley's words) by another student at recess, fell to the ground and had two teeth knocked out. They were not completely certain if the teeth that were lost were baby teeth or permanent teeth.

We bailed on our realtor and headed to the school, where we found Wesley walking fighting back tears and walking towards the office. We talked to Wesley and the principal and discovered that Wesley and the other boy involved were practicing their "ninja moves", when the other boy slid down a pole and punched Wesley in the mouth. I don't believe it was malicious in nature, but it sure caused damage.  The teeth lost were both baby teeth that were already loose, but we headed up to the dentist to have Wesley checked out just to be safe.



The dentist took x-rays and assured us that everything is fine. One other tooth was knocked a bit loose, but x-ray showed that the permanent tooth is about to come in where that tooth is anyhow. The punch probably just gave the wiggly factor a bit of a boost.

I'm so glad it wasn't more serious - and I really hope the tooth fairy has the cash to fork over for those teeth tonight.



Pumpkin Patch Pictures

Okay, I call it a pumpkin patch, but it's really the play area that intrigues the kids.

A birdseye view of the play area

J. &C. on the swinging tunnels

Wesley gave it a try too

J &G and the water pump duck races

Ryan and Wesley in the big gerbil wheels

 

Ryan takes in a turn in the duck race

The closest thing to a good picture we could get of all five kids.

Wesley attempts to impress G. with his bookmaking skills

Still booktalking on the hay ride

Getting the lay of the land

A happy boy with his candy

That's My Boy!

Ryan informed me this evening that he is going to carry two trick-or-treat buckets this Halloween. "That way I can get even more candy!" he exclaimed.

And we all know that more candy for the kids means more candy for the parents. I like his plan!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I have not started carrying an expensive chocolate bar in my purse just in case my stress level reaches a place where chocolate is required immediately. And I did not justify it by telling myself, "Hey, at least it isn't a flask."

I did not plug my headphones into my desktop computer, start Windows Media Player and proceed to get very annoyed when the CD didn't play, only to discover that I hadn't yet put a CD in the computer.

I was not embarrassed to ask my one of my oldest friends for help, even though I knew that she would be more than happy to help and probably annoyed if I hadn't asked her.

I did not start taking my kids cold medicine because I didn't have any of my own to counteract my first bout of sickness since having my tonsils removed last year.

Mostly Sweet(est) Day

Yes, Sweetest Day is a Hallmark holiday. Yes, everybody knows it. And yes, I adore the fact that my wonderful husband never forgets it even though I never remember it. So this was my surprise when I came downstairs at 5:30 this morning.

What was I doing awake at 5:30 on the one Saturday all month that I'm off work? Well, the boys (including Duane) had dentist appointments. At 7:00 in the morning. More than half an hour away from our house. Good times.

The boys weren't exactly happy with us when we loaded them into the van, but they did great at the dentist. This was Ryan's first appointment and even though he whined through Wesley's exam, he was a real champ when it was his turn. His favorite part was the little suction thing to get the spit out of your mouth. Oh! And the sunglasses weren't a fashion statement. The dental assistant had the boys wear them so the bright exam light didn't bother them.

We had plans to go to a pumpkin patch with some friends this afternoon, but it rained a lot this morning and we rescheduled for tomorrow. Probably a good thing since the boys decided to share their colds with me. It figures, the only thing they willingly share is illness!  On the upside we have something to look forward to tomorrow as well.

Training for Halloween

This evening we joined some friends at the Ohio Railway Museum for the annual trick or treat train event. Wesley and Ryan had never been before and were really excited to go. I'm not sure if they were most excited about the idea of a ride in a real train, getting to wear their costumes, getting treats, or a combination of all three.

Who are these green guys, and how did they get in my kitchen?

Loco Bob shared some train history and spooky/silly train "horror" stories.

That's some conductor!

This guy had to wait a LONG time for the train to leave.

Waiting for our ride to begin

Our quarters for the ride

Listening to one of Loco Bob's stories.

Spidey and Leonardo (the Ninja Turtle) sharing superhero secrets.

Keeping their eyes peeled for ghosts.

Enjoying our treats

 

After our excursion, Ryan told us several times how much he loved his costume and that the loved trains and that he really loves Halloween. I'd say this was a winning evening.

Sickness Roulette

I'm not a gambler. I don't play cards. I've never played the slots. I don't play the lottery. But I sure took a gamble today. Today I was faced with the age old question of working moms everywhere: How sick do you have to be to be too sick to go to school (and for me to call off work).

Wesley complained of his head hurting a couple of times yesterday and I could tell both he and Ryan had a bit of a cold. Wesley was in our room at 2:00 in the morning coughing, hacking and complaining of a sore throat. Now I am not the most compassionate person at 2:00 in the morning. I don't want to be woken up and I certainly don't want to get out of bed (I know, bad mommy.)  Luckily, Duane is able to function at that hour and got up to give Wesley some medicine.

So at 6:45 I was debating whether or not I should wake the boys up for the day or let stay home sick. Like I said, I knew they both had colds, but a cold can be such an iffy thing when it comes to the "stay home" decision. Plus I knew that if we stayed home and they both acted fine all day, I'd be quite annoyed.

I crept into Wesley's room and felt his cheek and forehead - totally normal. I often tell the kids that if they aren't throwing up or running a fever, they have to school, and since neither of those things were happening, I decided take a gamble. I woke the boys up, got them ready for school and gave them each a dose of cold medicine on the way out the door.

I spent all morning half expecting my phone to ring at work with one of the schools telling me to come pick up my kid. But we made it! Or should I say, we made it this time?

Color Him Impressed

Now that soccer is over for the season, it's time for the boys to pick new activities. That is totally my own rule. I need them to be involved in something one day a week. I don't care if it's dance, swim, basketball, art, acting, gymnastics or pottery. I just want them doing something.

Ryan wants to start swim class again, but Wesley chose art for his autumn activity. I scrambled around looking for an art class that sounded decent (i.e. not just cut and paste), but that didn't cost an arm and a leg. We wound up selecting a one day a week, after school class at an art center near my work. 

Wesley's first class was today and he LOVED it! Apparently he didn't really want to go because he has a cold and said his head hurt. Grandma told him he couldn't miss the first class and took him to the MAC. I'm so glad she did, because when I picked him up he was all smiles and excitement. He couldn't wait to show me the sketchbook he made and tell me all about the drawing game they played. He even wants to recreate the game at home.

Wednesday is also Wesley's art class day at school and he told me his class at the MAC is even "artier" than Mr. V's class at school. I think my little Picasso is going to really enjoy the next few weeks.

Mostly Brave

Last night Ryan told us, "I'm not afraid of anything! Well, except for dragons." 

Whatever happened to being scared of spiders? Good thing it's pretty hard to find a real dragon, 'cause they'd be really difficult to squish with your shoe!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not attempt to iron part of my shirt with a curling iron because I felt too lazy to get the real iron out. And I certainly did not make such an attempt while I was wearing the shirt.

I did not ask my hairdresser for a brand new style the day before my 20th high school reunion.

I know I did not break out my 20 year old letter jacket from high school and wear it for the homecoming parade. I mean, I laughed at "those old people" when I was high school!

I did not feel annoyed rather than excited or hopeful when the realtor called with our first showing in 2.5 months!

All Hallows Eve

We joined some friends of ours at the Ohio Village last night for the All Hallow's Eve Celebration. Lots of fun!

Playing at the school yard

Just hangin' around

Wash gentle cycle and drip dry

Me and the big man

Wesley did a little grave digging. Very little. His form was poor!

Whew! Grave digging is hard work!

Little ghouls

Hey! Let's haunt over there!

Tug of war

Ryan and Danny pulled their weight with the big boys!

Mr. S. helped Ryan on the stilts

Stilts are harder than they look!

Mask making

Daddy scooping pumpkin guts

Drawing an alien pumpkin outline to carve

Ryan worked hard on his pumpkin

Carve carefully Daddy!

Armed and dangerous!

We listened to the reading of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and saw the Headless Horseman ride across the bridge and throw his head into the fire. The boys were all VERY impressed by that!  We had a late dinner out and finally had to call it a night when Wesley's tummy started bothering him.

I love the city we live in! There is always something interesting and fun to do! This was just the start of our Halloween festivities. We still have the trick-or-treat train, Boo at the Zoo, the pumpkin patch and farm play area, COSI's Spooky Science, school parties and the actual trick or treat night.  And that doesn't begin to cover the festivities!