Mom and Me

Nathan and I spent the weekend at the Cub Scout "Mom and Me" Camp Out, and we have the patches to prove it. (Something else I have to sew on his uniform!) There is a "Dad and Me" weekend later in the year, so I shared a few pointers with Jeff:

Tip 1: Bring your own tent! Otherwise, you will be put in something like this:

Fortunately, we did bring our own tent. The peace of mind that came with sleeping in a fully-enclosed space was definitely worth the time it took to set it up!

Tip 2: Go to the archery area first! We did this the first day, and I was very thankful. Long lines form for this popular event. The second day, I thought we should go to the Chapel Service (it was Sunday, after all) and then go to the archery/BB gun range. Big mistake! We had to wait in line over an hour. Which brings me to the next tip...

Tip 3: Skip chapel! I don't know what religion the service was supposed to be, but they prayed to the Great Spirits of the North, South, East and West and literally closed by singing Kumbaya.

Nathan's favorite event was the archery and BB guns. He had never shot either before, so he didn't do very well the first time. The second time, however, he rocked. He hit the archery target and got 3 bullseyes on the BB gun range.

They also had crafts, games, campfire cooking demonstrations, etc. Dinner and breakfast were served in the dining hall, so we didn't have to cook our own meals. There was no electricity at the campsite (I brought a battery-powered fan and air mattress), but there was sort of a "bathroom" in each camping area:

Here we are (in much need of showers) after a restless night in the tent:

Gotta love a man in uniform

We are officially football drop-outs (see previous post), and we decided to wait until later this fall to let Nathan get involved in any other organized sports. However, we did let him join the Cub Scouts. It is pretty low commitment (2 meetings a month), and I was under the impression that it would be mostly a father/son thing. Wrong! The first organized trip is Mom and Me Camp Out.

Only one other mother/son combo from our Den is going. It is Quincy - the star of the basketball team that we were on last year - and his mom. I really like them both, and I'm not worried that Quincy's mom is going to show me up with any mad camping skills.

Papa showing us how to tie the "neckertchief" (sp?) on Sunday night

Luckily, Dad was here again to night and helped us get ready for the first Den Meeting.

Posing with little sis

Here we go Steelers, here we go!!

In western Pennsylvania schools the kids learn the pledge of allegiance, how to read and write and the Steelers theme song. Friday's are black and gold day and J wanted a Big Ben jersey. Micah and Lily wanted in on the action. Gotta go take J to school..............hope you enjoy the pic.

YES!!!

Lily is 26 months old and can finally say YES! You have no idea how exciting this is. For two years now she has either nodded her head or said Uh-huh. Sorry about the lack of pictures. All of our pictures are on Aaron's iphone and I'll never figure out how to get them off of that thing. Lily is technically potty trained now. We go to town in our "big girl panties" I was nervous about potty training a girl because it was so easy with the boys I thought she would be a nightmare, but I don't know why people say potty training is so hard. I had no problems with the boys or Lily. And I'm loving the fact that I never have to buy diapers/pullups again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Strange???

Is this strange or am I just overprotective?

About three weeks ago two kids move in two doors down. A boy who is nine and a girl who is six, they have taken to spending HOURS at our house on the weekends. They are very good kids and have even taken out the trash for me and love to walk Lady ( they have a chocolate lab that had to go live with grandma when they moved). All this is OK and you may be wondering why I think this is strange.

The odd thing is that I have never even SEEN the parents (Josh met the Dad very briefly and thinks that he waved at the Mom once)! Now B and KK are wanting to go play in these people house and I will not let them. Of course the obvious answer is to get to know the parents but that is easier said than done.

Isn't it weird for these people to let their kids spend so much time in our house (even when Josh-to them just some strange man-is the only one here) when they don't even KNOW us!

Game Day

Even though we lost, I'm disappointed that I didn't get to go to the first home game in Fayetteville tonight. Nathan and I did try to get into the spirit of things. Here he is coloring some sheets that I printed for him from hogwired.com. For my fellow Hog fans with little ones, you can download them here. They are going to have new ones each week featuring the different teams that we play.

My day started at 6:00am when I had to go into work (I'm on call this weekend - boo, hiss!), and then I took some of my junk over to the Krebs yard sale. We sold quite a bit, but it still seems like I brought a lot of it home. Between this and my consignment stuff that I sold at Rhea Lana's, I have made over $300 this month. Not bad! I have never sold anything at a consignment sale before. It was lot of work on the front end, but after that, I just watched my sales accumulate (you can check it on their website) and then they mailed me a check.

It's about 11:30pm. I've had a long day, but Jeff's driving back tonight and I'm a little nervous about him being on the road so late. If anyone is up reading this blog in the middle of the night (and why wouldn't you be), say a little prayer for us all. I fear getting a call from work and having to drag my two sleeping children up to the pharmacy with me. Have a mentioned that I hate being on call? It is by far the worst part of my job.

We're not ready for this...

Nathan is obsessed with hotels. He remembers every detail about the ones we've stayed in...which floor we stayed on, what stores were nearby, and (most importantly) what kind of pool they had. Since we decided not to drive home from Springfield Saturday night, he wanted to stay in the Doubletree that Renee and Aaron stayed in with the indoor/outdoor pool. Now he's remembering details of hotels we haven't even stayed in!

The pool was small and the water was pretty cold even though it was supposed to be heated, but Nate loved it anyway.
Yesterday morning, a couple of girls joined us in the pool. They were sisters, probably about 7 and 9. The older one swam under and started a "conversation" with Nathan:

Older girl: How old are you?

Nathan: 6.

(Girl swims back out, chats and giggles with little sis, then swims back in.)

Older girl: When are you going to be 7?

Nathan: Next month.

(Girl swims back out. More chatting and giggling.)

Later, they invited Nathan to come swim with them. He reluctantly agreed, and I took a quick picture while he wasn't looking.

Happy Day!

We went to Springfield on Saturday to be with our friends Brooke and Blaine as they celebrated Brynn's 1st birthday. This was more than just your typical first birthday party because it marked the end of a very difficult year for them. Little Brynn came into this world very early weighing just 1lb. and 15oz. She is doing well now, and we consider ourselves fortunate to share this special time with them.

They made a time capsule for her to open on her 18th birthday, and Brooke had her blog printed into a book for a keepsake as well.

What's her name again?

Abby gave Ashley this giant stuffed unicorn (Thanks again, Abby. Yeah, thanks a lot!) Well of course she loved it, but unfortunately she named it "Horny". After getting her to repeat the name several times and laughing all the while, we convinced her to call it "Corny" instead.

Go Falcons!

Nathan's school does not require a uniform (though, I think that would make getting ready in the morning so much easier), but they do wear their school T-shirts on Fridays. Here's a picture of him with his 3 best friends from last year wearing their Friday "uniform".

It's funny to see how much they have changed in a year...growing taller, losing teeth, etc. Luke (on the far right) lost a tooth - and I mean literally lost it - on the playground earlier this week. All of the parents and some of the kids went to the spot where the knock-out occurred and searched the gravel for the missing tooth. A few minutes into the search, one of the dads said, "I bet the Tooth Fairy grabbed it before we got over here." Brilliant! So, we called off the hunt. I'm happy to report that the Tooth Fairy was still able to find Luke's house and leave him a little something under the pillow. I just thought I would share that one in case anyone else is ever in such a predicament.

WPS!