Life as a Leach

I'll admit it. I love Musical Theatre Club. I did it for two years in the past (one was an absolutely amazing experience and one...wasn't...which is why I stopped doing it) and was asked to help them out again this year with choreography. With Matt's crazy schedule, it is admittedly hard to make that kind of commitment. If you know me (which I hope you do, if you are reading this...if you don't, go away STALKER!), you know that I don't like to be involved with things I can't commit to fully. It's against my nature, and I get that honest from my mom. However, I love these ladies who do MTC and admire their dedication. SO, I agreed and it wa a WHIRLWIND of rehearsals these last few weeks--but a fun whirlwind! My sister watched Caleb for me a few times and it's a relatively "slow" time for Matt scheduling-wise. (The calm before the storm...summer is approaching!) Tonight was our performance. What was my role during the show, you ask? As...

Yes, I know it's a day late. We went on an adventure yesterday and I didn't have time to post! NO, I did not jump up and down clapping for joy and cheering with excitement over the three pieces of poop in the toilet put there by Caleb this morning!! We certainly didn't take multiple pictures of the deed to be put on this blog as soon as I get pictures put on a CD! Of course, we would never call both grandparents, his Aunt Amy, and our adopted daughter Heather (our other adopted daughter Erin is in Kazakstan right now, or we wouldn't have called her!) to share our good news! I certainly didn't tell my entire class the entire story only to listen to their groans of disgust!! We did not continue our celebration tonight by setting off Rocket Balloons. Matt did not cause the very first balloon to land on the roof over the front porch! Caleb didn't scream in terror when he realized that his balloon was on the roof. What's more, we weren't unable to remov...

My friend Keba wrote a blog about the tent city that is outside of her living room window. I think that it is pretty amazing how organized these people are and how welcomed they are by the community (she lives in Seattle--I can't imagine that ever flying here in "conservative CC!) There's a homemade video down at the bottom that shows what the tent city really looks like. It's pretty amazing!

This morning, my BIG BOY Caleb went POOP on the potty! Here is how the events transpired: * Caleb was making a few grunting noises while I was curling my hair this morning. * I asked him if he was pooping. (We aren't potty training, but we are trying to make him aware of when he goes potty.) * He told me no, but that he needed to poop. I suggested that he go try to sit on the potty. * He sat on the potty for several minutes without as much as a toot. I figured it was a wash, but he didn't want to get down yet. I went back to curling my hair and let him try for a few more minutes. * He called, "I'm done!" and Matt went to check on him. I hear a joyous, "Get the camera!" which could only mean one thing...HE WENT POTTY!!! * After lots of jumping up and down and cheering, we took many pictures of the deed, including several of Caleb (in all his nakedness) pointing at his poop and pretending to go potty. * I ran downstairs and got Caleb his belov...

So, based on my wonderful recent experiences with deer ticks and the trouble they cause, I decided to look online to find out what their purpose is. After all, every insect has a purpose, right? Even spiders are important to us, and I hate spiders! Well, when this is the best they can come up with, I'm pretty much guessing that ticks have no purpose in Mother Nature's world. Come on--isn't it a bit of a stretch to say that they (along with mosquitoes and termites) are beneficial to us because they have created a large pesticide industry? (Many can argue that THAT in itself is a HORRIBLE thing!!) Really, I now firmly believe that they were put on Earth by the devil to torture us and cause of physical and mental pain. For those of you who are behind on my tick saga, let me catch you up. SATURDAY: Found ticks #4 and #5 (five all in the same week!) on me. Matt pulled them off. The one on my back was really hard to get out. MONDAY A.M.: Got out of the shower and glance...

Although my favorite was Danny Goki, I am DEFINITELY cheering for Kris tonight. I cannot STAND Adam and his freakish ways. He's just creepy to me! I am not sure why they chose that song as the finale song. I don't care if Kara wrote it or not--it stunk!!! Poor Kris did the best he could with a pitiful song, but it wasn't too hot. I can hope...either way, I'm buying Kris' album (and burning Adam's!) GO Kris!!!!!!!!!

Well, now that I can no longer be in the sunlight AT ALL because of this hideous medicine I have to take for 2 weeks (thank you, evil Deer Tick!), I am forced to carry an umbrella with me whenever I'm outside for my 15 minutes of recess duty! Just call me Scarlet O'Hare... What makes matters worse is that Field Day is Friday, and it probably won't work so well for me to be outside for 2 1/2 hours straight...*sigh* I really like Field Day (crazy, I know!) so I'm actually kind of disappointed. My principal is in the process of working out some sort of trade so that I can stay inside and do something that is probably NOT as fun as playing games outside, but it's better than getting blisters and boils on my skin!!

* I did not spend over 10 minutes just now trying to figure out how to hide the rather large and disgusting-looking hot sauce stain I just got on my pants when I big glob dropped in my lap. I definitely didn't try to go 80's style and tie my jean jacket around my waste so that all of the people in the library didn't think I had some sort of "accident..." I'm secure with myself, so I would never do that. (Oh, and I also didn't decide to throw my purse over my shoulder and carry it sort of in front of me to block the hideous blob while I was walking!) * I do not have a countdown on my Ipod counting down the days of school we have left. What's more, I really don't look at it every day! * I didn't get 5 tick bites in the last week ( of them were not on my butt!) and have to go to the doctor today for an antibiotic because one is a huge red circle about 3 inches in diameter! What's more, I did not almost decide NOT to go to the doctor be...

After my jaunt through the woods at the One Room Schoolhouse on Tuesday, I found two deer ticks on my right leg. Matt helped me remove them with the aid of rubbing alcohol and tweasers, and I saved the ticks--just in case. Ever since then, I have just been achy and I've had some shooting pains going through my leg. So tell me dear friends...hypochondria, or a potential case of Lyme's Disease? At what point should I go to the doctor? Hmmmmm...

I most certainly did not watch my dog Becky steal Caleb's peanut butter sandwich (very gently) out of his hand and not do anything about it! I definitely did not lie to my son when he asked where it was and tell him that he already ate it all! He definitely did not proceed to look down at his belly and exclaim, "I did??" I did not put a nasty smelling candle that I got in a Teacher Appreciation Week drawing into my treasure box. I did not then shamelessly sell it to a kid for 26 tickets under the pretense that it would be an excellent Mother's Day present!! I did not tell Caleb that there was a farm in his belly and that in order for the crops to grow, he had to feed and water them. It didn't work! (but it really did!) We do not get Caleb to drink his milk by having him show us his muscles and then gush over how much bigger they got after that one sip of milk. I certainly do not avoid drinking milk at all costs myself! I did not waste most of my weekend away...

That Dogwood picture must be a good one, because I've had two people (one on my blog and one on Facebook) ask what kind of camera/lens I have! Well if you must know... I have a Nikon P80. (Sorry Katie, I definitely told you an S80. I knew it was one of those letters!!) :) This is the P90 , which appears to be just about the same thing. Mine is a year old (in fact, she just had her birthday yesterday!), so I'm guessing the P90 is this year's model. Can I just tell you how much I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this camera???? We bought it with our Economic Stimulus money (we did our part!) and it was worth EVERY cent that we paid!! In order to truly understand how wonderful this camera really is, you have to understand what I had before! I was dealing with something like this pitiful excuse for a camera , which was over 10 years old. The plastic around the shutter button was cracked, which meant that the shutter didn't always go off when you pushed it. The viewer had gotten ...

The picture on my header is of our Dogwood tree. We planted it when we moved into our house (it's Caleb's tree), and it nearly died that first winter. We were pretty much thinking that it was gone, but the girl hung in there and made it through the cold weather. There was not a single flower (or leaf) on it last summer, and I still didn't have much hope this spring! Caleb and I continued to water it religiously in hopes that it would flower. Low and behold, IT DID!!! Caleb is convinced that it was his amazing watering skills that made the Dogwood bloom. I was so incredibly excited that I took LOTS of pictures of it. Aren't they the most beautiful blooms you've ever seen? They sure are to us!! :)

Here are the highlights of Easter... Caleb got a Plasma car as his "big" gift. It has since provided hours of entertainment! Pictures with Owen and Sara...took about a million of them to get this one decent one! Attempt at a family shot Hunting Easter eggs at Nina and Paw Paw's

I have started allowing Caleb to wear "big boy underwear" for short periods of time. He has to pee before he puts them on, and he can only wear them for 20 minutes at a time (unless he pees...then he gets another 20 minutes!) We've done this a couple of times now and he LOVES it! (That could be because we let him run around almost naked...not quite ready to actually put clothes on over top of the underwear yet!) :)

I just joined this huge carnival of bloggers who all write "Not Me Mondays" about stuff that they most DEFINITELY did NOT do (but they really did!) It's a fun way to confess your humanity...so here goes! I did not cry at the thought of Caleb not needing to announce that he was awake in the morning--no, I did not begin to realize that my baby is growing up and has found other ways to entertain himself! I did not go to sleep at 7:30 after I put Caleb to bed twice this last week because of utter exhaustion! I did not eat an entire bag of popcorn for dinner...several nights in a row! I do not have a "Salz" canister (that means Salt in German) that is actually a secret stash of chocolate. I did not find myself thoroughly enjoying Little Einsteins yesterday morning. I certainly did not find myself wishing that it was longer and saddened when it was over! I did not drive a remote control car all over the house knowing that it was getting marks all over the walls but ...

UPDATE 5/2: Yes, yes, in fact my recycling efforts ARE in vain! I found out today that Matt only actually puts the cans/cardboard in the recycling bin 60% of the time (his percentage). That's a D! The definition of a D is "needs improvement," and that's exactly what you need, Matt! All of my GREEN friends, jump on him please!! His answer to my being upset about his throwing away recyclables? Well, you aren't using napkins or paper towels anymore, so your environmentally friendliness is about what is was before! *sigh* May I say a big THANK YOU to Adam and Susanne for being the only people who have heard about my green efforts to NOT crack some sort of joke! Maybe it's the fact that our school has just become a Green School . Maybe it's the trendiness of "going green" that's plastered all over the TV screens. Maybe it's that I have always been environmentally conscious and want to dig a little deeper. Whatever it is, I am reall...