Life as a Leach

You may choose to agree or disagree, but these are our feelings on Halloween! Halloween in itself is not evil.  What some people choose to do on Halloween may be evil, but Halloween in itself is a harmless day where kids are given permission to dress up and stuff their faces with candy.  Some people choose to get drunk.  Some people choose to vandalize other people's houses.  Some people choose to spend time with their families.  Some people choose to go to church parties.  Whatever people choose to do is their choice.  People's choices should not deem an entire holiday evil. Now, you all probably know that Matt is the youth pastor at our church.  I'm sure some people have strong feelings about Halloween.  Do we dress up?  Yep!  Do we trick-or-treat?  Sure do!  Do we/will we dress Caleb in scary or gory costumes?  No.  We do have limits.  He can be cute or funny, but not vulgar.  This is...

We're praying for you, Jacob!

*  I do not have an insane amount of kids out every day with the same symptoms:  high fever, nasty cough, and body aches.  I do not at all assume that this is Swine Flu and that it is all over our school.  I have not been having my students take a squirt of hand sanitizer every 10 minutes in order to try to keep the germs down.  What's more, I certainly didn't have my reading kids use disinfectant wipes to wipe off all of their folders and notebooks and the inside of their desks!  That would be over the top... *  I was not secretly thankful that this Sunday was not Communion so that I didn't feel obligated to take a piece of the bread that many other not-so-clean hands had already touched.  The thought of next week being the first Sunday of the month (Communion Sunday) doesn't gross me out and cause me to shudder.  I'm not seriously considering not taking Communion. *  I did not have to give Caleb an emergency bath on Saturday b...

There is Swine Flu all over our school.  There are 2 confirmed cases in my class alone, but a bunch of kids have been absent.  I had 5 missing this morning!  Unfortunately, my day at school was cut very short when I got a phone call at about 9:05 from my sister saying Caleb had thrown up all over her.  Lovely.  Poor Amy! I got some things together and came right home (Amy was dropping Sara off at school when it happened, which is even better!)  It wasn't totally unexpected because I thought Caleb felt a bit warm this morning but he didn't register having a fever and was acting okay.  Even now, he's sitting next to me in bed singing the Hokey Pokey and using his sick bucket as a drum (don't worry, he hasn't used the sick bucket yet!!) telling me that a little treat would make him feel better.  As long as he can sing, he must be doing okay!  :)

We have been carving pumpkins like crazy around here!  We went to the pumpkin patch last week and each chose a pumpkin that suited us.  We carved one a night and finished up on Wednesday.  Each one is very unique, and Caleb even had the grand idea of using my broken stem as my pumpkins funky nose!  They all turned out great!  Owen and Sara are spending the night tonight and we bought three small pumpkins for them to carve.  Can you believe they've never carved pumpkins before???  They thoroughly enjoyed themselves and even found the toasted seeds as tasty as Caleb and I have!  As most of you know, my cousin's son Jacob (almost exactly Caleb's age) is battling a brain tumor.  After one big surgery to remove part of the tumor and multiple smaller surgeries, Jacob will have the second surgery to hopefully remove the rest of the tumor in the beginning of November.  My cousin, his wife, and their other two children (one being a newborn!) ...

On Saturday, we went to this lame not incredibly-well planned Fall Festival at a local church.  Besides the fact that you had to pay for all of the events, there just wasn't much to do.  Plus, they gave out NO candy!!  It just wasn't quite like the Fall Festival I'm used to... One positive note is that they did have the Saint Leonard Fire Department there to do demonstrations and let the kids look in the fire truck, which Caleb enjoyed.  Now, the SLFD isn't exactly known for its speediness to calls, but it is becoming very well-known for one thing:  it's fabulous outdoor country music concerts.  They have had Alan Jackson, Little Big Town, Kellie Pickler, etc.  A lot of big names have made their way down to our teeny town that is lacking even its own grocery store. Anyway, this is how the conversation went: Fireman:  (after finishing his demonstration)   "So, that's how the fire truck works.  Any questions?" Cale...

*  Caleb did not ask me what infidelity meant this weekend in the car.  He certainly did not gain this new vocabulary word from a song Matt played on his iPod.  We are much more vigilant about what we let our son listen to and would never fill his mind with such filth.  *  My answer to Caleb's question about the definition of infidelity most definitely wasn't it's when you aren't very nice to the person you love.   I am completely honest with him and do not try to get out of awkward conversations by giving a vague and not-completely-true definition. *  In a ploy to try to get Caleb to fall asleep in the car, Matt did not convince him that he had painted pictures on the inside of our son's eyelids.  Caleb totally didn't buy it like a champ and end up falling asleep almost immediately! *  While eating apple fries at Bob Evans tonight, Matt did not try to force feed Caleb in order to get him to eat caramel.  Caleb didn't completely ...

How's that for some alliteration?!?  (I'm teaching elements of poetry right now, so I have alliteration on the brain!) Disclaimer:  This post is totally about the art of pooping and the celebrating that comes after.  If you are not interested in hearing about the potty habits of my two year old, please stop reading at this time. Caleb has really turned a corner in this pottying adventure.  Two and a half weeks ago, Matt did the same thing we've been doing since June--he put Caleb on the potty to try to poop.  For some reason, Caleb finally decided that it was time to actually go...and he did!  They called and left a message on my cell while I was at school.  Matt was so excited that he lifted Caleb over his head and ran around screaming doing what Caleb called a parade.  Well, the parade must have worked because the next day, he did it again...and again, and again!  In fact, he has only pooped once in his pants since that fateful day (w...

Here are a few stories to make you chuckle... *  On the way home from Isaac's birthday party on Friday night, we were trying to get Caleb to fall asleep.  Matt convinced him that he had painted pictures on the inside of Caleb's eye lids, but the only way to see them was to close his eyes.  When Caleb obeyed, he shouted, "I see them!" with glee...and then fell asleep pretty soon after that!! :) * Yesterday Caleb and I went to a few yard sales.  I've started having him take some of his money from his piggy bank to encourage coin recognition and understanding of a value of a dollar (or quarter, as the case may be!)  He found a set of stacking cars for 10 cents that are made for young children and wanted to buy them, but I told him that he was too old for them.  He immediately decided that Emma really wanted them, so he bought them for her with his own money!  I'm not sure that Emma will really want a set of boyish-looking cars, but it was a nic...

A year ago today, the wife of a friend of mine from college gave birth to a sweet little boy named Isaac.  Isaac lived for 16 wonderful minutes and most definitely knew the love of his parents in that short time he was on this side of heaven.  Stacy and Spencer knew beforehand that Isaac was a sick baby, but they prayed for a miracle right up until the day of the C-section.  Spencer and Stacy have been really open about their experience, and Stacy wrote a heartfelt blog today sharing about how she is dealing with the emotions of the day.  They are an amazingly strong couple.  Check it out and maybe leave them a little love!

Playing in the bucket at Emma's birthday party Silly string fun at Uncle Ronnie's party                                                                 Trying on his halloween costume--HEEHAW cowboy! Playing at the church's anniversary celebration A year later, he still loves this pumpkin. "If you smile nicely, I'll let you take a picture with my camera!" Giving his pumpkin a kiss. I love the colors in this picture. Roasting marshmallows for Paw Paw's birthday.

It's all I could think of that was alliterative...it technically should be Friday Funnies, but it's not Friday...so we're going with this one! Caleb:  Mommy, do you have a penis? Me:  No. Caleb:  I want to see it.  Where is it? Me:  Well, you're going to be looking a long time because it's not there.  I don't have one. Caleb:  (sadly) Ooooh.  You need to go to the store and buy one. ------------------------------------ Caleb:  (on the way to his room for nap time)  I'm taking my girls to bed with me. Matt:  WHAT???? Caleb:  (holding up his 2 stuffed toys) I'm taking my girls to bed with me! ------------------------------------ Caleb:  (randomly in the car)  Emma is my favorite baby. ------------------------------------ Caleb:  Do you like my farmer truck, Momma? Me:  You're what? Caleb:  (holding up his armored truck) My farmer truck! ------------------------------------...

I haven't done this in a few weeks.  I've started one each week, but deleted what I'd written because I didn't have anything really great to include.  This week, I have a few! *  No, I definitely was not asked by my son if I had a fuzzy butt this morning.  That would be totally weird.  (FYI:  no, I do not!) *  Caleb did not decide out of the blue that he would start going poop on the potty.  He didn't very willingly just go on Wednesday morning with Matt and then act like he'd been doing it all his life.  He hasn't turned a major corner in potty training and made our lives very happy! *  We certainly don't do a parade whenever Caleb goes poop.  Matt hasn't carried him over his head each time running through the house screaming WOOOOOOOO---HOOOOOOOOO every time he does the deed.  That would be a little over the top. *  Caleb doesn't ask us if we're going to do the parade each time he goes to sit on the potty! *...