Haircuts!

 Tom agrees that it's time for a haircut!

Tom's Field Trip to SCR

Tom on the bus. This was his favorite part of the trip!

Getting ready for the show!

 Lunch at the ball park.

A gaggle of kids.

Tom's Classroom

This is what happens when you bring a camera into a Kindergarten classroom!

Homework cubbies!

Tom's desk and the little girl he just could not figure out. 

Bed Time Routines

Every night at 7pm we go upstairs and get jamas on and brush our teeth. Then we read two stories and get in bed. Tom always goes to the bathroom again and Jake always needs a drink of water. Then I sit on the floor in their room and read while they go to sleep. Every night Jake falls asleep almost instantly. Tom tries really hard to stay awake. He makes little noises, kicks his feet, swings his arms around, just to keep him self awake. Every night I tell him to stop. I’ve tried ignoring him, but he only escalates it until I say something. Sometimes he tries to get his brother involved.

On Wednesday night I went out with some of my friends. Dan put the boys to bed that night. You would think that I had just told Tom that I was going away forever! He melted when I told him what was going to happen that night. The kid is a serious creature of habit. If he doesn’t get a kiss from Dad in the right place on his cheek before he goes to bed, he has a cow for an hour.

Jake

Poor little Jake has a bad cold, too! Tom had it for the past two weeks but never ran a fever. Jake is funny that way. You know he is going to be sick because about 24 hours before he gets sick he runs a super high fever at night. He woke up fussing once on Friday night and I went in to him. He was burning hot! 104.7! And that was with an ear thermometer. I gave him some Tylenol and he went back to sleep. He was fine all day on Saturday. Then he ran a fever on Saturday night and woke up with a super stuffy nose and cough on Sunday. He is pretty bad today, too. But he wants to go “do something fun”. I think he should stay in bed. Luckily, he will take cold medicine (unlike the other two) and he should start to get pretty sleepy soon.

There is a big fire out towards Irvine park today and the smoke is blowing right over the house and raining ash on us. It looks crazy because on one side of the house it is clear and pretty. The other side of the house is dark and orange from smoke. 

Yesterday, I went to the Natural History Museum while Nikki was at her acting class. I spent a half an hour reading about California Chaparral and how drought and rain and wind periods are so necessary for our kinds of plants and animals. Crazy! Last year, there was so much rain. The 4^th wettest year recorded. And this year there has been hardly any rain. It rained a little on New Years.

Jake and I worked in the front yard for a little bit today. He watered the grass for me while I pulled some weeds and some rose bushes I don’t want to grow next spring. I broke the shovel doing it though! Also, I got the backsplash in the kitchen repainted finally. And I did some of the wall with the windows. I don’t like it all white like it is though. I thought it would be better than the yellow, but it isn’t. Maybe I’ll pick another color to put over it.

Jake is ready for a Nerf war!

 

Thursday

Thursday is the day that I take Tom to school and then stay there to help in the classroom. I love it. Getting started in the morning isn’t any fun, though. I get up at 5AM so that I can get a shower before I have to get Tom going. We both don’t like to get moving in the morning but always enjoy ourselves once we get there! 

Poor Miss Riley still has no voice so I got to read the stories to the class today. I love that! A girl threw up in class today and her Mom came to get her. And I made lots of copies, glued papers to folders, cut paper, and cleaned paint brushes. It was a great day! Tom had a paper today that he had to write “I have a ____and their name is ____.” He wrote friend and Jake. How cute is that?

Jake spent the day with Grandma. He went to Marie Calendars to get pies for her crochet club and then went to McDonald’s for lunch. They made valentines for the family. And played pretend in his room for over an hour!

Now we are waiting for Dan to get home early ( a little ) and then we are going to go to Disneyland for dinner. That should be fun!

Stuff

Tom is now giving us a hard time about going to school in the morning. Yesterday he really got to me. He has had a head cold and I know he isn’t feeling all that great, but he is fine after school to run around and play. This morning was different though. He was fine about getting ready for school, ate breakfast, was happy and awake as can be, but when I said “Go to the bathroom. It is almost time to leave.” He melted. Suddenly his nose was stuffy and he was coughing and tired. I think it has more to do with playing xbox with his brother before school. Tomorrow I’m going to try keeping that off until after everyone leaves for school.
 

Today, Tom is going to have his first substitute teacher! He told me about it yesterday. Miss Riley has such a bad cold too that she has completely lost her voice. I can’t imagine how she ran her class with no voice. But her class is so sweet. I’m sure they took care of her. Nikki teased Tom about subs drinking blood and that kind of stuff. Dan used to tell her how you are supposed to give them a hard time in class. I thought she would do the same thing for Tom, but she made it gorey! L Tom didn’t believe it anyway.

So it is just me and Jake again, now. He is playing Battlefront on Xbox, SURPRISE! I can’t take a shower yet because there is no hot water yet. We have a playdate at Kathy’s this morning and then the boys and I are going to Disneyland after school.

Julie called last night and told us that she was going to be in Riverside today and the person that was supposed to pick up Nikki at school couldn’t, so if we couldn’t pick her up then we better not send her to school. Dan is going to pick her up. Then take her to Janell’s. 

I wanted to add that I am working on finishing the drywall and paint in the kitchen. Dan took out the floor last weekend and is working on putting down a new sub-floor and then some laminate wood he found at Costco. Maybe, just maybe, it will look as if it is finished some time soon! ;) The funny part is that I am working on it a little at a time. I go in before I get a shower and sand some of it and fill any holes, or paint a section. Then I go get a shower and go about my day. I get about a couple feet done every day. I think it is working out great. I only spend about 20 to 30 minutes on it a day!

I’m just so full of thought and I have time to write things down!

I just hate being so scheduled! I have to be up at the same time every day and pick up Tom every day. Entertaining Jake is a pain. Complain, complain! I revisit homeschooling and think about the greatness of a lack of schedule. But is that what would be really good for all of us or just what is easier for me? Poor Jake is so bored. I keep thinking we have to do this for another year and a half before Jake starts school. And then it is back and forth between two pick up times for a year until Jake starts 1st grade. Crazy isn’t it? How I can be so gung-ho and a month later be ready to give it all up? Sounds a lot like my 20’s! I used to do the same thing when I was working. Probably why I loved entertainment so much, it was always changing. Dan hates that. He likes to know what is going to happening and when. Me? I’d rather fly around changing things. What would I do with my life if I had no where to be and no one to entertain? No work to go to, no family to make happy or take care of? It sure would be weird!