Signs of the Times

The first month of school is officially over.  As much as we are all ready for school to start again, the transition can be painful.  I try so hard to be patient because I really do understand that it's hard to go from Party All The Time in the summer to 6 hours of school a day.  There are, however, only so many times I can watch Tessa burst into tears because her princess water bottle wasn't put in the refrigerator and now IS NOT COLD ENOUGH after school.  The other day it got so bad that William actually ran to his room and threatened to run away from home.  It took me 30 minutes to talk him down off the ledge.  I know, I know - conventional wisdom says to call them on their bluffs when confronted by a clearly irrational outbust, but trust me when I say that this particular strategy wouldn't work with William.  Sigh.

Anyway, I got tired of the drama so the other day I posted a sign on the door for the kids to see when they came home.  It said Grumpiness Not Allowed....Enter Only If Smiling....This Means You!  And you know what?  It kind of worked.  They came in the door laughing.  And they seemed to be in better moods all the way around.  The next day I posted another sign - this one had a smiley face with the question Is This You?  If not, go away until it is.  That day I heard them running up the stairs to see what the sign said.  I've decided to continue the sign trend - they seem to think it's fun and so far I have remembered to post something on the door.  Today's sign was a suggestion from Jay - The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.  There was a little confusion about the meaning of the sign but once I explained it - teaching irony to a five year old can take a while - they laughed and asked for a snack.  They seem to look forward to seeing what nonsense their mom can post on the door so who am I to deprive them of a daily sign? 

If you have any suggestions for good door signs, feel free to share.  I have a feeling that my ideas will run out fairly quickly.

The Nickname List

Tessa can be a funny little girl.  She has recently begun compiling her Approved Nickname List, which are all the nicknames that Jay and I (mostly Jay, it seems) are allowed to call her.  On the list are the usual suspects, like Princess, Tessie and Lou Lou (which is my preferred nickname).  Surprisingly, Rose seems to be one of her favorites.  She really wants Jay to call her Rose, apparently.  Or Sweet Pea.  The poor man can't keep them all straight.

He had plenty of time to practice this weekend as I took a little road trip with some friends.  We had so much fun.  We shopped, we ate, we laughed.  We made stops at stores from Target (laugh if you will, but since we don't have a Target in Cache Valley it's a rare treat) to Janie and Jack and many, many of the outlet stores in Park City.  The only hitch in the weekend came when an unhappy sequence of events that included a ride to Park City in the backseat of a minivan combined with what much have been a little more heat than I could handle resulted in me becoming car sick.  Apparently I'm 5 years old. 

I wasn't actually sick in the car, thank goodness.  I wouldn't go around inspecting the bushes in the parking lot of the Hampton Inn in Park City, however, if you know what I mean.  The real tragedy is that I was unable to finish my Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory.  And I may never eat cheesecake again.  Sigh.

A good nights sleep had me feeling right as rain and I managed to do my share to stimulate the economy.  Thanks for a great weekend, Melissa, Kristina and Kim.  And thanks to Jay for taking the kids so that I could go have a bit of fun.  It almost makes up for him missing Tessa's broken arm/surgery fiasco while he was in China.

Almost.

A Conversation with William

Today we took a bittersweet trip to Ogden.  We went to see Jay's grandmother.  We call her Great Nana.  She is living in a rest home now and is showing her age quite a bit (she turns 97 this fall).  We took pictures with her and spent a few minutes with her.  She seemed happy to see the kids running around and playing.  We hope she is comfortable and peaceful during this time of her life.

This isn't the best picture of our little family but I love the picture of Nana. 

We hung out in Ogden for a while and then Tessa, William and I headed home while Jay and Henry stayed to watch the Ute game with the rest of the family.  I like college football but Tessa isn't the biggest fan so keeping her out long past her bedtime for something she barely tolerates at home didn't seem like the best idea. 

We had quite the conversation on the way home.  I'm not sure what they had been thinking about, but we went from "Mom, when is the world going to end?" to "Are there aliens that are going to come and blow us up?"  I was a little flummoxed by the strange conversation but tried to be as reassuring as I could that the world wasn't going to end by alien attack.

Then, when we were almost home, William asked, "Is it hard to get married?"  He further clarified that what he really wanted to know was if it was hard for me to get a boyfriend.  Seeing as I didn't get married until I was 29, most people around here would say that yes, it was hard to get married.  But I just said that Jay and I met and decided we liked each other and fell in love and got married and no, once we decided that we loved each other it wasn't hard at all.  Tessa, the little romantic, was making puking noises in the backseat.  William then asked me what kinds of places we liked to go on dates.  When I mentioned dinner, he asked me if we went to Wendy's for dinner.  I said that it just depended on what we were doing for the rest of the date or if dinner was the main part of the date.  At that, William wisely said, "Yeah, I guess if you were just going to dinner on a date, you'd want to go somewhere more romantic than Wendy's.  Like Chick-Fil-A." 

Bless his cute little heart.

Away She Goes!

Thanks to my friend Stacy, who took pictures of Tessa on her first day of kindergarten.  Doesn't she look grown up? 

Waiting for the Kindergarten Bus

Tessa's First Bus Ride

She has really enjoyed school so far.  They have spent alot of time learning rules so hopefully it will get even more fun as time goes by.  She seems excited to go back to school tomorrow so that's a good sign.

And I don't think I'll spend any time watching the clock this week.  With all the things that I need to get done, I'll be lucky to remember that the kids are coming home at all.

The Loneliest Number

My baby started kindergarten today.  Sniff.  Sigh.  I'm not normally a very sentimental person but I surprised myself as I was walking home after putting her on the bus.  I started crying.  I didn't sob or anything.  But a few tears leaked out as I walked home and began what will be my daily 3 1/2 hours of.......whatever I want. 

I wish I could post a cute picture of her but I had a major parenting fail and neglected to recharge the batteries on my camera.  We got out to the bus stop and my camera chirped and died.  Luckily my neighbor took a few pictures of Tessa getting on the bus so I'll try and post them when I get her my email address.

Today I feel lonely.  I'm used to Tessa just always being around, even when the boys aren't.  Luckily the loneliness won't last - I'm hoping to volunteer in the kids classrooms a couple of times a week and I have plenty of church and home projects to keep me busy.  I can go to the dentist and get my hair cut without worrying about making it back for the preschool pickup.  Christmas shopping will be a breeze.  I've got lots of time to do lots of things.  But today my free time has been spent checking the clock to see when Tessa will be home from her first day of kindergarten.