Charles Martin Books

Our weekend provided us with some much need catch up time. We got our errands run, the yard mowed and all that typical weekend stuff.

We had to make an impromptu  trip to Walmart for…get this folks…a sandwichbox. That’s right yall, my son took his first ever sandwich to lunch today! He agreed he would try it if we went to Walmart and got him a sandwich box to put it in! I of course said “Sure! Anything to get you to eat a sandwich!” He was very excited going off too school with his PB&J this morning. We’ll see how much is left when he gets home…

In other news the party is set! Dylan will celebrate his 5th birthday with a party at the YMCA pool on Oct. 5th! He is so excited and I am too. I had a blast putting together his invitations and am already planning away.

On my entertainment news, I am so happy I finally got my Barbara Walters book Audition from the library (I’ve been waiting for months now). I will start it tonight. I just finished a book or two rather that I really enjoyed. My mother in law recommended them; The Dead Don’t Dance and the sequel Maggie by Charles Martin. They are religious fiction and I loved the story. True love and family and belief all rolled into one. Suspense and fun. They are set in South Carolina providing a nostalgic feel. I grew to love the characters and the troubles they went through were heart wrenching. The way they conquered there problems while maintaining a loving relationship with God and each other was inspirational. Despite the religious fiction category, they were not too in your face about it, when I read for pleasure that is not always something I enjoy. I recommend these two books for a good love story. Fare warning The Dead Don’t Dance the first book is hard to begin with, the first few chapters had me boo hooing! But the inspiration and true love felt through out the book well make up for it. An excelent read! Have you read any good books lately I am always up for recomendations!

How much is too much?

We have reached Friday, finally. I am thankful for that. We are all still intact and on our way to being recuperated. Dylan and Ella trudged along in the school routine this week. Ella loves it and continues to do well despite a teacher change (urrg, more about that when I cool down). Dylan has been doing wonderfully. Brining home “green lights” every day. That’s code for good behavior, if he was acting up it would go to yellow or red. He is very proud of himself as are we. The teacher reassured us he is doing well while at school. Now, once he gets home…that’s a whole other story. I know I am actually getting more time to myself, but truth be told I am having a harder time than I anticipated. You see I get home from dropping Ella off around 8:40 or so, I then have until 11:40 to get everything done. I work out, do laundry, clean, run errands and all those other goodies that need to be done. Well as the schedule has proven when Ella and I get home at 12:10 or so we eat lunch this leaves about an hour before we have to go pick up Dylan (and the other Dylan most days). Not enough time for a nap, thus creating a cranky Ella. Then Dylan gets home, when we pick the other Dylan up he is often at our house until 3:30 or so. By that time it is too late for Dylan to take a nap. Even if the other Dylan does not come to our house, my Dylan is often to hyped up, wild and excited to lay down.

So from 12 until bed time I have anywhere from 1 to 3 cranky kids swarming my house. This has created a new routine in our house. Dinner has been moved to 5, showers to 6 and bed time to 6:30. Literally folks my kids have been in bed by 6:30 every night this week. They sleep well and all night, getting up on their own around 7 every morning (just the time I need them too). What’s a girl to do when her days are 3 hours long? Heck, I am using good old Bob the Builder babysitter just to write this! I have always been good at getting things done with the kids around, but that was when they weren’t little hellions. And seriously that is what they are come 3 every afternoon. I am actually worried about Dylan, 12 hours of sleep a night seems like a lot, for him to still be acting so tired every afternoon. He literally shuts down by 4 and is laying on the couch while I fix dinner. He gets up eats, says he’s ready to go to bed and does. Is this normal? How much sleep is too much sleep?

Grey Hairs, and Wedding Vows!

We’re back! I definitely have a few more gray hairs, wrinkles and calluses (on my rear) but we survived. Now I guess I did not accurately remember my 14 year old journeys to the outer banks. I knew in my mind it would be 7 hours of driving but I never would have thought that the last 46 miles (traveling south down hyw 12) would be the longest most painful hour of my life. Seriously, child birth was better, at least there was only one child then and an end in sight. I never would have thought that with seven hours in the car over nap time that my kids would not sleep a wink! Not even a long blink, they just got louder and louder and louder and wilder and wilder and wilder.

Dylan and Ella pulled themselves together long enough to fool all the new family members into believing they were mild mannered, well behaved children! Hahaha, little do they know what we had just been through. And the worst was still ahead of us. They were up well past bed time but slept well after they got settled. They had to sleep in the same bed (they had never done that before), and turned out one of the most precious moments of the weekend (they are both sound asleep).

The wedding went off with out a visible hitch. The kids stood still and didn’t try to talk to Amaw during her vows (my biggest fear). Ella stalled out half way down the isle and decided she wanted to keep the seashells for herself instead of sprinkling them as directed but she was still super cute. They both danced and ate and had a blast waiting for the cake at the reception. They fell into bed Saturday night exhausted.

They still popped out of bed at 7 the next morning in anticipation for our drive home. We had promised a ferry ride (car boat as Dylan calls it). We knew the ferry would make our drive a bit longer (time wise) but anticipated the three hours on the ferry would give the kids and us a break. Unfortunately that 3 hour ferry ride was actually 3 hours and 40 minutes. The kids did fall asleep for a whole 30 minutes after the ferry, but that was it! For the whole day 30 minutes. After stopping for potty breaks, food and admittedly some Benadryl for the kids (in hopes they would sleep, hahaha not so much), our 9 hour drive turned into 12. We rolled into the driveway around 11 with screaming kids, screaming parents and school in the morning. We made it safely though and that is what counts.

Two days, 7 loads of laundry and a 6:30 bed time later we are back on track and in the swing of things.

Miles and Piles

My piles are piled high, ready for the miles ahead. The week went smoothly. I have most of my packing done, except for the few early morning things. We will hit road first thing in the am. Seven hours later, we’ll see if I have any hair left when we roll in to Hatteras. This is the first time I will be going to the outer banks since I was a teen with my parents. I am looking foreword to the scenery and maybe a little reading (if my stomach can handle car reading). The wedding will be Saturday night. I will let you all know how my flower/seashell (you can’t throw flowers on the beach anymore) girl and ring bearer perform, it ought to be fun.

On the home front school went well this week. We had a meeting with Dylan’s teacher to discuss the years curriculum. My eyes just about poped out of my head with all that he is supposed to learn this year. However his teacher said she thinks he is doing very well and not behind the other children. Which is a load of my mind! Now we just have to work with him through the year so he keeps up. He has a new book to read every night and 3 new “sight” words to learn every week.

Dylan also carpooled for the first time this week. Our neighbor across the street is in 1st grade at his school. His mom and I thought it silly we both drive everyday. So we will share that task from now on. She also works the occasional afternoons and I will be keeping her son (also Dylan) on those days. My Dylan really enjoys playing and having fun with a neighbor. I am so glad that we have found and made friends with one of the only other kids in the area.

Catch-up!

The ”tired” finally caught up with Dylan on Thursday. We had to drag him out of the house kicking and screaming. We got to his class and the switch turned off and he was fine. He even bought his first school lunch. He apparently does not eat enough or fast enough because the cafeteria sent him home with an orange. I think we will continue to pack lunches most of the time. The cafeteria fare is not quite his cup of tea. Dylan slept most of the weekend. He went to bed at 6pm Friday evening and did not get up until 7:30 Saturday morning, he also took a nap Sat. afternoon. 

On Sunday we had a little “pretend” birthday, as we called it. We got together with Shane’s dad’s side of the family to celebrate August and September birthday’s. Dylan gets lumped in with them as his is the 1st  and also the only October birthday. He enjoyed it and has since been telling us all about what he wants to do for his real birthday. His birthday last year was a pony riding extravaganza (thanks to Aunt Wendy who has the horsey hook up), this year he wants to have a pool party at the YMCA. This is the first time he has really expressed a big desire for a location and theme (pirates, suiting to the pool I guess), I think we will try our best to make this happen. I just hope he has some friends show up this year. It seems with his birthday so close to the beginning of the year he doesn’t have many close friends by then. Last year he just had like 5 little friends there. I guess I’ll have to start planning again soon.

The week ahead looks to be busy. We have school all week and leave Friday for Hatteras for the big wedding. Shane’s mom will be getting re-married on Saturday. Dylan will be a ring bearer and Ella a flower girl. Bare-foot on the beach, just pray no strayhurricanes pop up out of nowhere. And pray for my sanity as well, it takes 7 hours to drive there, and with two extra tired and cranky kids…just pray…

Itchy, Twichy

Well so far we have survived another two days. The lack of sleep is getting to both of my children. They are both cranky and we have only gone two days so far. At the first if the year I thought I would just give them both a nap after Dylan got home. It has become clear that this will not work. The past two days Ella has fallen asleep in the car waiting to pick Dylan up (which is at least a 30 minute process). Then nether want to sleep when they get home. If you combine that with a neighbor boy who Dylan loves to play with, coming over, the equation just does not work in my favor. We are only getting up like 15 minutes earlier than we did this summer but even for Shane and I that has added up to a big difference. I can only hope we will all adjust, my only fear is that once Dylan gets used to it the first nine weeks will be up and then he wont even get “rest” time at school either. 

To top off my cranky kid week, we got a lovely note from Dylan’s teacher yesterday. They have discovered a case of LICE in the class. OH MY GOD!!! This totally grosses my out! My head itches just thinking about it. Now Dylan does NOT have it and I will do my damnedest to make sure he doesn’t get it! I know this is very common, in fact the school sent home this long sheet about how common it is and all that. It still totally makes my skin crawl though. I grew up going to daycare, and I never got them. I do remember once having to be checked by the teachers. I don’t know why but that day and that experience sticks out clearly in my mind. I hate that my son is having to experience that. Welcome to Davidson County, I suppose. Yet another draw back to the southern school system.