Sunday, April 02, 2017
Rest of March
Well, I guess I forgot to post last week, though I'm not sure why since we were all home from church.
Monday - Katsu was out of town in Michigan. Otherwise, it was a pretty normal day I think - work, preschool, running club. Getting all 4 boys ready to go and in the car by 7:10 wears me out like nothing else, but we managed. Logan taught a FHE lesson.
Tuesday - a super busy day. Got the older boys off to school and then took Logan and Noah over to a friend's house so I could speak for Career week at Seth's class. I told them all about engineering for about 20 minutes and they seemed to enjoy it - they had tons of questions. I picked up the little boys. We dropped Logan off and then Noah and I went to the library quickly and then went to a St. Patrick's Day party at the church. Noah was a little shy because most of the kids were from the other ward. He liked the making a four leaf clover treat out of pretzels, Rolos, and M&Ms and didn't mind stringing fruit loops to make a necklace, and loved the treasure hunt and the story time. He also had fun throwing coins into a pot. Then, he was ready to eat and do the gift exchange. He got a little truck which he was happy about. Then, off to pick Logan up from preschool. We had a quick lunch and then we took Logan to the elementary school to register for Kindergarten. Logan was kind of shy and didn't want to talk much and he was disappointed they weren't doing tours right then. And, I, of course, forgot my phone at home so I didn't have any of the phone numbers for the forms, but I didn't worry too much since I know we'll end up filling in all the forms over again at the beginning of the week. Logan is pretty excited about starting kindergarten in the fall. We had a quick dinner before going off to Logan's soccer practice, dropped Andrew off at cub scouts, and home in time to try to get the kids to sleep (ha!) before my primary presidency meeting. I think Logan was asleep and that's it. Noah has been obsessed with Little Mermaid so I set him up to watch it in the playroom while we met. Of course, I figured he was asleep because the meeting didn't end until almost 10, but no, he was happily watching movies (stupid dang naps make it impossible to put him to sleep), so he didn't get to sleep until 10:20. I was almost still awake when Katsu got back in from Michigan.
Wednesday - a normal day more or less. Andrew was feeling under the weather, but I had to go to work and office hours, so he came with me to work, which I hate, but better than skipping. Andrew loved it and felt all special getting one-on-one time with me. But then he was wild and causing trouble all afternoon at which point I said unless he was throwing up or running a fever he was forbidden from staying home "sick". Once all the kids were asleep, Noah woke up throwing up. And it was a few hours of vomiting, again and again as soon as we would get him cleaned up. I ended up sleeping with him on the floor of the living room, I think. What an exhausting night. We thought it might be food poisoning from a pizza I had gotten from Walmart on Tuesday, but hard to say.
Thursday - Andrew had battle of the books. I had this grand plan to get to most of the event and watch it but I couldn't get any babysitter with a sick kid, So, Logan stayed home - I didn't want to chance a sick kid. Seth wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home - I was worried he would be throwing up and didn't want to chance it. Andrew went to the competition. I was pretty upset that I had to miss it, so Katsu was going to come home after lunch so I could go over there. But they called me at like 11:30 saying that the kids didn't make it to the afternoon and I needed to come get him. So, I had to get all the kids in the car because everyone was home and go across town (and get a little lost before I figured out where I was going) to go pick him up. I felt pretty bad that they didn't do well, I missed the whole thing, and everyone had to wait for me to come pick him up since all the other parents were there. It really sucks not having anyone around to help watch the kids for things like this. Anyways, it sounded like Andrew himself did okay, but he was only in a couple of rounds. But he was more interested in the historical nature of how badly the team did - worse ever. I think they were like 6th, so middle of the pack, but they usually win or come in second. But apparently, Andrew wasn't too horribly upset about it because he came home with the new list for next year for Battle of the Books and has already started reading all the books and going to practice for next year. The rest of the day was everyone being crazy and driving me up the wall. Noah, thankfully, seemed completely fine the whole day and took a little nap in the car.
Friday - Everyone went to school (yay!) and it was a pretty normal day. We tried to get a babysitter, but it didn't work out (for the best, I guess). Logan got to pick the movie night movie and we got Moana from Redbox and we all really enjoyed it. Got the kids to bed, I was exahusted from not sleeping well the previous couple nights and basically passed out. Turns out, it was Logan and Seth's turn to be sick. Katsu was up with Logan and Seth throwing up off and on half the night. We did a ton of laundry this week and tons of cleaning the carpet! Can't comment much, since Katsu took care of it, but it was not a good night.
Saturday - We had to skip soccer games, so it was a home day. Seth was pretty upset about missing games, but what can you do. It was supposed to be the first week of games. Seth and Logan had something different or worse than Noah because they were sick all day - running fevers, throwing up, etc. I ran to the grocery store (finally got to newly remodeled Aldi which had opened on Thursday - hallelujah, we can eat again). We also got the Trolls movie from Netflix which seemed awful to me, but the kids liked it. What a long week! Seth had to miss a birthday party which he was really upset about to. Katsu and I were supposed to go on a date but had to cancel it, so we got take-out instead and tried out some partner workout and yoga was fun. And we did a lot of laundry.
Sunday - We all stayed home from church. We still had not been throw up free / fever free for a day and I figured the rest of us were ticking time bombs for sickness. Katsu was sick all day and so it was me and the kids. I was about to lose my mind by this point with sick kids home off and on all week and Katsu out of town off and on. And too much screens! Ahh!!!
Monday - everyone was at work and school and no one was sick or out of town. Hallelujah! Andrew had running club, Noah didn't take a nap and went to bed early, but otherwise, normal day.
Tuesday - Logan went to preschool, but got a ride home from a friend because I had a speech meeting with the speech teacher and Seth's classroom teacher. Only they couldn't find the classroom teacher anywhere. She finally got to the meeting like 20 or more minutes late! The process is so long to actually get Seth into speech - it basically takes a whole semester. Oh, well. At least it's just speech and not something more urgent. Logan had soccer practice so me and the kids all made it over there. It was kind of stormy so the practice got over early. We got the 13 story treehouse to listen to on tape and the kids crack up the whole time, so it makes us all a lot less grumpy going to soccer. Then, we went to the pack meeting for Andrew. I was just going to have Katsu and Andrew go but we all ended up staying and listening to a sister in our ward talk about the military. Noah was having a hard time being quiet, but sure liked the cupcake at the end. We got home and it was like 8:30. I had a lot of grading to do and was giving a test in the morning and I just wanted everyone to bed. But guess who shows up at 8:45? The sister missionaries! I was kind of annoyed as we were all in pajamas, but of course, Andrew and Logan wanted to stay up to talk to them. I ended up getting most (but not all of my homework graded).
Wednesday - normal day nothing exciting.
Thursday - another busy day. Andrew had a field trip to Chapel Hill to see the planetarium we saw in the summer, so we were busy getting him ready. Logan went to preschool and Noah and I went shopping at Target and then went to story time at the library where he learned about seeds and planted a little pot of seeds, which I am pretty sure is still in the car and spilling dirt everywhere. Seth got home from school (he usually is playing at his friend's house after school everyday but the last couple days they were playing here). I chased everyone off at 4:45 so we could drive over to the school and wait for Andrew to get back from his field trip and then it was off to Seth's soccer practice. It was kind of a mess with 2 teams (Seth's and then one that was Logan's age) playing a scrimmage with 15 kids on the field at once. The other boys were all being wild and driving me insane. We got home and the kids ate some pasta and we got some of them to bed and then I had my book club. 3 people came and everyone had read the book, so it was a fun evening.
Friday - busy day. We watched the kids we carpool with in the afternoon and then we had tons of people over and in and out all afternoon - fun for the kids and nice, but hard for me to get anything done. Seth went over to a friend's house for a birthday party, we had pizza, and then put Noah straight to bed since he had no nap. We had a babysitter and Katsu and I went to the Russian Ballet. It was very enjoyable - they did different dances from many 10 different ballets and it was really interesting seeing the wide variety of dances. I slept really poorly this week (Noah wakes up every night and half the time it is to throw a huge fit), so I liked the energetic pieces the best because after the intermission I was very tired.
Saturday - it poured rain on Friday so soccer was cancelled (I feel like this is the season where we are missing all the games!). I ran to the grocery store in the morning and then Andrew and Katsu went to his 5k. Well, it was really more like a 6k mud run with 16 obstacles and 3 water stops. They ran together in teams with teams starting every 5 minutes. In addition to all the rain, they added a whole bunch more water to make it a huge mud pit. They ran in the mud, had to do log carries, climb big things that were really high with bars and things - kind of like monkey bars (Andrew's description). They had to "swim" in the mud in one part - a big pond. They had to climb over very high logs. I was worried that Andrew got lost because Katsu still didn't see him after an hour and a half, but he finished it in 1 hour and 40 minutes. Even the fastest adults took at least 40 minutes. He was quite muddy, but had a lot of fun. We attempted to watch General Conference while they were gone, but the boys ended up playing outside, except Noah who threw a fit about wanting to watch star wars until he passed out and fell asleep, only to wake up 2 hours later, still throwing the fit for another hour about wanting to watch Star Wars. Silly boy. I think he throws fits as bad as Andrew did. Katsu and I watched the afternoon session while the boys played and were generally crazy.
Monday - Katsu was out of town in Michigan. Otherwise, it was a pretty normal day I think - work, preschool, running club. Getting all 4 boys ready to go and in the car by 7:10 wears me out like nothing else, but we managed. Logan taught a FHE lesson.
Tuesday - a super busy day. Got the older boys off to school and then took Logan and Noah over to a friend's house so I could speak for Career week at Seth's class. I told them all about engineering for about 20 minutes and they seemed to enjoy it - they had tons of questions. I picked up the little boys. We dropped Logan off and then Noah and I went to the library quickly and then went to a St. Patrick's Day party at the church. Noah was a little shy because most of the kids were from the other ward. He liked the making a four leaf clover treat out of pretzels, Rolos, and M&Ms and didn't mind stringing fruit loops to make a necklace, and loved the treasure hunt and the story time. He also had fun throwing coins into a pot. Then, he was ready to eat and do the gift exchange. He got a little truck which he was happy about. Then, off to pick Logan up from preschool. We had a quick lunch and then we took Logan to the elementary school to register for Kindergarten. Logan was kind of shy and didn't want to talk much and he was disappointed they weren't doing tours right then. And, I, of course, forgot my phone at home so I didn't have any of the phone numbers for the forms, but I didn't worry too much since I know we'll end up filling in all the forms over again at the beginning of the week. Logan is pretty excited about starting kindergarten in the fall. We had a quick dinner before going off to Logan's soccer practice, dropped Andrew off at cub scouts, and home in time to try to get the kids to sleep (ha!) before my primary presidency meeting. I think Logan was asleep and that's it. Noah has been obsessed with Little Mermaid so I set him up to watch it in the playroom while we met. Of course, I figured he was asleep because the meeting didn't end until almost 10, but no, he was happily watching movies (stupid dang naps make it impossible to put him to sleep), so he didn't get to sleep until 10:20. I was almost still awake when Katsu got back in from Michigan.
Wednesday - a normal day more or less. Andrew was feeling under the weather, but I had to go to work and office hours, so he came with me to work, which I hate, but better than skipping. Andrew loved it and felt all special getting one-on-one time with me. But then he was wild and causing trouble all afternoon at which point I said unless he was throwing up or running a fever he was forbidden from staying home "sick". Once all the kids were asleep, Noah woke up throwing up. And it was a few hours of vomiting, again and again as soon as we would get him cleaned up. I ended up sleeping with him on the floor of the living room, I think. What an exhausting night. We thought it might be food poisoning from a pizza I had gotten from Walmart on Tuesday, but hard to say.
Thursday - Andrew had battle of the books. I had this grand plan to get to most of the event and watch it but I couldn't get any babysitter with a sick kid, So, Logan stayed home - I didn't want to chance a sick kid. Seth wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home - I was worried he would be throwing up and didn't want to chance it. Andrew went to the competition. I was pretty upset that I had to miss it, so Katsu was going to come home after lunch so I could go over there. But they called me at like 11:30 saying that the kids didn't make it to the afternoon and I needed to come get him. So, I had to get all the kids in the car because everyone was home and go across town (and get a little lost before I figured out where I was going) to go pick him up. I felt pretty bad that they didn't do well, I missed the whole thing, and everyone had to wait for me to come pick him up since all the other parents were there. It really sucks not having anyone around to help watch the kids for things like this. Anyways, it sounded like Andrew himself did okay, but he was only in a couple of rounds. But he was more interested in the historical nature of how badly the team did - worse ever. I think they were like 6th, so middle of the pack, but they usually win or come in second. But apparently, Andrew wasn't too horribly upset about it because he came home with the new list for next year for Battle of the Books and has already started reading all the books and going to practice for next year. The rest of the day was everyone being crazy and driving me up the wall. Noah, thankfully, seemed completely fine the whole day and took a little nap in the car.
Friday - Everyone went to school (yay!) and it was a pretty normal day. We tried to get a babysitter, but it didn't work out (for the best, I guess). Logan got to pick the movie night movie and we got Moana from Redbox and we all really enjoyed it. Got the kids to bed, I was exahusted from not sleeping well the previous couple nights and basically passed out. Turns out, it was Logan and Seth's turn to be sick. Katsu was up with Logan and Seth throwing up off and on half the night. We did a ton of laundry this week and tons of cleaning the carpet! Can't comment much, since Katsu took care of it, but it was not a good night.
Saturday - We had to skip soccer games, so it was a home day. Seth was pretty upset about missing games, but what can you do. It was supposed to be the first week of games. Seth and Logan had something different or worse than Noah because they were sick all day - running fevers, throwing up, etc. I ran to the grocery store (finally got to newly remodeled Aldi which had opened on Thursday - hallelujah, we can eat again). We also got the Trolls movie from Netflix which seemed awful to me, but the kids liked it. What a long week! Seth had to miss a birthday party which he was really upset about to. Katsu and I were supposed to go on a date but had to cancel it, so we got take-out instead and tried out some partner workout and yoga was fun. And we did a lot of laundry.
Sunday - We all stayed home from church. We still had not been throw up free / fever free for a day and I figured the rest of us were ticking time bombs for sickness. Katsu was sick all day and so it was me and the kids. I was about to lose my mind by this point with sick kids home off and on all week and Katsu out of town off and on. And too much screens! Ahh!!!
Monday - everyone was at work and school and no one was sick or out of town. Hallelujah! Andrew had running club, Noah didn't take a nap and went to bed early, but otherwise, normal day.
Tuesday - Logan went to preschool, but got a ride home from a friend because I had a speech meeting with the speech teacher and Seth's classroom teacher. Only they couldn't find the classroom teacher anywhere. She finally got to the meeting like 20 or more minutes late! The process is so long to actually get Seth into speech - it basically takes a whole semester. Oh, well. At least it's just speech and not something more urgent. Logan had soccer practice so me and the kids all made it over there. It was kind of stormy so the practice got over early. We got the 13 story treehouse to listen to on tape and the kids crack up the whole time, so it makes us all a lot less grumpy going to soccer. Then, we went to the pack meeting for Andrew. I was just going to have Katsu and Andrew go but we all ended up staying and listening to a sister in our ward talk about the military. Noah was having a hard time being quiet, but sure liked the cupcake at the end. We got home and it was like 8:30. I had a lot of grading to do and was giving a test in the morning and I just wanted everyone to bed. But guess who shows up at 8:45? The sister missionaries! I was kind of annoyed as we were all in pajamas, but of course, Andrew and Logan wanted to stay up to talk to them. I ended up getting most (but not all of my homework graded).
Wednesday - normal day nothing exciting.
Thursday - another busy day. Andrew had a field trip to Chapel Hill to see the planetarium we saw in the summer, so we were busy getting him ready. Logan went to preschool and Noah and I went shopping at Target and then went to story time at the library where he learned about seeds and planted a little pot of seeds, which I am pretty sure is still in the car and spilling dirt everywhere. Seth got home from school (he usually is playing at his friend's house after school everyday but the last couple days they were playing here). I chased everyone off at 4:45 so we could drive over to the school and wait for Andrew to get back from his field trip and then it was off to Seth's soccer practice. It was kind of a mess with 2 teams (Seth's and then one that was Logan's age) playing a scrimmage with 15 kids on the field at once. The other boys were all being wild and driving me insane. We got home and the kids ate some pasta and we got some of them to bed and then I had my book club. 3 people came and everyone had read the book, so it was a fun evening.
Friday - busy day. We watched the kids we carpool with in the afternoon and then we had tons of people over and in and out all afternoon - fun for the kids and nice, but hard for me to get anything done. Seth went over to a friend's house for a birthday party, we had pizza, and then put Noah straight to bed since he had no nap. We had a babysitter and Katsu and I went to the Russian Ballet. It was very enjoyable - they did different dances from many 10 different ballets and it was really interesting seeing the wide variety of dances. I slept really poorly this week (Noah wakes up every night and half the time it is to throw a huge fit), so I liked the energetic pieces the best because after the intermission I was very tired.
Saturday - it poured rain on Friday so soccer was cancelled (I feel like this is the season where we are missing all the games!). I ran to the grocery store in the morning and then Andrew and Katsu went to his 5k. Well, it was really more like a 6k mud run with 16 obstacles and 3 water stops. They ran together in teams with teams starting every 5 minutes. In addition to all the rain, they added a whole bunch more water to make it a huge mud pit. They ran in the mud, had to do log carries, climb big things that were really high with bars and things - kind of like monkey bars (Andrew's description). They had to "swim" in the mud in one part - a big pond. They had to climb over very high logs. I was worried that Andrew got lost because Katsu still didn't see him after an hour and a half, but he finished it in 1 hour and 40 minutes. Even the fastest adults took at least 40 minutes. He was quite muddy, but had a lot of fun. We attempted to watch General Conference while they were gone, but the boys ended up playing outside, except Noah who threw a fit about wanting to watch star wars until he passed out and fell asleep, only to wake up 2 hours later, still throwing the fit for another hour about wanting to watch Star Wars. Silly boy. I think he throws fits as bad as Andrew did. Katsu and I watched the afternoon session while the boys played and were generally crazy.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
From Katsu's phone
Week of 3/12/2017
This week was a lot colder and windy, so we spent a lot more time inside (fighting!).
Sunday - There was some snow in the morning - not enough to accumulate but it did snow some flakes off and on for several hours, exciting for all the kids. We had friends over for dinner who have recently moved into our neighborhood. Katsu made mabo dofu and they brought over some green beans and some really delicious homemade mochi. I was very impressed and want to try to make some. I think it would be really fun. It was nice to have people over - feels like it's been awhile, too long anyways and we need to do it again.
Monday - We went over to a friend's house after school. Seth was scared of a dog at his friend's house, so he came along with us and was probably bored. I picked up Andrew from running club about half way through and he would rather sit and talk to adults than go and play with the other kids, much to my chagrin. Much like me as a child. We had a family home evening lesson using a new video about the First Vision from the history part of the church and I really enjoyed it.
Tuesday - Noah and I stayed home in the morning after taking Logan to preschool and stopping at the grocery store. It's a lot of driving, but I think I am a little less stressed out by that. Andrew had his last Science Olympiad practice, so we went and helped get Andrew and his teammate ready for the Data Crunchers competition. The little boys were a good sport and are certainly glad for that to be done! I was looking on facebook and realized that it was pi day - oops - and so I hurried and made a pumpkin pie. I wasn't paying attention and burned the numbers to put on top, but Logan was happy since he can eat his weight in pumpkin pie. The boys watched "A Little Mermaid" the rest of the afternoon. Noah has been obsessed with the book and we borrowed the movie from our friend to watch and they loved it, of course. It was a busy evening. There was cub scouts and a committee meeting. Katsu spent a lot of time getting ready and it went well, but boy - the boys sure misbehaved. Seth ran around playing with other kids, but Logan and Noah were loud and climbing all over the chairs. It was awful! I was glad when that was done.
Wednesday - Katsu and I had a performance in the evening - the Marsalis quartet that was scheduled for October, but got cancelled due to the hurricane, so the boys had a babysitter. They love our babysitter (Katsu's PhD student who is in our ward and his wife) and so they were pretty happy about it. Katsu and I really enjoyed the performance, although I hadn't slept well the night before so I was exhausted. It was jazz and Katsu especially really enjoyed it. It brought me back to college days listening to concerts at Berklee.
Thursday - Noah wanted to watch a movie in the morning, so I let him watch Shrek while I tried to get some laundry done. Honestly, I am not sure how much he liked it, but it was a nice relaxing morning. Andrew had running club and then had a battle of the books practice at Barnes and Noble. I guess not a practice, but a mock competition. I managed to drag everyone there, though Seth was pretty mad and ran off and hid. Logan and Noah liked playing with the trains for awhile and looking at all the toys they needed (!) and I got to more or less hear the questions, at least when Andrew was up. They all did well - neither team missed any questions. We actually still got home before Katsu got home from work, so dinner wasn't ready and so Seth decided to skip soccer practice (which they didn't tell us about until almost 5 pm!)
Friday - St. Patrick's Day. I meant to plan out more fun things for it, but then ended up planning some lodging for our spring break trip and so I didn't. We had Lucky Charms for breakfast and some chocolates in our leprechaun hat, but that's about it. I did dye the toilet water green for fun and Noah's milk, but no one noticed either one. We had green pizza crust with some clover for dinner and me and Katsu had a rainbow pepper pizza which we both really liked! The boys had green things for snacks - kiwi (with Noah loved), green grapes, and chips with guacamole. They polished off the entire thing in like 2 minutes flat. Then, as a change of pace, I took the 3 older boys to see our last play of the season - "Just So Stories". I thought it was well done (except one characters mike kept going out) and really enjoyed it, as did the kids, though they were bickering up a storm before. Everyone has just had the worst attitudes lately and it is really driving me crazy. I think we need to clamp down on some behavior and attitude so it doesn't get worse. Then, we went to Sonic and got some shakes and milkshakes afterward before the boys went straight to bed.
Saturday - I have been missing runs (I did take one early Thursday morning), so I went on a quick 2 mile jog on Saturday and then cleaned up quick and took Andrew to his Science Olympiad tournament at a nearby high school. Katsu stayed home with the other boys - soccer games were cancelled, so they cleaned up the house really well, played some video games and had a home day. The tournament was SUPER crowded - with 18 teams all crowded into the cafeteria. Each time probably had about 18 kids plus another 10+ adults, so it was pretty crazy and hot. A little overwhelming for me with all the noise. They had an opening words and then off for the events. Andrew was competing in 2 events (like all the other kids in his team) with 18 events total. Some where events where you built something or did charades or something like that, the others are testing events. Andrew had two testing events, but he was off the first period so we went and saw the rockets shooting off. Then, the second period he had his event - Data Crunchers - the one I had been coaching. Apparently, it was really hard. Andrew said they had 23 stations (in under an hour, I think). They had to measure and calculate all kinds of things - using graduated cylinders, thermometers, calipers, triple beam balances, etc. and find areas, volumes, temperatures, weights, times, in all kinds of units and also do graphs, etc. It was basically the math event. Apparently there was a lot of percentages and probability which I didn't prep them on, oops. Andrew came out and said is was super hard, like a 10 out of 10. He didn't answer about a quarter or so of the questions. He had his next event in the 3rd and last time slot - which was Movers and Shakers. I was a little unsure on how that would go, seeing as he hadn't done much prep beyond the practices once a week after school and just on the computer. Turns out it was mostly vocabulary related to earthquakes and volcanoes. He came out and said it was super easy, he knew all of them, and they finished each question in like 20 second instead of the whole 2 minutes. I figured he was probably a little overly sure of himself and was curious to see how that turned out. After lunch and a long wait, they finally started the awards ceremony at 2:30. The kids were super hyper and pumped up and making all kinds of noise. His school came home with awards in 9 events and won 5th place overall. Andrew and his teammate came in 4th in Data Crunchers. I was pretty proud of him. He got a medal. Andrew and his teammate came in 1st in Movers and Shakers, so I guess he was doing as well as he thought. So much for getting a little humility. They figure out the overall winner by giving you a 1 for each event you get first in, 2 for second, etc, all the way to 18 for the last one. Then, you add them all together and the lowest score wins.
The boys finally got to watch a movie "night" in the afternoon - Noah woke up throwing a massive fit on Friday night because he didn't get to have movie night and ended up sleeping with me on the floor of the playroom because he wouldn't stop throwing a fit (he woke up and had another night fit because he wanted to eat pizza in the middle of the night! - am I the only person whose kids have fits in the middle of the night?). So, Seth insisted on "We're Back" which I just hate, so I made lemon bars for the ward chili cookoff as I had no idea what we were supposed to bring and didn't have time to make chili after 8 hours at the Science Olympiad. The boys were throwing fits about going to the chili cookoff, but ended up having fun. Another long and busy day.
Andrew and his teammate for Movers and Shakers
getting medals in the crowded gym
the team with the coaches and Ms. Stewart, the principal, whose daughter was also participating
the team without coaches
selfies at "Just So stories" before it devolved into fighting.
running around before the performance
Katsu and I had rainbow pizza - looked better in person. Also, hard to tell, but the crust is slightly green.
they were supposed to look like shamrocks ...
someone loves to take selfies with my phone. this was before he scratched his glasses all up while being naughty when picking kids up from school on Thursday. Still mad about that and still not sure what I'm going to do about his glasses.
Pi pumpkin pie with burnt letters
This is what family home evening looks like at our house.
Our names of Jesus rings.
Easter with the unliked banner
My new picture with the so-so frame
Easter on the piano
Our front St. Patrick's table.
Our Easter pictures from years past.
Sunday - There was some snow in the morning - not enough to accumulate but it did snow some flakes off and on for several hours, exciting for all the kids. We had friends over for dinner who have recently moved into our neighborhood. Katsu made mabo dofu and they brought over some green beans and some really delicious homemade mochi. I was very impressed and want to try to make some. I think it would be really fun. It was nice to have people over - feels like it's been awhile, too long anyways and we need to do it again.
Monday - We went over to a friend's house after school. Seth was scared of a dog at his friend's house, so he came along with us and was probably bored. I picked up Andrew from running club about half way through and he would rather sit and talk to adults than go and play with the other kids, much to my chagrin. Much like me as a child. We had a family home evening lesson using a new video about the First Vision from the history part of the church and I really enjoyed it.
Tuesday - Noah and I stayed home in the morning after taking Logan to preschool and stopping at the grocery store. It's a lot of driving, but I think I am a little less stressed out by that. Andrew had his last Science Olympiad practice, so we went and helped get Andrew and his teammate ready for the Data Crunchers competition. The little boys were a good sport and are certainly glad for that to be done! I was looking on facebook and realized that it was pi day - oops - and so I hurried and made a pumpkin pie. I wasn't paying attention and burned the numbers to put on top, but Logan was happy since he can eat his weight in pumpkin pie. The boys watched "A Little Mermaid" the rest of the afternoon. Noah has been obsessed with the book and we borrowed the movie from our friend to watch and they loved it, of course. It was a busy evening. There was cub scouts and a committee meeting. Katsu spent a lot of time getting ready and it went well, but boy - the boys sure misbehaved. Seth ran around playing with other kids, but Logan and Noah were loud and climbing all over the chairs. It was awful! I was glad when that was done.
Wednesday - Katsu and I had a performance in the evening - the Marsalis quartet that was scheduled for October, but got cancelled due to the hurricane, so the boys had a babysitter. They love our babysitter (Katsu's PhD student who is in our ward and his wife) and so they were pretty happy about it. Katsu and I really enjoyed the performance, although I hadn't slept well the night before so I was exhausted. It was jazz and Katsu especially really enjoyed it. It brought me back to college days listening to concerts at Berklee.
Thursday - Noah wanted to watch a movie in the morning, so I let him watch Shrek while I tried to get some laundry done. Honestly, I am not sure how much he liked it, but it was a nice relaxing morning. Andrew had running club and then had a battle of the books practice at Barnes and Noble. I guess not a practice, but a mock competition. I managed to drag everyone there, though Seth was pretty mad and ran off and hid. Logan and Noah liked playing with the trains for awhile and looking at all the toys they needed (!) and I got to more or less hear the questions, at least when Andrew was up. They all did well - neither team missed any questions. We actually still got home before Katsu got home from work, so dinner wasn't ready and so Seth decided to skip soccer practice (which they didn't tell us about until almost 5 pm!)
Friday - St. Patrick's Day. I meant to plan out more fun things for it, but then ended up planning some lodging for our spring break trip and so I didn't. We had Lucky Charms for breakfast and some chocolates in our leprechaun hat, but that's about it. I did dye the toilet water green for fun and Noah's milk, but no one noticed either one. We had green pizza crust with some clover for dinner and me and Katsu had a rainbow pepper pizza which we both really liked! The boys had green things for snacks - kiwi (with Noah loved), green grapes, and chips with guacamole. They polished off the entire thing in like 2 minutes flat. Then, as a change of pace, I took the 3 older boys to see our last play of the season - "Just So Stories". I thought it was well done (except one characters mike kept going out) and really enjoyed it, as did the kids, though they were bickering up a storm before. Everyone has just had the worst attitudes lately and it is really driving me crazy. I think we need to clamp down on some behavior and attitude so it doesn't get worse. Then, we went to Sonic and got some shakes and milkshakes afterward before the boys went straight to bed.
Saturday - I have been missing runs (I did take one early Thursday morning), so I went on a quick 2 mile jog on Saturday and then cleaned up quick and took Andrew to his Science Olympiad tournament at a nearby high school. Katsu stayed home with the other boys - soccer games were cancelled, so they cleaned up the house really well, played some video games and had a home day. The tournament was SUPER crowded - with 18 teams all crowded into the cafeteria. Each time probably had about 18 kids plus another 10+ adults, so it was pretty crazy and hot. A little overwhelming for me with all the noise. They had an opening words and then off for the events. Andrew was competing in 2 events (like all the other kids in his team) with 18 events total. Some where events where you built something or did charades or something like that, the others are testing events. Andrew had two testing events, but he was off the first period so we went and saw the rockets shooting off. Then, the second period he had his event - Data Crunchers - the one I had been coaching. Apparently, it was really hard. Andrew said they had 23 stations (in under an hour, I think). They had to measure and calculate all kinds of things - using graduated cylinders, thermometers, calipers, triple beam balances, etc. and find areas, volumes, temperatures, weights, times, in all kinds of units and also do graphs, etc. It was basically the math event. Apparently there was a lot of percentages and probability which I didn't prep them on, oops. Andrew came out and said is was super hard, like a 10 out of 10. He didn't answer about a quarter or so of the questions. He had his next event in the 3rd and last time slot - which was Movers and Shakers. I was a little unsure on how that would go, seeing as he hadn't done much prep beyond the practices once a week after school and just on the computer. Turns out it was mostly vocabulary related to earthquakes and volcanoes. He came out and said it was super easy, he knew all of them, and they finished each question in like 20 second instead of the whole 2 minutes. I figured he was probably a little overly sure of himself and was curious to see how that turned out. After lunch and a long wait, they finally started the awards ceremony at 2:30. The kids were super hyper and pumped up and making all kinds of noise. His school came home with awards in 9 events and won 5th place overall. Andrew and his teammate came in 4th in Data Crunchers. I was pretty proud of him. He got a medal. Andrew and his teammate came in 1st in Movers and Shakers, so I guess he was doing as well as he thought. So much for getting a little humility. They figure out the overall winner by giving you a 1 for each event you get first in, 2 for second, etc, all the way to 18 for the last one. Then, you add them all together and the lowest score wins.
The boys finally got to watch a movie "night" in the afternoon - Noah woke up throwing a massive fit on Friday night because he didn't get to have movie night and ended up sleeping with me on the floor of the playroom because he wouldn't stop throwing a fit (he woke up and had another night fit because he wanted to eat pizza in the middle of the night! - am I the only person whose kids have fits in the middle of the night?). So, Seth insisted on "We're Back" which I just hate, so I made lemon bars for the ward chili cookoff as I had no idea what we were supposed to bring and didn't have time to make chili after 8 hours at the Science Olympiad. The boys were throwing fits about going to the chili cookoff, but ended up having fun. Another long and busy day.
Andrew and his teammate for Movers and Shakers
getting medals in the crowded gym
the team with the coaches and Ms. Stewart, the principal, whose daughter was also participating
the team without coaches
selfies at "Just So stories" before it devolved into fighting.
running around before the performance
Katsu and I had rainbow pizza - looked better in person. Also, hard to tell, but the crust is slightly green.
they were supposed to look like shamrocks ...
someone loves to take selfies with my phone. this was before he scratched his glasses all up while being naughty when picking kids up from school on Thursday. Still mad about that and still not sure what I'm going to do about his glasses.
Pi pumpkin pie with burnt letters
This is what family home evening looks like at our house.
Our names of Jesus rings.
Easter with the unliked banner
My new picture with the so-so frame
Easter on the piano
Our front St. Patrick's table.
Our Easter pictures from years past.Sunday, March 12, 2017
Week of March 5
Another busy week. Although what am I thinking. With four boys, we are always busy.
Monday - ECU was off on spring break, so no school for me this week. I was ready to enjoy myself, but Seth stayed home from school (mostly better, but still croup coughing fits). Everyone else went, at least. I was able to get a bit of cleaning done, but then Seth was really deciding to enjoy the day. He gave me two options - either he could go away by himself and I could pretend he wasn't there and do whatever I was going to do (I would have felt too heartless to pick that option!) or we could spend time together. So, he taught me to play a new board game (it was more fun than I expected). Then, before we left to pick up the boys he says all innocently, "But, Mom, don't you usually go on picnics". Well, we don't usually go on M/W/F because we carpool, but sure. So, he got out french bread and cut it up for buns and cooked hot dogs and cut cheese and made everyone hot dogs with cheese in buns. And I go together the rest. We dropped off the other boy for carpool and tried to going to the nearby park, but they were doing something there, so we went to Andrew Best park and the boys played and played and played (and didn't eat much, but that's typical for our picnics, too). Finally got them to leave in time to go home before Andrew got home. The boys had a blast playing some game of fighting and having territories with Noah running around "My territory", which was so cute. Andrew had running club so we walked over and picked him up. We had chicken noodle soup for dinner (our favorite soup, I think) and then I had prepared a family home evening, but Seth wanted to teach from the Friend magazine again, so he did and I shared a little bit out our Easter jar where we put beans in whenever we make good choices or sacrifices for Jesus (and then the Easter bunny will fill it with real jelly beans as a surprise for Easter).
Tuesday - Seth was back in school (though he told me the kids thought he needed to go to the nurses' office because of his coughing fits - I hate the lingering coughs, but at least it is all gone now). Noah and I went to story time with the puppet lady and then to the park, I think. We really need to go home sometimes - we usually stay out, but I think it is making us grumpy because we are never home. I really hate 5 day a week prreschool some times, but Logan is learning a lot and getting ready for kindergarten. He has started learning sight words at school and we are doing well at his reading practice at home. He has gone through about 20-25 reading lessons and is getting a lot better at sounding out. He can read a couple sentence "stories" now. Noah took a nap after preschool in his bed (he hasn't been taking naps in his bed for a long time, but he has been amenable this week some days, anyways), but we had to wake him up and go to Science Olympiad. I helped Andrew and Hailey get ready for the competition for Data Crunchers. The boys were pretty good about reading books and letting me help them. One more week and they'll have their competition. We all went to cub scouts for the pack meeting and the boys loved going around to all the booths and learning about other countries (although honestly, my boys just wanted to eat the food!). I can't believe how many Chinese dumplings they all ate while the other kids didn't even want to try it!
Wednesday - Finally, a morning off! Walking school bus was making me grumpy, so I spent awhile figuring out what to do about that (we aren't doing mornings anymore because the people who can do it, don't want to, and half the kids are biking anyways ...it's definitely running different than before and I am just so ready to not be in charge of it, which I won't be next year since I bowed out). I got a good run in before the kids were all awake, so I spent the morning first having a little retreat - basically planning and thinking about life and our family and goals and how things are going. Then, I did a few holiday things - worked on my Easter garland for the fire place (which I don't really love, but I do love my new Fontanini pieces). I also decorated one of the tables for St. Patrick's Day. I tried to do a bit of spring cleaning as well - I have been vacuuming out the cabinets and polishing the wood and cleaning the baseboards, but I got a lot less done this week than I would have liked. I also have been trying to keep the kitchen counters clean and dishes done (which is the bane of my existence ... I can not keep them clean for the life of me). Oh, well. I went to the store to pick up a few Target essentials (toilet paper!) and also a frame for a cross-stitch of Jesus I made a long time ago, but the boys broke the frame right after we moved here and I have struggled to replace it. I got a mat and frame and it doesn't look perfect, but it's fine and it's done and it wasn't expensive, so that works. I picked up all the kids for carpool and home we went. We had invited all the members of the church in the neighborhood over to play after school, but only one family came and the boys were having a hard time behaving and I was super grumpy afterwards. I think I am about to the point where I just won't plan things or invite people over for this or book club or anything because no one ever comes and I am tired of trying. So, general grumpiness for me this week. Fish for dinner, which was fine, but boring.
Thursday - Katsu has been leaving every day at 7 something and taking the kids to school. I took Logan to preschool and Noah and I went to the park. Then, he got bored pretty quickly, so I convinced him to see the Puppet Lady. I told him we could get Chick-fil-a afterwards because they usually have a free offer. Well, he threw a fit going in, but seemed to enjoy the show (which is good because she is moving and we'll only get to go to one more), but ran out afterwards without going to Chick-fil-a. Then, he cried in the car because he wanted Chick-fil-a, but refused to find the one in the mall and was being generally grumpy. We had an hour to kill at this point and no where to go and he was throwing a fit - we ended up going back to the library to pick up a book I didn't check out on Tuesday because it was falling apart - the Little Mermaid. We found it and then he wanted to go to "another show". Well, another storytime was going on, so we went in, but it finished in like 5 minutes and then he threw a huge fit because he didn't want to leave. I finally managed to get him out of the library, but that was a pretty typical day for Noah lately. Tons and tons of fits. Everyone is pretty much going through a rough stage now and it feels like we go from one fit to another all day long every day. We picked up Logan and then Noah threw more fits about going to Chick-Fil-A. I figured the kid needed a nap, so I was planning on just going home instead of the park (we had packed a picnic). So, they ate in the car, and I decided we go to Sonic and order a shake and play on playground. They enjoyed that, but I still wanted Noah to take a nap, so we stayed for like 45 mintues and then left. Did Noah fall asleep in the car on the way home - nope! He cried that we didn't go to Chick-Fil-a. Crying and all, I tried to get him to take a nap but it was a no go at home, so he was tired and grumpy all afternoon. Andrew didn't go to running club. He had hurt his foot on Tuesday or Wednesday to the point I was a little worried he might have broken it, but I think it's mostly fine now. There was an event at the school we were going to go to until we found out that Seth had soccer practice in the evening. I had Katsu take him because Noah needed to go to sleep early. So, he did while Andrew and Logan stayed up late playing Stratego, which made me happy because usually Andrew is so mean to Logan (just really doesn't like him for who-knows-why reasons and loves to talk about it - arg!). Good for Logan, too, since he has spent a lot of time in time-outs this week for being mean and mischievous and all other sorts of trouble. Seth enjoyed soccer practice and everyone finally go to sleep.
Friday - another morning off for me, but surprisingly got little done. I worked out, showered, and did some cleaning and that was about it! I am glad I work, because I think if I was at home while the boys were in school/preschool, the hours would just melt away. Hours without kids pass by 10x faster than when the kids are home. I also got quite a bit of trip planning done, which is what I have been working on this week. The kids are starting to get super excited about the trip, too. Kids played outside and inside most of the afternoon (it was a nice day but very windy). Logan is obsessed with Stratego and played several games with me (he won every time), the boys spent a lot of time reading all the books I got at the library (Seth is loving Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Andrew is enjoying them, too, along with his Brotherband Chronicles, and Noah is obsessed with that Little Mermaid book), and Andrew and Seth and Logan have spent a lot of time playing with these blocks Andrew got from his gifted teacher that you pick different sets of the blocks and try to make a 3x3x3 cube. Seth played at a friend's house and came home crying about getting hurt and refusing to let me look at his face, but he eventually calmed down and went back and was gone most of the afternoon. I made pizza and then went to a RS activity for the RS birthday. It was nice enough, though I am feeling a bit anti-social lately. Anyways, somehow Katsu cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed the down stairs, and had the kids pick up the whole play room and all watched the Iron Giant movie and I was only gone for 2 hours! He should stay at home and I'm sure our house would be spotless!
Saturday - we woke up early-ish to get to the race downtown by 8 when you were supposed to have picked up packets. Andrew didn't want to race and we were fine with it with his injured foot, so Katsu decided not to race either, so it was just me and Seth. They gave us chips to put on our shoes and we put on our shirts and numbers and then there were bouncy things so the boys were running around doing a bunjee race, shooting arrows, and going down a big slide. As the race is about to start, Seth runs to the very front before realizing that his race chip fell off and was freaking out, but we put on Andrew's race chip instead. And then Seth took off. I didn't see him again for the rest of the race. I started off really slow because my goal was basically run the entire thing without stopping or walking. I had gotten up to 28 min/2.75 miles with the couch to 5k, so it felt about the same. Though there were hills (no hills in our neighborhood - sometimes I forget that there are hills in Eastern NC because they are so sparse) which was different, but it was a nice run. It didn't feel hard at all, until the very end when I sped it up for a little too long because you entered the town common with everyone cheering and all the music, but then you still had to run around the common for a bit. I finished in 33 minutes (yay!) which was a time I was very happy with it and Seth finished in 28 minutes. I felt great after a quick walk / cool down, but Seth always sprints and hadn't trained, so he felt awful for half the morning. We got snacks and went back to the car - Noah throwing a huge fit because he wanted fruit snacks, of which there weren't any. We had taken two cars, so Katsu stopped and got Seth a snack and me and Andrew and Noah went to Go Science for a science festival and the rest joined us a little later. It was a lot bigger than I expected with like 40 booths, lots of demonstrations (physics, chemistry, geology, water ecology, astronomy, etc). We saw live animals - turtles and snakes and lion rabbits and other things. We went to a planetarium show in a portable dome which was actually really well done and interesting. NASA was there (the one we just visited where the Hidden Figures ladies were from) and the boys liked that booth and especially loved the Kona Ice table. Noah spent the rest of the time throwing a fit about going back and getting more! Logan was sad he had to go to soccer practice, but was happy with some Kona Ice in his belly and he and Katsu and Seth went to soccer practice. Katsu ended up coaching Seth's practice since his coach was out of town. The practices have gone well so far and games start next week. Andrew and Noah stayed longer at the science festival - Andrew did a cool water purification activity, we learned about the importance of wetlands, and went to a story time about seeds and got the book to go along with it. Then, we went home. Noah took a long nap in the car and ended up having a leaking diaper in his car seat - so, I threw in a second load of laundry for the day. I cleaned bathrooms, did some more polishing of the wood cabinets, and worked on planning our trip while Andrew read a book while laying in our master tub (I have no idea why!). Katsu came home and mowed the lawn and Logan fell asleep in the car. He peed in his car seat while he slept, so a third load of laundry. We had brats and Ceasar salad for dinner (Logan's favorite which is eating leftovers of right next to me for breakfast). And then, since it was "Science Saturday" - a new thing I am trying, we watched a NOVA show after I vacuumed the upstairs. It was about gems - the boys wanted to watch a real movie, but too bad. In the end, everyone enjoyed it and then went to sleep. Katsu fell asleep putting Logan to sleep and has now been sleeping for 12 hours! Time to get ready for church.
Monday - ECU was off on spring break, so no school for me this week. I was ready to enjoy myself, but Seth stayed home from school (mostly better, but still croup coughing fits). Everyone else went, at least. I was able to get a bit of cleaning done, but then Seth was really deciding to enjoy the day. He gave me two options - either he could go away by himself and I could pretend he wasn't there and do whatever I was going to do (I would have felt too heartless to pick that option!) or we could spend time together. So, he taught me to play a new board game (it was more fun than I expected). Then, before we left to pick up the boys he says all innocently, "But, Mom, don't you usually go on picnics". Well, we don't usually go on M/W/F because we carpool, but sure. So, he got out french bread and cut it up for buns and cooked hot dogs and cut cheese and made everyone hot dogs with cheese in buns. And I go together the rest. We dropped off the other boy for carpool and tried to going to the nearby park, but they were doing something there, so we went to Andrew Best park and the boys played and played and played (and didn't eat much, but that's typical for our picnics, too). Finally got them to leave in time to go home before Andrew got home. The boys had a blast playing some game of fighting and having territories with Noah running around "My territory", which was so cute. Andrew had running club so we walked over and picked him up. We had chicken noodle soup for dinner (our favorite soup, I think) and then I had prepared a family home evening, but Seth wanted to teach from the Friend magazine again, so he did and I shared a little bit out our Easter jar where we put beans in whenever we make good choices or sacrifices for Jesus (and then the Easter bunny will fill it with real jelly beans as a surprise for Easter).
Tuesday - Seth was back in school (though he told me the kids thought he needed to go to the nurses' office because of his coughing fits - I hate the lingering coughs, but at least it is all gone now). Noah and I went to story time with the puppet lady and then to the park, I think. We really need to go home sometimes - we usually stay out, but I think it is making us grumpy because we are never home. I really hate 5 day a week prreschool some times, but Logan is learning a lot and getting ready for kindergarten. He has started learning sight words at school and we are doing well at his reading practice at home. He has gone through about 20-25 reading lessons and is getting a lot better at sounding out. He can read a couple sentence "stories" now. Noah took a nap after preschool in his bed (he hasn't been taking naps in his bed for a long time, but he has been amenable this week some days, anyways), but we had to wake him up and go to Science Olympiad. I helped Andrew and Hailey get ready for the competition for Data Crunchers. The boys were pretty good about reading books and letting me help them. One more week and they'll have their competition. We all went to cub scouts for the pack meeting and the boys loved going around to all the booths and learning about other countries (although honestly, my boys just wanted to eat the food!). I can't believe how many Chinese dumplings they all ate while the other kids didn't even want to try it!
Wednesday - Finally, a morning off! Walking school bus was making me grumpy, so I spent awhile figuring out what to do about that (we aren't doing mornings anymore because the people who can do it, don't want to, and half the kids are biking anyways ...it's definitely running different than before and I am just so ready to not be in charge of it, which I won't be next year since I bowed out). I got a good run in before the kids were all awake, so I spent the morning first having a little retreat - basically planning and thinking about life and our family and goals and how things are going. Then, I did a few holiday things - worked on my Easter garland for the fire place (which I don't really love, but I do love my new Fontanini pieces). I also decorated one of the tables for St. Patrick's Day. I tried to do a bit of spring cleaning as well - I have been vacuuming out the cabinets and polishing the wood and cleaning the baseboards, but I got a lot less done this week than I would have liked. I also have been trying to keep the kitchen counters clean and dishes done (which is the bane of my existence ... I can not keep them clean for the life of me). Oh, well. I went to the store to pick up a few Target essentials (toilet paper!) and also a frame for a cross-stitch of Jesus I made a long time ago, but the boys broke the frame right after we moved here and I have struggled to replace it. I got a mat and frame and it doesn't look perfect, but it's fine and it's done and it wasn't expensive, so that works. I picked up all the kids for carpool and home we went. We had invited all the members of the church in the neighborhood over to play after school, but only one family came and the boys were having a hard time behaving and I was super grumpy afterwards. I think I am about to the point where I just won't plan things or invite people over for this or book club or anything because no one ever comes and I am tired of trying. So, general grumpiness for me this week. Fish for dinner, which was fine, but boring.
Thursday - Katsu has been leaving every day at 7 something and taking the kids to school. I took Logan to preschool and Noah and I went to the park. Then, he got bored pretty quickly, so I convinced him to see the Puppet Lady. I told him we could get Chick-fil-a afterwards because they usually have a free offer. Well, he threw a fit going in, but seemed to enjoy the show (which is good because she is moving and we'll only get to go to one more), but ran out afterwards without going to Chick-fil-a. Then, he cried in the car because he wanted Chick-fil-a, but refused to find the one in the mall and was being generally grumpy. We had an hour to kill at this point and no where to go and he was throwing a fit - we ended up going back to the library to pick up a book I didn't check out on Tuesday because it was falling apart - the Little Mermaid. We found it and then he wanted to go to "another show". Well, another storytime was going on, so we went in, but it finished in like 5 minutes and then he threw a huge fit because he didn't want to leave. I finally managed to get him out of the library, but that was a pretty typical day for Noah lately. Tons and tons of fits. Everyone is pretty much going through a rough stage now and it feels like we go from one fit to another all day long every day. We picked up Logan and then Noah threw more fits about going to Chick-Fil-A. I figured the kid needed a nap, so I was planning on just going home instead of the park (we had packed a picnic). So, they ate in the car, and I decided we go to Sonic and order a shake and play on playground. They enjoyed that, but I still wanted Noah to take a nap, so we stayed for like 45 mintues and then left. Did Noah fall asleep in the car on the way home - nope! He cried that we didn't go to Chick-Fil-a. Crying and all, I tried to get him to take a nap but it was a no go at home, so he was tired and grumpy all afternoon. Andrew didn't go to running club. He had hurt his foot on Tuesday or Wednesday to the point I was a little worried he might have broken it, but I think it's mostly fine now. There was an event at the school we were going to go to until we found out that Seth had soccer practice in the evening. I had Katsu take him because Noah needed to go to sleep early. So, he did while Andrew and Logan stayed up late playing Stratego, which made me happy because usually Andrew is so mean to Logan (just really doesn't like him for who-knows-why reasons and loves to talk about it - arg!). Good for Logan, too, since he has spent a lot of time in time-outs this week for being mean and mischievous and all other sorts of trouble. Seth enjoyed soccer practice and everyone finally go to sleep.
Friday - another morning off for me, but surprisingly got little done. I worked out, showered, and did some cleaning and that was about it! I am glad I work, because I think if I was at home while the boys were in school/preschool, the hours would just melt away. Hours without kids pass by 10x faster than when the kids are home. I also got quite a bit of trip planning done, which is what I have been working on this week. The kids are starting to get super excited about the trip, too. Kids played outside and inside most of the afternoon (it was a nice day but very windy). Logan is obsessed with Stratego and played several games with me (he won every time), the boys spent a lot of time reading all the books I got at the library (Seth is loving Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Andrew is enjoying them, too, along with his Brotherband Chronicles, and Noah is obsessed with that Little Mermaid book), and Andrew and Seth and Logan have spent a lot of time playing with these blocks Andrew got from his gifted teacher that you pick different sets of the blocks and try to make a 3x3x3 cube. Seth played at a friend's house and came home crying about getting hurt and refusing to let me look at his face, but he eventually calmed down and went back and was gone most of the afternoon. I made pizza and then went to a RS activity for the RS birthday. It was nice enough, though I am feeling a bit anti-social lately. Anyways, somehow Katsu cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed the down stairs, and had the kids pick up the whole play room and all watched the Iron Giant movie and I was only gone for 2 hours! He should stay at home and I'm sure our house would be spotless!
Saturday - we woke up early-ish to get to the race downtown by 8 when you were supposed to have picked up packets. Andrew didn't want to race and we were fine with it with his injured foot, so Katsu decided not to race either, so it was just me and Seth. They gave us chips to put on our shoes and we put on our shirts and numbers and then there were bouncy things so the boys were running around doing a bunjee race, shooting arrows, and going down a big slide. As the race is about to start, Seth runs to the very front before realizing that his race chip fell off and was freaking out, but we put on Andrew's race chip instead. And then Seth took off. I didn't see him again for the rest of the race. I started off really slow because my goal was basically run the entire thing without stopping or walking. I had gotten up to 28 min/2.75 miles with the couch to 5k, so it felt about the same. Though there were hills (no hills in our neighborhood - sometimes I forget that there are hills in Eastern NC because they are so sparse) which was different, but it was a nice run. It didn't feel hard at all, until the very end when I sped it up for a little too long because you entered the town common with everyone cheering and all the music, but then you still had to run around the common for a bit. I finished in 33 minutes (yay!) which was a time I was very happy with it and Seth finished in 28 minutes. I felt great after a quick walk / cool down, but Seth always sprints and hadn't trained, so he felt awful for half the morning. We got snacks and went back to the car - Noah throwing a huge fit because he wanted fruit snacks, of which there weren't any. We had taken two cars, so Katsu stopped and got Seth a snack and me and Andrew and Noah went to Go Science for a science festival and the rest joined us a little later. It was a lot bigger than I expected with like 40 booths, lots of demonstrations (physics, chemistry, geology, water ecology, astronomy, etc). We saw live animals - turtles and snakes and lion rabbits and other things. We went to a planetarium show in a portable dome which was actually really well done and interesting. NASA was there (the one we just visited where the Hidden Figures ladies were from) and the boys liked that booth and especially loved the Kona Ice table. Noah spent the rest of the time throwing a fit about going back and getting more! Logan was sad he had to go to soccer practice, but was happy with some Kona Ice in his belly and he and Katsu and Seth went to soccer practice. Katsu ended up coaching Seth's practice since his coach was out of town. The practices have gone well so far and games start next week. Andrew and Noah stayed longer at the science festival - Andrew did a cool water purification activity, we learned about the importance of wetlands, and went to a story time about seeds and got the book to go along with it. Then, we went home. Noah took a long nap in the car and ended up having a leaking diaper in his car seat - so, I threw in a second load of laundry for the day. I cleaned bathrooms, did some more polishing of the wood cabinets, and worked on planning our trip while Andrew read a book while laying in our master tub (I have no idea why!). Katsu came home and mowed the lawn and Logan fell asleep in the car. He peed in his car seat while he slept, so a third load of laundry. We had brats and Ceasar salad for dinner (Logan's favorite which is eating leftovers of right next to me for breakfast). And then, since it was "Science Saturday" - a new thing I am trying, we watched a NOVA show after I vacuumed the upstairs. It was about gems - the boys wanted to watch a real movie, but too bad. In the end, everyone enjoyed it and then went to sleep. Katsu fell asleep putting Logan to sleep and has now been sleeping for 12 hours! Time to get ready for church.
Sunday, March 05, 2017
Week of Feb. 26th
Monday - Katsu was out of town in Utah and the kids had the day off of school for a teacher workday, so we all got ready and I took them over to our neighbor's so she could watch them while I taught. I skipped office hours and came straight home and our other neighbor dropped off her 3 daughters for the rest of the morning, so it was craziness at our house with 7 kids running around, thankfully with lovely weather. The boys kept causing all kinds of trouble, especially Andrew who is always upset if I invite anyone over. But they all survived without too much catastrophe and just popcorn strewn all over the yard. We had a chill afternoon - I don't even remember what we did. I think I put up some Easter decorations since it's Lent this week. The boys "helped" me make an easter egg garland and then hid easter eggs all over the house. I am already tired of all the plastic eggs. We had hot dogs for dinner and then Seth said he wanted to do a family home evening lesson and did a nice one from the friend about being a peacemaker. It was great and I was proud of him.
Tuesday - Everyone but Noah went to school. Noah and I went to the library and then to story time - it was on shapes and the puppet lady was there so it was even more fun than usual. Afterwards, we went to the grocery store to pick up a couple boxes of brownie mix and spent the late afternoon making a couple batches of brownies for a funeral for a member on Wed. We had to pick up Andrew and Seth up early from school to go take all 4 boys to the dentist. Noah was scared, but he did better than last time. He didn't cry while the dentist looked at his teeth and scraped them, but he cried with the hygenist, but it didn't take too long and he got through it. The dentist drew a spider web on his balloon so it looked like a spider man balloon. Andrew and Seth just went off on their own - they weren't too concerned that Seth hasn't lost any teeth yet and they fixed 3 of Andrew's sealants. Seth is getting some molars in. Poor Logan - they asked about his gagging and I said it was much better, but that it would probably be trouble with xrays. He did great with his exam, and then they put some numbing stuff on to help with xrays. But, it didn't go well - I don't think they sent the best person in and she was struggling to get an xray and then Logan threw up all over himself. They cleaned everything up, sent someone else in, and got the xrays right away. Logan got a new shirt out of it and was a pretty good sport, but I felt pretty bad for him. I got the little boys to bed early and then we had a presidency meeting at the house at 7. Seth and Andrew took forever to go to bed, but at least Logan and Noah were asleep. Logan had a bit of a croupy cough during the night but he never woke me up and never seemed to get too sick.
Wednesday - We got everyone up early again. We dropped Andrew and Seth off at school and then took Noah and Logan to a friends and then she dropped them off at preschool. After class, I had office hours for about an hour and then went and picked Katsu up from the airport from his redeye from Utah. We went and picked some donuts at Krispy Kreme and then picked up Logan and Noah from preschool - they were excited to see Dad! He stayed at home in the afternoon and we just had a nice day and afternoon.
Thursday - Noah woke up with a fever and sure enough it ranged from 101-103 during the day, so we just stayed home in the morning and Katsu was able to take Logan to preschool. I had a meeting at the elementary school with the speech teacher at 11, so I had someone else bring Logan home from preschool. Noah fell asleep watching Baby Genius while I was doing some dishes, so I decided to put him bundled up in the stroller and walk to the school and see if he would stay asleep. He slept through the whole meeting, all the way home, and for another hour after. Poor kid. He would just say that he felt sick, but besides the fever, he didn't have other symptoms. Since yesterday, he has had a runny nose, but his fever is gone. So, we ended up spending too much time watching Netflix, but it could have been worse. I made up some cookies and had book club in the evening - and people actually came! It was a nice evening.
Friday - Noah slept with us the whole night because he wasn't doing too well and then Seth woke me up about 3 in the morning with a croup cough and very sick and unhappy with a high fever. After laying in the bathroom with steam and getting him to stop coughing/throwing up enough to take some ibuprofen, he fell asleep on the floor. Just as I fell asleep, Seth woke me up because he was uncomfortable, so we moved him to the couch and just as I fell asleep, Seth woke me up again and I finally sent him to watch a movie just for Logan to wake me up as I just fell asleep to tell me Seth was awake and needed me. So, it was morning and time to go to work. Katsu stayed home with the sick boys and Logan and Andrew went to school. I was only half coherent at work, but at least it is ECU's spring break next week. Another rough afternoon that I basically slept walk through, but we had pizza and watched Honey I shrunk the Kids, which we all enjoyed. I was so tired, I went to sleep before 9.
Saturday - We did cleaning - I was trying to get some spring cleaning done so I won't have so much work to do tomorrow. Seth was super sad he had to miss soccer practice but he still looked awful, had a little fever, and was coughing his head off. Logan had his first soccer practice and got to go out to eat with Katsu, buy some new cleats, and go to the grocery store. Otherwise, just a home weekend.
Sunday - I took Andrew and Logan to church while the rest of them stayed home. Primary was all craziness. The boys played games today and played together. we finished with a game of Life while Noah and I played many games of Zingo. Hopefully, people will be ready to go to school tomorrow.
Looks like Logan got on the phone and took pictures of us on the way home from running club.
Tuesday - Everyone but Noah went to school. Noah and I went to the library and then to story time - it was on shapes and the puppet lady was there so it was even more fun than usual. Afterwards, we went to the grocery store to pick up a couple boxes of brownie mix and spent the late afternoon making a couple batches of brownies for a funeral for a member on Wed. We had to pick up Andrew and Seth up early from school to go take all 4 boys to the dentist. Noah was scared, but he did better than last time. He didn't cry while the dentist looked at his teeth and scraped them, but he cried with the hygenist, but it didn't take too long and he got through it. The dentist drew a spider web on his balloon so it looked like a spider man balloon. Andrew and Seth just went off on their own - they weren't too concerned that Seth hasn't lost any teeth yet and they fixed 3 of Andrew's sealants. Seth is getting some molars in. Poor Logan - they asked about his gagging and I said it was much better, but that it would probably be trouble with xrays. He did great with his exam, and then they put some numbing stuff on to help with xrays. But, it didn't go well - I don't think they sent the best person in and she was struggling to get an xray and then Logan threw up all over himself. They cleaned everything up, sent someone else in, and got the xrays right away. Logan got a new shirt out of it and was a pretty good sport, but I felt pretty bad for him. I got the little boys to bed early and then we had a presidency meeting at the house at 7. Seth and Andrew took forever to go to bed, but at least Logan and Noah were asleep. Logan had a bit of a croupy cough during the night but he never woke me up and never seemed to get too sick.
Wednesday - We got everyone up early again. We dropped Andrew and Seth off at school and then took Noah and Logan to a friends and then she dropped them off at preschool. After class, I had office hours for about an hour and then went and picked Katsu up from the airport from his redeye from Utah. We went and picked some donuts at Krispy Kreme and then picked up Logan and Noah from preschool - they were excited to see Dad! He stayed at home in the afternoon and we just had a nice day and afternoon.
Thursday - Noah woke up with a fever and sure enough it ranged from 101-103 during the day, so we just stayed home in the morning and Katsu was able to take Logan to preschool. I had a meeting at the elementary school with the speech teacher at 11, so I had someone else bring Logan home from preschool. Noah fell asleep watching Baby Genius while I was doing some dishes, so I decided to put him bundled up in the stroller and walk to the school and see if he would stay asleep. He slept through the whole meeting, all the way home, and for another hour after. Poor kid. He would just say that he felt sick, but besides the fever, he didn't have other symptoms. Since yesterday, he has had a runny nose, but his fever is gone. So, we ended up spending too much time watching Netflix, but it could have been worse. I made up some cookies and had book club in the evening - and people actually came! It was a nice evening.
Friday - Noah slept with us the whole night because he wasn't doing too well and then Seth woke me up about 3 in the morning with a croup cough and very sick and unhappy with a high fever. After laying in the bathroom with steam and getting him to stop coughing/throwing up enough to take some ibuprofen, he fell asleep on the floor. Just as I fell asleep, Seth woke me up because he was uncomfortable, so we moved him to the couch and just as I fell asleep, Seth woke me up again and I finally sent him to watch a movie just for Logan to wake me up as I just fell asleep to tell me Seth was awake and needed me. So, it was morning and time to go to work. Katsu stayed home with the sick boys and Logan and Andrew went to school. I was only half coherent at work, but at least it is ECU's spring break next week. Another rough afternoon that I basically slept walk through, but we had pizza and watched Honey I shrunk the Kids, which we all enjoyed. I was so tired, I went to sleep before 9.
Saturday - We did cleaning - I was trying to get some spring cleaning done so I won't have so much work to do tomorrow. Seth was super sad he had to miss soccer practice but he still looked awful, had a little fever, and was coughing his head off. Logan had his first soccer practice and got to go out to eat with Katsu, buy some new cleats, and go to the grocery store. Otherwise, just a home weekend.
Sunday - I took Andrew and Logan to church while the rest of them stayed home. Primary was all craziness. The boys played games today and played together. we finished with a game of Life while Noah and I played many games of Zingo. Hopefully, people will be ready to go to school tomorrow.
Looks like Logan got on the phone and took pictures of us on the way home from running club.
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