Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Even though the South is ruled by the Heat Miser, we've been hit pretty hard by snow this year. We still have piles of snow from the two feet of snow that we received a month ago.

Apparently, the Heat Miser and his brother, the Snow Miser, have come to some kind of agreement that has allowed it to snow in Virginia. Because it's snowing. Again.

Readers of my blog know that I am a big fan of comic strips. I love it when one really nails what really happens in people's everyday lives. The last couple of days, Zits has been running strips that have to do with snow and how the different family members view being snowed in.

Man....I think that the illustrator has been spying on my house!








So, what will you be doing with your snowed-in time? Sleeping? Watching movies? Playing in the snow? Playing board or video games? Me? I'll be cleaning out kids book shelves, which have books piled so high that I'm surprised none have fallen over and hurt someone.

But certainly not the spice drawer. Come on. I'm not like that mom at all!

And just to brighten up your snow day, enjoy a little music by the Heat Miser and his bro, the Snow Miser!



Hope you get all of your projects done! :)

The Monkey Suit

Who likes to get all dressed up? I know I don't! I'd much rather have on a comfy pair of blue jeans and t-shirt and tennis shoes and I'm sure that give his option, Ken would rather not wear a suit and tie.

But who would have thought that Shane would have been so vehemently opposed to dressing up? We took the boys to the Melting Pot for Christmas dinner and I asked them to dress appropriately.

Shane came down stairs after putting on the clothes that I laid out for him. Sighing heavily, I heard him complain (loudly) to Ken that he "HATED to wear a monkey suit!"



I hope that he finds a job doing something other than office work. Because if he thinks that khakis and a button up shirt are monkey suits, just wait til he really has to dress up.

I also came to the conclusion that maybe we need to get him out and about to more places than ones that serve chicken nuggets on the menu!

PS - Yeah. I'm not sure what he was doing there. That could have been a blog in and of itself!

An Overflowing Glass

Do you look at life like everything has possibilities? If so, you see the glass as half full.

Or do you look at everything with a realistic approach and find a reason that something can't be done? If so, you see the glass as half empty.

If you're like Mary Mayken, the glass is overflowing.

I was cutting up some grapes for her the other day for snack and she looked at me and said "grapes are awesome, Aunt Kem." I agreed with her.

Then she said "you're awesome, Aunt Kem." Yeah. I totally agree with that!

She then says "I'm awesome, Aunt Kem." Yeah. I totally agree with that too!

She then sat down and had her snack, all the while singing Frosty the Snowman. And the Dukes of Hazzard. lol.

The world needs more Mary Maykens with her positive attitude. Wouldn't it be awesome to have her unjaded, positive outlook on everything?

Boys Will Be Boys

At approximately 4:07 every day, the boys arrive home from school. They usually ring the doorbell...even if the door is unlocked. Honestly, every time they do it, I regret having my dad fix it last time he came up. I had 6 months of blissful, ding-dong-ditching-less months.

Anywho, the same routine ensures. They come in (just as I get to the door to open it for them), drop their stuff (all of it!) right in the middle of the hallway. And I do mean all of it. Jackets. Backpacks. Lunchboxes. Miscellaneous stuff.

Except Owen's football. That's never ditched!

And, of course, they usually go straight to the fridge. These boys are eating me out of house and home! Owen will grab an apple or yogurt and Shane usually grabs for the cookies or some other junk. When I tell him no, he gets mad and stomps off.

Every single day. Ugh.

Well, yesterday was no exception. Everything was just the same. With a little twist. A bonus if you will. As they were coming in the door, I hear Shane yelling "I'm telling on you!" And Owen screaming "noooooooo!"

The yelling and fghting is part of the routine that I forgot to mention. It's simply the best part. How could I have forgotten to mention it? Ugh.

Of course, I ask what happened. And, of course, Shane was only too happy to tell. He was telling so fast, he was tripping over his own words.

Apparently (and not apparently, he did it!) Owen had to pee when he got off of the bus.

So he did.

Right there on the side of the road. In a neighbor's yard. In front of all the other kids.

Joy oh joy.

I haven't answered my phone and I'm avoiding answering the door. I can ignore emails too. I'm sure that I'll have someone's mom calling me this weekend.

I asked Owen about it and he said that either he did that or he peed in his pants. And he didn't want to do that.

Damn him and his logical reasoning. But boys will be boys I suppose. Ugh.

I only wish that *I* could get away with that. This isn't the first time he's used logical reasoning to use the great outdoors as his potty.

But I'm still avoiding the phone, doorbell and email.

You Got That Right!

ME: I spend my whole day picking up the boys stuff.

MARY MAYKEN: I know. Me too, Aunt Kem. I just had to pick up their puzzle. I'M AWESOME!

You got that right girl! :P

Making An Impression

Readers of my blog (ie...my mom and Ken's mom), may remember me writing about getting summoned to Owen's classroom for a conference due to his disruptive and rude behavior. His teacher wasn't sure if it was due to his vision related learning problem or what was going on. She just knew that he wasn't acting right and was more than a little concerned about his inattentiveness.

This happened right before Christmas break. I told her that I didn't think that it was related to his vision problems. I thought he was just being a twit and she needed to put her foot down with him. His vision problems, while very real, don't give him an excuse for acting like a disrespectful twit who isn't putting forth any effort.

That's my opinion, of course. And you know what they say about opinions....

I'm not completely heartless (okay...I probably am but that's a different post) but I do realize that he's 7 and probably needs a break. So, we gave him a two week break on his vision therapy and his vision therapist and I decided that we needed to adjust the amount of work that he's doing daily once school gets back into session.

Anywho, on Sunday night before school started, I sat him down and told him about the conversation that I had with his teacher. I told him that I understood that he may be overloaded and explained that we were going to reduce his workload for vision therapy.

But I also reiterated that, although we do understand that he is probably feeling a little pressure from the vision therapy, that it did NOT give him a free excuse not to try his best and we definitely weren't going to accept him being disrespectful to his teacher.

He was, understandably, upset. By this point, Ken had joined the conversation and we continued to explain to him that he wasn't in trouble but we were "throwing a flag on the play" and giving him a "two minute warning" to straighten up and try his best. (He understands football, thus why we used the analogies.)

Apparently that conversation stuck with him. When we were talking to him, he said that he gets really distracted by the reading group and can't focus. On his own initiative, he asked his teacher to allow him to move to a different area of the room for his independent reading so he wouldn't be tempted to be distracted.

His teacher sent me a note a few weeks ago and said that he had made a poor decision about something and before she had to correct him, he self-corrected whatever it was that he was doing and moved in the right direction.

This was all good news. I had an IEP meeting yesterday with the team that was assembled to deal with his vision problem. I found out during the meeting that he had made a deal with his partner in crime that they had to stop talking during class and needed to get their work done.

I asked him about it last night and he said that he made a decision that he wasn't behaving properly in class and thought that he needed to have a conversation with his friend. He said that they needed to talk when it was appropriate and he needed to do his best. Additionally, he said that when he realizes that he's talking inappropriately, he stops and if the child beside him is instigating him, he asks to be moved away from the temptation.

His teacher confirmed all of this.

I wouldn't have thought that he could be so responsible and make such good decisions. I'm not surprised that he didn't say anything to me though. That's just his way.

But I'm glad to see that the conversation that we've had have made an impression on him. I didn't think that they did...though all of the tears, "I didn't do it" and eye rolls. But they did...in a big way.

So, good on you, Owen! Let's keep it up!

Tolerance...It's A Virtue!

If you know Owen, you know that he has never been one to be affectionate with babies or little kids. He just can not be bothered. He barely tolerated Mary Mayken when she was a baby.

If they can't talk, they are a "baby"....regardless if they are six months younger than Owen or an actual baby.

He is just now to the point where he will acknowledge Mary Mayken. And yes...he even plays with her on occasion.

So, of course you know what that means. Yep. Mary Mayken is ALL about Owen. Forget Shane, who is actually very good with kids and loves to play with them. Nope. It's all about Owen. Owen. Owen.

When she was here the other week, she came dragging Owen up the stairs by the hand and was singing to him. He wasn't amused but surprisingly he played along. I think that she made him play with her baby dolls. lol



"Please help me!"



Aw. Mary Mack has no idea that he really isn't amused by her. She's just so happy being with Owen.



And he's just so....so tolerant of her. :p

Sincerely

My mom called me laughing the other day. Once she stopped laughing, she asked if Shane was mad at her. I said no and asked her why. She responded that she got Shane's thank you card and asked if I had looked at it before he sent it.

Of course I didn't. I was too concerned with getting it out the door so I could check it off my list. I asked her to scan it and email it to me.



No "Love, Shane" no "Love Always, Shane." Just "Sincerely, Shane." :p

The funny thing is that she didn't even mention that he only addressed it to Nanny and left Poppa out. I guess Poppa doesn't even warrant a "Sincerely, Shane." :)

A Sunday Morning Sermon

Since it's Sunday morning, I thought I would give a sermon on friendship and kindness using tennis as a metaphor to do so.

No point in a game or game in a match or winning the match itself is more important than how you treat your partner during the course of play in the match.

When you arrive at the pearly gates of heaven and meet your maker, He isn't going to care whether you won a point in a game, a game or the match itself. He's going to care how you treated your partner on the court. When your partner made a bad shot, did you treat them with kindness and say "good try," "you'll get it next time," or even offer helpful advice such as "I've noticed that the other side is beating you down the line...cover the line and I've got the middle."

Or...did you roll your eyes, spin around and sigh deeply so that your partner could see and hear you?

If you did the later, you need to reexamine what's important in life. And it's not winning the point, the game or even the match. It's important how you treat others.

Amen.

A Note Of AppreciationTo A Teacher

In the process of writing his thank you notes for Christmas presents, Owen also wrote his teacher a thank you note.



So totally cute. I especially love the picture that he drew of him and his teacher at the bottom of the note. He put little glasses on himself. :) Be sure to click on the image and read his note if you can't see it well enough.

I am so mailing it to his teacher. I know that she will love it! :)

The Kickin' Boots

I thought that I could never love another as much as I loved Mary Mayken's little pink shoes.



That was until the day that little green crocks came into my life. Then I was totally hooked.



And that infatuation lasted until the day that little red shoes came waltzing in with their oh-so-sassy attitude.



And I really *thought* that I was done falling in love. Nothing could get any cuter than these little red shoes. Seriously. I even tried to find a pair of these cute little shoes in my size. Unfortunately, there were none to be had.

Then Mary Mayken came stomping into my house wearing her "kickin'" boots and I thought I would pass out. These were the pinnacle of cuteness. Nothing can be any cuter than this!



Can you tell that she put them on herself? :p



It was really cute until she screamed "Look at my kickin' boots, Aunt Kem" and then reared back and started kicking at the other kids.

I responded that yes, the boots sure were kicking but I reminded her that we don't "hee-yaw" the other kids.

For those of you who weren't privileged to receive a "hee-yaw" from Mary Mack during her karate chopping days, you should thank me in advance for squashing the kicking boots from actually kicking!

Happy New Year!

A very Happy New Year (or Merry New Year for Jo) to all of our friends and family. We hope that 2010 brings you health, happiness and fun!

This is the best way to start off a New Year! We'll worry about the whole resolution thing on Jan. 4!



Farm fresh butter! Oh yeah baby. This stuff is REAL!



Farm fresh eggs. Check out the dirt on them. :up: Sorry Susan's children have to be traumatized by the roosters but these eggs sure are good!





Can you say...yum!



Peace, Love, Hugs and Snuggles!

Ken, Kim, Shane, and Owen. :)