Learning

DD has a passion to learn. I love it and hate it at the same time. I love it, because, well, that's just cool. I hate it because I am a horrible teacher! I have no patience for it. There is a REASON I'm not a teacher by trade, ya know?!

Anyway. I just purchased new shoes for DD - with laces. She decided tonight that she wanted to learn how to tie them herself. So, we had lesson number one tonight. I don't know they whole bunny running around the hole story. I'm just teaching her how to do it by showing her - repeatedly.

YEARS ago, when DH and I were dating, we agreed that I would teach our children how to tie their shoes and he would teach them how to drive. Hopefully the kids will be able to tie their shoes before they are 16!!

3 minutes

A while ago, I read in an article that Jennifer Aniston takes a three minute shower - and brushes her teeth at the same time. I think of this random blurb almost every time I take my own shower (which is much longer than three minutes and I do NOT brush my teeth there). Often I think - how does she do it? This morning, my thought was - clearly, she doesn't have kids. Because anyone with kids savors those brief moments you get while you're in the shower and you a) can't be bothered by the kids or b) can't hear the kids and therefore can't be bothered by them :-) Sometimes I take a longer shower than needed just to get that break.

Laughing out loud

DD is learning about the Pilgrims and Indians and Mayflower and all that good stuff at school. In fact, her homework for tomorrow is to think about what three items she would pack in a paper bag if she were going to be on the Mayflower (she's come up with a knife, clothes, and a barrel of water; but now she's rethinking the knife thing and wants to take food).

But I digress. When I picked her up this afternoon, one of the first things she said was, "Did you know they had a POOP deck on the Mayflower?! Because they did have bathrooms!!!" So, being the loving and supportive mother that I am (HA!) I said, "What did they use the poop deck for?" (cause I wondered if she really knew or if she really thought it was the bathroom) and she replied, "For pooping. And they peed in the water!" If I hadn't been driving on the "fast road", I would have peed my pants laughing out loud. Tee Hee!

My morning so far

Here's a quick rundown of how my morning has progressed today:
5:30am - wake up to hubby's alarm
5:45 - go back to sleep
6:15 - peek at clock
6:30- peek at clock
7:08 - wake up (OMG!)
7:10- get breakfast for DD
7:15 - get breakfast for DS
7:20 - start the "you need to finish your breakfast" speech
7:26 - get DD dressed
7:28 - DS declares he's going to school today - run upstairs, put on jeans and shoes, grab his school clothes, tell DD to brush her teeth.
7:41 - finally depart for school
8:03 - drop off DD, confirm DS still wants to go to school
8:15 - arrive at DS's school, confirm he really wants to go
8:20 - go into school to get DS dressed (and outta that poopy diaper!)
8:30 - sit and watch DS play with baby toys until school is ready to start
8:49 - DS decides he doesn't want to go to school today (OYE!) which is okay, because I didn't think he should be going anyway, but seriously, couldn't he have decided this before now?!
8:50 - depart DS's school for Michael's, The Restaurant Store and/or Linen's and Things
9:20 - finish shopping, head home
9:45 - retire to couch for some Nick Jr with DS

The "Bus" Trip

So, way back in August, when I was returning from the Bee (annual Longaberger Consultant convention in Columbus, OH), I had this brilliant idea to organize a bus trip out to the Longaberger Homestead. I figured I knew enough people that would be interested and might really enjoy the trip - if nothing else, it would be a weekend away for them. SO, I made plans and I booked rooms and I made reservations and I sent out invitations and I talked about it to as many people as could stand to listen to me.....and no one signed up to come. Well, now, that's not true - my MIL and her mother signed up, but I knew they were coming from the get-go, since my MIL was with me in the van helping me make the plans!!

So, along comes the weekend of "The Bus Trip" and there's no one local planning to go with me, and my husband has this brilliant idea of me taking my DD with me. I think - wow, that really IS a great idea. But I have my reservations, cause see, in the last three weeks, I've spent almost 2 whole ones alone with the kids and I'm just a WEE bit tired of them ;-) But, I think to myself - "you can do this" and "she'd really enjoy it". So, I plan to take her.

Friday afternoon rolls around and it's time to take off. DH returns home from Arkansas at 1pm and I depart to pick up DD at 2pm. It's been nice seeing you, babe! We are on the road to Ohio by 3:15. It's a long drive. With no brother and dad to amuse her - it's all up to me to keep her entertained - and concentrate on driving - in the dark! Oye. I'm having second thoughts! We finally arrive at the hotel around 8:15pm. I prompty take two Tylenol PMs and get ready for bed. DD refuses to be left alone (not completely alone - Mimi was also going to bed at the time), so we ALL get into bed at 9:15 pm. OMG! It's a LONG night. DD slept wonderfully; the rest of us took turns getting up every hour. Ugh. DD is awake and ready to start the day at 6:30am.

We have breakfast in the torn up lobby of the hotel ("Please pardon our mess as we work to beautify our lobby and breakfast area for you" my A$$). Anyway. We are on the road to Frazeysburg by 9:00am. We spent all morning at the Homestead....shopping!! :-) About 30 minutes into the morning I am again having regrets about bringing DD - we are already on our second potty break (OMG!). But the day improves and we all have a really nice time. I even splurged and paid for DD to make her own basket (it's so cool!). Yes, we all made baskets while we were there. We're all such basket junkies!!

We headed to downtown Dresden around 2:30 and by 4:00pm we were done. It was rainy and cold and we were all pretty tired. So, we headed back to Zanesville and a yummy dinner at The Olive Garden. Then back to the hotel where we watched tv and got ready for bed. This time DD went to bed and stayed there with Mimi while MIL and I went to the lobby to read. Well - tried to anyway. There was some sort of meeting going on there, so we ended up reading in the pool area. But we got hot pretty quick, so we were back upstairs by 9pm. DD was out cold and Mimi was still awake, so we turned on one light and read awhile longer there. Got a better night's sleep last night.

DD let us all sleep in until 7am today (!) and we all took our time getting ready. We were finally on the road for home around 9:30. But the weather was bad (snow, rain, mist) and traffic was worse (I hate trucks!) and it took us more than the usual 5 hours to get home. We pulled into the garage around 3pm. Daddy was very happy to see us!

All in all, it was a great trip. DH is on the road now to Buffalo for tomorrow's game. He'll be home Tuesday afternoon and we will all be under one roof together for the first time in over a week! That'll take some getting used to! ;-)

Other pictures of interest:

DD wanted to get her picture taken with every basket she saw!






















DD made her own basket!