Puppy Dog Quotes

Puppy Dog: "Mom, I need to get cold. I need a cold shower."

(Now, now! Don't go there! Remember, he's an innocent five-year-old.)

Me: "Why?"

P.D. : "Because, I'm sweating."

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P.D. : "Mom, may I get in the dryer?"

Me: "Absolutely not!"

P.D. : "I just want to see if I have any clothes in there."

Me: "Oh, well it just got started a little while ago so they aren't dry, yet."

We're Going to Have a New Schedule!

Get ready to do the happy dance! If you can't dance, then just give a happy shout with us.

J.'s workplace is in the middle of a new shift bid. He is done with his bidding. They got ahead of schedule, so they called him and there was a really great slot still available. Get this:

1. First Shift -- I won't have to keep the kids quiet while he is sleeping during the day!

2. He has someone under him in seniority, so he won't have last pick of work packets.

3. While he will now have to work five days a week, his workdays (aside from overtime) will only be for eight hours. That means more of his off time can be spent with us instead of sleeping.

4. He has Sundays and Mondays off. He'll still be able to go to church on Sundays. He'll be able to play on the Monday night church softball league. These two days off are two he had off on the last bid, so we won't have to get used to new days off.

5. We can have school while J. is at work, and be out of school by the time he gets home.

6. Our meal times can be more "normal" which will help me with regulating my blood sugars.

7. Since we'll be getting up earlier in the mornings, it will be easier to get up and out the door on Sunday mornings.

8. I'll be able to sleep at a decent time, which will allow me to get up before the kids instead dragging myself out of bed because the kids got up with the sun.

9. Speaking of the sun, we'll all get more.

10. He was also able to get a good week off for vacation!

We Have Our Dining Room Table Back!

Yesterday, J. decided to move the drywall off our dining room table and stand it up. This would serve a dual purpose. We could have our table back and the bow that was forming in the middle of the dry wall could straighten out before we finish hanging it.

This morning, during breakfast, the kids were trying to make things out of their napkins. Monkey made a "Robin Hood hat," and I just had to share this picture with you. Keep in mind, the kids were coming up with the folds all on their own.

I Tried to Warn Him!

I really, did try to warn my husband about the hose that blew (Tickle for Tuesday). I called him on his cell phone while he was at work. He is not supposed to receive calls while working, so when it went straight to voice mail I just left a message. *Note to self: DO NOT DEPEND ON MODERN TECHNOLOGY! WRITE A NOTE NEXT TIME!

J. woke me up very early, ~ 4 am. He said something to effect of finding the leak the hard way. "I left you a message." "My phone was dead." Uh-oh, he didn't receive the message!

It turns out that J. went to Wal-mart after work and picked up some liquid hand soap. (In order to save money I have been diluting dish detergent for the kitchen pump and cheap kids' bubble bath for the upstairs bathroom. J. never said it bothered him, but now I know better.) When J. got home, he filled an empty hand pump. While filling the pump, a little went on the outside of the dispenser (or something--remember, it was really early my brain was fuzzy), so he wiped it off with his finger or hand. He then decided to prime the pump. He had soap on his hand and when he went to wash them, the cold water took the path of least resistance and came out the pipe that was supposed to be hooked up to the dishwasher. J. had to re-clean the cabinet and everything in it. Fortunately, it only took him two towels to do the job. He then proceeded to fix the line. He did this work with the soap on his hand. I guess he was tired, too. He didn't think to rinse it off in the bathtub. When J. got home he had plugged his phone in. After I had been up with him for a while, we heard his phone receive the voice mail.

A Tickle For Tuesday

My mom sent me an e-mail with a link to a monitor cleaner at the end of January. I put off following the link until tonight.

monitor cleaner

It turns out that it just had to be a "God thing" that I went to it today. I needed the humor.

I had decided to share the link, so I went to create a post. Just as the posting template came up, I heard what sounded like the pressurized steam being released from a paper mill. If you have been in the vicinity of a paper mill when this happens, then you know what I mean. If not, then imagine the weight blowing off the valve of a pressure cooker. The sound came from my kitchen. No little people were in the kitchen. I went to investigate and discovered that the water line to our dishwasher had blown off the hot water line under the kitchen sink. Steaming hot water was spraying (think high pressure) out of the pipe out toward the cabinet door and all over my hardwood kitchen floor. "Quick, grab some towels!," I hollered. Kitty Kat and Monkey came to the rescue. I tried to turn off the valve, but I wasn't strong enough. I had to go find a pair of pliers. Finally, I was able to turn off the water.

The two girls helped clean up the water from the floor, emptied the cabinet, wiped off each item they took out, discarded soggy items that couldn't be saved, dried the cabinet, and put everything away. Meanwhile, I changed my clothes and started a load of towels in the washer. Puppy Dog helped get me an empty basket for getting the load out of the dryer so I could change the loads around. He also took the full basket out of our tiny laundry area for me. Both boys wanted to be in on the action in the kitchen, but I kept shooing them away so they wouldn't get their feet wet and have to change again before bed.

It is now about 9:45 pm here and the kids are all in bed. They're only forty-five minutes late for bed.

Where were Froggie and Birdie? They were in a trance in front of the T.V. They were completely oblivious to what was going on a couple rooms away. It was probably a good thing though, they would have been scared.

Hmm...I guess I better go fold that laundry.

My Sweet Monkey

Yesterday afternoon, we were at Sears. We had been there for a while and on the way out dh stopped to look at tools. (When dh is with us we have to park at the end of the mall near the entrance by the tools. He hates to walk through the lingerie department.) My back was getting tired, so I took the girls over to a lawn furniture display and we sat down to wait for the guys. The seat I sat down on was too deep for me to sit all the way back. I tried leaning back, but that caused a lot of pain. Monkey had chosen to sit on a two person seat with Froggie. Before I realized what was going on, she was beside me tucking a pillow behind my back. With the pillow behind my back, the depth of the seat was perfect and a lot of stress was relieved from my back. Monkey was so thoughtful it brought tears of pride to my eyes. I made sure she knew just how much I appreciated her.

"Animal School"

I've read the poem of this before. Today, someone in one of the groups I am in sent the link to this video: Animal School .
Every parent who has or comes in contact with a special child (that's all of us isn't it?) should see this.

Award Part II

I mentioned before that I might pass this award on to another blogger.

I now pass it on to Mrs. Darling at Dishpan Dribble.

An Award? For Me?

I received this award a couple days ago from Damama T . Thank you!

I am now passing it on to another blogger,









Missy at The Daniel Academy.

I may award this to another blogger later, but I haven't decided who , yet.
I have to go now to rescue a cake I have cooling. It seems I've had a baby bear in my kitchen. There are pieces of cake missing off the edges of both layers. Hmmm... I wonder if I have enough frosting to cover the damage?

Saturday Sounds

Here are some things I hear today:

Monkey and Puppy Dog working on activities in a coloring book,

Birdie asking to do math (She doesn't care if it's her workbook or the math computer game we have. I'll have to get off here and give her some one on one time soon.),

Kitty Kat and Froggie practicing their verses for I.A.H.,

Baby Bear scooting across the kitchen floor on his potty (Please excuse me for a moment.),

Birdie asking to watch Strawberry Shortcake (This is the second time she has asked today. I haven't let them watch videos much lately. Hey, it's Saturday, why not?),

a Strawberry Shortcake video (Birdie picked a Christmas video and has her others on standby.),

Puppy Dog fussing that everyone is singing and he can't hear the video,

the video and not a peep from any of the kids,

the dryer running,

Midnight roaming the back room,

[while taking the dogs out] the wind in the trees and a car alarm, and

[back inside] the hum of the computer, the S.S. movie, and the jangling of a dog collar.

Now, I'm off to do laundry and clean.

Have a great day!

Addition Bear, Part II

There is a pocket on the back of the book. I plan on making little cards with activities to use with the book. This is where we'll keep them.
I don't know if you can see it or not, but each bear has all the sum of "n" problems on it corresponding to the number (n) of the bear. Therefore, bear 10 has "0+10= " on one ear; "1+9=" on the other ear; "2+8=, 3+7=, 4+6=, and 5+5=" on one arm; and "6+4=, 7+3=, 8+2=, 9+1=, and 10+0=" on one leg. Lift each flap and the answer "10" is underneath.

Addition Bear

The kids and I made an addition bear to help younger children (mostly Baby Bear) with their math. We also have a subtraction bear in the works, but we haven't finished it. I am doing a lot of the work for this one. The kids are helping me choose colors and make design choices. The subtraction bear has earrings that Puppy Dog added. Later, I am going to have the older children work on books of their own.

It's a little hard to see in these pictures, but each ear, arm and leg has either an addition problem, the word name of the number, or a shape.
The number 6 bear has six tiny stars that form a collar and buttons.

The ears, arms, and legs are all flaps that can be lifted to reveal the answer to the problems, the shape name, or dots to represent the number (under the number word).

Notice the face on 7? There are three small stars and four tiny stars. The kids liked that the face could be used for math problems. On the belly of 8, there are three stars. It's difficult to see, but the top star is red, the middle yellow, and the bottom one is green. The words stop, slow, and go are under the appropriate colors.

I will post the rest of the pictures on the next post.