This is what our house looked like about a week ago.
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| House no. 3 |
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This is the latest and greatest thing in our house. It all started in May when I started tutoring for my summer class. I tutor on Wednesday nights leaving the boys and Sean for what is now “guy night”. Liam looks forward to guy night all week. They play video games, go get custard, go to the bookstore, whatever they decide to do. Liam will ask me all day how long it is until dad gets home when he knows it is guy night. He will also ask me when I am leaving. Oh, the love. It makes me happy though. I love that my boys have their night together and I get to go do my thing, even if it is just doing school stuff.
Since we have zero scheduled activities on Fridays this summer, they are our excursion days. Today’s excursion was to Reading Reptile. It is the bookstore for kids that Borders and Barnes and Noble would like to be, but they can’t because they are too big. Reading Reptile has a toy area, dressup area, a place to play board games and then there are, of course, the books. They have all kinds of neat chairs to sit in while you share a book and there is even a secret hideaway with a rug and a big pillow where the kids can read. They have craft classes there for kids and movie nights on Fridays. They also have a cat who unfortunately doesn’t seem to like kids too much, but he certainly adds to the homey feel of the place. After that we went to Baskin Robbins and had an ice cream cone. I have pics of the ice cream I’ll post later. Colm was a mess…I don’t think I will ever get the chocolate out of that shirt. Oh, well…that’s what summer is for…getting to eat ice cream cones as they melt faster than you can eat them.
We were out to eat tonight (people were looking at our house) and Liam pointed to a picture on the wall and said, “Mom, that person kind of looks like you.” So I am searching the walls for a picture of someone who even slightly resembles me. Stumped, I say, “Where, honey”. “Over there, the one with the glasses”. Apparently I look like John Lennon. Thanks, honey.
One year ago today was the last day I saw my dad alive. We took him out to dinner at this new Mexican restaurant he really wanted to go to. I had never been there, but my brothers had taken him there recently and he wanted to go there again. It was good, but I noticed my dad didn’t really eat that much. He was on the downward spiral at that point and had been for a while, but I didn’t think that was all the time I was going to get with him. What would I have done differently that night had I known? Did I hug him? Did I tell him I loved him? I am sure I probably did. We had taken him out to celebrate Father’s Day. The only thing I can say that I know I would have done differently, had I known, is that I would have tried to take everything in…really just tried to soak up the whole evening. Hug your dad today. Tell him you love him. Soak it up.
I have been using Mrs. Meyers to clean and I really like the lavendar smell, but it is kind of pricy and the cleaners for the countertops leave streaks. So, I am going to start using this. It is WAY cheaper, it doesn’t leave streaks, it can clean tons of stuff and as long as I don’t go on a freakish cleaning binge the house will smell fresh and not artificially clean or too vinegary. I don’t know if I will use it for everything, but I have already cleaned the inside of the frig with it and it looks and smells fantastic. 🙂 I might try some of these, too. Another bonus is if the kids get into it, it is doesn’t matter. I don’t think any kid in their right mind would drink vinegar water, but if they did, atleast Poison Control wouldn’t have to get involved.
I need to get some audio of the conversations that go on around here. Today on the way out to lunch Sean decided to give the boys a lecture on DNA. What is so funny about this (besides the fact that he was lecturing a 5 and a 3-year-old about DNA) is that while he was trying to expand their minds and open them up to the world of genetics Colm was in his carseat screaming about wanting to go to Chuck E. Cheese and that was not where we were headed. Sean and I just looked at each other and chuckled.
Check this out.
I don’t like it when I am reading something and there are grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, etc. So I really get annoyed when my own blog has these kinds of mistakes. Who put those there? Who is the dummy that can’t type? Oh, that would be me. If you see an error, please be gracious and know that I will reread it eventually and it will get fixed. It’s the teacher in me. Those spelling/grammatical things need to be correct or it drives me a little batty.
There is something to be said for taking a class in a classroom with a teacher and students. I have really enjoyed getting my degree on-line. It really was/is the best option for me. However, there is definitely a communication gap when you take a class like this. The only communication you have is on-line. If you have a question, you e-mail them. Then you have to wait for an answer. If you have another question based on the answer they just gave you then you have to e-mail them back and wait. It’s not really very effective and you start to feel like you might be annoying the other person. For example, today I e-mailed my instructor to tell her I had snail mailed her a packet that is part of an assignment I am doing this semester. She e-mailed me back to ask me if I sent it to her house. (Why would I send it to her house?) I e-mail her back (a little snippy at this point) to tell her that I mailed it to the address on the syllabus that says “mailing address”. She e-mailed me back to tell me that would be fine, she would pick it up sometime next week. Where did she expect me to send it? How am I supposed to know where she lives?
Another example…for another class this summer we have to have a colleague edit an assignment for us. Umm…it is summer and this is an on-line class. So, thankfully Erin (a former teacher) tracked down Amy (a former teacher) for me who has read the book that the assignment is about and she is going to help me. Thank you, Erin and Amy! 🙂