Busy Beavers

I kept meaning to write a post last week and well, I never got to it.  I’ll try to play catch up in one post.

Let’s see.  I had lunch with the kids two weeks ago.  They always enjoy that.  They both invited someone new to sit with them.  They had an early release one afternoon two weeks ago.  Will started spring soccer two weeks ago.  More on that later.  I blew out a tire on Friday the 13th.  I just realized when writing that what day it was.  It happened near my office thankfully and Drew was able to drive down and help me.  Because of where I parked we still couldn’t get it changed and had to call a tow truck.  He used his jack and got it changed and Drew went to get another tire.  No one was a happy camper that afternoon.  Thankfully we got it all settled so we could head to my parents’ house that evening.  That evening, the Beavers (my sister and nieces) flew into NC for their spring break.  Dad and I picked them up at the airport and we got to hang out with them the rest of the weekend.

Lindy and Will were so excited to see their cousins.  It was kind of rainy Saturday so they played in pjs all morning, painted in the afternoon and made pizzas that night.  Sunday they made stepping stones for Nana and Papa’s pool area and then played outside because the weather was much better.  They played in the driveway forever.  They rode big wheels all over and down the road to see their neighbors’ new puppy.  We had an early dinner before heading home with two unhappy campers.   They did not think it was fair Hayley and Rylee got to play at Nana and Papa’s while they had to go to school. 

This week was another busy week.  Will had soccer practice Tuesday night.  I have been very frustrated with the program this spring.  They don’t have a head coach so the first practice one mom stepped up and ran it.  One dad had told the organizer he’d help the head coach and the organizer tried to make him the head coach.  I had a feeling the second one wasn’t going to be any different so I looked up some drills online and I ended up running the practice.  The organizer at the Y finally sorted the teams into correct ages and we ended up with 10 kids and me as a coach.  I spent the week emailing the Y guy with my frustrations.  Besides only playing soccer for years in high school, I would just be the head coach if I could go to more than 3 games.  Starting in April I will be working every weekend.  I told him I can help with practices each week but in April I won’t be there on weekends.  A couple parents took up names on contact info during the practice and got a snack schedule going.  All with no help from the Y. 

Besides soccer being frustrating, the rest of the week was okay.   My parents and sister and nieces were supposed to come over on Wednesday and they ended up at CVS with a strep diagnosis for Rylee.  Amy thought allergies had got her but when she got a fever she got more concerned.  She got some doses of medicine and was much better so they came over on Thursday afternoon.  Drew picked the kids up from school and we met up with my family at Airbound Trampoline and they all bounced together for an hour.  We came back to our house so they could meet Aiden and then we went for dinner.  They headed back to my parents’ and we headed home for bedtime.  The Beavers flew out Friday – supposed to be at 1pm but really didn’t get out till 5pm because of weather in the northeast.  We wish we could have seen them more but our spring breaks never match up with theirs.

We went non-stop on Saturday.  Saturday was Will’s first soccer game and yours truly was the head coach.  The dad who said he would help was only mildly helpful.  The other team only had 4 kids and two of ours volunteered to play with them so we could actually play our game.  I made sure everyone played equal playing time and I think the game went fairly well.  Technically we lost but really they don’t keep score.  Of course one of our kids that played for the other team scored on us so that really shouldn’t count.  ha!  I think they had fun and Will told me a I did a great job so that’s really all that matters.

We left the soccer game and ran home to let the dog go pee and then we headed out to the annual beeping Easter Egg hunt for visually impaired kids.  This was the 5th year for it and our 5th time going.  We enjoy seeing some of the same people every year and they all know Lindy by name.  We get to see all of our old vision teachers which is always nice.  We got there an hour late because of the soccer game but we made it for an hour.  We ran home for lunch and then headed back out for Aiden’s second puppy training class.  The whole family went and we worked on a lot of tricks.  Will just sat and watched for most of it.  Lindy wanted to do everything which made it much more difficult.   We worked on leave it, take it, drop it, down, and loose leash walking.  He got down really quickly.  We are working on all the rest.  We headed home and then I headed back out for some grocery shopping we needed to get done.  We were bushed last night.

Today shaped up to be almost equally busy.  We had church and lunch and then I took the kids to their first symphony concert.  The symphony does these Discovery Kids concerts and Lindy’s visually impaired camp organized an outing to the one today.  The symphony was playing with a band called the Sugar Free Allstars.  The whole thing was great!  We were on the front row and the Sugar Free Allstars were fantastic.  They had everyone up dancing and singing the whole time.  After the show we went back stage to meet them and the assistant conductor.  It was really fun.  Before the show started they had lobby activities and one was African drumming.  We sat down to like a 10 minute mini class and it was so fun.  Will and I really enjoyed it.  Lindy did for awhile and then she got bored.  We headed home to let the dog out and then we went and had dinner with Ed, Jamie, Molly, Corbyn and Mimo.  I surprised the kids and they were excited to see Mimo.  We came home for bedtime and one more week of school before it’s our turn for spring break.

Aiden got his first bath.  It went better than expected.
Painting with their cousins.
Sadie Jo can be a cuddler when she wants to!
The big wheel convention came to town.
Hayley was great with Sadie.  Nana and Papa miss her help!

Stepping stones on Sunday. 
Airbound on Thursday. 


Will’s first soccer game of the spring season.
My first game ever as a coach.
Ms. Pam, on the right, was Lindy’s vision teacher for 2 years.
Tater Tot the pony is always there. 
One of their besties, the Demon Deacon.
At least the bunny left his head on this year!
Finding the beeping eggs.
Junior Officer Lindy was in full effect on Saturday.
With Ms. Lesley, Lindy’s teacher for almost 3 years.
With Ms. Jenny, the director of her visually impaired camp in the summers.

With Ms. Angie, the head of the bomb squad. 
Riding in cars with dogs
Puppy school

Enforcing the rules – even on the dog.

Getting to drum before the symphony concert.
Front row seats to hear the Sugar Free Allstars.
Three visually impaired kids and two siblings with the Sugar Free Allstars and the Assistant Conductor of the Symphony.
Ending the weekend with dinner with Mimo!

Back to Normal

We went to work and school for five days!  What what?!?!  It was good to get our schedule back.  I don’t think the kids enjoyed getting back to school and homework so much.

The week was spent doing all the normal things.  The kids had a writing assignment instead of spelling and reading this week.  I thought the writing assignment was dumb though.  They had to write about how to build a snowman with lots and lots of details about how to build the bottom, middle, and top.  You build them all the same way, just different sizes.  It was just dumb to write about each one as if you did something different.  We made it through! ha!

Friday after school Drew headed out to his dad’s house with the kids for the night.  I went home after work and ate dinner and then I went to a couple stores.  I had really wanted to spend the whole night shopping but the dog put a crimp in my style! 

Saturday morning I met my mom outside the kids’ school and we did a little shopping.  We checked out a consignment sale and then headed to the mall for Easter outfits.  After buying and returning I finally found an outfit I love for the kids!  I still need to return one dress I bought!  I’m so glad it’s done though.  We grabbed some lunch and headed home to let the dog out.  A little before 2pm we headed to Petsmart for Aiden’s first puppy training class.  There was one other dog in there and Aiden was all about checking him out.  We worked on sit and watch me and it took a long time before he finally would sit.  The other dog was doing it much faster.  He finally did catch on and he has been pretty consistent at home with it.   He is doing better with watch me, tonight he was holding my gaze much longer.  We worked on using phrase words for positive and negative reinforcements.   That’s been the hardest part.  I think it’s good to do with him since we don’t know what we’re doing with training him.  Mom headed home after the class and Drew and the kids arrived home soon after.   We left a bit later for dinner and an event at church.  We were there the rest of the night and got home late.  We didn’t enjoy the losing of an hour last night either.

Today we’ve had church and I did some grocery shopping.  Drew went to the Dave Ramsey class and the kids and I stayed home. 

We have learned puppies are seriously hard work.  Puppies aren’t for sissies.  ha!  He has had a horrible potty training day which is discouraging.   Lindy played with him a good bit today which was nice, but we have a lot of work to do with him.   Everything is about him right now.  I’ll be glad when he fits into our lives a bit more!

Cutest girl in town!

She was a happy girl today, holding Aidan’s leash. 
She was pumping shovels outside too.
Jack seems sweeter lately.  Probably because he doesn’t bite us or pee and poop all over the place.
He is super sweet when he is a tired pup.  He was worn out from his puppy class.  Maybe he needs to go to class everyday to wear him out.

More Snow

We had planned to keep Lindy home from school one more day to rest up.  Tuesday morning we got a call at 5:30am saying school was on a two hour delay.  I wondered why until I looked outside and it was snowing.  A lot!  Big huge flakes really coming down.   Less than an hour later we got a call saying school was cancelled.  A snow storm snuck up out of nowhere.  The weather people said there might be flurries but it was a full on snow storm for a bit there.  It kind of worked out since Lindy didn’t have to miss another day of school. 

Apparently there was more snow on side roads on Wednesday because school was cancelled again!!  The kids had another day at home while awaiting the next snow storm.  Wednesday night after we put the kids to bed it started snowing again.  Big, fat flakes for hours!  When we woke up Thursday morning we had 4 inches of snow.  They had called school on Wednesday night so it was another day off for the kids.  We headed out in the morning to play.  It wasn’t great sledding snow but it was great snowman building and snowball snow.   Of course we knew school was cancelled on Friday.  The kids have missed 7 days of school the last two weeks!   That’s a lot of days off!   After the snow started melting on Friday we got a big huge muddy mess in our yard.  Which has been fun to take the dog out in. 

Friday night I had my mothers of multiples consignment sale.   Thankfully I didn’t have much to sell because I didn’t tag anything until Thursday night.   I got to shop and then I had to cut tags at the register Friday night.  

Saturday we had another day at home until Aunt Anna came to visit.  She came to visit because she was going with Drew and me to a concert in Mount  Airy.  Janice, an oldie but goodie babysitter, watched the kids for us while we headed to eat and then to the concert.  We met up with Ed and Jamie and their friends Rachel and Danny.  We also met up with Katie, Kris, Micah and Claire.  It was a tiny little theater in Mount Airy and we watched a great performance by one of our favorite performers, Pokey LaFarge.  It was such a great show.   We had a blast!  It was such a small theatre the band just hung out with the people at the concert during intermission and afterwards.  We got pictures with all the band members.   It was the third show we’ve seen them at and each one has been great!

And just when we thought the winter weather was over – it wasn’t!  We had some freezing rain this morning and church was cancelled.  We had a most lazy morning and then we went out to lunch with Anna and Mimo.  We hung out at the house and then Drew, Mimo and I went to the first of a 9 week Dave Ramsey course.  Anna watched the kids for us and they had a blast playing with her. 

The kids are headed back to school tomorrow – yahoo!!!!  Hopefully winter is OVER!!

Will’s cool lego ball he built this week.
Early morning out in the snow on Thursday morning.

Lindy has been wanting to build a snowman and this snow was great for it!

The sweet pup!

The band members of Pokey Lafarge!

Pokey!

Even the cat has been cute lately!
Silly pup.  He reminds me of a goat on top of something.  Ha!