How?

How on Earth are you supposed to reprimand your kid when he comes out of time-out looking like this?

Yeah...I couldn't keep a straight face and by the time I stopped laughing I couldn't remember what I was going to say to him.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Budding Artists

Not much has been happening lately as far as Alex and Abby goes. The days are still fairly nice out but I can feel the temperature shifting to the colder days. We actually had to wear coats outside today to keep toasty warm. But the part of the days when we spend our time inside, we are running out of fun new projects to do. One thing is certain though. These kids love love love their art time. I can't seem to keep enough paper in the house. So I decided to break out the old paints for them. I let them wear a couple of old t-shirts that I mow in and they thought that was extra special. I let them each pick a color of paint and a brush and they spent a good 20 minutes making art...abstract art...very very abstract art. I am trying to find new things for them to do. I'm pumped for Christmas so that we can start making construction paper angels, Santas, Christmas trees, and various other fun things. I've got my scissors ready and my cotton balls all in order. Bring on art time!

Notice Abby. She is very into it. She is getting more in to art than Alex is.

Happy Medium

My poor hubby is stuck in the extreme zone. He has been unemployed for a month and so as a result has been having completely idle days. No work. So he gets a call from our friendly neighborhood union and finds he has a job. He called me to relay the information about his new found employment. I could hear the disappointment in his voice almost immediately. It turns out that he has to work 1 1/2 hours away every day. Not only that, but he has to work Monday through Saturday. Mondays are ten hour days and Saturday is an eight hour day. Which means...no weekend. The poor guy is going to be exhausted every day. This is the sort of job where the people don't work to live. They live to work. We just purchased a nice cheap car for him to get to work every day about two months ago and we aren't entirely sure if this car is built for longevity like this. So we might be trading vehicles so that I will get the more unreliable car. Oh my dear van, I shall miss you if this be the case. The difficult part about having a job like this is that the Union doesn't see any job less than 1 1/2 hours away to be worthy of reimbursement. So we get to fill a vehicle up with gas daily. Ouch. So here we are. Either Josh will have no work at all or more work than a family man can take. I don't suppose we can complain though. It's work. And work is work. I just hope and pray for poor Josh. He's gonna have loooooong days and very short nights with no recovery in the middle. I know one thing is for sure. I won't be complaining about my job. Mine may be 24/7, but at least I get to spend it with the ones I love. I suppose that's how life can be...all or nothing. Where the heck is the happy medium? Oh yeah...i forgot. He got laid off from it.

Hallelujah!!

Any blog that starts with a title like this must be good news. So...yes folks. Good news! Josh has got a job! Hallelujah!! Thank the good Lord! It's been a long month. I can't even imagine how those that have been unemployed for much longer stretches must feel. Sometimes it felt like there would never be a job in sight again. Oddly enough, Josh said that he ran into an old professor on Monday that asked him about where he is working. Josh told him that he's not working at all. He told him that he would see if anyone was hiring. Josh is a really great worker and I think that his professors can see that. Now, we of course have no idea if this job is related to it at all, but regardless, we couldn't be more thrilled. Whether the job lasts two days or two years, I am just happy that I can wake up in the morning and say, "Have a good day at work, honey!" It's ironic really. This week was the first week that we actually got our first pay from unemployment because of the work it took to fix all of the crazy problems we had with it. I'm not complaining though. Not even in the slightest. The kids may have a hard time adjusting to not having Josh at home again, but they'll manage. I think Alex and Abby have gotten used to seeing their dad every morning. They ask me every morning, "Is dad stillsleeping?" I will be more than eager to tell them, "Nope. Dad's at work today." They usually know though. Dad is only sleeping if the bedroom door is closed. I have a feeling that the first day of work, Josh will be very tired, so I'll be suggesting he goes to bed before 3:00 in the morning. :-) Have I mentioned I'm thrilled? This really is the best news. After our ceiling spontaneously fell in this past week, I was afraid that things may just get worse. But, this Thanksgiving we will have a lot to be thankful for.

Boredom

This bookshelf had three shelves of books. Note that the shelves are also missing.

With dreary weather comes the inevitable boredom for kids. If it is nasty outside and there is no way else to expel the infinite amounts of energy, kids will resort to any way necessary to alleviate the pain of boredom. My children just happen to utilize their destructo-skills. They find any and every way to cause massive chaos in the house. I believe that they are trying to send me a message. The message being: "I'm bored mom. And if you don't find something for me to do then you have only yourself to blame for the mass destruction I will cause." And destroy, they do. When they are in trouble, the timeout corner has apparently become a vent for their frustration. When I'm not looking, they peel the paint off of our lovely wood paneling walls and rip the trim off of the corners. When they are just mindlessly looking outside our large picture window in the living room, they feel compelled to shred tiny bits of the energy saver coating from the glass. And when they have utilized all other forms of destruction they settle for the 'daily mess'. This consists of taking every toy and book and dumping them on the ground for no other purpose but to cause a mess. I am teaching them to clean up but it is a slow learning process. But after all of this, I have come to the conclusion that when you sell or buy a house, there should be a section stating that toddlers were raised there. It would explain away about 3/4 of the things that need to be replaced.

Swingin'

I just thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the kiddos enjoying their swing-set. They do so love their swing-set. I actually removed their 'baby' swings this week. Alex still enjoys one of them, but unfortunately he is just too big for it. his feet drag the ground and we can barely get him in and out anymore. Abby was never a big fan of her slightly different baby swing. She just loves to swing on her tummy on the big-kid swings. I'm just waiting for them to knock heads together. Anyhow...enjoy!

Grandpa

My dad - AKA, Grandpa - is great with grandkids. He is sort of the grandpa that all little kids look at and say, "Wow! Grandpa is so cool!" And Alex and Abby adore him. He's a wild and wacky guy. (And I mean my dad by that.) He is always entertaining the kids with some crazy little trick or funny face. They just can't get enough of Grandpa. I even have proof that Grandpa is a favorite around here. I have been waiting for miss Abby to say those three wonderful words to me. You know the words I speak of. "I love you." I remember the first time Alex said it to me, my heart just melted. Actually, it still melts when he says it. Abby has been talking just wonderfully. Words are flowing from that little mouth and she learns something new everyday. But one evening, my mom and dad were leaving from our house. As my dad was getting into the truck, Abby waved through the window at him and said, "I love you grandpa!" Now keep in mind, that when she says 'grandpa' she really pronounces it like "tampah". Just adorable. I know the words weren't meant for me, but hearing her say "I love you" to my dad was just precious. Since then, she has said those wonderful words to me as well, but I will always tell her that her first 'I love you' was for grandpa.