Tea For Three and Toast For Dad

Tell ate most of the toast with jam that Jim made for him this morning. While Jim was sipping his coffee, however, a fully satisfied Tell reached across the table and deposited a crust in front of him. "Here Daddy. I'm full. I don't want anymore. You can have the rest." Ah, the generosity of toddlers........

Atira and her friend Erin put a tea party together this afternoon and reluctantly invited Tell, who proceeded to exhibit a full array of bad manners including arriving underdressed in only a shirt and boxers and consistently slurping his "tea". From my vantage point is was quite funny but I fear the girls were not amused.

Racing to the End of the Weekend

Growing up with just a brother, I learned to love playing with Matchbox cars. I got the chance again yesterday when our church hosted a Fascar Rally. It's a matchbox car racing competition for all ages with a computerized track timing system. I think there was as much rivalry between the adult as there was between the kids. Jim had to work in the morning but made it in time to see Atira, Nolan and I compete in our categories' final races. Nolan wants to make a track this summer and get a head start on finding our fastest car for a win next year!

The afternoon was spent picking out new eyeglass frames for Jim and enjoying some kid-free over-priced coffee and conversation at Starbucks.

History was made in the evening when Jim won his first game of Settlers of Catan. Most likely that victory will need to satisfy him for a few years until his next win.

Amazing Race I

Yesterday, mom watched the kids for the afternoon while Liz, Veronica and I drove for the teen teams participating in the WWBC Amazing Race. The teams began with a couple challenges at the church and then randomly chose the envelope that held the name of their driver. My envelope was found by Emily Hodgdon, Josh LaPointe and Jubal. Teams complete, we were off to start this crazy race that Greg set up!
* Greet the homeowner of 35 Weston Rd, Woolwich in a foreign language and then compliment her. (she gave us a non-descript key)
* Go to the Wiscasset Rec. and have one team member swim 3 laps in the pool. (follow directions Matt!)
* Ask for the Wiscasset Shaws store manager. (she had the team bag groceries for 2 customers)
* Head to the Lincoln County Animal Shelter and perform a task (our team brushed a room full of cats)
*Locate next clue at Marsh River Preserve in Newcastle
*Drive to the Bath Savings Institution in Damariscotta and perform a task

.....at this point of the race we were ahead of the other two teams by about 5 minutes. We were given a LARGE container of coin to count. We all set to counting it in our own way with no team organization. That was the first mistake. The second mistake was not keeping all the change in their groups when we arrived at our total. The third mistake was not realizing that if we did not have the right amount, it must ALL be counted again.......We had to count it again. This time we organized all the coin in the event of another recount, which there was. By this time the other teams had arrived to count their containers, much smaller containers we later learned. We were on to count #4, with Paparazzi James making visual record of our torture. We finally barred the door only to have him go outside with the video and film through the window. We learned later that he was going to film through a window on the other side for a different angle but saw a cop and thought that perhaps a man filming through a bank window might have some explaining to do. Through the frustrating counts #5 and #6 we maintained our humor but all agreed that we can do without seeing change for a LONG time! In the end we were only about a dollar off the mark, the tellers felt sorry for us and let us guess the total which ended up being about $131.

*Back to Wiscasset to use the key to unlock a car at Grover Auto for the next clue
*Return to the church for the end of Day 1

As I referenced above, upon arriving back at the church we learned that the other two teams counted about $43 and $79 at the bank....WHAT?!

The last leg of the race starts in a couple hours and revenge shall be sweet.

Juggling Children

I met up with Heather this evening to exchange children. Caleb had been visiting Nolan at our house and Atira had been enjoying some time with her friend Emma at the Pendleton's in Buxton. Seeing our two daughters enjoying. their time together is nostalgic for Heather and I. We began our long friendship with each other at about the same age many, many years ago.
This week has been one giant kid swap it seems:
Sunday night: Jubal at the Fisher's
Monday afternoon: Ben, Zack, and Riley Foreman at our house
Tuesday afternoon/evening: Caleb Pendleton at our house, Atira at the Pendleton's
Wednesday morning/afternoon: Caleb Pendleton at our house, Atira at the Pendleton's
Wednesday evening: Jubal at the Fisher's
Thursday afternoon/evening: Mom watching Nolan, Atira and Tell, Jubal at Church snowcamp.
Friday morning: Jubal at Church snowcamp
Friday afternoon: Tell at the Foreman's
Friday evening: Atira at the Foreman's
Saturday: All at the church for the Fascar Rally

Where did vacation go?

Valentine's Day

Flowers only arrive from my husband once every few years so I must visually preserve these for posterity.....

Now We Wait......

After dealing with several symptoms for about a year and a half, I've come to suspect that my thyroid is slacking in it's duties, so I finally made an appointment and had some blood taken today. Hopefully this will confirm my thoughts and not reveal something more serious.

Saving It For Later

I apologize in advance to my mother-in-law for the subject of this blog.

There is a great tradition of gum chewing on my mother's maternal side. Even my great-grandmother, Hazel Sander, enjoyed the habit, although she never learned to blow a bubble until her late seventies. I was witness to the event during a visit to my great-grandparents' home in Lincoln, Nebraska. I believe that was the same trip in which she climbed over a booth at a restaurant, but that's another story. Each year while visiting family in Michigan, I could be assured of seeing a ceramic ring holder sitting on the top of Ma's rolltop desk. It was rarely used for it's intended purpose however, instead one could usually find it holding a wad of gum being saved for further use. My mother also carried on the tradition at my childhood home, rolltop desk and all. These days, my mom's desk resides at my house but more often than not you will find my gum wads, not there, but on the dash of my van. My oldest, Jubal is following in the family footsteps. A couple years ago I opened the freezer to find a mass of purple bubble gum the size of a baseball behind my frozen chicken. The most recent treasure was discovered today on Jubal's top bunk while helping Nolan clean in the boys' room. I'm QUITE sure that I don't want to know how long this work of art has been sitting up there. I've included a photo for your enjoyment.

Boys

This afternoon, I walked into the living room to find my 14 and 11 year old being chased around by the four year old who was throwing his two blankets at his brothers while yelling "hamburger!". Sometimes it's best not to ask too many questions.