What fun...

I would sing "O, What a Beautiful Mornin'" from "Oklahoma" - but it's WAAAAAY past mornin'. (And this morning was v.e.r.y. chilly. ) And that song just has a way of sticking in your brain and repeating over and over and over again. So I won't sing it. I'll just link to it. That way, if you follow the link, it's not my fault. I didn't make you push the button.

We went this morning to take J-man to the dentist. It was time for a check-up! He passed the test. He even went back with the hygienist all by himself. He had his teeth cleaned without needing me there with him. Very much unlike G-man when he started going to the dentist. It took 2 of us to hold him down.

I was called back to visit with the dentist and actually see the dentist examine his teeth. Mini-E went with me. They watched Scooby-doo on the TV and waited. The dentist came. Mini-E is sitting in the seat next to the exam chair. Dentist hands her the mirror and asks her to hold it for him. She shoves it in J-man's mouth.

She decided she was going to help and not just observe. J-man kept trying to bite the mirror and I told him to 'relax'. So did Mini-e. I mean, it's really silly to tell a 3 year old to relax in the first place, but to have the 2 year old mimic me, just made me laugh. She was taking charge. Every one said, 'A future dentist!' .. I agreed that she is a future something.

J-man received a good dental bill of health and headed off to the prize box. While Mini-E climbed into the chair. The dental assistant saw it before I did and asked the dentist if he would look in her mouth, too. I just smiled. (from ear to ear) It was so much fun watching the reactions of the others watching Mini-E. He put on his gloves and asked for a new mirror and looked in Mini-e's mouth and said that her 2nd molars were nearly all the way through. (Yippee!!)

The same dental assistant grabbed a goody bag and filled it quickly. When Mini-E was done I asked her if she was ready to go, she told me no. Until the assistant handed her the goody sack. We stopped at the prize box. She did NOT want a sticker. She did NOT want a toy. She went out to the waiting room while I checked out - and she dumped everything out of her goody bag and took possession of her prize -- a brand new toothbrush. We had to open it in the van. HAD TO.

I then had the brilliant idea to take The Professor to lunch. Where the sodas tasted much like dishwater (The horror!!!) We talked and talked and had a great time. even with nasty soda. (By the way - we stopped at a convenience store to get REAL dishwater free sodas).

I was so blessed!! Mini-E fell asleep on the way home and STAYED asleep when we got there! She is the queen of the power nap! So I was thrilled that she stayed asleep. Then J-man went down for his nap - and it's such a beautiful day!!! We did our math outside!!

Sidewalk chalk works perfectly!
I"m sure about swinging and working on work book pages, though. G gave it a good try.

Mini-Me wrote quotients on the swing set and a line of roman numerals on the slide. We did the 7's times table on the pavers. We reviewed units of measure while swinging.

It was such a beautiful day all around.
It's one of those days that makes up for a lot of the harder days. *sigh*
It was good.
Very good. I want to do it again.

Jumper - a review of sorts...

We searched the local theaters for something to see on our date nights. There really wasn't much else going on around town. I guess I should have checked live theater, but I would have been late in getting tickets.

So we settled on "Jumper". It had an interesting premise. A guy who can teleport from one place to another. Hence the name, Jumper. David thinks he's the only one of his kind after he discovers that he can "jump" in high school when he almost drowns. He moves away from a suspected abusive father, when he's still 15 and not out of high school. He moves to the big city and discovers that he needs money. So David decides to jump into a bank vault.

But first he must see the vault. That's the interesting thing about jumping. You see, the Jumper has to see the area before you can jump there. So how does he get there?? He asks for a restroom for customers. So they walk him down the stairs and right by the vault. What kind of a bank put the restrooms downstairs?? Most customers aren't even going to be heading into the vault.

He jumps into the vault that night and leaves an IOU (or several) and takes bags and bags of money then jumps back to his hotel room. He keeps jumping back and forth. I noticed that when David's emotions were high, he did damage when he jumped into a room. When his emotions were neutral, there was no damage. Just an interesting plot point that I thought added to the movie.

Then time flashes forward and we see David as a 25 year old. He's got a VERY nice apartment. It's filled with all sorts of STUFF. Many pictures line the walls (we learn later these are jump points). The stuff in his apartment is just stuff. It doesn't seem to have a need. With the exception that maybe he takes it with him. There's a yellow scooter sitting in his apartment and I'm still not sure what that was about. He's living the high life and then trouble comes.

Jumpers have enemies. The Jumpers mortal enemies are a group that call themselves Paladins. Samuel L. Jackson is the lead bad guy we see in the movie. They are portrayed as religious fanatics (which I didn't much care for, but it didn't take away from the movie) Actually, the movie had a bit of a "Highlander" vibe, without all the beheading. A Jumper can be stopped by high-voltages of electricity. We see a Jumper in the jungles, tangled in cords that are coursing with electricity. He asks why all this was happening and Jackson's character says something about only God having the power to be all places.

Which begs to differ the semantics - Jumpers aren't in MORE than one place, they just get there faster than the rest of us. Religious fanatics don't make sense sometimes.

We meet another Jumper when David takes a girl to Rome. This Jumper is cynical and we discover that he's been hunting Paladins and knows quite a lot about them and their organization. They team up to fight Jackson's Paladin and save David's girl friend.

The movie was over far too soon. It moved very fast which surprised me. They could have done a bit more with character development...but all in all it kept me entertained. I came away thinking that it would make a fantastic TV Show and maybe I had just watched the pilot episode.

Hayden Christensen did a great job as David. He started out as a sensitive boy and remained so through the movie. I liked that and never once did I have Anakin flash backs from the Star Wars movies. The one thing I didn't like about the movie was David's immaturity. He started the movie as a 15 year old boy and when we see him later, he was still very immature. Granted, maybe he didn't have to mature because he didn't have to grow through things like jobs and college - he just jumped through life instead.

Which sort of explained the gratuitous s*x implied in the movie - he never grew up. It didn't really need to be in the movie, but it helped set the tone for David's life. Essentially, everything he had and done was all meaningless.

The movie ended with a great opening for a sequel...but really, I'm not sure it would make another movie....but it would make a fantastic tv show. Maybe someone from TV land will see my blog, steal my idea and I'll have a tv show to watch. :-)

Unlike David, I can't jump through life. While I was typing and thinking - Mini-E decided to lather vaseline all over herself. So forgive my typos and any lack of continuity in my thoughts -- I've got to go make a bubble bath instead of editing.

Time flies....

If fruit flies eat fruit -- what do time flies eat??

it seems like yesterday that Mini-E turned 2. Yesterday she shocked me by asking to sit on the potty. And actually pottied!! I was a bit surprised, even if I have my suspicions that she had come up with an excuse to get me all to herself. Ah, well. It's a start.

The Saturday after Mini-E turned 2, we called on our favorite babysitter and the Professor and I went out on a date. We don't often do this because we don't have a babysitter budget. (Though, I think we need one.)

We left the kids in the capable hands of our beloved Lady-in-Pink and headed out to have a time all to ourselves. Have you noticed that there really aren't any privately owned restaurant anymore?? Everywhere you go, the names are the same. We tried Cheddars. They were at capacity with a waiting line that was out the door. People were standing in the cold rain willing to wait. That said that the food was good - but slow. So we headed across the street..to a Tex-Mex place

There was a wait here, too, but at least we got to wait inside. And we talked. We were able to talk about school purchases for the 2008-2009 season. I realized, with some trepidation, that I will have 3 grades to teach. J-man will, most likely, be in the K4 books. So we'll being the phonics prep and number stuff for him. Which means books from ABeka. :-) It's both frightening and exciting. It felt funny to talk about school for 2008/2009 when I'm no-where near finished with 2007/2008. It was still fun talking about it.

We finally got seated, and discovered a party of 24 sitting next to us. We had one very busy waitress. We ate and headed across to see the movie "Jumper." and then we headed to the book store. Our babysitter, laughs at us every time she sits with the kids. We always end up at the book store. We both found a book - and I got Mini-Me another "Ramona" book from Beverly Cleary. (She read it in less than 2 days.)

Then we headed home. It's always good to head home when you've had fun. Knowing that the kids would be asleep helped, too. I admit it. Everything went well, Lady-in-Pink said. With a few minor exceptions. Time-outs were apparently given out for spats....

Even Elmo had to head for time out. I almost missed it.
He was sitting in the corner on top of the piano, because he had giggled himself into a riot.

He managed to come out of time-out the following day and hasn't caused another riot, yet. But we've been warned...so we're watchful.

Shoes?? What shoes??

Saw this at Jane's - and had to see if I could be barefoot, too. I'm a free spirit!

I rarely wear shoes 5 minutes past crossing the thresh-hold. So I had high hopes of finding myself barefoot in the quiz. I'm a free spirit! The questions were interesting...I was sure I was going to get the right answer (you know, barefoot) ...

Then I got my response and I just laughed out loud. I just take exception to a few things.
1) I'm not flakey and
2) the only responsibilities I play hooky from are house chores(that's what a blog is for, right?) -- but the rest is pretty much me. Even if it's not - it still made me laugh.

You Are Flip Flops

You are laid back and very friendly. Cheery and sunny in disposition, you usually have something to smile about. Style is important to you, as long as you can stay casual. It takes a lot to get you to dress up! You are a loyal and true person, though you can be a bit of a flake. You tend to "play hooky" and blow off responsibilities a lot more than most people. You should live: By the beach You should work: At a casual up and coming company

What Kind of Shoe Are You?

Now -- I wonder if I can find a beach home - where I can play hooky and go to the beach!!

Birthday Adventures...

I think my blog title needs a sub title. Something "Birthday Adventures: and other harrowing tales" or "Look out world, she's 2!"

Or Even "Mini-E's got a new man in her life"

I can't believe she's 2. It's so funny to think about.
Compared to the big kids - she's tiny.
Compared to the fact that she's my last one - she's so big!
*+*
Some days she's both.

Our birthday adventure was quite the comedy of errors.

I wanted tomatoes to go in our salad. There's a farm just around the corner, down the block aways from us. So I thought, no problem. Get the room picked up and vacuumed and go get the tomatoes.

Then I had this other brilliant thought. It's so pretty - the parking lot is EMPTY. Let's let the kids run. Each big kid took a little kid by the hand and off they ran. While I waited for them to return. The problem came when Mini-E didn't want to return. Mini-Me did her best to dissuade her from making the path change -- but E saw a swing and was making a beeline right for it.

I had to hustle to get her and bring her back to the van. She did not go quietly. But neither did she nap in the car on the way home. So we had chicken nuggets for lunch and I put the kids down for their nap. I had a moment to myself - and realized I needed to make a cake before I put the meat in the oven to cook.

I didn't have enough eggs - and I'd JUST put the kids down for their naps. I was NOT about to wake them up to go fetch eggs. I texted The Professor - because he was at a training and wasn't answering his phone. He said he would pick up a cake on the way home.

Edited for Toby, I forgot to post the picture of the cake. It was CHOCOLATE!!

So I put the meat in the oven. While all this was going on -- I was greatly concerned that the Professor might miss his valentine that I had sent to his work. He had mentioned cookie bouquets as a possibility -- and so that's what he got. Unbeknownst to me, he wasn't going to be at work - but a training - and would possibly miss the delivery.

It all worked out - but it was a crazy day.
It doesn't sound crazy now that I've typed it all up - but it sure felt whirlwind-ish when I was living it. :-)

Still, Mini-E turned 2. A milestone has been met. It's almost more important than New Years - because now, it seems, it's time to face the year head-on.

So there you go - our birthday adventure.