LOST

Who else watched the season premiere?  Any guesses on who is in the Oceanic 6?

Quick Tip

Here's a good way to determine what clutter is important enough to keep.  Spill milk all over your counter (on accident of course).  You quickly have to decided what papers are important enough to keep and which ones are just not that important!

Thursday Already?

Sometimes the weeks just seem to disappear before I even have time to blink.  This morning I set my alarm for 6:00.  I was planning on going out and running for an hour before the kids were up...... My alarm went off, it was dark and cold out (36 degrees), and so I turned it off and went back to sleep.  I can always run later!  Turns out I should have just gone though, because about 20 minutes later Zach comes into our room completely wet from peeing in bed.  If I had gone out then Garrett would have had to deal with it :).  Oh well, now we're up and ready for another day.  We'll probably go to the park today, if it warms up some.  (which is funny because I was reading another blog yesterday from Canada where she is talking about how it is 40 below and she was still attempting to get out for a walk.  I just couldn't survive there!)  

I'll leave you with this link today.  Garrett made it yesterday of his "little" brother Mike, who is now 18 and a few months from graduating from High School. 

Activities

We go through this every year....... what kind of activities should we have the boys in?  Last Spring Kevin was busy with the Peter Pan play and T-Ball.  Zach has only ever been in a music class and we haven't done that for almost a year now.  He keeps asking, "When are we going to my music class again?"  The reason I didn't sign up again is because the last couple of times we went all he would do is sit on my lap.  I figured he could sit on my lap and listen to music at home if he really wanted to.  Kevin has announced that he is, "Retired from plays", and unfortunately we were not able to get him on a t-ball team this year, at least not for sure.   So now we are back to thinking about what activities the boys want to be in.  Or maybe they are fine just hanging out at home.

I know a lot of other families where the kids are involved in so many activities that the family hardly has any time at home.  Garrett and I agree that it is good for the boys to be involved in something, but I just don't know how much is too much.   I can't say they always are just hanging out at home, after all, they both are in AWANA, Kevin is in cub scouts and in Spirit Team.  Zach is in preschool three days a week and that seems to be plenty for him.  So why is there that feeling like we should be doing more?  Today Zach and I had a nice morning of hanging around the house.  We did puzzles, played outside, and on top of all that, I got the garage semi-cleaned out!   I think as the boys get older and have more of a strong interest in things, they will be more interested in doing activities with friends.  For now, we will just keep going with what we are doing.   

Ahhhhh, they grow up so fast!

Pinewood Derby

Our first Pinewood Derby......and we survived.  We only had a minor meltdown, but Kevin was willing to come back in and watch the races again after he realized that each car got to race three times.  The variety of cars was really amazing and it was fun to watch the boys cheer each other on.  The biggest trophy went to the boy with the best sportsmanship at the end of all the races.  I thought that was great!  Here are the pictures I got from yesterday's event:

A Break From The Rain

It's been raining all week, or maybe it just seems that way.  Either way, we've gotten a lot of rain and it was supposed to continue with another storm through the weekend.  Thankfully the weatherman was wrong and it is blue skies and sunny, for now.  Nice enough for me to get outside for a run this morning.  I did not go with the group though, I was just not feeling up to it (excuses, excuses).  Where I run is right next to a "dry creek bed".  This morning it was flowing with a ton of muddy water.  I have never seen water in it like this since we've been here.  

Today the cub scouts have there annual Pinewood Derby.  Basically you start with a kit that contains a block of wood, four nails for the axels, and four wheels.  Then you are supposed to shape it to look like whatever you want, paint it and decorate it to make it your unique car.  Some parents, I have heard, really get into it and talk about getting the maximum speed and making sure the car is aerodynamic.....blah, blah, blah. Garrett got some help from our neighbor, since we have very few tools around here. We'll see how it goes soon enough.  Kevin is very excited and I hope that he keeps in mind that is supposed to be fun and that we don't have a meltdown if his car is not the fastest.  He painted his car to look like Lightning McQueen from Cars.  And for all of you that bought popcorn from Kevin this year, a majority of  the sales profits go towards this event, with the In-N-Out burger truck there with food for us all!  I will put pictures up from it tomorrow.  

And here are some pictures from Kevin's latest project that he was working on last weekend.  His Lego Spongebob that he got from Nana on his 6th birthday.    Kevin and Lauren put it together when he got it, but Kevin had since took it all apart.  He also mixed some of the pieces with his huge container of Lego pieces, so I was the one looking through all those pieces for the many tiny pieces he needed to complete it.  But he was able to do most of the actual putting together and following directions on his own, which was a big improvement from when he did it the first time.

Kevin took the pictures but said he didn't want to put them on his own blog.  So I am showing off for him.....

Forwarded Messages

Most of the time I don't really do much with forwarded messages. I typically will read them but I rarely forward them on to others..... especially if they end with, "Do this within the next 10 minutes and something really great will happen to you". Occasionally I get one that I find worth while and so here is my forwarded message to you today:

"The band, Five for Fighting, is generously donating $0.40 to Autism
Speaks for *each time* the video is viewed. The funding goes toward
research studies to help find a cure. When you have a moment, please
visit the link below to watch the video and pass it along to your
friends and family. It is a great & sad video.
They are aiming for 10,000 hits, but hopefully we can help them
to surpass this goal.
Thank you,"

Link to the site

This was forwarded to me from a friend of mine in Ventura whose son has autism and I worked with him when he was just 3 years old.  He is now 11, I think, and in Junior High, and every time she sends me pictures of him I can't believe how big he's gotten.  We used to live down the street from them and when I was pregnant with Kevin this little boy used to always rub my belly and say, "Baby in the tummy!"   

Anyway, watch the video.  It's informational if nothing else and maybe it will help raise money for a good cause.