It's been a while!

I know, I know, I haven't written anything in a long time. Not for any real reason either. Sure, I've been busy but just with basic, everyday stuff. I just haven't been very motivated. I still don't have much to say but I can let you know what's been going on with us.

Paige went to the doctor a week ago and he was pleased with how her arm is healing. She goes back next Monday and he seemed optimistic that her cast would come off then. Now if we could get her mood fixed we'd be all set. She's always been dramatic but lately, holy cow! Last Thursday she cried all the way to dance because she didn't have a snack to eat in the car. Not that she didn't have a snack, that she didn't have one in the car. Because the girl ate from the time she came home until it was time to leave. She got herself so worked up that when we got there she refused to go into ballet. Miss Jillian (the owner) came over to talk to her and wanted to sign her cast and Paige wouldn't let her. I finally opened the studio door and PUT her in class. She sat next to the door the entire time and would not dance. I was MAD. She did join in during tap class and acted like nothing ever happened. She is sooo stubborn! We had a big talk about how she has a responsibility to the girls in her class to do her best and how each class is important because they are learning their dance for recital and blah, blah, blah. We are also going to figure out how much that class cost us and make her work off that amount. We want her to understand that this is not cheap and she needs to take it seriously. Who knows if that will work.

Donovan had try-outs for summer ball. He is trying to move up from where he is supposed to be (based on age) so he can play with his classmates. The cut-off date is May 1 so he misses it by three weeks. Every other year is one level behind his class. Most of the rest of his class will be playing with the 9-10 year olds so he thought he'd try out for that level. Unfortunately they have more boys than usual signed up. They decided to add a team so that's good news. The bad news is that he got really nervous and didn't do as well as he could have. Jon also heard somebody say they don't have enough kids for the level he is supposed to play at. Jon said there were a lot of kids better than him and a lot of kids worse than him. If those kids that were worse than him are actually 9 or 10, I would imagine they would get the spots before him. I guess we just wait and see. Right now he says he's not playing if he can't move up, again we'll have to wait and see.

Tessa has continued on her quest to try and get the kids taken away from us. After her encounter with the deer antler she has run into a wall (damn thing jumped right out in front of her!) and fallen off our bed onto the wood floor resulting in a goose-egg and then lovely bruise on her forehead. She also seems to have decided that it wasn't good enough to carry the Terrible 2's through the 3's, it appears she is gearing up to barrel straight on into the 4's. She has just been a stinker lately. The problems seem to mostly involve food. She thinks she needs to eat all. the. time. Her favorite meal? Corn. Seriously, I ask her what she wants for lunch, she tells me "A can of corn". Fortunately for her, she is freaking hilarious. She is so funny, she has us all laughing all the time.

The big thing we're gearing up for is her birthday party that she's sharing with Leah. The carnival theme is a lot of fun to work with. All the kids (and Leah, who's here so much she feels like one of ours) are sooo excited about it. They are full of helpful suggestions about games and prizes. And they keep offering lots of motivation to get things done. Donovan told me the other day that if I didn't go work on the ticket booth right now we were not having a party. Nice. It's good to see that he does hear me when I talk. He can spit back exactly what I would say to them, it's too bad he never listens to me. So he's hearing but not listening. Still better than Jon who doesn't even hear me when I talk.

I've been trying to figure out something we can do for spring break. Donovan is the only one with any suggestions. His were Virginia, Chicago or Georgia. We're going to Virginia this summer, I'm not ready to do Chicago with the kids again yet (it's only been 16 months since the last time, talk to me in 3 years) and Georgia? He doesn't know of anything to do in Georgia, he just wants to go there. I wanted to go to Columbus to go to COSI but apparently I am a big science geek and nobody else thinks that would be fun. That was Jon's take on it. He has no ideas so he is not helpful.

Jon has been trying to figure out how to work 60 hours a week and also go ice fishing on a regular basis. He is failing on both counts. He only works 50 -57 hours an week and has only been fishing twice in the last two weeks. Pretty soon I'll have to get him an anti-depressant to deal with this failure. Oh, and he has also been dealing with me while I prepare for the birthday party and while I nag him daily about ordering the laptop he promised me for my birthday. So I guess he earned some credit there. He lost it when I discovered that he managed to order waders for himself but still has not ordered my laptop, or the ceiling tiles for the landing that he was going to order two months ago.

So that's what's been going on around here. I've got a ton to do to get ready for the birthday party so I probably won't be back before then but I'll post some pics afterwards.


Edited to add: I guess I was wrong about not having much to say!