Evan the Bug Catcher

I'm trying to get all caught on my blogging after a month of nothing. This is the first of 4 posts I've put up today, so hopefully this will get everything up to date. Evan is an amazing bug catcher. Andy already makes fun of me because I can never seem to be fast enough to kill a fly with a fly swatter, but Evan can. He spends all kinds of time in the yard catching grasshoppers and crickets. At church a couple of weeks ago, he snuck (or sneaked) 2 communion cups and taped them together to make a little container for 2 crickets that he caught, which I thought was pretty ingenious. At Andy's dad's house they have one of those bushes that attracts butterflies. I think it's a buddleia, but I'm not 100% sure on that. When we go over there, Evan will spend forever out there catching butterflies. One day he caught 6 or 7 in a jar. The other day we were over there and he came running around the corner of the house with a huge monarch butterfly in his hand. It was pretty impressive. Andy's dad got him a jar to bring it home, and he kept it for a while until we convinced him to let it go before it died. In the first picture you can see it at the top of the jar right under the lid. I was snapping pictures, and the butterfly fluttered around for a few seconds before it flew off, but Alli stuck her big head right in the way and I didn't get any good shots of it. Ok, so Alli's head really isn't that big, but I was pretty darn irritated about it.

The First Day of School

Again, there are a couple more new posts after this, so keep on reading. In case you haven't noticed, I deleted that other post where I was completely losing it. I'd hate for my job to be in jeopardy over a little temper tantrum. It's been a crazy first couple of weeks with a lot of adjustments. But, this week has been much better than last week, so I'm trying to stay optimistic. The kids have done great. They all really like their teachers, and I love being in the same building with all 3 of them. I don't know what I'm going to do when they go to middle school. I'm so used to being right there with them and knowing everything that's going on and being more than just parents of the teachers' students, but friends and co-workers with the teachers. I told Andy the other night that I need to go back and get certified in middle grades education. Actually, middle grades go from 4th to 8th grade, even though elementary is pre-K through 5th, and since I did my student teaching in 4th, it would just mean a few more classes. But, I'm trying to not be completely neurotic and let go a little. I still have a few more years, so maybe I'll be ok by then. Andy had to take them to their class rooms on their first day since I had to be there to greet my students for their first day. Plus, I was having a really hard time with my babies starting kindergarten. I definitely lost it when I walked out of the school to leave Drew for the first time, and I was about the same with Evan and Alli. I had to leave before them, so when I told them bye I got in the car and cried on the way to school. But the kids were fine, and they still love it. I get reports from Evan's teacher that he's "all boy," which I just tell myself she means in a good way. I think she does. Alli had her strip moved one day for playing with a boy that she was in Pre-K with during rug time, and then had a little time out for talking in art class, but nobody was surprised about that. Everybody knows Alli can't be still or quit talking. Drew was scared to death about her teacher because she's the oldest 3rd grade teacher, and isn't all warm and fuzzy and huggy, and has a reputation for being very firm, but she's a great teacher and is funny and very nice, and now Drew loves her. She also has a little girl in her class who she had some problems with in the past, but they're friends now, so it's all worked out fine. If I can just get myself together and not get so stressed about everything, we'll all be doing fine. I'm doing better. My house is staying clean and laundry is caught up, and I'm not behind on grading papers yet (but it's just the 2nd week of school). We have groceries in the house and have managed to have dinner at the table as a family, instead of grabbing fast food and eating in a rush to get in bed. The only thing is I started my Master's on Monday, and it's all on-line and pretty flexible, and I'm doing it with 3 other girls that I got my Bachelor's with, but it's still extra projects and papers. I keep telling myself that the pay raise will be worth it, not to mention the credentials, which I personally enjoy. So far, it appears as though the professors all get that we all work full time during the day, and a lot of the projects seem to be things that we'll be doing in our classrooms anyways, and just reflecting on those. Plus my friends and I all work in the same county and e-mail a lot and meet for dinner once a month to talk about things and vent if we need to. So, like I said before, I'm trying to stay optimistic. I'm finally starting to get attached to my students, and I have a lot of sweet kids (who just love to talk, which is becoming an issue), so that helps. The first week all I could see was that they wouldn't shut up, and I was feeling so much pressure from the principal and there were so many huge changes from last year. But, it's all starting to become routine now, and the kids (my personal kids) are happy, which definitely helps! Oh, here are pictures of the kids on the first day that Andy took. They're in the kitchen where the walls are yellow and we have those little energy saver flourescent light bulbs, so the color came out really yellow.

More of Evan's Dirtbike

First of all, there's one more new post after this one, so make sure you keep scrolling down! Evan currently has 2 dirtbikes. Well, they're really not Evan's. Andy got them both, and one of them is an official racing dirtbike, and the other is more just for fun and a little slower, and, actually, Andy rides the slower one around more than Evan does. Anyways, when Evan rides the racing one he has to wear all his equipment, which includes a helmet and big, hard boots. The last time he rode it, he did great and rode all over Andy's grandfather's pasture for a good while, until he hit a tree root and had a little wreck. It wasn't a bad wreck, and he didn't get hurt at all. It just scared him a little. So ever since then Evan's been pretty skiddish about riding either dirtbike. Andy got him out in our back yard to ride the slower one to see if he could get him more comfortable with it, and he wasn't very happy about it. He kind of whined the whole time, until Drew decided to ride it. Evan didn't think she was doing it right (she was even whinier about it than Evan was), so he decided to get back on and show her how to do it, but after about 30 seconds he was ready to get back off. Since he's been so nervous about it, Andy would have to start out riding with him, and then jump off the back when Evan got comfortable with it, which was funny to watch. You can hear Evan yelling, "Can I get off now?" in the video.

Mom's 50th Birthday

On August 2nd (yes, that's 3 weeks ago! Sorry to all the family members out there who couldn't make it to the party and have been waiting for this!) we had a surprise 50th birthday party for Mom. I think me, Stephanie, Erin, and Dad sent something like 187 e-mails back and forth planning it. We barely talked on the phone about it because either she was around or my kids were there (we definitely didn't want them finding out about it), and e-mail is a way to talk to a bunch of people at once at each person's convenience. Andy kept asking me, "Why don't you just call each other?" Anyways, we had mom convinced that she was going out to a fancy dinner in Buckhead with some friends, so she got dressed up nice to meet them at their house, and then we were all there for the surprise. She was so excited about such a fancy restaurant that we started worrying that she would be disappointed that she wasn't getting to go that night, but she was fine. She was totally surprised and had no clue at all. Her birthday wasn't officially until the 13th, so she wasn't expecting anything just yet. Plus, her and Dad went camping a week before the party and Dad told her to go buy an air mattress to sleep on, and that it could be her birthday present. It was funny when she called me to complain about that a little. Poor Dad, I had to act like I believed it and that it was completely inappropriate for a 50th birthday. But, we both agreed that he'd probably do something else for her, like he always does. So, after all the lying and sneaking, it all turned out great. We all discussed before she got there how guilty we felt for all the lies, but I guess it's one of the rare situations where it's worth it in the end. Here's a picture of the cake and a little video clip of her reaction. In the picture, the cake says, "Allison Makes 50 Fabulous," and it has a lady sort of lounging on the top. It turned out really cute, but the order was sort of a disaster. Stephanie took all these pictures to the bakery and talked to the lady, and then called a couple of days later to check on the order and the lady had no idea what she was talking about. Steph finally got the lady to remember, but then 1 or 2 days before the party she called again to check on things, and the lady had totally lost the order and needed Steph to bring everything to her again. Thank goodness it all turned out ok, and the lady took a little off the cost for all the trouble without us even asking her to. In the video, I was way over on the side instead of getting right in front of her, so it's not the clearest shot, and I was pretty excited myself about the whole thing, so my hands were a little jittery when I was recording.