turnover

i volunteered at the kids' school yesterday afternoon up until when the final bell rang, and waited in the lobby for them to join me so that we could begin the mad dash that always makes up our mondays: maneuver the car out of the jam-packed parking lot, race home, help susanna and her friend maggie wriggle their bodies into leotards, feed all three kids snack, load up the car again (making sure liam has plenty to occupy him for an hour) and hightail it to gymnastics.

but it's funny how kids don't seem to sense urgency when you need them to.  susanna came skipping down the kindergarten hall towards me, arms outstretched with a booklet of some sort, intent on sitting on my lap on the lobby couch as she showed me its contents.  i reminded her of our time crunch and assured her that we would spend time that evening really looking at the pages and discussing them.

but i got a sneak peek while she was at gymnastics.  turns out that she was yesterday's Student of the Day, where she gets to stand in front of the class and is asked the same set of questions every Student of the Day is asked: what is your name?  who do you live with?  what is your favorite color?  what is your favorite thing to do?  and then, after the interview is finished, everyone in the class creates a picture of the Student of the Day, showcasing some of what the student shared in his/her interview.  the booklet that came home is a stapled set of all these drawings.

as i thumbed through the pages, i was fascinated for two reasons.  for one, i'm constantly amazed at what a wide range of ability levels are housed in one kindergarten classroom.  you see it with readers vs. non-readers, athletes vs. the less-coordinated set, musicians vs. those who are tone-deaf.  and after flipping through the booklet, add one more area to the list: artistic ability.  there were drawings that were spot-on perfect, down to the ruffled hem on susanna's skirt.  and there were drawings where, as hard as i tried, i couldn't even make out where susanna's head was.  people marvel at how i teach middle school ... i marvel at how kindergarten teachers possibly deal with a group of students whose levels are all over the map.

so that was the first fascinating piece.  the other was what susanna was doing in most of the pictures. i've scanned a few of them and inserted them below.  susanna's name is on the top, as the title, and the artist's name is visible at the bottom.  do you see what struck me?

yes, susanna was wearing a green top and a polka dot skirt with an orange fringed hem.  yes, she has dark blond hair and blue eyes.  and yes, she loves to be outside.  these budding artists perfectly captured all those aspects of our little girl.  but there's one other thing that they all included -- even the last one, which is a bit harder to see.  something that rocked me to my core.

she's PLAYING FOOTBALL.

i've written on this very blog about my hatred of the sport.  i love watching basketball and tennis and will contentedly serve as spectator to baseball and soccer and golf and even bowling ... but anyone who knows me knows how much i absolutely detest football.  so how is it possible that my doll-loving, princess-adoring, musical-singing prisspot daughter actually got in front of her class and, when asked what is her FAVORITE thing to do, opened her rosebud lips and uttered the phrase, "i like to play football with my older brother"?

i'm all for my children asserting their independence and stepping out on their own and developing their own likes and interests and hobbies.  but seriously ... football?

it's like a line drive to my heart.

("line drive" is a football term, right?  i'm trying to come up with a nifty pun but my utter lack of knowledge is causing me to fumble.  probably something i need to tackle in the near future.)

memories ... light the corners of my mind

(note: i totally had to look up the lyrics to "the way we were" for the title of this post and, as always, was surprised to learn i've been singing the wrong words all these years.  chris would not be surprised.)

during dinner a few nights ago, we somehow started talking about the kids' first birthdays.  if chris were here next to me he'd be able to remind me how we got on the subject; alas, he's not, so i'll sit here trying to remember how it all came about even though it's really not important.  regardless, our children, like all children (and, really, all adults), love to hear about themselves when they were younger.  they hang on my every word, even if it's not at all interesting.  "and then, you would roll over on those chunky baby thighs and go to sleep," i could say, and their eyes would twinkle and they'd laugh and ask me to tell them more.  "and you'd just sleep and sleep all night," i could continue, and they'd still be mesmerized, peppering me with questions.

so we were recounting liam's second birthday during our dinner the other night, describing who was there and where it was and what we ate.  "he was wearing that blue and white checked outfit, right?" chris asked.  and i didn't even have to think about it -- i knew he wore that outfit, not because of my stellar memory (which has already been discounted), but because we have pictures of it.  and more than just pictures, we have scrapbook pages of it.  i'd like to pat ourselves on the backs and marvel at how our minds are like steel traps even at the ripe old ages of 36*, but that's not the case.  we remember it because we documented it.

it makes me wonder if we remember the Big Events of Our Lives because they were indeed Big ... or do we remember them because we have visual evidence that they occurred?  tangible proof that we can hold in our hands and help us relive?  pictures we can pass around as we reminisce, details on the glossy paper that trigger memories in our mind we would otherwise forget?

all of this was going through my mind that night at the dinner table.  while i half-listened to chris describing to susanna what her first birthday cake looked like (which is prominently featured in her scrapbook spread of may 2007, natch) my mind was focusing on our blog, because i haven't posted nearly as often as i'd like as of late.  despite having this newfound "freedom" afforded to mothers as they send their youngest off to kindergarten, i've been stretched much too thin with a new 40-hour a week work schedule that i'm somehow trying to squeeze into the 35 hours a week that they're in school, while also doing volunteer work and laundry and bible study and grocery shopping.  i'll try to make a mental note of something to include in our blog, but by bedtime, i've stared at the computer screen for far too long that day already and collapse on the pillow without even pulling up our page.  and i'm already kicking myself mentally on behalf of my future self, who won't have a page in the 2011 blog book to read to remind myself of exactly how susanna's first day of gymnastics went, or the kids' impromptu dance party i stumbled upon, or the hilarious-but-totally-awkward conversation we had on the way to school last week with our neighbor that somehow connected a barbecue restaurant with a dog and our nickname for girls' private parts.  (well.  on second thought, i might not have actually written about that.  but trust me, it was funny.)

so.  the house renovation is done (pictures coming soon), the school year is in full swing, and our lives are back to normal a new normal.  the routine has returned, and hopefully, the blog has too.  because if it doesn't, we may just have a difficult time remembering anything about 2011.

* i originally posted this stating our ages as 37.  i just realized that we are both still 36.  and now i'm starting to wonder seriously about alzheimer's.

wordless wednesday

i seem to remember when i birthed my first child that there was a checklist of things i was required to do, simply because all mothers do them.  somewhere between "jump around like a ninny when your child goes #2 on the potty" and "have your child's feet professionally fitted and realize he's been walking around in shoes two sizes too small" was the obligatory "take pictures of your child's first day of school and share them with the world".  (this was in the days before facebook; certainly by now the checklist has been amended to "take pictures of your child's first day of school and post them on facebook along with the other 98% of your news feed who's doing the same thing".)

liam's first day was actually a few weeks ago, on august 25, but kindergarten always starts a full week later, so susanna didn't begin until september 1.  both of them have had huge smiles on their faces ever since; they love their teachers and love their classrooms and love their classmates.  it certainly makes drop-off easier for me, to have two kids who look forward to school and bound out of the car, eager to start their day.  just as their momma, after 7+ years of being at home with them, is eager to start hers.  :)

on liam's first day, with susanna along for the ride

standing next to his cubby, wearing a pristine new backpack that will assuredly look like a truck ran over it by day's end



some little sister supervision for his inaugural day desk work



daddy got to hold her hand ... and mommy got to hold her backpack

outside the school building.  i just now realized that liam wore the same exact shirt on his first day and then a week later for susanna's first day.  he's partial to the carolina blue, of course, but it does make things a bit confusing

"i really only need to know how to write five different letters in order to write my whole name," she very astutely pointed out

according to my sources, to this day, liam still walks susanna down to her classroom and even gives her a hug goodbye before turning around to head to the first grade hall

the highlight of her big first day?  the bus ride home wins by a landslide



it's heaven ...

... being SEVEN!

liam turned the big 0-7 (hmm -- that doesn't quite have the same ring to it as a double-digit age does) a few weeks back, and i've kind of dragged my heels on his annual birthday post because i've wanted to find just the perfect picture that i've taken from the last year that best encapsulates his personality.  but i couldn't.

i've got tons of him playing sports, since he loves ALL things athletic. 

after being a professional golf tournament spectator (and being handed signed balls and even a glove), he was more hooked than ever

and i've got tons of him with susanna, since he is really an amazing big brother and loves her so.

their first sleepover ever -- in liam's room.  they giggled for a long while before finally drifting off to sleep

i've got tons of him being goofy, since he's got a great sense of humor.  (i just wish i could somehow take a picture of the jokes he makes up, which can be surprisingly clever.)

i was surprised at just how many goofy pictures i had to choose from

i've got tons of him being serious, since he's focused and driven to the point that he tunes out everything around him if he's concentrating (even his parents talking to him.)

yes, that's the webster's dictionary he's reading at my parents' house, which he continued to do for a good half-hour

i've got tons of him playing the wii, his third favorite pastime behind sports and academics, like this one, taken on a fairly cold morning when we still had it outside hooked up to our tv on the back porch.

a wii bit chilly, i do believe

i've got tons of him from church activities, since he is growing in his faith everyday, asking insightful questions about God and Jesus and learning to love the Lord.

our fearless joseph in the 2010 christmas pageant -- a role he took quite seriously

but it's this one that melts my heart every time i see it.  it's this one that shows his true personality: a kind, sensitive, thoughtful little person who adores school and learning and being around others.  it's a letter he wrote to his new first grade teacher the evening of the first day of school -- unprompted; he did it just because he wanted to.  (on the other side, he drew a picture of himself and mrs.turner, next to each other reading books.)

happy birthday to my most favorite boy on the whole planet.  it's heaven being seven!

the scavengers

all our beach trips this summer were super fun.  all our camps were super fun.  the vacation bible school weeks (yes, we did multiple ones), the library outings, the mountain excursion, the wildlife conservation center visit ... all super fun.

and then, all the super fun ended.

we returned from bald head to an empty calendar.  and i mean E-M-P-T-Y.  school began on august 25 (more on that later, natch) but we had a good eight days to fill.  and a mother can only do so many hours at the pool before it starts to lose its luster.

luckily, i'm blessed (and believe me, i know it) with children who still love playing with each other.  most days they'd entertain themselves for four or five hours, holding Critter School or playing Guess Who or building legoes or reading or playing soccer in the back yard.  they'd come get me for snacks or lunch, but i was able to get a surprising amount of work done as we slowly but surely transitioned back into our home and i transitioned back into teaching mode.

but tuesday, after almost a week of self-entertaining, they hit a wall.  for the first time all summer, i heard the dreaded, "we're booooooored, mommy.  what do we do now?"

and thank goodness for stacey, my college friend who also writes a blog who happened to discuss that very morning a fun activity called a Make and Do Scavenger Hunt.

i hastily scribbled a list down on a torn-out sheet of paper, and posted it on the kitchen door.  i don't remember all the items on the list, but whatever they were, the kids had a ball completing their tasks.  here are some highlights: 

creating a play-doh porcupine (notice the toothpicks as quills)



Snow White herself traced her feet -- without her princess slippers, of course



finding pinecones (they took it a step further and not only found them, but used about two entire rolls of tape to adhere them to paper and hang them in their rooms. of course, the tape gave out and i'm still picking up shards of dirty pinecone from the carpet, but i'd say it was worth it)

so the Make and Do Scavenger Hunt turned out to be super fun, just like most of the rest of the summer. 

but you know what else is super fun?  school starting.

wordless august: beach style

i was fixin' to (sorry -- that's my north carolina roots talking) going to title this post my normal "wordless wednesday".  but then i realized that it wasn't wednesday.  and i've been pretty much wordless all month.  so "wordless august" seems more appropriate ... have i mentioned that we're in the middle of a house renovation?

i'm finally getting around to uploading photos from our multiple trips to the beach this summer.  we spent a week with my extended family for our annual reunion, another five days with our dear friends the basses (who might be in this blog as much as we are this summer), and just returned from bald head island, where we enjoyed another five days with chris's parents.  not a bad way to spend your summer break, especially your alternative is a house with an inch of drywall dust on every surface.  (i've discussed the renovation before, right?)

i am always so thankful that we are just a hop, skip, and jump away from our beautiful coast -- and our children, as you'll see, agree.

after years of watching me hunt for beach glass, susanna began a collection of her own

much like an old man, most afternoons liam would return to the beach showered and dressed, with a book in his hand.  he pored over the "encyclopedia of sports" he received as an early birthday present.  we are SO hoping that kids' Jeopardy has a sports theme when he's a contestant

susanna's on her way to china with the help of her great-uncle ron and cousin reilly



more digging with reilly, her partner-in-crime for the week



enjoying lunch on the deck with web and a camera-shy marshall

what's a beach trip without a putt-putt outing?  and what made it even better was our new rule: NO SCORECARDS.  because playing with liam, World's Sorest Loser, can drive a woman batty

in all my years of going to topsail, i had never seen anything like this: a giant tidal pool, about 25 feet wide.  the sand bar (where liam and web are playing paddle ball) surfaced on our second day there and returned every morning.  at its most pronounced, the kids could stand on the sand bar and jump down into the water as if they were on the edge of a pool.  we probably spent three or four hours there every day, swimming and floating ... it was perfect

it's a hard life



a feast of tuna steaks and scallops -- and our seafood loving children devoured every bite

bald head is full of photo ops, from the golf cart riding to the lighthouse to the ferry ... and the only shot i took was one with popsicles.  (although, i must say, if any popsicle deserves such attention, it's lunapops' sea salt caramel flavor.  i thought i'd died and gone to heaven.)

you know your renovation has been going on too long when ...

• words like "crown molding", "built-ins", and "flush mount lighting" are part of your five- and six- year old children's vernacular.
• you hold real silverware in someone else's home and it feels foreign.
• you're grateful for that spanish degree you earned in college.  especially useful is the phrase "estoy buscando mis ..." which means, "i'm looking for my ..." (fill in the blank -- keys, purse, shoes, sanity.  our painters have been quite helpful in locating at least the first three items.)
• your children build all their lego houses to include an attached dumpster.
• the aroma wafting out of the port-a-potty in your front yard isn't remotely pleasant ... but you don't even notice it.
• your children actually whine about having to go out to dinner.  "please, mommy?  can't you please cook tonight?"  (sorry, sweetheart.  cooking is not an option without a functioning oven or range.)
• on top of your bathroom counter is handsoap, toothbrushes, and a carton of strawberries to be rinsed.
• when asked what they've been doing this summer, your children do not respond with "we've been to the beach!" or "we've gone to the mountains!" or "we've been swimming and doing fun camps!"  instead, their immediate reply is, "our house is being renovated."

and that pretty much sums up our lives at the moment.  but the end is in sight.  the end is in sight.  the end IS IN SIGHT.

out of order

i try to maintain some semblance of order at our house.  i might not be the world's best housecleaner (in fact, aside from vacuuming, i'm pretty much terrible at all of it) but i do manage to keep our home relatively tidy.  i cannot stand clutter -- the kitchen counter might be sticky with a few crumbs underneath the toaster oven, but i at least make sure there's not piles of crap sitting on top of it that belong elsewhere.

i have vowed to myself that once our renovation is complete, that it will turn a new page in my life's book and i will become a regular merry maid who mops the floors, scrubs the showers, and dusts the lampshades on a very regular basis.  this renovation is also going to turn me into an early riser who exercises at 6:00 a.m. and who does not procrastinate work assignments and who runs on time, if not early.  it is AMAZING what this renovation is going to accomplish in my life!  i'm calling it my Miraculous Life Makeover.  just you wait and see.

but this renovation -- the same one that's going to effect radical change for the better in me -- is, in the meantime, wreaking havoc on the one thing i actually do right.  because there is no order in our family life at the moment.  our dog has been at my doting in-laws' for the entire summer.  half of the kids' toys and books and clothes are in my parents' basement.  we've also got stuff stashed in their guest room, at the beach house, and in the back of the car.  in short, if there's something we need, there are about seven different places where it might be ... and it's always in the last place we look.  (funny how that works.)

so i've had no choice to to embrace disorder.  i've learned to turn a blind eye to things not in their proper place -- because, for this moment in time, usually it has no proper place.  i shrug it off, reminding myself that this phase is only temporary, and once we are finally back in our house, i can spend a full day restoring my beloved order (and sanity) into my life.

never before has this been so obvious as it was this afternoon.  we're at topsail, where we have spent the majority of july, and have somewhat of a routine to our days.  we spend three or four hours on the beach, and when we're finally starving and have exhausted our snack supply, we return to the house to clean up.  i always stand in the outside shower in my swimsuit and help the kids, and then send them upstairs to get dressed while i shower myself.  by the time i join them, they're always sitting at the kitchen table, dressed and eagerly awaiting lunch.  i've gotten to the point that i look forward to seeing the concoction of clothing they both will have selected without me.  liam's usually in some totally mismatched outfit (today's pairing was a yellow striped shirt with blue and red plaid shorts) and susanna, for the past four days straight, has been in her purple flowered dress. 

i haven't bothered either one of them about their choices, because, well, it's summer and i really don't give a flip if my son looks like he's colorblind or if my daughter's stuck on repeat.  but i did finally ask susanna why she was so smitten with her purple flowered dress.  was it the pockets?  is it super comfortable?  does it have extra twirling power?

"well, it's just that it's the first one i see," she explained, "since it's always on the floor near the door."

aaah, the whole disorder thing.  a crumpled dress on the floor -- sounds perfectly reasonable.  i would've probably realized this, had i ventured up to the second floor to look in their rooms.  when i finally did this tonight to gather up their dirty laundry, i couldn't find any of liam's underwear.  so i asked my second question of the evening regarding their attire.  "liam, where are all of your dirty boxers?"

"hmm," he thought aloud.  "i don't know if i have any underwear besides the ones i have on."  i immediately felt the need to clarify exactly what he was telling me, so i asked him if he's really been wearing the same pair during this whole long weekend.  "oh no, not whole long weekend!" he assured me.  whew.  "i mean, i don't wear underwear out on the beach, silly!"

the end of our renovation -- and my Miraculous Life Makeover -- could not come soon enough.  until then, you must forgive me as i'm sidestepping piles of clothes on the floor and searching frantically for lost library books.  and if i allow my son to go commando from time to time while the wash is being run, well, i hope you understand that the mann house is temporarily out. of. order.

acronyms

my favorite acronym story comes from a friend of mine, whose mother was apparently having trouble keeping up with the current vernacular and had somehow had come to believe that "LOL" stood for Lots of Love.  unfortunately, he didn't know that was her misconception; he just found it disturbing when he opened up his email one morning to find the following message from her:  "hey honey.  your great-uncle passed away last night.  LOL."

we've been LOL-ing recently at liam, who has become quite attuned to the acronyms all around him.  he's mastered most of the sports ones like RBI and TD and ESPN, and also took a liking to ASAP.  but it was last week at the beach, with 20+ of my relatives for our annual family vacation, when he really latched onto one.  after hearing a few of my cousins talking, he turned to me with a quizzical look on his face.  "what does 'FYI' mean?" he asked me.  "i keep hearing everyone say it."  when i explained it to him, a smile spread across his face.  "cool!  i'm going to start using that too ... FYI."

nine days later, and there's no sign of him stopping.  "i brushed my teeth this morning FYI," he'll announce.  or, "FYI the ocean is salty," he'll state, to no one in particular.  or, "i like to eat oatmeal for breakfast FYI," even though no one has asked.  i'm sure it's just one more way he can feel older, more mature, more worldly.  (and if it's not immediately obvious how much older, simply wait a few moments.  "i'm six-and-eleven-twelfths FYI," he'll inform you.)

but i'm not complaining.  we'll ride this FYI train as long as it will have us.  i'm afraid the WTF station is awaiting us in the not-so-distant future, and once we're there, there ain't going to be much LOL-ing to be found.

wordless wednesday: mountain style

i discovered that my super duper iphone4 has a better lens on it than my 3-year old digital camera.  which was great news to learn, since it's with me at all times and i now can snap fairly impressive (at least for me, anyway) photos at a moment's notice without lamenting that my aforementioned canon is in the car with a dead battery. 

this came in handy while we spent six glorious days in the north carolina mountains with our dear friends the basses over the 4th of july weekend.  we hiked, biked, ran, built a campfire, roasted marshmallows and made s'mores, set off our very own fireworks that were purchased in our neighboring state south carolina (which apparently does not care as much about the safety of its residents as our restrictive tarheel state), went gem mining, cheered on the sidelines of two parades, went tubing down the river, sat on the back porch and witnessed the most glorious thunderstorms roll in, and did lots of other things that i'm probably forgetting but will remember as soon as i upload my pictures.  because i have my camera with me at all times, you see, because it's actually my phone.  a modern-day marvel, i tell ya.

armed with the map, our fearless leader susanna blazed the trail on our hike 





there were actually nine of us on our hike -- marshall found a worm friend who hitched a ride on his cowboy hat 

 we found a beautiful gazebo for a picnic lunch, and made sure to reserve our sandwich crusts for the ducks

we stationed ourselves at the very end of the parade route in blowing rock.  to pass the time while we waited, a rousing game of duck-duck-goose was in order

seems the mountain air was a bit too chilly for the slip-and-slide for susanna.  on a completely different note, please take this opportunity to marvel at the clarity of this picture (notice those water droplets!) and remind yourself that these were all taken by a phone

susanna and marshall were inseparable.  they'd walk out the front door and we'd find them hours later, pretending they were on a "journey" with pretend backpacks and a treasure map, or with long sticks for light sabers as they played star wars

we enjoyed our very own fireworks show every night, courtesy of bill and his pyrotechnic talents.  he was kind to allow liam to help him set one off

 this is liam holding a sparkler BEFORE he decided to bring it close to his face to see if he could "feel its warmth"

visiting our old friend petunia the pot-bellied pig

waiting for the second parade of the weekend -- the "liberty parade" in todd -- otherwise known as the liberal parade

see what i mean?

the kids enjoyed a cold drink following the parade.  of particular note is liam's chin wound ... remember how our academically-gifted child held a sparkler to his face?

 

a rare photo of the four adults, taken by liam

hanging out with a friendly man in boone, after a trip to the candy barrel at mast general store, of course

while we mined for gems, liam found this rock, convinced it was a diamond

sadly, it was not a diamond ... BUT when the kids learned about the rocks they'd mined, he learned that he found the only sapphire they'd seen that day!  i'm still figuring out what i want to do with it

enjoying our umpteenth packed picnic of the weekend on our way home, using an outside table at hardee's where we bought nothing (but used their nasty restroom)

i'm still kind of amazed we fit six people and all of our luggage into our SUV ... of course, we did have to wedge a big bag of trash in between marshall and susanna until we found a dumpster, but they didn't seem to mind

and a good time, as they say, was had by all.