Monday: truck parade

This morning in the early am, when I should have been sleeping, I remembered that there is a truck parade on Labor Day.

We ended up in the car rather quickly, although I'm not sure if Isaac didn't want to stand anymore or if it was too loud.  I did leave a door open because the weather was beautiful.

 Isaac liked the truck with a silly horn and the concrete mixer that was turning the best.

Joshua...I think he just took it all in.  We were at a nice place, so he could watch out the side window and see them while still sitting in my lap.

Sunday: games

Travis and Allison came over to play games tonight.  It was very nice...the kids played well together and so we were able to play Quarriors and Hand and Foot.

Hmm...there was something else that I was going to mention...oh!  That elusive smell.  It was a bad potato.  I had looked at the potato bag several times, but never noticed anything bad nor smelled an extra odor when moving it.  But today when cleaning up I noticed a bad one.  The smell seems to have disappeared.  And, on the bright side, I expect that our disposal is extra clean now too, as I've been trying to get the smell out of there.

Saturday: lake excitement

A hot air balloon made a stop by our lake!

It was kind of funny because Isaac and I were randomly talking about hot air balloons just the other day.

I was rather exhausted today; Joshua hasn't been sleeping well.  I went to take my nap after putting Joshua down.  Apparently Joshua didn't fall asleep for his nap for Ben and was rather loud.  I didn't hear a thing.

Friday: this is life

Today I cleaned the table.  Look at it!  All clean and empty.

But what you can't see is the mound of clean laundry waiting to be folded.  (There's also a load in the washer and drier too.  The closets are looking a bit empty.)

Or the kitchen, which never quite can get clean this past week.  There are places to put stuff though, so I guess it isn't as messy as possible.

This afternoon I suggested to Isaac that we go to the bird house library or color.  He suggested sewing...that was fine with me!  Both boys actually ended up on my lap.  Joshua got to push the start button and Isaac pushed the stop and all the other buttons.  Isaac was very cute as he would help Joshua reach the button and tell him how to press it..."In the middle, Josh-e-a."

After that Isaac decided there were rats on the ceiling and so ran around as fast as his legs would go.  He also pumped his arms because that made him "super, super, super fast."  He was trapping the rats, and did so for a surprising amount of time.

Thursday: distracted

On the way to school this morning Isaac mentioned wanting to knock on the right (vs. left) door.  Then two seconds later he said that it was actually the left door that he wanted to knock on, and I knew that was what he meant based on Tuesday.  I was excited that he figured out right and left!  He's doing better with it than I am.

I was a bit distracted during the second class session today.  I was trying to fix a link for the class that I thought would just take a minute while they were working on exercises.  And it took another minute.  And another.  I still responded to questions, but didn't walk around and actively seek the questions like normal.  I should have just left it alone, but I also knew that after class wouldn't be much better...I'd have to put on the "Mom" hat.  Sure, it could have waited for tonight but it was supposed to be a quick fix.  Anyway.  I guess I'll just have to keep it in mind for the future.  I'll try to make up for it on Tuesday. :)

Joshua has started to sit in laps.  It is the cutest thing.  He'll crawl up to you and then position himself just so.  It is very intentional and so snuggly.

Wednesday: odorific

There is a very unpleasant odor in our kitchen.  It is an obnoxiously illusive odor.  It likes to be smelled in the middle of the kitchen, but upon further investigation tightly curls up and says, "nevermind."  It is happy to be covered up by other odors until 2:15am in the morning when you put your preschooler back to bed because he thinks it's time to wake up.  It is happiest as you then spend the next half hour wondering if there is a dead mouse under the stove and how much noise it would actually make if you were to check right now.

And so, should you feel as though you have an exceptional nose please, come by sometime and track this odor down.  Then, perhaps, we can figure out a way to get rid of it.  (My guess is still the sink, because where else would it be?  I was going to get a lemon at the store for the garbage disposal, but ended up having to leave promptly.  And it really is just a guess.)

Tuesday: teaching

Today was the first day of classes.  I think it went pretty well, although I do a lot of talking in the first lecture.  I've added some anti-cheating macros to the spreadsheets they need to turn in, so I'm interested to see how that works.  I'm feeling much more comfortable with the class this semester...I found myself cleaning up the class website a bit more and making changes that I previously felt uncomfortable doing.  

When I picked Isaac up from school he was sitting on a bean bag reading with a friend.  Joshua declined to take an afternoon nap...but was rather happy still.  He did a ton of assisted walking tonight.