Friday: a good day...except for about 15 minutes

Let's start with the 15 minutes.  It was late afternoon and almost bath time.  Isaac had just discovered that sticky stuff that comes on the back of credit cards and wanted to keep it.  I told him he could play with it for a bit, but that it would then have to be thrown away.  He played with it, he threw it away.  And he promptly started crying.  "I'm going to cry forever if you don't let me have it back."  "Ok."  A few minutes later the screaming started.  I sent him to his room and told him he could come out when he had calmed down.  A minute later he gagged and threw up.  We got in the bathroom and he threw up again, mostly missing the toilet.  I was annoyed, but at least he stopped his tantrum and got in the tub.

This morning we went to a bounce house at a semi-local greenhouse.  The boys loved it.  There were a few tears and a few hugs through the mess with Joshua, but mostly just fun.  (It turns out that if you make a noise while hugging kids don't really think you need arms to hug.  It sometimes works out very nicely.)  Isaac did a great job protecting his little brother on the slide.  Everyone else in the party had to leave for assorted reasons, but I think we stayed there almost two hours.

Bath time went really well too.  The boys played for a long while and when Joshua finally decided he was done his toes were blue.  I added some hot water for Isaac and got a space heater out for Joshua.  I think Joshua was having too much fun with his brother to worry about the temperature.

Thursday: acting

Today I made my students stand up and act out a nested if function.  As a play it would be short and boring, but for an excel function it was rather wild.

Curious about the function?  =IF([gender]="M", IF([eye color]="blue", "stand by the green paper", "stand by the yellow paper"), IF([eye color]="blue", "stand by the blue paper", "stand by the purple paper"))

Wednesday: merman

Tuesday: a new recipe

Isaac chose pasta with white sauce for dinner tonight.  So I was getting everything together and found the jar with some sauce in the fridge.  There was also a container with sauce and I found that a bit odd - why didn't last time's left overs go in the jar - but who knows.  I've been gone for a few days so maybe that's how it got there.

I ran out of sauce and had to open a new can for my noodles.  After a few bites Ben says, "This tastes really weird.  Kind of sweet."  Hmm.  Well, after a few more bites he has me try it.  It does not taste like my sauce.  There's some leftover noodles though, so he goes to change out his dinner.  While in the kitchen he sees all the containers.  "Did you use this?"  "Yes."  "It had pumpkin yogurt in it."

Well, that explains it.  I don't put leftover yogurt in containers, so that is why I was confused. They look exactly the same...the same off-white color, the same color flecks and everything. But it turns out that pumpkin yogurt mixed with Alfredo sauce is not a good combination.  Just so you know.

Thursday: travel

We've almost made it!  Jamie and I are on the bus headed to the hotel.  It's a bit late, but not too bad.

I really enjoy flying without kids.  It's gotten a bit better now that they can iPad, but there's still a lot of waiting.

Wednesday: change of plans

We went to the library today to get some new books.  I thought there might be a story time at the same time as we were going, but was kind of hoping to avoid it.  Or at least most of it.  Isaac really wanted to make fish biscuits, and I wanted to have time for that.  Well, it turns out it was a special story time on fire safety and it involved seeing a fire truck.  Isaac was patient while we got our books but then mentioned that he wanted to see the fire truck.  I told him we might not have time for fish biscuits in that case, and he seemed sort of ok with it. 

So of course we walk in late - like 20 minutes late - just as the fireman had all his gear on.  Joshua took one look and freaked out.  So much for our sneaky entrance.  He was clingy the rest of the time, but finally would be put down on the fire truck if Isaac held his hand.

They were letting the kids spray the hose.  This was Isaac's favorite part.

I didn't think Joshua would want to do it too, but he did.  I let Isaac take the pictures...he took about 30.  Twenty of Joshua, nine of the water spray, and one with the spray off.  But they were good pictures. :)

We did have time to make fish biscuits (out of sugar cookies, from Octonauts).  They turned out a bit brown, but we only used half the roll so we'll be able to try again.  (Dad and Pat, Isaac is really excited to give you some.)

Tuesday: mowing

I "had the day off" today due to fall break.  I had my eye appointment and found I have a slight astigmatism  (side note: I always thought it was "a stigmatism"), had lunch with Ben, and then mowed the lawn.  At least, that was my plan.

The lawn had other ideas...it was like May with plenty of water and fresh fertilizer.  I usually have to empty the bag about twice for the front lawn.  I think I emptied the bag six or seven times.  

I decided not to do the back yard.  'Cause, you know, the bin was filling up and I didn't want a partially mowed back yard.  And this way I'll be able to mow up more leaves.

And I was really sick of emptying the bag.