Friday: 100 days

Today was Isaac's 100th day of school.

They did a bunch of 100 thing activities...100 stamps, building a tower with 100 cups, a 100 piece puzzle, etc.  They had to bring in a group of 100 things and Isaac chose marbles.

They were also supposed to dress up like a 100 year old.  We did a button down shirt and khakis, and used marker for some wrinkles on his face.  It turned out ok...not great.  It aged him a bit.

Thursday: blast from the past

Today one of my students asked if the class could take a quick survey for her stats class.  Since it only took about one minute I said yes, but it reminded me of my stats project.

"Determination of Time Intervals: A Comparison of Hope College Music and Religion Majors" by Amanda DeYoung and Brian Worrel

The results? 

Religion majors are more accurate at predicting 10 and 20 seconds.  For 30 seconds there was no statistical difference.

This is not what we expected.  I remember a bunch of music students humming the same song that is 60 beats per minute, although I don't remember what song it was.  Apparently they were trying too hard. :D

Wednesday: this and that

I worked today since everyone went to Crazy Bounce on Monday.  I was hoping to get a little farther than what I did, but oh well.  I still have a bit of time tomorrow to finish up.  I've been having a hard time this week finding motivation to grade.

Some friends came over for an hour after Isaac got home.  It was nice to see them as we haven't spent much time with them lately.

My phone has arrived at the repair center and the current status is that it should be delivered within six business days.  Since the original paperwork said 12-14 days, I'm quite happy about this.

Tuesday: groceries

I ordered groceries for the first time today.  Well, I guess I ordered them last night and Ben picked them up today.  It is just a rather busy week and we were running low on the healthy things like fruit, veggies, and milk.

It was rather wonderful.  I didn't get the right size of some things...a few items ended up being of a smaller size than I really wanted, but oh well.

It is something I expect to use again in the future, but I do also like still going to the grocery store.  It will work well for a once in a while thing when we're having a busy week.

Monday: Crazy Bounce

Since there was no school today, we went to Crazy Bounce with some friends.  I didn't tell the boys where we were going, but Isaac was sure it was Crazy Bounce.  It is suddenly the boys' favorite place ever and they're always asking to go.  (I often have a good reason to say no, because toddler time (through age 7) is only Mondays and Wednesdays from 9-11am.  It tends to be less busy and there aren't big kids, so it's the only time we go.)  It was a good day for it because they were both bouncing off the walls before we left.

They had an excellent time!  Isaac got hurt several times (and I think they were all real, not just little hurts that he should have brushed off) which dampened his mood a bit.  However, a few hugs, a few drinks of water, and some giggles usually had him bouncing again.

Isaac and Ethan ran around together a good amount of the time, which was awesome to see.  Joshua stuck pretty close to me, but that was ok too.  It gave me a good reason to go down all the slides and get my exercise in for the day.

Afterwards we went to Burger King.  Betsy and I were waiting for the food and heard lots of laughter then too...it is a good sound to hear.

We also got a ceiling fan installed in our room today.  It's something we've wanted for a while, so it's nice to finally have it done.  (No pictures, because I still have no phone.  Betsy kindly sent me some of hers from Crazy Bounce.)

Sunday: subcontracting

The boys got along very well today.  It started around 4pm, when Isaac was doing some work for extra money.  (Oh, he got to $40 yesterday and was then sad because we didn't have another $20 bill in the house.  Apparently it's cool to have large denominations.)  He was shredding, and Joshua started helping.  Before I gave Isaac his money, I asked if he thought Joshua should get some too.  Isaac gave an amount that was 40% of the amount he got for doing one bucket full of shredding.  Joshua followed Isaac around, and next they sorted some laundry.  It turned into a game, and Joshua had to put socks in Ben's sock drawer.  (Side note: Isaac was flabbergasted when I told him that Ben's socks were going in the drawer all messy.)  Joshua got a percentage of that money too.

Then they started playing a game.  I don't know exactly what was going on, but there was a ton of laughter.  They enjoyed playing with each other so much that they even had a sleepover, and they haven't done that for a while.

Friday: phone, day off

Last night my phone died.  (It was apparently a really bad day for me and electronics.)  It died-died too.  While it's being fixed, which will take about two weeks, I haven't decided what I'm doing.  Here's what you need to know...

1. Texts will still get to me.  It will just go via my computer, so it might take a while for me to see it.
2. I can still talk to you, but again, via the computer.  It would need to be prearranged.
3. Getting a hold of Ben will be the best bet.

It was a bit annoying to be without my phone today, but also a bit liberating.  We'll see how I feel after a few more days.  I don't really get many calls or texts, so it really shouldn't be a big deal.  (Although I did lose my grocery list and my contacts.  I'm rather sad about those.)

Today Isaac had the day off of school.  He spent quite a bit of time doing extra work to earn money.  His goal is $40 and he needed $4 I think.  I'm not sure how much he ended up with, but he didn't make it.  I was trying to be semi-proportional to what he earns for his allowance, but it's a hard thing to figure out.  Joshua went crazy with Legos...his tree house was attached to the fire station and there was a beast that was put in jail and Grey Bear was saving the people that had been vacationing via the fire plane.  I really wanted to take a picture, but no phone.

We went to Hope College for a child observation for the psych class.  The kids apparently got rave reviews.  Isaac interacted very well, as was appropriate for a 6 year old.  Although at a few points he stood up and did a short crazy dance.  The professor left the room for a short time, after putting playdoh on the table and asking the boys not to play with it.  Isaac didn't play with it, but the barrel monkeys he was playing with slightly touched it.  So then Joshua very deliberately took Red Monkey's hand and had it touch the play-doh, and I heard a whole bunch of "aww"s from the room.

Then we went to the big library since we were close to it.  They have a nice play area, so the boys played well while I found books.  Monkey was almost left in the freezer, but we remembered just in time to go back and get him.  They knew exactly where he was.