Friday: twins, errands, books

Guess who were twins today??

After they left for the day, Joshua and I did a few chores and some Legos and then started our errands.  We had 10 places to go!  Usually I spread them out and go to two places at the most, but with Christmas coming several of these needed to be done.

1. We went to the pet store.  (Joshua looked at all the animals.  We got cat food (the real reason) and some kitty presents.)
2. We went to Joann's...I needed a bunch of thread.  Joshua didn't enjoying helping me find just the right color as much as I thought he would.
3. We went to the south side Meijer and stocked up on Lego bins.  We also found a new carpet runner because we happened to be going through the aisle.  And donuts, because 10 places!
4. Gas station
5. Hope college - Dad's office.  He wasn't there.  Joshua got his treat from the office.
6. Hope college - library.  I had been planning to find the things I needed yesterday, but then suddenly the day was packed.  There were some shapes made out of chalk board material that Joshua wrote on while I found what I needed. 

7. Present store - closed
8. Present store - got presents and a few things for us too
9. Back to the first present store: open
10. Herrick Library - Joshua elected to stay in the car.

Fast forward to this evening, around 9pm.  Ben and I hear a child coming down the stairs.  We were expecting Joshua.  Instead it was Isaac, crying.  Whatever could be the matter??  It turns out he finished his book series and was so sad that they were done.  I understand...it actually seemed like a good reason to be crying.

Thursday: reindeer reigns

Today was a fun day at karate.  We started by warming up to The 12 Days of Karate, which involved doing assorted kicks, blocks, push-ups, sit-ups, etc. way too many times.  Also, I don't know what the kids are doing because it takes me X amount of time to do eight sit-ups.  (Say a thirty seconds because I've never timed myself.)  I do them pretty quickly, although I know I'm not always the fastest.  The kids were done when I was on four!  I think they cheated a lot. :)

Then we pretended to be reindeer.  I got to partner with Isaac, which was super fun.  He took off his belt, put it around his waist, and I took the ends as reigns.  He had to pull me across the floor while I tried to not let him get away.  Then we would switch.  Needless to say, I'm still quite a bit stronger but Isaac put up a valiant effort.

Wednesday: moodle

Oh, it's that time of year again.  I have to get moodle, the on-line class resource, ready for next semester. 

They changed moodle again for next semester.  They took away several of the good things, made one bad thing worse, and, as far as I can tell, didn't improve the things I didn't like much.

One thing that baffles me is the due date calculator.  I've copied the same starting info from this semester, but moodle tries to guess when things should be due based on the semester start date.  It works ok until you hit a school break, when it gets all messed up.  That's fine, it is still better than years ago.  What baffles me is that toward the end of the semester it also adds two hours to the time the assignments are due.  It used to add one hour and I think it was because of daylight savings time (although why that feature would even be in there, I have no idea.)  But why two hours now?  Probably to make me do more clicking.

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Here's the Thankful Turkey that Joshua made at school.  I'm surprised he put Mom instead of Dad since he likes Ben better.  (He actually did that on two different thankful things this year.)  The frogs also surprised me, but then he told me very matter-of-factly that frogs eat mosquitos.

Tuesday: conversations

Isaac:... Live for 500 years
A: I don't want to live for 500 yrs
Isaac: because you'd be decaying?
A: sure

J: I can't wait until mom and dad are dead so Isaac and I can do whatever we want!
A: how about when you're an adult you can do whatever you want.  Then I don't have to die.  What do you want to do when you're an adult?
J: break stuff!
A: uh, sure
J: and get expensive glofish tank!

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In unrelated news, I had first at Hope today.  Students can turn in late homework for a penalty.  I had two students do so poorly that they ended up with negative points on an assignment.  Every semester there is something new.

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In more unrelated news, I had sent a comic strip to Isaac's teacher about snow days.  She sent back an appropriate response, along with this..."Also, I just adore Isaac and his creativity and great sense of humor.  I am SO GLAD he is in my class."  Aww. :D

Monday: ups and downs

Today had more ups and downs than normal.

UP: I found a bag of apples in the trunk of the car!  I had been surprised this weekend when we were out of apples, but figured Ben had suddenly been eating a lot.

DOWN: Our sink is leaking.  This will end up being a very small repair to a small repair.  Luckily our favorite handyman is willing to help and that makes this so much easier.  (Can any more appliances break on us?  Yes, yes they could.)

UP: The exam that I gave today only had one minor typo.

UP: The exam that I gave today was about the right length.  Possibly a bit on the short side, but I'd rather go that way than the other way.

DOWN: I have a lot of grading to do.

UP: Dad picked up Isaac from school and brought him to Hope.

DOWN: Joshua had several problems.  I finally had him watch his movie in the classroom.  He didn't really want it, but he was just having too many problems.

DOWN: I missed a call (by a minute) from a student taking the exam in a different location (for good reasons).  I called back several times with no answer.  It turned into a small fiasco.

UP: The people at karate were very helpful.

UP: Once I got the right information I was able to help the student over the phone.

DOWN: I was rather distracted the whole karate class.

UP: It was Ben's turn to read to the kids before bed.  Sometimes, it's the little things.

UP: I opened a package only to find some surprise socks!  Are they from you?  Are they supposed to be for Christmas?  Either way, it was exciting.

Sunday: chocolate Legos

Isaac got it in his head that he wanted to make chocolate Legos.  (It was a small problem last night, as he kept asking and I kept saying 'tomorrow' but then he kept asking.)

Anyway, we finally got around to it.  I made him do most of the work, including the microwave and stirring and putting it in the molds.  I helped flatten the bottoms, but besides advice that was about all.  He put them in the fridge and while they did get hard already we're going to wait until tomorrow to have them.

Saturday: lunch and logic

Ben and I had separate errands this morning.  The boys were sad to see him go, even though we left about two minutes later.

The boys played with their lunches.

After dinner Ben was playing a video game for a few minutes and there was a sign in a hallway that said, "this way".  Joshua wondered why we needed the sign, since it was just a straight hallway with no other ways to go.  After some discussion I said that maybe the person couldn't see (that there weren't any other ways to go).  Isaac pointed out that if this were the case, they also wouldn't be able to see the sign.