To Santa Or Not To Santa

We went on our annual Santa trip this past weekend. My strategy
(yes, I needed a strategy) was to not mention it to Evelyn and Willa
until we got to the mall. That way, they wouldn't have time to work
up a scary scenario in their heads. Evelyn has pretty intense
stranger anxiety that was only heightened and cemented during the
most recent Halloween season. Willa would be fine, but if Evelyn is
worried, Willa figures she probably ought to be worried as well.
Another part of my strategy was to feed them lots of mexican food
after Church so that they would nap in the car on the way there, thus
putting them in an awesome mood. This part of my strategy did not
take into account the broken windshield wiper on the van, and (of
course) the subsequent rain. So we drove around all day in Jason's
XTerra with all three girls squished together on the back seat. No
nap. Lots of touching, kicking, tickling, smacking, and
screaming...but no napping.

By the time we get to the mall, Mary Grace has figured out what's
going on, and very helpfully announces this to Evelyn and Willa. To
my surprise, Mary Grace gets them all excited about seeing Santa.
Fantastic! We get in the mall, find Santa and his very long line,
and everyone is still in great spirits. We watch Santa for a long
time, and, thankfully, no screaming children are forced to sit on his
lap while we're watching. This would be an instant deal breaker.
Santa goes on a break. Santa comes back. Mary Grace has several
very intense and nervous conversations with me about what she might
or might not ask for. Willa keeps telling me she's going to ask for
a "brown Daddy present," whatever the heck that is. Mary Grace is
now having some very intense conversations with the older boy in line
in front of us, and he's showing her a picture he cut out of a
magazine of some video game machine. Wait, what the heck? Why is
she having very intense conversations with the older boy in line in
front of us???

Anyway, everyone is still doing great, and we're next. Evelyn, at
this point has asked to be picked up a couple of times (the only sign
that she's a little nervous). My strategy (yes, still strategizing)
was to not pick her up because then I would have to extricate her
from my body in order to put her down with Santa. In situations with
strangers, this is often physically impossible, so I don't pick her
up at all right now. Jason is ready to take video and pictures of
the entire event.

Ok, we're next! Mary Grace walks right up. I have Willa's hand in
one hand and Evelyn's hand in the other. I pull Willa a little and
show her that Santa has candy canes. That does the trick, and she's
up in Santa's lap. I turn to pull Evelyn along, and she's gone
behind the little white fence that surrounds Santa Land. She just
looks at me very plainly with her thumb in her mouth, shakes her head
NO and grabs the fence, as if to say, "You can try and make me, but
it won't be pretty." The picture girl looks at me with raised
eyebrows. I know she's thinking, "Are you one of the Moms who puts
the screaming child on Santa's lap?" I'm not. I give her a nod and
we have a lovely Santa picture of Mary Grace and Willa smiling ear to
ear.

What does this say about us?

When we got in the Race Car Cart at the grocery store today, Evelyn
and Willa spent the first ten minutes of our shopping trip playing
"jump start the car" as they pretended to attach invisible jumper
cables to each other's car batteries and rev their engines. Nice.

Unimportant Things

The longer I wait to write another blog entry, the more I feel like I
have to write something big. But I figure if I go ahead and post
some nonsense, then I won't feel so much pressure and I can go ahead
and post silly, meaningless stuff and not feel bad. As if, with all
the things I leave undone each day, I need one more thing to feel bad
about not doing. How is it that I turn so many things I enjoy into
things I feel bad about not doing? Ugh.

Soccer Fever

We went to our first soccer game of the season today. Mary Grace,
as it turns out, is one heck of a defensive player! She blocked at
least three goals, one with her stomach. She's all about the big
stop. When I was little, I played soccer for a short period of
time. I quit, though, because number one they served oranges during
half time, and I hated oranges. (I was such a weird kid. Who hates
oranges?) The second reason I quit was because the coach wouldn't
ever let me play goalie. Unlike Mary Grace, who seems to have a
natural defensive instinct, I just wanted to play goalie so I
wouldn't have to run around quite so much. The fact that I weighed
about 40 pounds as a third grader didn't help my case. I'm glad to
see my inner goalie spirit lives on.

Is that rain, or is the sky crying, too?

The emotional roller coaster continues this week. Pretty much every
morning, Willa refuses to go to class, crying for her sister, her
Daddy, and everyone else under the sun...including at one point
screaming for the front desk administrative assistant at the school.
I responded by immediately going to get said assistant and Willa
happily walked to class with her. Whatever. By Friday, she had
Evelyn crying, and even Mary Grace was upset. Emotionally drained as
of Tuesday, I asked Mary Grace, "Why are YOU crying now???" to which
she responded with a pitiful "I don't know!!!" Good grief. My fear
of the teenage years increases by the minute.

It rained today, which was a nice distraction this afternoon. The
girls got their boots and umbrellas out and played around in the
driveway. I didn't even make them come in when it thundered. It
could be years before it rains again here, so I figured they should
enjoy it. Of course, since it rained more than one sixteenth of an
inch, dry creek beds all through central Texas were suddenly turned
into fast-flowing rivers and people were being carried away in their
pickup trucks by the raging flood waters. I'm not sure people were
meant to live in this part of the world.

Uh...Just Kidding

Yeah, so all that stuff I wrote about how Evelyn and Willa are doing
great about their transitions into separate classrooms...I was way
off there. I had to carry Willa crying to her classroom today as she
held out her hands toward her sister and screamed "Evelyn!!!!!!
Evelyn!!!!" Pretty awful. I didn't cry about it until after I got
out of sight of Willa, though, so good for me.

School Days

We have one week of school under our belts and are embarking on week
two! Evelyn has transitioned to a primary class for 3-6 year olds,
and Willa will move up in another couple of weeks. She and Willa
will be in separate classrooms from here on out. "How could you
separate them?!" You may ask. Believe me, it's for the best. When
they're together, they're either being silly, and end up rolling
around on the floor laughing, or they're teasing each other, which
ends in tears. Ask any teacher you know if either of these scenarios
are conducive to a calm learning environment. Uh...no. Evelyn likes
her new class, and Willa does not seem bothered by her absence. This
means that either they each have a healthy amount of self-confidence,
or that they don't like each other very much. I'm going to assume
the former.

Mary Grace has started her 2nd Grade year, which means she is in the
same community that she was in last year with the same teacher, but
she's a "second year" child which comes with all kinds of bossing-
around opportunities. She is already taking advantage of this with
some poor child named Evan who has been assigned to her as a sort of
1st year "little brother." She eats lunch with him, shows him where
to put his shoes, and just generally tells him what to do all day
when he's not in a lesson. She's in heaven. She's about to start
soccer and children's choir this week. Piano lessons and ballet
start after labor day, so we're all about to get really busy. Let
the insanity begin!

Follow the Child

"Follow the Child" is a Montessori mantra. It basically means that
in educating children, rather than pushing information to them, we
should offer little seeds of inspiration, see where their interests
take them, and be there to guide them toward the information they
seek out. I have been trying to teach Mary Grace about money for a
year or so, without success. She just hasn't been interested. Then,
today, she comes to me with a little purse and ALL her money from her
piggy bank stuffed inside. She says, "I want to go shopping." She
is also all dressed up in an adorable outfit with barrets in her
hair, jewelry, and fancy shoes. So, quick, I change my plans for the
afternoon so that we can go to the mall. She had no idea what she
wanted to buy, just wanted to shop. Love it. We had some great
discussions about why we pay sales tax, about saving vs. giving vs.
spending, we did lots of math problems, and had a little talk about
why some teenagers choose to pierce themselves in unusual places.
All in all it was a great little outing. My favorite part was when
Mary Grace spent $1 (about 1/5 of what she spent the whole afternoon)
on a merry go round ride for Evelyn and Willa. It more than makes up
for all the times she kicked the backs of their seats on the ride home.

Final Thoughts

It's been an amazing trip, and we are so glad we went. Here are some
things we won't soon forget...Mary Grace's love of building fires,
Evelyn washing her baby in the dishwater after cleaning up dinner,
Willa dancing in the neck-deep water at the pool, the chipmunk who
kept visiting ou campsite which the girls named "Camper," bribing all
the girls with lollipops for the whole trip, and waking up all
together in the tent and snuggling together for just a few more
minutes.

The Last Leg

Instead of the mosquito hike on Thurday, we neded up doing a great
hike to a waterfall from the nearby town of Ouray. Mary Grace got to
climb all over it and get nice and wet. We went back to the hot
springs pool one more time and then went fishing one more time (no
luck). It rained that evening so I taught Mary Grace to play UNO in
the tent while Jason made dinner. It dried out enough for Jason to
take Mary Grace on an evening hike where they made up their own
interpretive trail (we have great video of this). Friday morning we
packed up, which sounds quick but actually takes about 3 hours, and
headed to Albuquerque. We found an affordable hotel, had showers and
a nice dinner. We thought about going on to Carlsbad Caverns on
Saturday, but when everyone woke up we were tired and decided to quit
while we're ahead, so we're headed back to Georgetown today.

Thursday

We wanted to start the day with a short hike when the girls were
fresh. We had a nice leisurely morning and Jason got to enjoy his camp
coffee before setting out for the Dallas Creek trail. We seem to do
this on all our camping trips. We find a hike that is clearly marked
and described on the park map, but that no park employee has ever been
on. So we got some vague information about where the trailhead might
be along with a warning about mosquitos. We have battled bugs all
week (Evelyn's face looks like she has chicken pox) so we had plenty
of insect repellant, and felt like we were prepared. We were not.
Have you ever seen those killer bee movies? We were swarmed about 50
feet onto the trail. I have never seen mosquitos like this. They
were all over us despite being coated inbug spray. The trail was
flooded with thick gray muck so we had to turn and run back to the
trailhead to escape. We then went back to the ranger to update her on
the status of her trail.

Grand Mesa

We drove out to Grand Mesa since it was raining back in Ridgway. It
was a beautiful drive through wine and orchard country. We stopped at
a roadside market and bought some fresh homemade salsa (which Jason is
eating now while we're driving back) and some ice cold cider which
we're all looking forward to having with dinner. Grand Mesa is drop
dead beautiful. Mountain lakes everywhere nestled in huge pine and
white aspen forests. We took a short hike around the visitor center
and had a blast learning about the different kinds of trees and making
up funny stories about the lonely forest rangers who keep the place.
We took a scenic drive back on a gravel road that had a stunning view
of the valley below. The girls tolerated the drive well, although I
did have to tell them a couple of times to stop asking when we're
going back to the campsite. When ordered to do so, they dutifully
looked out the window and said "wow."

Wednesday!

We all got up early to go fishing in the ponds behind our campground.
The trout were biting, but I think they might have been some kind og
genetically engineered genius trout because they managed to eat all of
our worms without us catching a single one. Mary Grace was happy,
though, because she got to torture her sisters by dangling wiggly
worms in their faces while they screamed. We went back to the hot
springs pool, and got rained out after about an hour. Bonus though-
we got a free pass to come back the next day. So now we're driving
out to Grand Mesa for some more scenery and maybe some fresh produce
as we drive through Orchard City!

Day 2

Willa has the same love of rocks and sticks as her beloved big sister.
They spend all evening finding pine cones, sticks and leaves and
throwing them into the fire. Mary Grace now says she wants to build
fires when she grows up. Hmmm. We took a short hike Tuesday...short
because we only have one baby backpack. The girls took turns with one
riding in the pack while the other cried about wanting to be in the
pack. The trail was called "Scenic Overlook" but it wasn't that
scenic, and it looked across at a towering cliff wall so it was more
of an "underlook." The Day was saved when we found a hot springs pool
in a nearby Town and swam ther for 3 hours. Everyone went to sleep
easier the second night after roasting hot dogs on another of Daddy's
perfect fires.

Cell Service for a bit

We're driving through a town with cell service on our way to the
largest flat topped mountain in the U.S. So here's an update. We set
up camp on Monday morning. OUr sit is about 20 yards from a raging
river, the name of which I won't even attempt to spell. It's great
listening to the water although I'm a little nervous whenever the
girls wander that direction. Evelyn keeps repeating my mantra "The
river is DANGEROUS!" We swam in the lake the first day, which was icy
cold, but fun. We ended the day with burgers on the fire and Evelyn
screaming herself to sleep as apparently she didn't realize we were
going to sleep in the tent we spent so much time setting up.

good morning!

It's 50 degrees this morning and we are watching the sun rise over the
mountains on colorado! Breakfast stop in Aztec coming up.

somewhere in new mexico

The drive from Fort Worth to Amarillo on 287 was gorgeous. We drove
toward a flaming sunset looking at rich green farmland and peach
orchards. We saw lots of thriving small towns with busy grain mills,
long long freight trains, and mom & pop stores. There was a herd of
camels grazing in a pasture like cows in Wichita Falls. Someone will
need to explain that to me. As the last of the sunlight dimmed we
drove through the town of Goodnight. Perfect. Then I brought us
within 20 miles of running out of gas at 11:00 at night in the middle
of nowhere in New Mexico. We're filling up now and Jason says I'm
fired from driving.

fuel for the humans

We had a yummy picnic dinner at an awesome rest stop in Quanah Texas.
On to Amarillo. Molly's turn to drive. Watch out!

where are we?

Camels??? In Wichita Falls??? Huh???

on the road

We are on the road, and thank goodness. It's so flamin' hot here I
thought we might catch fire loading the car. Heading up to Fort Worth
then over to Amarillo. It's nap time so the girls should fall asleep
any moment now.

Packing

We're leaving the great frying pan that is central Texas tomorrow,
and heading to Colorado. We'll camp for a week at Ridgway State
Park, which has some nice hiking trails, a river, fisihing ponds, and
a big lake with a swimming beach. The most important characteristic
of this place, however, is the simple fact that it is NOT 105
degrees. Not even close. The high today was 78 and the low is 52.
Heaven.

We're going to drive all night to get there Monday morning. We're
always optimistic before drives like this, and then about 2:00am when
Willa is screaming her head off in the back seat, we wonder what made
us think this was a good idea. We have completely baseless high
hopes for this year's trip for some reason.

Mary Grace is so excited she can hardly stand it. She was so wired,
she cleaned up the entire kitchen for me just to avoid going to bed.
She even emptied the dishwasher, and scrubbed all the counters. I
finally got her in bed around 10:00.

Jason has done his usual genius packing job. He's like Santa with
toys for all the children of the world in one tiny sack on the back
of his sleigh. I don't know how he does it, but no matter how much I
pack, he always fits it in. We head out tomorrow around 1:00. See
you on the road!

Julia is Here!

Our new niece, Julia Dianne Woods, arrived today! This is the first baby for Jason's sister, Michelle, and our brother-in-law Wayne. Julia was actually born on her due date, which indicates that she will be a very obedient child. We got to Dallas in great time after getting the call that she was on her way, but didn't have to wait at all to see her. Julia is rather impatient, and insisted on being born after only an hour at the hospital!

Jason, Mary Grace and I all enjoyed holding Julia, who slept through our entire visit today. Evelyn, who absolutely LOVES baby dolls (if a baby doll isn't handy, she'll cradle a shoe or a even a wooden block in her arms) watched closely as everyone took turns holding Julia in the rocker in the hospital room. When it became obvious that we were not going to offer the baby to her, she patiently climbed into the empty rocker and held out her hands, as if to say, "My turn!" I sat with Evelyn in my lap and helped her hold Julia while she looked under her hat, and patted her head so sweetly. It melted my heart. Willa kept remarking "Baby's not crying!" as if to say, "I thought they were supposed to cry!" What fun these girls will have growing up together...

Up! Not really...

We just saw "Up" the new Pixar movie with Mary Grace. We got a
babysitter for Evelyn and Willa and took Mary Grace out for a little
date with Mommy and Daddy. She got dressed in her best dress and
fancy shoes, jewelry, the whole bit. It was really cute. Too bad I
can't say the same for the movie. It's gotten wonderful reviews, and
maybe I would have liked it if I had seen it without Mary Grace, but
it is very sad in some parts, and very scary in others. I had Mary
Grace in my lap bawling two separate times during the movie. She's
seven, she loves movies, and even claims to like scary movies, but
this was way over the top in intensity level. I feel pretty
confident predicting she'll be in my bed before the night is over.
Uh, thanks a lot, Pixar.

p.s. Jason loved the movie, but I think it was mostly because of the
cool score by Michael Giacchino.

The Informer

Here's the hilarious conversation Evelyn & Willa (2 1/2 yrs) had in the car on
the way home after having dinner at Church tonight (Jason and Mary
Grace stayed to go to choir rehearsal)...

Evelyn: "Where Daddy go?"
Mommy: "Daddy's going to choir."
Evelyn: "Daddy's going to choir?"
Mommy: "Yes, Daddy's going to choir."
Willa (smiling a knowing smile): "Daddy's eating crackers."
Evelyn (furrowed brow): "No. Daddy's going to choir."
Willa (louder): "Daddy's eating crackers!"
Evelyn (louder still): "No! Daddy's going to choir!"
Willa (shouting now): "DADDY'S...EATING...CRACKERS!" (followed by
Willa chuckling to herself)
Evelyn (in her special tattling voice): "Maaaamaaaaa. Willa say Daddy's
eating craaaaackers."

Willa loves to bait Evelyn and Evelyn takes the bait every time. I have to admit I was laughing and thought it was adorable.  It's possible I'll feel differently when we're on
hour 4 of our 18 hour drive to Colorado this summer.

What happens at Fight Club stays at Fight Club

Jason went to the ER for the second time in a month today. He claims
he hit his head trying to cut a lock off a student's instrument
locker. Sounds sketchy to me. He has stitches in his forehead and a
black eye. I'm starting to think that he's secretly joined a fight
club of some kind.

Puddles

Saturday was the Serendipity Children's Festival held each year at
our Montessori school here in Georgetown. There are always arts and
crafts activities, children's musicians, and vendors showing off
organic gardening stuff, recycling info, and this year there was
someone demonstrating a solar powered backpack. Please don't ask me
why you would need a "powered" backpack at all...although if you
needed a powered backpack, it would be handy to have a solar powered
one, I guess. Jason had volunteered to flip burgers while Evelyn and
Willa played on the playground and Mary Grace ran around with her
buddies. It had rained a ton the day and morning before the
festival, but the sun came out right as things were getting started,
so it was cool but sunny...a perfect day to be outside.

While I was watching Evelyn and Willa climbing and sliding, I looked
over and noticed that some children were playing in some of the
puddles on the playground. They were taking their shoes off, and
enjoying the feeling of the cold, slightly muddy water in between
their toes. I remember that feeling. Being a kid is so cool
sometimes. I saw that Mary Grace was over there, and had hiked up
her track pants so they didn't get wet. She and her little girl
friends looked so cute playing. I went back to watching Evelyn and
Willa, and in the space of about three minutes, the sweet child-like
exploration of the playground puddle had turned into some kind of
Lord of the Flies mud-fest. My sweet little girl was leading a group
of girls taking a running start and attempting to belly-flop into the
biggest of the mud pits. I just rolled my eyes. They were so
happy. No one was getting wet who didn't want to get wet, and I did
stop her from tempting anymore children (especially other little
girls in their sweet sundresses) into the puddle. Then I heard
someone say, "If my child did that, I would just kill her." Really?
For getting dirty? Were the girls making a slight spectacle of
themselves at a public event? Yes. Were they being mean or
destructive? Nope. I let them play until they started throwing mud
at each other, then walked Mary Grace home (no way was I letting her
get in my car), hosed her off in the backyard, and put her in a hot
bath. I wondered briefly if I should have stopped her sooner, or
reprimanded her for getting so dirty at such a public event, but I
just couldn't figure out why I would do that. She told me later that
this was the best day ever. Mary Grace, I love you...My sweet,
spirited, muddy girl.

Poor Willa, Sweet Brandon!

My sweet Willa kept everyone awake last night screaming at the top of
her lungs. The phrase "cry herself to sleep" doesn't apply to this
child. When she was a baby, she hated riding in the car,and on
several occasions she cried all the way to Dallas or Houston without
stopping. I'm not exaggerating. So last night was painful for
everyone, and especially painful for Willa. It turns out she has a
horrible ear infection. Our pediatrician says we can look forward to
"pussy drainage" in the days to come. Bummer.

On a happier note, we had a really wonderful visit last weekend with
our new nephew, Brandon!! He was born on Tuesday, April 7, 9lbs, 1oz
(that's one ounce more than his big brother Daniel)! He's an
amazingly easy-going baby. I only heard him cry twice in the four
days I was with him, and both times I think he was just cold. So
he's like his Auntie - he doesn't like to be cold. Everything else,
he can deal with. Can't wait to see him again.

Boys are dumb.

So this is the birthday update. After I went to bed, Jason went outside to hang out with his buddies who live on our street. It's pretty much exactly like King of the Hill. A bunch of guys in front of the house drinking beer and talking about their yards and sports. So these geniuses decide at midnight that they need to know which of them is "the fastest." Keep in mind that we have no street lights in our neighborhood so it's very dark. These olympic athletes line up and start running. Did I mention that my husband is BAREFOOT? So he trips and eats it on the asphalt. I am awakened from my beauty sleep and go into the bathroom where Jason is bleeding everywhere. Hands, face, knees, feet. I become horribly nauseous and start to black out. Am I Scarlet O'Hara or something?!? (You don't want me around in an emergency.) Once I recovered, I got to wake up all the girls, put them in the car, and am now sitting outside the ER waiting for the birthday boy. Awesome.

Daddy's Birthday!

We just had Jason's birthday dinner at his favorite restaurant, La
Margarita. We had a great time. The girls ate queso with their
fingers, I had flautas and avocados, and Jason ate a whole lot of all
kinds of stuff (enchiladas, tacos, refried beans, etc.) Jason is
supposed to be putting the girls to bed right now, but I suspect that
he has fallen asleep in their room. One of my presents to him will
be to not go wake him up for awhile. Mary Grace gave Jason a set of
badly needed bungee cords. Evelyn and Willa gave him car air
fresheners (also badly needed). I gave him a hammock and stand for
the backyard. He loves his laying-around-in-the-backyard time in the
summer, so it should be well used. We had cheesecake with candles in
it when we got home. Mary Grace ate about half a piece and said,
"It's so yummy but it's making my stomach hurt. I don't think I
should eat anymore." Wise girl.

Snaggle-Tooth

Since her first few teeth came in, it's been obvious to me that
Evelyn was going to need braces. She's always had an interesting
arrangement of teeth in her sweet little mouth, but it's gone to a
whole new level now. I noticed today that one of her upper front
teeth has turned a really interesting shade of gray. Bummer. We're
taking her to the dentist tomorrow. Everyone say a little prayer that
they don't have to pull the tooth. A gray front tooth is better than
no front tooth at all. I think that will be the first sentence of
the novel I'm going to write someday. I'll post an update to let
everyone know if Evelyn is officially snaggle-toothed tomorrow.

Awesome Weekend

We recovered from the Disney trip in the best possible way. We spent
the last few days getting the yard and patio all spruced up for
spring. Jason mowed, we planted flowers and vegetables, and I
cleaned off the patio and got out all the water and sand toys for the
girls. I'm sitting out on the patio right now while Evelyn and Willa
play in the freezing cold baby pool 100% naked. I tried to get them
to put on swimsuits, but it was a half-hearted try because they're so
stinkin' cute when they're naked. Mary Grace has a swimsuit on, but
is walking around with a towel wrapped around herself, tucked under
her arms (very grown-up looking) and it's funny watching Evelyn and
Willa try to accomplish the same thing with their towels. Mostly,
they just hold the towels up to their bodies and prance around
showing off.

This is the best time of year in Texas for sure. Spring Break always
gets me psyched for summer break, and sometimes I forget that we
actually have a few more weeks of school until then! I'm already
busy trying to decide where we'll go camping this summer...somewhere
that's not too hot, but not too far away, but not someplace we've
already been. That list gets shorter every year...

loooong day

Okay...we're tired now. We did Magic Kingdom today and rode about
three times as many rides as we did the other days. The rides were
great but the overall atmosphere in this park was much more stressful.
Not because we were stressed. We were actually pretty jolly all day.
But lots of other stressed families, crying childre, pushing, etc.
Mary Grace's favorites today were Tom Sawyer Island (a little known
part of the park with caves, trails, and a fort to explore), and a
race car track. So basically she liked the camping thing and the
go-cart thing. The band performed before the nighttime lit parade and
they were terrific. Jason said the kids loved it. We still have one
day of touring tomorrow. I think Mary Grace and I are going to do a
lot of sitting and eating.

epcot

Well the best part of the day for me had nothing to do with
disneyworld. this evening while we were waiting for an outdoor show
at a theater we saw the shuttle discovery take off directly in front
of us! It's amazing that cape canaveral is so far away, yet it was a
huge fireball flying into the sky. the whole crowd waiting for the
show went nuts. Mary Grace thought it was so cool that it was going
to outer space. We all liked the rides at epcot. soarin-a flying
simulation ride-was our fav, followed closely by the old standard
spaceship earth where you learn about communication past to present.
when it talked about the phoenicians inventing the alphabet, she said
"is that true? i should do a report about that!" it's been a long day
and we're beat. looking forward to magic kingdom tomorrow.

the world day 1

I'm laying here next to Mary Grace who is still reeling from riding
the Tower of Terror at Disney Hollywood Studios today. She is too
brave for her own good. No amount of warning could lessen her desire
to ride the scariest rides in the park. In a ride called Dinosaur
where you get chased by giant scary dinos during a terrifying meteor
shower, I was grabbing HER every time I got startled. Now it has
caught up, though, and she says no scary rides tomorrow. Fine with
me. I was starting to wish I had brought Evelyn and Willa so that I
would have an excuse to sit some of these out! Epcot tomorrow!

on the bus

Mary grace and I are on the bus with Jason and 250 high schoolers on
our way to Disneyworld. We have completed 10 hours of a 23 hour ride
so far. It's been good so far save one incident. There are 5 buses
caravanning together and earlier bus #3 pulled over to help a stranded
bus that was not part of our group. The driver then invited these
stranded strangers to hop on the bus with the band kids! Jasonappeared
calm to the untrained eye, but it was obvious to me that he was...
um... quite displeased. he explained to the driver that we don't
pick up strangers (DUH!) and we were on our way again. Jason
continues to refer to the guy as the "Rogue Driver." We'll see if he
provides anymore excitement.

Gotta love it when any aspect of your life reminds you of Home Alone...

You know that scene at the beginning of home alone where the parents
are all over the place trying to pack and get ready for their trip
while the children run around the house wild and completely
unsupervised? That's exactly what is happening at my house right now.

Special Day with Evelyn

I stayed home with Evelyn today, since she is recovering from strep
throat. We had such a fun morning just the two of us. We did
puzzles, played with cars, named ALL the plastic animals in her many
plastic animal sets, read books, danced, and sang songs. She even
helped me clean the bathrooms. We had a ball. At one point during
the morning, she said, "Mommy play ME!" as though she was so shocked
and excited to have me all to herself (an admittedly rare thing). I
loved having one on one time with her. It was a really special day.

Then, when we picked up Mary Grace and Willa from school, Mary Grace
asked Evelyn what she did today. Evelyn looked at her and said, "I
made biscuits at school!"

Oh well.

Hermit Crab Update

For crying out loud...the hermit crab is still alive! It's some kind of super-crab. I swear Mary Grace has not fed this thing or changed its water in over a month. This was our trial-pet so that I could tell Mary Grace she's not ready to get a hamster. Now she thinks she's a wonderful pet owner and wants to know when we're going mammal-shopping.

Avoiding my to-do list

The list of stuff I have to do before we leave for Disney on Friday
is really long, and the rate at which I am adding things to the list
is far outpacing the rate at which I am checking things off. Right
now, I'm typing this entry in an effort to avoid one of the things on
my list: helping Mary Grace clean out her hermit crab habitat. I am
fairly certain that little Lizzie the crab is dead. I told Mary
Grace as much at dinner tonight by saying "I think that she is no
longer with us." Mary Grace asked me what that means, so I told her
it means I think she's dead, to which she asked very matter-of-
factly, "Why didn't you just say she's dead?" This is the same sweet
little princess who brought home a treasure wrapped in a napkin last
week. When I asked her to show me what it was, she carefully
unwrapped and presented a severed rabbit's foot she had found outside
her classroom after the school cat had disemboweled the poor creature
in the courtyard. She was quite upset when I told her she could only
keep it for two days, and it had to be in a ziploc baggie, and oh by
the way GO WASH YOUR HANDS!!!!

Finally, I can blog while I'm driving!

I know many of you Schayot fans out there have been bemoaning the fact that you couldn't get more current info on the minutia of our daily lives.  It's been hard to make time to sit down and write lately, but instead of taking personal responsibility, or altering my schedule, I've decided to blame the problem on technology.  My previous blogging methodology (using iWeb on my Mac) was far too slow and cumbersome, and that's why I wasn't keeping up with it. It has nothing to do with the fact that I work, and have two toddlers and a six year old.  No, no.  It's really just that I needed an easier way of posting, a new, faster laptop, and a phone that has a full keyboard and internet access. 

Seriously, though, I have always loved to write, and I've missed writing about the thing I love most - my family.  So here I go with another try at the blog.  Let's all watch Molly try to make time for something she likes to do that isn't directly related to washing (dishes, clothing, floors, children, etc).