The week in review

On Monday, we went to the Museum of World Treasures with my parents. I enjoyed it...and I think the kids did as well. Of course, once we saw the dinosaurs and the Egyptian stuff, they were ready to go and went through the rest of the museum extremely fast. Grandpa forgot to put their wheelchair placard up on the rearview mirror, and when we came out there was a ticket. I called Mike, he called the PO and she came back and got the ticket from us. My dad's always done so much for me, I was glad I could help them out and get that ticket taken care of.
Afterward we went to Build-A-Bear (Alexa had a gift certificate) and to HobbyTown USA (Andrew bought an $80 model dinosaur with b-day money).

Wednesday was library day - we are doing two library programs this year. We ride bikes up to our library which is about a 5 or 6 mile round trip. The kids are learning about Egypt, when we aren't swimming, riding bikes, reading or doing math, so we made scarabs out of modeling clay. Unfortunately, when I baked them instead of getting hard, they melted. Oops - I guess I picked up the wrong box. I know I had read on a box about baking it, but then I guess I grabbed a different box. So, then the next day, they made sarcophagus models and other figures, out of cookie dough. They enjoyed that immensely. And when I baked them, they were like they were supposed to be, instead of a melted mess.

Almost every day we swim, which has been good. A friend of mine has a pool at her apartment building, so we have been going over there and usually we are the only ones in the pool, which is great.

I have been exercising since school got out, but hadn't seen any results. Eleven days ago I started a pretty strict diet and have lost 11 pounds. Of course, in addition to that, I increased my exercising - sometimes 3 hours a day. I am so glad to finally be seeing some results!

Grave Robbers

What is wrong with people? Why would steal something from a person's grave? I guess at least this time it isn't her picture. We go by the cemetery pretty frequently on our way to other places....today as we were driving by on our way out of town, I noticed that stuff was missing. I pulled in and there are statues missing (people tend to bring angel and fairy statues out); a potted plant; all of her memorial day stuff; and a shepherd's hook that I hang a plant basket from. I think there might be some other stuff gone....but it's the fact that any of it is gone. At first I thought maybe the maintenance crew took it (they will go around and take Memorial Day stuff and throw it away) but other graves still have their wreaths. I looked in all of the trash cans and couldn't find anything. Whoever it was even took her flowers out of her vase. (I looked around and they weren't up against the fence like the wind had blown them). I am not a happy person right now.
Mike wants me to report it to the police. But the chief's a lazy jerk and I can't see him even making a report - plus the shepherd's hook was the most expensive thing and it's not like there's anything they can do about it. They didn't do anything when her picture was taken off of the headstone - the old chief just looked at me like "why are you wasting my time?" and it was way more expensive than the stuff that is gone now.

Kids at work day

I forgot to mention - what with me being so excited about the Clydesdales - that the kids went to work with Mike on Friday. It was the annual bring your kids to work day. Last year they had all kinds of fun things to do, but this year was kind of lame. Can you believe the ever-so-delightful city council had 2 members speak for 30 minutes each? TO CHILDREN!!! How stupid is that? These kids will not be voting any time soon. Once that finished, they only got to do 2 tours at city hall. The kids did the SWAT team and the Crime Lab. I had asked each of them to take their cameras, since I wasn't going to be there, and take some pictures for me - for the scrapbook. They took pictures of the SWAT vehicles and guns - lots and lots of guns. Apparently I wasn't specific enough, I assumed they knew I would like them to be in said photos! Next time, I will be more specific.

The fun stuff ended at 1 p.m. and then the kids were supposed to spend the rest of the day watching their parent work. BORING! Mike took them over to the super secretive, hard to get into, 911 building. I figured all the computers and activity would be interesting to them, but not so much.

After that, instead of watching Mike work - after all they can see him sitting at a computer every day from about 5:30 to bedtime and all day on the weekends - Mike brought them out east and I met them there. That way they could go home and swim...you know we have to get that in every day.....

Friday the 13th....I spent the night with the Clydesdales. My friend, Sandy, and I guarded the team of Clydesdales that were hanging out in El Dorado and Andover for the week. They had a week between other engagements and so they came here for Frontier Days. I immediately wanted to sign up for a shift. Fortunately, got an awesome time slot. 7p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday night. Technically, people aren't supposed to touch the horses, but I got to pet and love on all of them. I was in horse heaven. They are so gorgeous...and probably about twice the size of my Mustangs. My horses are gorgeous, too, don't get me wrong. But these horses are so well trained and so docile....I just feel sorry for them. They travel all of the time, and when they aren't "on", they are either in a trailor, or their stalls (they do get walked a little, but still...). I was really glad I had the opportunity to guard them.

Clydesdales

The Clydesdales in their finery
Bud
Once the crowds leave the horses

eat and get some sleep -

these are some hard working horses

This is my friend Sandy with John

It was brought to my attention today that I never posted an update on Andrew's class. Bad mom! Andrew absolutely loved his Movie and Robot Mania class. He made an autobiographical movie...each team member helped with individual videos, so Andrew's was shot by someone else and edited by him. He shot another child's movie.

In addition to the movie, they also made robots. I had no idea that Lego's made robot parts. Apparently they do, to the tune of $400 + for a starter set. Andrew had wanted to wait until he started the robot class to see if perhaps that was what he wanted for his birthday present, but he changed his mind when he found out the price. That's my boy!

Anyway, back to the robots - they made these robots, each day building on to the complexity of them, until finally they set them to music and made them dance. Andrew came in 3rd place in the robot competition!!

All in all, Andrew had fun. He ate each day in the BCC cafeteria like the college kids; he made new friends; learned a lot of new things. I am supre proud of him. He did something new, and did it all by himself. Andrew is not the most self-confident boy, and he is pretty shy - plus some of his experiences in 4th grade have had a lasting impression on him and really did a lot of damage to his self worth. This was a huge step for him - and it paid off big!

Andrew's video from his Movie and Robot Mania class

The kids got to do a zip line today that ran from the top of the EMS building to a BCC fire science truck...and they got to climb one of those built in ladders up to the roof. We went to do moulage at the EMS kids camp today and this was one of the events. We knew a couple of the guys running the zip line and one of them asked if they would like to do it. Of course they did! They had to wait for the campers to go through it, but it was well worth the wait. I am posting pictures of them - the pictures aren't the best - they looked good in my camera, but apparently it was so bright out, the pictures were quite bright. I should have asked if I could do it....
The girls were already wanting to go to EMS kids camp next year, but this sealed the deal. Unfortunately they have to wait until they are entering the 5th grade. Andrew decided after doing the zip line that perhaps he would want to go to camp next year.

Saving a baby bird

(this is a photo of mama bird)


On Thursday Alexa and Hayley discovered a baby bird which had apparently been blown out of its nest. I picked it up using a wal-mart bag and went to get the extension ladder. I was going to have Alexa climb up the ladder - it was very, very windy and I figured I would rather have her fall off of the ladder and get hurt, as opposed to Hayley. When it's your kid that gets hurt you don't
have to explain it to anyone. Alexa got scared and wouldn't climb the ladder. Who knew she would be scared of something? Anyway, Hayley climbed up the ladder. I told her to just gently dump the baby bird into the nest and bring the bag back down. Apparently she kinda freaked while she was up there - about 10 feet up - and dropped the bag and bird in the nest. She came back down and Alexa decided she would try to go up and get the bag. She got up there and freaked and wasn't able to get the bag; then Hayley tried again - same situation. I put the ladder away and we left because as Hayley was climbing down, the mama blue jay flew right at her to scare her away.

The girls went inside and I came back out to quietly watch to see if mama found her baby. She apparently couldn't quite find her - I think the bag was blocking the scent of the baby or scaring mama off or something....so......I drug the extension ladder back out. Let me insert here, that in addition to it being very windy, this is a tall skinny tree with no real branches against which to lean the ladder, and the ground is very uneven with no place to set it down. i had to be the one to hold the ladder because otherwise it wouldn't be stable.

The girls came back out and, I gave them an exam glove to handle the baby. Alexa tried again and freaked, then Hayley tried it. She swaggered up and demanded the glove and said she would handle it....all in typical Hayley fashion. Well she climbed up but she grabbed the entire bag, bird and all! Then she started climbing down. I told her to put the baby in the nest, she said she couldn't because she was freaking out, and continued downward. I yelled at her again, she kept moving down. Finally, I yelled at her in a rather mean voice and told her to go back up there and put the bird in there, and bring the bag down. Kind of the equivelent of a slap you would give someone who was hysterical. She did it and as soon as she was finished, she immediately stopped freaking out. I just hope the baby made it through the storms that followed that evening. I haven't seen it or mama since.

This is the mulberry tree I climbed

I was way up in these branches that you can see

Mike mowing the grass

There is something to be said for

someone who can pull off camo

while not actually hiding from the enemy

Andrew

Alexa

Saturday

I love Saturdays.....they are my favorite day of the week. Usually there is no schedule and I love being able to do things when we want to do them. Like take a shower at 1p.m.....and then go out and climb a mulberry tree. Probably not my smartest move, but I didn't know before the shower that I would be climbing a tree. Let me tell you, if you ever want to feel young again - climb a tree. It was so much fun. I started out just picking the mulberries I could reach - then decided I should climb up the tree to see if I could reach some of those. I started out a little timid - it has been a number of years since I last climbed a tree, but it didn't take long until I got the hang of it. I went from being sure I had one foot firmly planted in the fork of branches before moving the other one, to swinging out on the limbs and doing one foot turn arounds. I felt graceful. I bet I looked like a hippopotamus dressed up in a tutu doing ballet....but that is not the point. I am looking forward to climbing the tree again when more mulberries are ripe. Or - better - having the kids climb the tree to get the berries. I am hoping that by seeing old mom up in a tree will assure them that it is fun and safe...after all if I can do it they can do it.

While I was having all this fun climbing trees, Mike took the opportunity of a no rain day and mowed the grass. It probably would have been faster to bale it, but he mowed. I am attaching a photo - ladies control yourselves.

The kids did their kid thing - splashed around in the pool. Even though our above ground pool is not that big, it sure comes in handy on hot summer days when we are hanging out at home (and if it were up to Mike that would be every day) and they can just play in there, and we can do our thing. After all, like I tell them, if you feel like you are drowning - stand up. With two of them in there, I don't worry. I don't let them go out by themselves, but I figure if one of them were to conk their head and go under, the other could pull them up - although there is little risk of that.

College bound

Here's Andrew....all ready to begin his first day at college! Even though it was just kids college...and he was coming home at the end of the day....it was really weird to drop Andrew off at college. It is basically like a day camp. Andrew is taking a robotics class and I am really proud of him. He signed up without any of his friends going or anything. He said he didn't care if his friends were there or not, he wanted to take the class. I never would have been able to do that, so I am really proud of him. It turns out he knows three kids in the class, so that was good. AND apparently the cafeteria food is better than my food. Huh. I guess we will see about that when he is living in a dorm and eating cafeteria food all of the time!

But he made a simple robot today with his group....it will be fun to see what he does throughout the week. Poor dad, he came home after Andrew had told both me and Sandy about his day and he just didn't have the energy to tell anyone else.

Andrew's birthday

Today is Andrew's birthday. I absolutely cannot believe that he is 11! And he is going to be a middle schooler next school year. The school system that we are a part of has 6th graders as middle schoolers. Unreal.

Last night we went to Granite City for his birthday. That is the restaurant he chose because they have a mussel and shrimp linguini dish that he likes. Hopefully we can find another restaurant around here that serves mussels so we can go somewhere else. (I don't like Granite City can you tell?)

I think he has had a nice birthday....if not anything fancy. Friday night both kids had friends over for a sleepover (it was the first weekend we could do Alexa's sleepover for her birthday). Today he has lounged around and tonight we grilled steaks and vegetable kabobs. And then we'll have ice cream cake for dessert!

Tomorrow Andrew will begin a weeklong class about movies and robots. He will learn how to make robots and then, I believe, they will make a movie using the robots. He is super excited about the class. I will have to post the details about it later - after he tells me!