Three Stitches

Yesterday morning everyone woke up very early because we moved an hour foward the day before. The kids were up and ready for school by 6:30. Since we had 45 min before Uncle Chris would be picking them up the boys were back in the room playing. I knew that they were going back and forth picking at each other and that they were probably being too rough. Then I hear Jackson yelling, 'You hit me first' and some unknown high pitched screaming. I realize it's Jonathon and think, 'he is sooo dramatic'. He's now walking down the hall wailing and I'm telling him to just calm down since they were both being too rough. I tell him to let me get a look and as he comes into the light of the kitchen he is rubbing his eyes and I realize he has rubbed blood all over his face. This is where my heart starts pounding but I have to keep it together so he doesn't get any more dramatic than he already is. I tell him we have to clean it and he asks if it is bleeding. This is when he pulls his hand from his face and realizes there is blood all over the place. I give him a paper towel and tell him to press it to his face while we get in the car to go see what daddy thinks we should do.

While I have been able to completely make light of the situation, Jonathon has been a nervous wreck. Right off he asks if he will have to have stitches. I tell him I'm sure they will just glue it if they have to do anything. As soon as we get to Josh's work, Josh sees it and in the completely wrong tone lets everyone around know that he will have to have stitches and that it looks horrible. Way to go, dad. Good job keeping calm and all. I tell Josh to take Jackson to school and I will take Jonathon to get fixed up. So the girls and I take Jonathon to the emergency care.

Jonathon has gone from bad to worse. At this point, he is so upset he is hyperventilating. (drama runs on my side of the family) The doctor says that she would like to do stitches but he is obviously too upset to go through that. I tell her if that's what we need then I will calm him down, if she would just close the door and give me a minute. I ask Jonathon if he can think of anything that he really wants from WalMart. He says instantly that he wants a nerf gun. I say ok, you can have it. You just have to get through this calmly. You have to lay there while she stitches your eye and you cannot move a muscle. Or I will spank your butt. Yes, I threatened to spank him while he was bleeding profusely from the face. Sorry.

He laid there calmly while she stitched him up and I asked him who he would shoot first with the new nerf gun. I don't even have to tell you who he said.

My boy did good and I'm so proud. He looks even more pathetic today, though. Bless his heart. But he hasn't lost his sense of humor.


I'm only showing the next picture to people who can promise that they will not judge me. I made a promise to get him a gun and I kept it. It was a rough day for both of us and I never would have been any part of this ridiculous gun had it not been for his self control while having his face stitched up.






Ok. You promise?












Remember, no judgements.













Don't go any further if you think you might judge me, please. Thank you.

















Don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing...

Halloween Hayride

As previously mentioned we had a Star Wars theme this year. Jonathon was Dark Vader and Jackson was a clone. I thought they looked very menacing.

The girls were princesses. Emma Mae's dress was a little last minute but I thought it looked pretty cute. Madi wouldn't wear her tiara but she did sit for a while and let me fix her hair.

I asked her to do something princessy and this is what she did. (mental note: I guess the dress was a little see through. Should have put on the white undies instead of the bright blue ones.) Very cute, though.

We started a tradition a few years ago to do a hayride through the neighborhood. A friend who lives in our neighborhood actually started it. The first year that I took Jonathon trick or treating in the neighborhood Jackson was a tiny baby. (scratch that, Jackson was never tiny but you get my point, he was only about 3 mos old) I was holding Jackson walking Jonathon down the street. I think Josh had gone out of town. My friend, Cheryl, asked if the three of us would like to hop on her hayride and I was so relieved. We rode around with all of these people we didn't know but had the best time ever. It felt so good to be welcomed. The next year, we started doing it ourselves and invited Cheryl to ride with us. And thus began our tradition. We had a small group this year but every year anyone who wants to come is welcome and we will make room, like they made room for me.

It took forever for me to get a picture of Emma Mae. She was too busy checking everything out. This is her with her cousin Bethany. Very cute.

Bethany and Madi. I know Bethany must have been cold but I never heard her mention it.

Theres Dark and Commander Cody with a couple of clones and a power ranger.

My sister and her feline daughter, Bailey.

And there's my mom who was so crazy helpful that day. She's always very helpful but she was even more than usual because I had cookies to bake, 3 parties to attend at 2 schools and a baby to take care of. She was so worn out by the end of the day that she didn't ride on the hay ride with us. Sorry, but thanks for the help mom.

For weeks the boys have been saying 'trick or treat, smell my feet'. I didn't make them stop and I guess I should have because the first two houses we went to Madi said that to the older gentlemen that answered the door. I was mortified. I forbid the kids to say anything like that for the rest of the night.

I snapped this as Emma Mae was running from the house. She would follow the crowd of kids to the house but not make it before they would all get the candy and begin to run away. When she saw them turn to run away she would turn, too. She was so independent and just had a total blast the whole time we were out.
Jackson had to pee about halfway into our ride. This nice lady allowed him to use her restroom but only if I would mention it on my blog. There is your nod Kathy, thanks for the use of your toilet and for always buying whatever crap I happen to be selling. Your a good friend and the best tax doer anybody could ask for.

There is the last picture taken of Jonathon before he had his eyelid cut open this morning by his brother. You'll have to wait till tomorrow to hear about running to get stitches at 7:30 in the morning and my constant feeling of inadequecy as a mom.

And Madi and Jackson enjoying their spoils. Overall, we had a pretty good Halloween. It is my favorite holiday and we usually start gearing up for it a month out with all of the scarey movies. Sad to see it go and even sadder to know that the Christmas lists are coming out already...

Happy Halloween

Be careful, it's creepy out there!

Orange You Glad to See Me

This is a picture of one of two orange trees we have in our back yard. I'm trying to learn a little something about the art of picture taking from Gigi but no matter where I was or how I moved the camera that tree did not come out pretty.

But what I really want to know and I'm hoping someone who understands the fruit ripening process will be able to tell me is, this. How come the top ones look like this?


And the bottom ones look like this?

Also, which one of these two pics do you like better? I like that you can see the thorny trunk in the second picture.

Also, Reluctant hearts my blog. How great is it when someone hearts your blog? I heart her blog, too.

Man, there are so many blogs that I heart. Many of you already have this particular award. If you do not have this award and you're linked on the side of this blog and your name starts with S, C, E, G or H then I heart your blog very much and I would like you to have this award as well.

See how the title worked for everything I was posting. Orange because of the tree and you're glad to see me because someone hearts my blog. You like how I tied that together. That's the way a true master would do it. Speaking of masters, I have one more thing to tell you. Jonathon and Jackson are going to be Dark (we call him that instead of Darth) Vader and a Clone for Halloween. I was telling Jackson that he was going to need his light saber for Halloween. And he said, 'No, I don't I'm going to be a clone.' I said, 'I know.' He said, 'They have guns.' I thought back to the movie and sure enough the clones do have guns. Do you remember that he's 4? As you can see we take Star Wars very seriously at our house.

Are you wondering how I got from masters to Star Wars? If you are a true fan then you know that when I said master I automatically thought of Jedi Master which led me to my convo with Jackson.

Wow. That was so much more info than I meant to share.

It's Happenned Again

Really? Yes, Really. There are so many things wrong with this picture I can't even discuss them all. Yes, Emma Mae is sitting in a chair outside of our house with a coke and some chex mix and a sock on one foot. It's been so nice and cool that I have been leaving my door open to let the kids play outside and get a breeze in the house. I guess I left my snack sitting on the table before I ran to get the boys from school. I came straight in and helped Jonathon get started on his homework. Meanwhile, lil' Emma Mae got a hold to the snack and took it outside to partake of it. I promise that i do actually feed her. Just usually not chex mix and coke.

Forgive Me if I Vent a Little

I'm a little frustrated. Very frustrated. I need to vent about this but it is very complicated and I'm not sure that I will be able to explain it very clearly, especially with all of my frustration. But I'm going to give it a try.

The school system is introducing a new grading standard for first and second graders. (Jonathon is in the second grade) They told us that they were introducing this new standard a couple of weeks after school started but nothing really changed as far as the papers that were sent home. Meaning that the papers were still sent home with number grades such as 102, 79, 93. These grades were a way for us as parents to tell what our children were doing well at and what they were struggling with. We got our first report cards for the year last week. And they did not reflect these number grades at all. This is a copy of our new grading system.



Jonathon came home with a report card that simply had P's on it. No more numbers to let me know what his particular strengths and weaknesses are, just p's letting me know he is 'progressing'. And can I just say that if I am sending him to school every day he better darn well be 'progressing'.

I went up to the school the next day to complain about the report cards and how insufficient they were for giving me the information that I need to help my child succeed and the lady told me, ' It doesn't really matter if you complain because this will be going statewide next year.' To which I became very red in the face and suddenly felt very hot. I said, (very calmly might I add) that as long as my child was in the public school system I feel like I have every right to complain about whatever I felt neccessary and that she should not really tell people that their voices won't be heard. She said she would have the guidance councilor call me to explain the system to me.

The guidance councilor called to give me some much needed guidance. It sounds like every child brought home the same report card because they should all be 'progressing' toward 'mastery'. She explained that the teachers have a very specific criteria that they access the kids with and there is not a child that will have mastered everything in the beginning of the school year. We had a long talk and I still was not 'drinking her kool-aid' if you know what I mean but she said that I would remain informed.

Then this week I got a note home that said they would have a meeting about their new grading system and I immediately called Echo. Echo has been equally up in arms over this whole new system. So, she was just as excited for the opportunity to vent about the new system as I was.

And vent we did. We got to the school for the meeting ready to see all of the others parents who must have been just as confused by this new system as we were. There were 2 other parents there. There must be at least 160 kids in 2nd and 1st grade at our school and 2 other parents cared enough to find out what the heck was going on. At this point I don't know what I'm more upset about. The fact that this big change is going on and I'm afraid my child will lose his motivation to excel or the fact that they can change all of this and the parents are too busy to care.

In the end last night the Principal explained that this is what the schools will be going forward with and they will even change it for the 3rd and 4th graders in the next few years. I do understand the system, now, and it does seem to be a more effective way for the teachers to see strengths and weaknesses. I think the only problem will be the communication to the parents because telling me my child is 'progressing' pretty much tells me nothing, right?

I've Been Tagged

Carla tagged me to:
1.) Go to your Pictures folder on your computer
2.) Go to your 4th folder
3.) Get your 4th picture
4.) Tag four people

This is a picture from a party to celebrate three second birthdays. Jackson, his friend Katelyn and cousin Cooper were all born within about a month of each other. On their second birthday we had one big party, which is why I can't tell you who the girl sitting with Josh in this picture is. I think she was a friend of my sister. Look at how babiesh Jackson looks. You can see Madi in the red dress back there in a high chair. There should be a few other familiar faces back there, too.

Okay, now I'm supposed to tag 4 other people. I tag Sass, Reluctant, Callie and Jenn G. Thank you, very much.

Also, about the book club. How about those of you that want to read along, pick a book and host the discussion for that book on your blog? Just a thought. Let me know which book you want to choose.

****Reluctant has started our Jane Austen Book Club off. We will start with Sense and Sensiblity and we should check her blog in the end of November to discuss it. I would love to do Pride and Prejudice, so I will do that one in December. If anybody else volunteers to host the last 4 at their blogs then we will go on that way for 4 more months. The other books are Emma, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Persuasion. So, go get Sense and Sensiblity and start reading today... Thanks.