Not a good car day

This morning I was laying in bed trying to get back to sleep at 6 a.m. after Jeff left for work. Except he didn't leave. A few minutes later he came back into the bedroom and informed me his car wouldn't start. I went out to the garage with him and watched him jump start it with my car. We were figuring his battery was on borrowed time anyway, so not a big surprise.

He started working from home waiting for the Walmart service center to open at 8 so he could take it there. About 8:15, after another jump start and he was off. He called me from Walmart saying the wait was 2.5 hours before they could even look at it and he was going on to Sears.

Alyssa had swimming lessons at 10. Taking Lucas is not fun, so Jeff decided to come back home, watch him for me and then take my car (just in case) to work. He had a meeting he had to be at at 1 and he had to be back home to leave for Alyssa's dance recital at 4:45.

Ahh yes, the dance recital. Possibly Jeff's most hated day of the year. Today was his day to take her and for me to stay home with the boys (my turn tomorrow). Here's the pretty dance girl:


He took my car (again, just in case). A few minutes after he left, he called me to tell me the airbag light had come on, he called OnStar, they ran a diagnostic (I have to admit, that's kind of cool!) and determined the front airbags were not functional so they made him an appointment at the dealership for 7:30 tomorrow morning. Looks like I will be without my car again tomorrow. They promised they wouldn't keep it past about 3 because I have to have it back to go to the recital again.

Hey, maybe all this bad car stuff is all because of the recital? I bet I could convince Jeff of that theory!

Baby bird

This afternoon Jeff was out mowing the lawn. At one point he came in and told me there was a baby robin by our garage that couldn't fly. I went out to see it, but we couldn't find it and figured it must have gone off to hide somewhere. I went back in the house.

Awhile later I was sitting on the couch watching TV when I heard this very loud chirping. I went and looked out the back door into the garage and there is the baby bird right next to the step from the door to the garage floor.


After I snapped a couple pictures of him, Jeff and I tried to shoo him back out of the garage. Of course, he wasn't too thrilled with that idea and headed for the wall lined with all kinds of great things to hide under, like the wagon and stroller. We finally got him up to the corner but he got under a pile of branches (why are we saving those??) and Jeff had to kind of poke at him to get him all the way out of the garage.


He took refuge next to a small bush on the side of the driveway.


His mommy was calling for him from the roof of our neighbor's house. Looks like she had a treat for him.



There was quite a commotion of Mommy trying to reconnect with Baby.

I don't think they liked me standing there in the garage. I backed up and eventually went back in the house. Later I saw the baby out near the sidewalk. I hope he's okay and learns to fly!

A special knitting entry

This blog is mostly about my kids and the things they do. But one of my favorite things to do is knit, so I will now answer the following meme from my friend Joyce:

#1 Is it about the finished item or about the process of knitting? Some of both? Has your focus changed one direction or the other over time? I'd have to say some of both. I want the finished project and I want to get it done as soon as possible because I have lots of things I want to do and not a lot of time. But I do very much enjoy the process.

#2 How do you view mistakes? Do you think they give your project character? Is it important to have one, as my Aunt says, because only God is perfect? Or would you rip all the way back to row 5 of your husband's finished sweater knit on size 3 needles to eradicate a mistake no one else would notice? I hate mistakes! I don't want any! My problem is, I'm not good at fixing them. So I either start over (which I've done many, many times), live with it (rarely) or fix it the best I can even if it's not completely right (I do this sometimes).

#3 Would you rather knit a project that is comfortable for your skill level, or do you prefer a challenge that requires you to figure out new things? Oh, I love a challenge! I get bored if it's too easy. I love to try new things and have taught myself lots of things with books and by watching videos online.

#4 What is something you really want to make but haven't yet? What holds you back? Is it money, skill level, time, fear of the unknown or something else? I want to do something with cables. I'm all ready, have all the supplies and pattern picked out, I just have too many other projects going right now to start something new (and the needles I need are busy). I would also like to do bigger projects like sweaters with really nice yarn, but money holds me back there as well as time.

And just because I like pictures, here are a few recent (since the beginning of the year) finished projects:

Afghan wedding present for my cousin.

Jaywalker socks for me.

Alyssa's slippers before and after felting.

Hat and sweater for my baby nephew.

My slippers before and after felting.

I got a new car. Darnit.

Actually "darnit" doesn't really express the level of my unhappiness about my new car.

This is my old car - a 2004 Chevy Venture minivan:


I loved, loved, loved my van! But the lease was due to be up in July. So we had to find a new car. Unfortunately, GM isn't doing so hot in the minivan market, so they're giving up. Fine for them, sucks for me. Those power sliding doors were a godsend when you've got a baby in one arm, shopping bags in the other and a toddler tagging along in the pouring rain and all you had to do was push a button as you walked up to the car and the doors would be open and waiting for you when you got there. And there was space in the back for the stroller, the lawn chairs, soccer balls and I could still pile all the groceries in because I forgot to take all that stuff out before I went to the store.

No more. This is my new car:


A 2007 Saturn Outlook. It's a nice car, it just doesn't suit our needs as well as the van did. There are still three rows of seats, like the van, but they seem, I don't know, more compact than before. And, I think because all the seats fold forward in some way, they feel more upright. Alyssa says it feels like she's going to fall forward and she had a horrible time buckling her seat belt because her booster seat is just about on top of the buckle. Lucas is about the same, except his seat (rearfacing) seems to be more vertical too. But Brendan's is the worst. He's so tiny I want him to stay in his 5-point harness. His seat is directly behind Lucas's, which is behind the driver's. With the van I could stand outside, get Lucas buckled in and then reach back and with his help holding the straps and buckles in place, I could get Brendan buckled in with one hand, push the button to shut the sliding door and hop in the driver's seat. Not anymore. Now I can't even see the place where his buckles come together. I tried to get Alyssa to do it, but she's either not coordinated enough or doesn't have big or strong enough hands to do it. So now I'm going to have to get Lucas in on the driver's side, go around to the other side (I can't get in the back on the driver's side with Lucas's seat in the way), get into the car, buckle Brendan up, get out of the car and go back around to the driver's seat. Crap, what a pain. We have to do it this way so Alyssa (and Brendan next year) will be able to get out of the car quickly and easily at school in the morning. And they also like to be able to sit next to one another.

Then there is the storage issue. During certain times of the year, like soccer season, I get a bunch of stuff riding around in the back that we use often enough that I don't want to take it out to save time and so I don't forget to take it when we need it. I don't see it all fitting very well. And I'm really curious to see how we're going to manage to fit in all the big baby stuff (stroller, pack-n-play, etc.) as well as everyone else's stuff when we go on vacation. Jeff thinks we may have to have Brendan in the middle next to Lucas, so he can fold down part of the backseat next to Alyssa. Ahh, I can just hear the cries of protest!

Besides all the inconvience issues, this new car is costing almost $100 more per month than my old van. OUCH! I wonder where that money will come from....

The car does have it's good points. It rides very nicely. It's nice and comfy for the front seat passengers (too bad they don't give as much consideration to the non-paying passengers). It has nifty sliding seats in the second row that are supposed to make it easier to get in and out (completely useless with a carseat strapped onto it). It should eventually get slightly better gas milage than the van. It has a MUCH higher safety rating than the van. And I like the color.

We've been over and over it, and this is the best option we could come up with. I guess I'm just going to have to live with it. But I don't have to like it.

More summer fun

Another nice day today! Lucas discovered the slip-n-slide.

Some other pictures:

The first lily of the season!

Whose brilliant idea was this?

Why would you try to introduce long division in the last two weeks of third grade? No one's up for much of anything new, much less such a difficult concept like long division. And is anyone going to remember it after summer vacation? I doubt it. Duh.

Alyssa brought home two pages of homework on long division (one with two digit quotients, one with three digit) and much crying and yelling commenced. It was not pleasant. I can't understand how something where you just have to repeat the same actions over and over, no matter how big the number is, can cause such angst. Her approach to doing something like long division apparently is to just guess at what to do next. Hmm, here are some numbers, I guess I should just randomly multiply two of them and then subtract the result from some other randomly selected numbers. Um, yeah, that's not going to work. And it doesn't help when the multiplication tables are still just a wee bit shaky.

But this morning all is well! She appears to have finally gotten it! She finished up her homework with no crying and very few mistakes. Now if she can just keep that knowledge in her brain for her test on Tuesday. But I'm almost positive it will be gone as soon as the test is over and we'll have the same scene next year when they get around to learning it again.

Summer fun

I guess it's not technically summer yet. But today was a nice day, so summer it will be!

We had two things to do today. The first was Brendan's soccer banquet/picnic. We got there a little late because we were waiting for Lucas to wake up and then we had to feed him a little lunch before we left (picnic food not so great for 13 month olds with only four teeth). We had a nice time. The weather was perfect - not too hot, but not chilly like it can get in this particular park because there are so many big shade trees. We got hot dogs, pop, ice cream and popcorn (not all at the same time though). The kids got a chance to jump on the bouncy things a little bit, they got airbrush tattoos, they got to play on the playground. There was a raffle (but we didn't win anything, oh well). Brendan got a trophy which he carried around with him the rest of the day like it was an action figure. So cute, his first trophy. He also got a little goodie bag with some candy, and some soccer stuff like a notebook, a soccer ball necklace and an inflatable "soccer" ball (kind of like a small beach ball). We had a really nice time there.

A couple hours later came the not so fun thing we had to do today - Alyssa's dance pictures. First, I had to spend part of the morning fixing up her costume to get it ready for the pictures. When it was time to get ready, I had to put her hair up in a bun with lots of gel and hair spray, get her all dressed up in her costume, including hat and decorative arm thingys, then do her makeup. Bleh. Our appointment time was 5:45. We got there early, but she managed to be the last one done and we got home about half an hour later than we should have. But she took a nice picture and she likes doing it, so I suck it up.

Then we came home to a nice dinner of shish kabobs on the grill and we ate outside at Brendan's request.

Gee, Jeff and Brendan looked thrilled, don't they? It really wasn't that bad.

After dinner, I caught the kids playing some kind of game that involved the line "You are a jaguar..."

Then they started playing with the inflatable ball Brendan got from the soccer picnic and trying to kick it high into the air. And I tried to get some cool pictures of them doing it.

Brendan couldn't get it very high. But Lucas was impressed.

Alyssa was a little better at it. This was the best picture I got, with both her and the ball in mid-air.

Lucas was impressed again! He would do the arms in the air thing almost every time anyone kicked the ball.

He was also impressed with Alyssa's Ring Pop.

Ahh, the best part about having older siblings!

Finally, some pretty flower pictures from the pots around our patio.

This picture taken seconds before he grabbed a handful of that purple petunia and wouldn't let go. I had to pry it out of his hand.

Soccer season

Soccer is over for this school year. Alyssa and Brendan both play with AYSO. They play for about 6 weeks in the fall when school starts and about 6 weeks in the spring before school gets out for the summer.



This was Brendan's first year. He was much more enthusiastic about the idea of playing soccer than actually playing the game. But he's only five and the smallest physically on his team, so I hope it will be better for him in years to come and he'll be able to keep up with the other kids eventually.

These are some pictures of Brendan's last game:


They have a little practice time before they play the short game and this is Brendan practicing.





During the game. You can see Brendan's whole team in this picture - all five of them. And as usual, poor Brendan is at the back of the pack, barely chugging along.


The team waiting for a kick-off. Do they look hot? It was about 90 degrees that day and way too hot to be running around!

Because of a highly unlikely scheduling conflict, both kids' games were always at the exact same time. And because Jeff had already agreed to be an assistant coach for Alyssa's team when we found out Brendan's schedule, Lucas and I had to take him to all his games. There was only one game of Alyssa's this spring that I got to see and it was the very last game of the season. After watching a bunch of 5 year olds kinda, sorta play soccer, Alyssa's game was very exciting to watch. And Alyssa is good! She was one of the oldest girls on her team this year, but the whole team looked pretty darn good. Next year she'll move up an age division and they'll be even better, I'm sure. I love that she loves it and I hope she sticks with it for a long time.


Here are some pictures of Alyssa's last game:



Alyssa (#15), getting instruction from her coach before the game. He was the nicest guy and a great coach!


Action shot! Alyssa is in the middle of the picture.


Getting instruction from assistant coach Daddy and his sidekick Lucas.


Another action shot.


In front of the team banner.

Had to get a picture of all my boys!

Oh, and by the way, her team won the game 4-3 and Alyssa scored a goal!

Lucas walks!

On his birthday, Lucas was just starting to crawl. He was still at the stage where he had to concentrate and think about every move, so he wasn't very fast and didn't go very far.

Now, just six weeks later, he is pretty much walking full time:

I had a feeling this would happen -- he was by far the latest crawler of the kids, but walked earlier than Alyssa and at about the same time as Brendan. He's so cute toddling all over the house!