What little boys are made of

I was being SO productive today. Gardening, shopping, selling SCHTUFF via virtual garage-sale, cleaning house (regular and the spring-type), directing chores, feeding animals and humans (of course), bathing children, de-ticking the dog(seriously) . . . AND during it all I managed to get all the way through EIGHT loads of laundry. Granted, you have to have a lot of laundry stored up to manage that task, and I know that's nothing to toot my horn about. I am what I am. It is what it is. (Did I mention the laundry is nowhere near being done?)I've been busy collecting the dirties for days now (not telling how many). On top of that I decided it was finally safe to stow away the winter gear - after it's washed, that is.

ANYWAY, just as I finished pulling the tick out of Izzy's belly -and simultaneously patting myself on the back - I discovered THIS lurking under the clothes in the washing machine.



Yeah. So, ever wonder what would happen if you didn't check your children's (or husband's) pockets before starting a load of laundry? Ponder the question no more. You will have a little window into their world if nothing else. I'm feeling a little like I dodged bullet seeing the green crayon that could have very well been melted into the entire load had it made its' way through the dryer too.

Can you identify everything? I get the peanuts - know where those came from even. The dried (well, some-what soggy now) pinto beans though? Who raided the pantry and thought those looked tasty? I would have liked to have been there to see the look on the culprit's face when he bit into one. Yummmy.

Highlights from the end of Kindergarten

Grey has had serious reservations about the school year coming to a close, not that he has any choice in the matter. He loves, loves, loves his teacher, Mr. Kay. All else aside (mainly the prospect of staying at school for lunch - how thrilling!)I think he would almost rather stay in Kindergarten than move on to first grade next year just to keep his teacher. Kindergarten gets out a week earlier than the rest of the school so Grey is officially done. They had a lot of great activities over the last couple of weeks, and I just had to post a couple of the highlights because I love the pictures that came from them!

First - the Kindy 500. All of the Kindergartners 'drove' around the school in their own little cars visiting different American landmarks and symbols. (IE: Mount Rushmore, The Statue of Liberty, Betsy Ross and the American Flag, etc., etc. We won't mention who was dressed up as the Statue of Liberty though. . . nor will we be posting any pictures of that lovely sight. Sorry, Charlie. No can do.)

Crazy Hair Day was actually for the entire school, but Grey's hair was too great to not post. I told him he looked like Albert Einstein. "Who?" Yeah, should have stuck with a Harry Potter reference, I guess. At least now he knows who Einstein is, kind of. (I didn't get a picture of Max before he left and his hair had fallen almost to normalcy by the time he made it home!) Nick was sure, of course, he needed to be in the picture too.

Um, this one I just found on my camera. Grey's bed-head is almost as crazy as his crazy-hair day do. I love this whole picture - the hole in his sweats, Izzy's disobedient ear standing straight up, the fact that Grey is just sitting in her bed with her looking like an orphan, AND that I don't know how the picture came to be on my camera in the first place.

For graduation Grey's teacher put together a program for the families. He introduces each of the kids, tells about their favorite things and what they want to be when they grow up. The kids are all supposed to dress like what they're going to be. It is seriously one of the cutest things I've ever seen. There are always a couple of the girls that want to be a princess and a couple of boys that want to be a superhero. (The first kid out in Grey's program is going to be Indiana Jones) I love that at that age those are really options in their minds! Grey is dressed as a paleontologist (working in his lab), in case you couldn't tell. I think he's messing with all his "bone-cleaning tools" in this picture.

After their introductions the whole class sings a bunch of songs and then everyone watches a video of the kids and the activities they did throughout the year. So cute. I just missed getting a picture before this one where the little girls on either side of Grey are both hugging him. (He didn't look upset, at all.) Bad timing! This one will have to do!

At the end of their program they had a balloon launch. Each of the kids had written where they thought their balloon would go on a piece of paper tied to their balloon string. Grey's said "My balloon will fly to a magical land where leprechauns live". Then they said goodbye! Oh, so sad. All good things must come to an end, Grey!

No painting parties here.

Well, it's official. I am the mother of boys, boys, boys. No end in sight - unless the mini ultrasound machine they used (since the big one decided to BREAK right as I got to the doctor's office) made the cord look like something else. I will not be re-painting a bedroom, or buying masses of pink baby things, or selling all the baby-boy things I've collected over the last three babies. Nope. Not me. At least I won't have to figure out how to do all those cute twisty hairstyles on a squirming little girl before church. AND, if I thought keeping my boys in matching socks was hard, I can't imagine throwing little flower barrettes and tights into the mix. Now it's time to go to work on names. . .

Not My Child

Bed-headed Nick realizing flip-flops are not a good footwear choice around manure.

You know those things you hear about other people's children doing that make you think a.) Didn't their parents teach them anything?, b.) MY kids will never do something like that, and c.) Where were their parents?Well, if we weren't before, we are now officially 'those parents'.

I was out shopping for maternity clothes (both a mother's day gift and a nightmare) and Tyler had Nick. They were at Tyler's mom's house - which is right next to ours - and she was leading Tyler through his latest to-do list in the making. Nick was bored and asked to go home, so Tyler told him 'yes' and that he would be right there. When he did get home a few minutes later Nick wasn't there. Tyler went back to his mom's to see if Nick had changed his mind and just gone inside her house. No Nick. Back to the house. He searched inside, outside (upside down) to no avail. No Nick. Finally he decided to walk up the street a bit to check Nick's new favorite friend's house.

Nick's scooter was on their front porch. Before Tyler could even knock on the door our neighbor opened it with a huge grin on her face, saying something about Nick. "Oh, so he is here," Tyler responded. She proceeded to tell him that she just got home. When she walked past the front door she noticed a little pair of shoes sitting neatly inside, then she came across Nick, ALSO INSIDE. "Oh, there you are," he says, "Can Michael play?" So, he was there playing when Tyler got there. Eating fruit roll-ups, taking a 'nap' on the couch. (Yes, he asked for blanket and curled up for a minute or two.) These are all things he does when he goes to grandma's to 'play'. I'm surprised he didn't ask our neighbor to turn a movie on for him. Maybe he thinks the same rules that apply at her house apply everywhere.

Seriously, how embarrassing. Have I ever thought to teach him 'never just let yourself into someone else's house'? No. Didn't really think it was necessary. Don't they come with some common sense? Apparently, this one didn't. Silver lining? I have to give him credit for politely removing his shoes at the front door. That was thoughtful.

Too much

I don't know where to begin. Today was, all things said, too much. Simply too much. A day that begs the question 'why do I surround myself with animals?'. They're so much work and bring such inevitable heartbreak. They seem to be in and out of our lives so quickly, yet the time they are with us they are SO with us - and would be every second if we let them.

Sadie's liver suddenly shut down last week. The dog with the insatiable appetite stopped eating - completely. The vet had little hope for her when I brought her in on Friday. He said he could run a barrage of tests but he doubted we would be able to save her even if he could figure out why her liver was failing. We tried some antibiotics and a special food to help her liver over the weekend just in case it was something minor. She ate every meal and even raided Izzy's bowl again. She seemed happy and energetic again. When I let her out this morning she was romping around the back yard with Izzy like she was a puppy too.

Then in the arena parking lot one of the horses stepped on Izzy's foot. Stepped, turned and stood on her foot. It was awful. We brought the horses back home and I rushed Izzy to the vet. I had only been there a few minutes when Tyler walked through the door with Nick. I thought they had come to see how Izzy was doing, but he told me Sadie was in the car barely breathing. He had seen her laying on the grass and had called to her. After a couple of times with no response he started towards her. She was semi-deaf anyway so he figured she just didn't hear him. Then she flopped her head back to look at him. She couldn't even get up. Her lungs were collapsing. I'm still so shocked. There was nothing left to do, so we had to put down our second dog in just over six months. I still have a hard time believing Duke is gone, and now the Golden we brought home to help him (and us) cope with losing his best friend, Gert, almost eight years ago, is gone too.

Miss Sadie - Max's 'twin' sister; master of finding dead carcasses (and rolling in them); terror of all pot-guts everywhere; lover of all things edible (and many things questionably so); falsely accused and wrongfully imprisoned chicken slayer; consumate wanderer; biggest, furriest, happiest Golden Retreiver ever - I can't believe you're gone, and I'm so, so, so very sorry you are. You were simply the sweetest, most gentle, loving dog. We miss you so much already.