Preschool Ramblings

I haven't posted anything of substance in a few weeks so I thought I would ramble on for a minute to see what comes to fruition... There is so much going on and yet nothing is resolving itself comfortably. I told Brent yesterday (as a figure of speech of course) that I feel like I'm trying to take 10 dumps at once and have yet to be victorious.

Ugh! Preschool and regular school are huge stressors of mine right now. The preschools here are either dumpy, glorified daycares, or $600/month for two days a week. Spare me. There is a Montessori school here we love, but that school requires each kid to attend 5 days a week which I think is just way too much. It's so tough too because preschool seems to be one of those topics that everyone has a strong opinion about. Please believe that I would move heaven and earth to do what's best for my babies and dropping them off at a crustified toy emporium with hyperactive-inducing circus decor does not necessarily make me feel like I'm "doing what's best".

Anyway, I think what we have decided for this year is that I'm going to try and homeschool them. Eeeek! Yep. I said it. Homeschool. It conjures up images of long-skirt wearing Amish people with buggies or something, doesn't it? Whatever. They are only three so I don't think I can screw it up that badly. Plus, I actually bought curriculum to help guide me and a bunch of Montessori type toys and crafts to supplement. They are also going to bible school once a week. Eeeek! Yep. I said that too - like I need to outfit them in ceremonial bible beating robes or something. But all I want is for them to learn the basics of God, in a classroom environment, where they will have the opportunity to play with some fellow booger eaters and maybe make a craft or two. I think it will be good. I hope so.

Basically, it's a bandaid until we re-tackle the preschool issue again next year while keeping the bigger picture in mind... Kindergarten! That is the motherload of our schooling problems. This tiny little armpit beach town does not provide the awesome public schooling that Atlanta did. Infact, the schools here (as of right now) are pretty terrible. My college roommate is actually a Kindergarten teacher in Bluffton so she's told me everything I wanted to know/not know about the school system here. It scared the crap out of me and left me feeling like we are going to have to pay for private school if we stay here. That, of course, makes us question whether or not living here is worth all of this hassle. I don't know. It's education constipation!

Lots of Pics!

I'm tired. My brain hurts. I need to go on vacation or something because there has been so much on my mind these last few weeks and I just need to shelf it all for a minute and take a break. It's been busy, it's been fun, and it's been crazy. Literally. Anyway, since my brain is running at hyper-warp speed and I'm probably spewing nonsense, I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures starting with some of our trip we took to "Splash! Splash! Splash! Splash in the 'Boro!" this weekend!

Kindergarden for Noah!

After Brent and I got home, the kids and I turned around and headed to St. Mary's again for Noah's first day of Kindergarten! I was excited because I got the opportunity to kind of feel out the waters of what it will be like when my twinks start school and I knew the kids were going to love getting to see a real Kindergarten classroom.

Anyway, Noah was nervous for months leading up to starting school. He even begged his mom to be homeschooled. We all went to the open house together on Tuesday and got to meet his teacher and everything. He was super shy at first but after his buddy Ethan (a fifth grader and Wyatt's new best friend) showed him the cafeteria and library, Noah was pumped and ran back to his classroom to give the teacher a high-five!

Wyatt was super excited and loved everything about school - especially the independence. Ethan was so sweet and took him around to see everything. Callie, on the other hand, was cautiously optimistic. She said that she really liked it, but was also being pretty reserved. It was tripping me out to see them walking through school hallways and classrooms. They looked way too grown up to me.

Chair for the morning announcements

I don't know what stressed me out so bad about the whole thing (fluorescent lights, chaos, candy), but I started clenching the crap out of my teeth which of course led to the onset of a nasty migraine. I can't imagine the emotional trauma I'm going to put myself through when it's MY kids walking out the door TOGETHER. Maybe I'm borderline co-dependent with them. Anyway, Noah ended up loving his first day of Kindergarten and even went through the lunch line with zero problems. All these kids are getting so big so quickly. It makes me so sad.

Race in St. Augustine

Last weekend, Brent and I ran a race in Saint Augustine. It was roughly a 10k but it was completely different than a typical race because you were given a set of clues at the beginning of the race that hinted to various checkpoint locations (kind of like a mini amazing race). We had to take our picture at each checkpoint so they could verify at the finish line that you did everything you were supposed to, otherwise they would enforce 20 minute penalties per mistake. The winners won $500 cash.

I am pretty competitive and when there is a prize involved, my pupils dilate and I have to win. I thought that especially since I'd been spinning a couple times a week, for well over a month, that I'd be in pretty good shape; and since neither of us had been to St. Augustine before, we went down the day before to scope out the town. We took an historic trolley ride that we thought might help us get a foot up on the competition. It was a pretty cute town (the oldest one in the country) and we even stopped at the Fountain of Youth to drink it's stankonia fart smelling water so we can live forever.

The race was hard and we sucked it up. The people with iphones had the biggest advantage and since we didn't have one, we ended up missing a couple of the checkpoints and basically ran the whole course twice. Thank goodness for my 'phone a friend' uncle or we wouldn't have made it at all! We did finish (albeit in the bottom 10 - 'Big Hizzle & Twizzle) and even gotten beaten by a 6 year old and her father which totally boosted our egos. I couldn't walk for two days because my hams were so shredded. It was really fun though!

10 Happy Things I'm Grateful for this Week

I started writing this post a few weeks ago before Jim passed away and everything got a little crazy. Things have started to settle down again and I didn't want to just dismiss this partially written post because it was definitely a day that I was feeling happy and grateful for the little things. So, here are 10 happy random things that have made me smile over the last couple of weeks:

1.) Fancy dancin' skillz! Nugget maneuvers.


2.) The Zaxby's dipping trinity: Ranch, Zax Sauce, and ketchup. I usually get the Big Zax Snack but to be honest with you, it doesn't matter what you get because it's all about the dips. Also, I like to alternate each of the three sauces for each bite.

3.) "Hey Lady! I like your elbow!" ~ Breont circa May '79

4.) I taught Wyatt how to play bloody knuckles. It's so much fun even though it's super twisted but it cracks both of us up! Brent can't stand it when he catches us playing it and I definitely don't blame him because it does kinda make me feel like a mother who should potentially be chained to the wall. Wyatt loves it though! My scrawny chicken-feet looking hands are pretty much an equal match for a big fisted three year old anyway.


5.) My sweet friends Kim and Pratt sent me this link they took with their flip on their cruise. Isn't that the best?!?! Vadge needs a fan club.

6.) Today, Callie told me the sun was bwinkin. I said, "Bwinkin? What's that?" And she said "Bwinkin!" as she demonstrated by blinking her eyes. I rarely have communication barriers with them anymore and I'm scared to death that I'm going to forget how cute it is to see them help me along by using hand gestures or signals to get me to understand them. It's like they are teaching ME something and it always makes me laugh because it's shockingly odd but amazing too, to witness such a mature moment from someone so young. I'm going to miss it so much when all the baby is gone from their language.


7.) My friend Heather emailed me a precious video about the Marshmallow Test. So cute! Wyatt also shoved both in his mouth when time was up! Thanks Heath!



8.) Bethenny Getting Married! I love her! She's my long lost best friend. P.S. -Cookie for president.

9.) Wyatt is beginning to worry. I'm loving it because to me it is showing signs of recognizing consequences and also of wanting to make proper decisions. I could melt in that split second when I see him stop to consider a situation, act on his decision, and then look to me for approval. He looks so mature to me! He's becoming a little man.

10.) My attempt at taking an artistic photograph of a full size 'David' replica gone very, very, VERY awry. Hahahaha!

Road Trip!

I have so much to catch up on, but I wanted to quickly blog about our short trip to St. Marys, GA to visit some friends a couple weekends ago. I actually road tripped it with the kids all by myself (because Brent was out-of-town) and the car ride wasn't bad at all. I purposely deprived them of juice that morning so we wouldn't have to stop to peep every 5 seconds. They did really well and I wouldn't hesitate to do it alone again.

It was great to see Lauren and Jimmy and the kids. We all had so much fun and the kids had the best slumber party ever! Lauren and I tried to be cool moms, so we threw the four of them together in one room, told them to go to bed (knowing fully well there was zero chance of that happening), and let them go crazy. We sat out on the front porch for hours listening to the screaming hilarity and watching the bedroom light flicker on and off like it was a strobe light at some night club. They finally crashed a little after midnight and were up way too early the next morning. All three of us had so much fun!

The Experiment: Self-Control

Okay, so last week I read an article about self-control relating to toddlers. Back in the day, there were a bunch of studies conducted by Stanford University at the Bing Nursery School. Basically, kids were given a marshmallow and were told they could eat the marshmallow immediately, or choose to wait x amount of time before eating it and receive two marshmallows instead. Some kids ate the marshmallow immediately, some kids waited a little while before eating the marshmallow, and a third group of kids were able to wait the full amount of time and receive two marshmallows. Anyway, they followed these kids into adulthood and the jist was that the ones who couldn't wait were more likely to be delinquents and the ones that were able to delay gratification tended to be very successful adults.

Of course, it got us wondering about tweedle dee and tweedle dum...

PURPOSE: To see if one or both of the nuggets are potential delinquents.

HYPOTHESIS: The boy flavored crackhead will down the treat in 2.5 seconds. We have been trying to work with him on having patience. He is the kid who sits in the back of the car going, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" and it drives us both crazy. I always felt like this was a result of him being in the NICU as a baby and the nurses not responding to his crying quick enough.

Oppositely, it is hypothesized that miss thing will wait as long as necessary to get the second treat. Infact, I would think that she would be willing to wait an entire year to double the bounty. It usually takes her about 20 minutes to eat a single cookie because she nibbles so slowly just to be able to enjoy it longer.

PROCEDURE: I gave each of the runts a piece of black licorice (they love it) and told them they could eat it now or wait 15 minutes and get two pieces instead.

EXPERIMENT: Callie was able to wait awhile before she decided that waiting sucked and popped the candy into her mouth. She lasted a little longer than 5 minutes. Wyatt, on the other hand, waited the entire time and got a second piece! Infact, I even tried to needle him when Callie caved and taunted him with, "Ooooh! Callie! Isn't it soooo yummy?!?!" The dude didn't budge. He stood guard between the candy and the clock for the first 10 minutes. After that, he wandered around to distract himself and never even once asked me if time was up. I was such a proud momma and he was soooo proud of himself too! Callie was upset at herself for not waiting and promised herself that she would wait the next time.

CONCLUSION: Mommy and Daddy are morons. Both you turkeys had us fooled! Patience is a virtue baby kiddos - a huge one! I love you.

"Prudent, cautious self-control, is wisdom’s root." - Robert Burns

"He who reigns within himself, and rules passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king." -John Milton

"If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self." - Napoleon Hill