This is good

I thought this was pretty good. And this is even better.

We have take off!

This is what Elena did on one of the first days of school!

This was what we saw across the street when we went out for school one morning.

I meant to write this sooner, but haven't had a chance. I guess it was about 3 weeks ago, Everet started taking a little steps here and there, but he was really cautious about it. Then he worked up to taking maybe 3 steps at a time, but crawling was still his main way of moving. It was kind of like he would forget that he could do it so he kept on crawling. Last Sunday, he got it all figured out. (Coincidentally, it was the same day the Ema took her first steps 7 years ago.) We'd look up and he was just walking everywhere. Now he hardly ever crawls. He can walk all through the house. It's so cute how he shuffles his feet like an old man! Now he doesn't really want to be held unless he's tired or trying to get away from someone (ELENA), especially if we are somewhere new. Like Hastings last night, he was pulling everything down off the shelves, so I picked it all up, picked him up and he'd start doing the floppy baby move where he puts his arms up and tries to slide out of my arms. You know the move. It's fun and exciting to watch him grow, but at the same time I think, "he can't be walking already. The house isn't ready yet and neither is his mommy." But I do like the fact that I can set him down somewhere and not have to worry so much about the germs he'll get when he puts his hands down on the floor!

Ema and Eli started school on Aug 18. They are both really enjoying it. Their teachers are great-Ema's is a really bubbly exciting teacher, and Eli's is an older grandmother type which is good for him. Eli's class has tickets every week that allow them in to "Fun Friday." If they get a warning, they have to move their card, and if they keep up the wrong behavior, they get a hole punch. If you get 3 hole punches, you can't go to FF. He was telling me that a couple of people had to move their cards, but he didn't have to. I honestly don't know what he'll do if he ever has to move his. He is a strong boy, but he's very sensitive too. If someone speaks harshly to him, he goes to his room for a while. In that sense, I feel kind of like he may not have been ready for kindergarten. But he is so smart-he knows all his letters, shapes, colors, and he's been reading for a while now. He's always surprising us by reading things to us. At the beginning, we didn't know if he had just memorized things and was repeating them, but he was reading signs that he had never seen before. He is learning to write better now-more controlled. He is enjoying it very much.

Ema is also doing well in school. She is an excellent reader and speller. She gets into a little bit of trouble from talking or mothering the other kids. She tries to help them with their work, but the teacher is trying to get them to be independent learners too. Her teacher is trying to come up with some things to challenge Ema, because she gets bored easily. Especially with the beginning of the year review things. She is hopefully going to start the Rosetta Stone Spanish course that the school is doing and the teacher is going to have her test for the gifted and talented program. That would allow her to go to another location and do something fun and challenging with a group of other kids. I was in AA (Academically Able-do you think the people who came up with that name really thought it through?) but I remember how fun it was to get out of the classroom and go work on the computer or something. I can't remember much of what we did-just the getting out of class part. Of course, now the computers are already in the room, so they have to leave the building to find something new and fun!

Elena is enjoying the quiet time during the day, but she gets bored pretty easily. She's always asking me to play dolls with her. I do a lot, but I do have to try and get my jobs done too. Then she follows me around saying in a sweet, motherly (and sometimes British) voice, "daughter, you can't do that. Daughter, you have to sit here." And then there are the other pretend games like "bwetend you are a bad guy and you got me." or "you're Jenna and I'm lena, no you're Kyle, no you miss Jonana." and my favorite, "I was a princess, and you saw me." Whenever that one comes up, I cringe because-well I don't even know how to explain it. I pretend to be the prince and see her and come up and try to talk to her, then she goes and pulls a Snow White on me and runs away. Then I have to go chase her down and try and talk to her, and she keeps running. She also throws in some Ariel because she can't talk either. It gets a little annoying. But overall, we have fun together. She's got such a silly personality-she makes me laugh quite often.

Everyone is back home now after daddy took them to Town & Country, so I better get off the computer. I'll try to get some pictures on here too. Oh they posted at the top and now I'm too lazy to move them around! I posted some on Facebook too.

Funny lines from the 1984 Transformers

*Deactivate your mouth.

*Your knowledge is only overshadowed by your stupidity.

*Autobots, TRANSFORM.....Not you, Bumblebee.  (You kind of have to see the cartoon with this, but Bumblebee starts to follow orders, and then has to stop halfway and transform back to his robot self.

*I've got the plan, it you've got the cast-iron manifolds for it.

I was laughing at another one last night, but it's hard to put in words.  I thought the decepticon guy said "Rubbish," but it's actually "Ravage" or something.  A dog robot comes out of the guy's chest compartment.  But he talks in a weird computerized voice and he pointed and said, (in my mind) RUBBISH.  And then it took a few seconds for anything else to happen.  I just thought it would be funny to use that line sometime.  

It's all in the way you ask

I was getting something out of the cupboard with Eli in the kitchen with me. He was just talking and happened to get a glimpse of the small bag of marshmallows rolled up in the cupboard. He said so sweetly, "let me see if those marshmallows are any good." I started laughing pretty hard and he instructed me not to tell Daddy, but he got to check the marshmallows for me. So I can sleep better tonight knowing that our marshmallows have been checked, and that they are in fact still good!

Get...Smart?

Some of you may know that we cancelled our satellite subscription a while back and haven't missed it since. We have bought a few tv series on dvd so we could have something small to watch every now and then, you know, to break up the movie nights that we have! We don't want to get burned out on movies or anything! 

Anyway, Daniel bought me the "Get Smart" series from 1965 and we've been watching those. It's just amazing how far tv and special effects and all that has come. It's funny to watch because of how lame it can be sometimes. Like when the tough Asian guy comes after Smart, and Smart brings him to the ground with one chop to each shoulder. 

I was really laughing at one episode where Smart and Agent 99 (his pretty sidekick) have to go undercover at a spy school. They have to find out which agent in the school is really a KAOS infiltrator. Smart gets all of his secret codes to allow him access to the school that is made to look like an ordinary house. He has to give the code to get in the door, he then is under high alert until his security clearance goes through. He is using a fake name (which I don't understand because the infiltrator is at that school to get the secrets from their agency. He already knows that everyone is a secret agent-why use the fake name? Maybe I'm thinking too hard!) He can't let anyone know that he and 99 already know each other either.  When they go out to the back yard, it looks like a rec center or something; people sitting around the pool tanning, old ladies sitting in chairs, people playing games. Then the head guy announces, "it's okay, he's a secret agent too." And everyone goes back to what they were doing before the new guy showed up; the old ladies take off their very convincing disguises and start combat fighting, others are weapons training and target practicing, and such. (Am I over-using the semi-colon... David..., anybody?!)  So then Smart gets introduced to some other sinister looking agents and it's time for his weapons training.  They demonstrate how the weapon is used and then Smart, in all his secret agent brilliance, shoots it the wrong way and breaks out the neighbor lady's window.  Before you know it, the neighbor comes busting through the hedges yelling at them for breaking her window and how they are going to pay for that.  Honestly I don't know what all she said because I was laughing too hard.  How did that lady's security clearance go through so fast?  They sure went through a lot of trouble securing the premises.  Where was the "postman" or the "blind guy" who were supposed to be guarding the hedges?  I think we've found the infiltrator!  I just thought that was hilarious and felt like sharing it with someone!  Of course, I will take lame old tv shows to inappropriate new ones any day!

He loves his Daddy!

Daniel just called me on my cell phone from a different phone number and told me to go find Everet. It was such a weird request-it scared me a little bit, although I don't really know why! He was just rolling on the floor in the living room with Eli and Elena while I try and work in the office for a few minutes. He said "does he still have it in his hands?" He had his bottle, but the phone was near him. He had called Daniel about 8 minutes before and was talking to him. What a smart kid, huh! He had found the redial button, knowing that I had called Daniel last, and called his daddy! I thought that was funny! Well, back to work. Someday I will be back in Bloggerland!

They are mad to me

"Mom, there's a bug!"

"What kind of bug?"

"A mad one!"

Elena has this complex about everyone being mad "to" her.  Maybe because people get mad at her a lot for being such a pest!  The other day, there was a mad butterfly outside.  I laughed for a while about that one.  What would a butterfly do to make you think it was mad?  She kept saying, "I dote wanna hee that mad budderfwy."   It turned out to be a plastic bag stuck in a tree in the neighbor's yard and it was blowing in the wind.  We were in the dentist office the other day and two girls were looking at her and she was upset that they were looking mad to her.  

EVERET SLEPT FOR 7 HOURS STRAIGHT LAST NIGHT!  I was so excited.  Eli woke up around 3 so I still had to wake up (sort of-I remember sitting on his bed and actually dreaming about something while I was sitting there.  I don't wake up easily.)  I kept checking Everet though to make sure he was still breathing because he's never slept that long.  He's been sick with a virus that could lead to RSV, so we've been doing breathing treatments with him.  He won't hardly stay still for those.  I know that didn't help him sleep though because it makes him a little restless.  Anyway-I don't know what we did different, but I liked it!  Maybe it's the cereal he's been eating.

Just a couple more funny things before I forget:

Saturday night, we were finishing supper.  We had let the kids down and Elena was getting ready to take a bath.  I told her to wait for me to come in.  She came out to the kitchen naked, so I told her to go back to the room because I didn't want to see her out there naked.  She said, in her sweet little 3-year old voice, "but my bottom is not wooking at youuuu."

Then right after that, Eli was actually eating chicken noodle soup (because it was shaped like Cars) and he was picking out the carrots.  We tried to convince him that he liked carrots and he said, "but I don't like them melted."

The other day at Wendy's, Eli wanted a drink of Daniel's drink.  He asked what it was and Daniel told him to try it and find out.  This one may not be as funny in type.  Anyway, he tried it and his eyes got big and he exclaimed, "ROOT BEER!"  "NOPE, it's cherry coke!"  It just made me think of a big buzzer going off.  YYEEEEE-YOU'RE WRONG!  (This one's for Tracey to remember)  LOSER!  [Note:  I'm not calling my son a loser nor was Daniel meaning to crush his spirits!]  It rolled off of Eli, but Shellie and I were laughing for a little bit.  

Okay-I didn't mean to write for this long.  I'll be back in another two months!

Oh and tomorrow is our 10th wedding anniversary!  I love you Daniel, always and forever!