I Would Love to See This in Real Life

I subscribe to an email newsletter from FamilyFun.com. It contains craft ideas and food ideas, and all kinds of other stuff. Today's news letter had some ideas for outdoor crafts, including this cute little Squirrel Cafe:

For the directions to make it, go here.

Fire Station Fun

Left to right: Grandpa, the Rookie, Drew, Owen, David, Me, Samantha, the Captain.

Drew decided that he wanted to go to the fire station today. Just out of the blue he said, "I want to go see the fire trucks." He's a pretty lucky kid because his grandpa works for the Police Department, and has the hookups. So Grandpa called the fire station and asked if we could come down for a tour. The firemen were more than happy to oblige and about ten minutes later we were climbing into the fire trucks, spraying the hose around and lifting weights in the station exercise room.

A couple weeks ago, we went to the environmental fair (Drew calls it the "unfair-o"--not sure where he got that). The Fire Department had a truck there for people to climb in and look at, but Drew would have nothing to do with it. For the next week he kept saying, "'Cause I'm scared of the fire truck. 'Cause I don't want to get in it." I haven't figured out why he starts every sentence with the word 'cause, but he does.

Anyway, because of his previous experience with the fire truck, I wondered how he would act at the fire station. At first he was a bit wary. He was excited and running around talking about the trucks, but every time we asked him if he wanted to get in, he would say, "No thank you!" and run off. Then, he saw Samantha get in, and he must have figured it would be okay if the baby was doing it. So pretty soon he was sitting in the fire truck all by himself with a seat belt on and the door closed and yelling, "Bye, Mom! I'm driving to the fire!"

Owen and Samantha loved the fire station, too. They had no qualms from the very beginning about jumping right into the fire trucks and pushing all the buttons and turning the steering wheel. Samantha did get scared by the fire hose, though. We ended up hanging around the station for about two hours, just chatting with the firemen about what it's like to fight fires, and what they do when there's nothing going on (like today when we were there).

And for Drew's bedtime prayer tonight he said, "Thank you that we went to the fire station and I'm not scared of the fire trucks anymore. 'Cause I was scared of the fire truck at the unfair-o. But I'm not scared anymore."

Whole Buncha Stuff

I went to clean a rental property for my friends yesterday and they asked me to take pictures of the house while I was there so they can put them on their website. It turned out to be a good opportunity for me to finally upload all the pictures that have been sitting in my camera's memory for about a month. And lucky you, dear readers, because that means you all get to see them. Without further ado:

We had a few gorgeous days in April (just a few, though. This was the first year when I really understood the saying, "April showers bring May flowers." I had to chant it over and over to keep from going crazy). The boys and I pointed out animal shapes in the clouds and the boys rode their trikes around the driveway for hours.

I was actually able to get some good photos of Drew; usually he's saying "cheese" so fiercely that it doesn't even look like he's smiling. I had to be stealth to get this one.

I love this picture of Owen. That's about all I can say about it. I love it, love it, love it.

Here's Vito. Notice that little smile on his face. He was so glad to get outside. I think he gets cabin fever even worse than the rest of us.

Remember the doll I mentioned yesterday? It's from the Only Hearts Club, and it's not entirely made of cloth; the hands and face are actually the same kind of rubbery stuff Barbie's face is made out of. (Botox? I mean, the lady never ages!) The reason I know all this about the dolls is because our friend's little girl, upon hearing how much Samantha liked the doll, gave it to her! Tonight was our last soccer game of the season, and our friends hosted a pizza party at their house. Their little girl had the doll wrapped in tissue and in a little gift bag, and she couldn't wait to give it to Samantha. It was so sweet! All you can see of the doll in the above picture is her long, flowing locks, but she really is a cute doll.

Samantha has been very patient with me while I girl her up. She actually seems to love having her hair done, and when I'm all done she says, "Theekyooou." She says that all the time these days. It's so cute. Anyway. This is a little half French braid I did. I left the sides out because I think they would've caused me grief trying to get them to stay. And her hair does cute little curly stuff in the back, so I left it down, too.

These are three little braids I stuck together with one tie. Samantha looks really cute with a comb-over, so most of the styles I try on her are parted on the side and swept over the top.

Freedom!!

I took my final final today. It feels so nice to be done! One semester down, 5 (at least) to go! Now I gotta go get a job. I'm thinking I'll just bite the bullet and go to Convergys. They're currently paying $10.50 an hour, which is more than most places in town (at least the places that are hiring), plus they offer an employer match stock program (I still need to look up their stock and see if it's worth investing in. But as long as it's making money, that's free money from Convergys!). They also offer health insurance, which will be good if it takes longer than 5 months for David to be picked up at the railroad, and tuition reimbursement so I'd have help paying for school. And, there are rumors of a $2000 bonus upon completion of their training. They're making it awfully tempting! I guess I'll head over there tomorrow and sign myself up.

We've had two soccer games this week and we have one last game tomorrow. So far we are undefeated (because a tie doesn't count as a defeat)! I'm just now feeling like I'm getting good at soccer again, and the season is over. It's been a fun season.

My friend's little girl left her doll at the soccer field today. It was a way cute doll, made of cloth, no plastic anywhere, and Samantha loved it. I let Samantha hold it while we drove to my friend's house to give the doll back. Samantha just giggled and chatted with the doll the whole way over. It was so funny, and unexpected because so far she's only been interested in toy cars (wonder where she learned that from?). I'll have to make up some special occasion so I can get her one of those dolls.

On the Bright Side

Whew. The semester is almost over! I went through a mid-term slump, so now I'm playing a little catch-up and sorta cramming for finals. I have my Chemistry final tomorrow. It's actually an optional final, and will only count toward my grade if I get a better score than I did on any of my other tests. Since I got a big fat D on my last exam, the final will be replacing that. It's a cumulative test and I'm really hoping there are more questions from the first two exams (which I actually did okay on) and less questions from the last exam.

Chemistry is really the only class I'm very worried about. I get to have a sheet of notes for my Statistics final. I'll be writing all kinds of formulas (formulae?) on there because the points I missed on previous exams were due to using the wrong formulas at the wrong time. I'll be done with this semester precisely one week from today! Woot!

I'm not going to be taking summer school as originally planned. David has been laid off from the Railroad, so I'll have to become a working mom. I really hope I can get a job as a dental assistant, so I can get some experience for the dental hygiene program and so I don't have to go to Convergys. Blech!

Hopefully David will be picked back up to work soon; there are about twenty people with seniority over him who are also laid off, and business is pretty slow. He will be able to collect Railroad unemployment (not from the government), so there will be some income from that. We have mixed feelings about collecting the unemployment. On the one hand, David and I are both young and able-bodied, and there's really no reason we can't both go get jobs. On the other hand, if David goes out to get a job, he'll have to tell any prospective employers that there's a chance the Railroad will call him back to work the next day, and he'd quit the new job. So we are looking at the unemployment thing as sort of an insurance that he's paid into since he started working at the railroad, and now he's collecting on it. Hopefully not for too long. The Railroad will also continue to provide health insurance (and they'll pay the premiums!) for up to three months for David, and four months (or maybe six--we've heard two different quotes) for the kids and me.

There really is a bright side to all this! The boys have loved having David home more often (and I've appreciated it, too. He folds laundry and empties the dishwasher which are the chores I hate to do most of all)! We've been able to spend lots of family time together. Also, he's been able to make it to all our soccer games (we're in the coed city league again this Spring).

If worse comes to worse, we can always sell a bunch of stuff and move to Arizona City. They've got some good deals on houses there!