School Work

Happy 60th birthday, Grandma!

Well, another fascinating day in the Herubin household. Today we had a half day of school, an annoying little thing our school district often does to confuse and bewilder stay-at-home moms. Corey's bus was 15 minutes later than expected because the driver had to wait at one home for ten minutes due to the parent forgetting about the schedule change. I couldn't complain, with the way my memory has been slipping I'm sure to do the same eventually.

Ken and I went to parent/teacher conferences tonight and the teachers told us what we already knew. (No, not that our kids are brilliant....) It seems Shannon and Riley are just perfect angels at school, imagine that. I keep requesting that the teachers remember to actually send the perfect angels home but all I get at the end of the day are rowdy, quarrelling little boys. It's just not right! At least the bus drivers admit to seeing their devilish sides, so I guess the boys don't save it all just for me.

Corey's Physical Therapist is retiring after today, so we're dreading that change. He has grown very comfortable with Dawn during the last two years and therapy is play-time when he sees her. She knew all his little quirks and how to make him stretch longer without forcing a melt-down. She also knew just which toys would distract him from the horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad hamstring stretches that he hated so much, and it will interesting to see how he gets on with his new PT next week.

Dang, I just remembered that tomorrow is Hat Day at school, one of Riley's favorite theme days. Riley wanted to make a hat to wear, but he's been in bed for over an hour. I'd better start digging for one. Or two. Shoot, Shannon needs one as well. Hmm... While I'm at it, anybody have any butterfly wings I can borrow? Riley will be needing those for his 2nd Grade music program next month. Argh, who knew being crafty was such an important prerequisite for motherhood?

(See music player!)

Little Project Today

Shannon gives the window treatment a 'thumbs up!'

Ken's great job on the 4th bedroom.



I did the faux stained glass thing in the main floor bathroom to accomodate all those who like to poop in privacy! (You know who you are!) No more doing your business in the dark, feel free to turn on the light and stay all day if you must, the neighbors simply won't know!

I think it came out okay, the colors match the walls and rugs perfectly, and it shines nicely when the sun is out. However, even during our dreary Michigan cloudy days it's still not too dark in there. So we'll let it be and see how it all holds up.

Also I've posted a few pictures of the undecorated basement bedroom which we love. The color is a grey-blue, but all of the white trim and white doors allow the color to pop without darkening the room. We hate to see the kid's trashing it, and someday we're sure they will. For now we keep it locked, and we're looking to actually decorate this room and install a nice window treatment. (Not even close to decorating all of the living room, but let's splurge on a guest bedroom, go figure!)

My husband is wonderful, this was a great job from the ceiling installation to the paint job and I just love it. Now if I could just get the bedspread in to the cleaners, somebody could actually sleep there.

Weekend Getaway!

Pictures top to bottom: 1) What you get for a $109 hotel waterpark in Michigan, 2) Riley coming down the slide, 3) Ken and Corey chillin' in the baby pool, and 4) Shannon working on the backstroke after coming down the slide.

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Desperately needing to escape the house, we found a hotel just an hour away that had a waterslide and booked a room for a measly $109 at the last minute. Corey wanted to go to a hotel for his birthday, and dad wanted to go to a waterpark. The perfect compromise, a Ramada with one waterslide and a baby pool!

Shannon immediately set his sights on the slide along with Ken, Riley headed out to test the water depth around the pool, and the former swimmer (me) sat on the edge of the baby pool with Corey, trying to convince him that he could actually stand up in the 1'7'' deep water. I never was good at convincing Corey of anything, and he remained on the first step of the pool the entire weekend.

Corey gave up fairly quickly on the first swimming adventure, (why does swimming always stimulate his bowels???) so I got to enjoy the peace and quiet of the hotel room with him for over two hours! He loves just rocking back and forth on hotel beds as he sings his little songs so it was a very good evening. This morning we had a quick Continental Breakfast in our jammies (along with 50+ other families) and went for one more swim and headed home. It was the perfect escape for our late-winter blues!

Quick Note...

I talked to Spencer today and he was not too thrilled to find that I hadn't put up a picture of the EXIT sign. Ken was nice enough to stop putting up the trim in our almost finished 4th bedroom and 'pose' to show where the sign was installed. See pictures below.

As I said, we're almost finished with the basement bedroom and the boys are fighting over who gets to sleep there in the future. They don't want to yet because the furnace next door scares them, but they're wise enough to know that the best bedroom is the one furthest from mom and dads room.

Did a little PTO work today (I'm the Secretary, how special,) and tomorrow I have to go into school to make a large meatball mural. Don't ask. Other than that, hoping for a relaxing weekend to come.

For Spencer: The EXIT Sign

BIG BRAIN ACADEMY FOR OUR 'BIG BRAIN'

THE CAKE I PAID TOO MUCH FOR (AND THREE CUTE BOYS)

WET FLOOR SIGN

The best present ever! (At least this year, anyway!)

A Birthday Success!

I think it's safe to say Corey had a very happy 5th birthday. The signs were a big hit, and the wet floor sign I picked up was his favorite. (Mom said to grab it from her, so she's the hero of the day!) He loved it so much he took it to bed with him. He also loved a little circular pillow I'd purchased two years ago and forgot about that says DO NOT ENTER. (He took that to school with him and his teacher said he took it everywhere he went!)

The cake was lame, I definitely could have done better. I made a big show out of opening the box it came in and Corey looked at it, looked at me and said, "Why does it say 'SPEED LIMIT 5?'" Oh well!

Thinking a lot about Carley today, it's her birthday, too. It's so unfair that for every wonderful thing about Corey there's that nagging question of how Carley would be doing. I keep reliving the first week of Corey's life in my brain, and it's just not as fun to tell his "On the day you were born, 5 years ago, I was doing this right now," story that the kids love to hear. On the brighter side, how many kids get reminded of their first helicopter ride on the day they were born? (By the way, thanks Mom, that was a great tradition I stole from you!)

But it was still a great day! Dad summed it up perfectly with a sweet message on the family blog for Corey, it said: "Five years old and you know more about computers than Grandpa will ever learn. You are definitely a miracle child. You are always overcoming obstacles that you were born with in the grandest fashion. Grandma and Grandpa are so proud of you! Have fun with your new signs. We love you so much!!!!"

Street Lights, Exit Signs, All for Corey...

Today was the day everything fell into place for Corey's birthday! Ken managed to get the Exit sign up and working (love the glow of the LED's,) and I've got mom's gift (street light) ready to plug in before the boys get up in the morning. 12'' cut-out number 5's are spread throughout the kitchen and I pick up his birthday cake sometime before noon tomorrow.

Yes, the one-time Betty Crocker wanna-be has turned in her icing tips. For two years now I've tried to do elaborate cakes, from the barbie-doll cakes for the neighbor girls, to the rounded ice-cream filled eyeballs; I've tried decorating every kind of cake I care to. The sad thing about this lack of effort is that I could actually do Corey's 5-year cake with my eyes closed and I'm paying Meijers to do it instead.

Since signs are so big for Corey, I requested a simple 1/4 rectangular sheet cake to say, "SPEED LIMIT 5." Sadly, the lady at the bakery just could not picture what I was trying to describe so I actually had to draw it out for her. I worry that I might just be making a last-minute cake after all although I really don't see how she could screw it up. Could she? Cross your fingers...

Sunday, Sunday...

Just another Sunday. Ken took Riley to church this morning while I got myself and the other boys ready. When they got home we went on another stressful outing to Home Depot. Nothing like three boys in a race-car shopping cart and a narrow aisle full of people looking for a good deal on Behr paint! Only one kid was bleeding by the time we left (Shannon) so I guess I should view it as a successful trip.

NASCAR officially started today, so we're back to napping away the afternoon as we pretend to watch the race. Ken has an uncanny knack of waking up whenever there is a wreck or when there's 30 laps to go. Doesn't hear the phone or the kids, but he knows when the race needs attention. As we enjoyed our little slumber the kids had the run of the house and did only minor damage. Boogity, boogity, boogity... (and if you don't understand that, you don't watch NASCAR.)

Finally it was my turn to head to church for 7:00 pm service. Always my preferred service because it's too late to drag any kids along and because I get to enjoy a 'classic country' show on the local radio station on the ride home. I had to laugh, tonight they played "War is Hell on the Homefront Too," a song I remember singing along with as a child. When I was 7. I had no idea what that song was referring to. (Just so you know, it's about a teenager who is seduced by a lonely woman whose hubby is away at war.) My favorite blunder from that musical era is the song "Jose Quervo." I always thought Jose was a person who the singer liked to eat limes and salt with. It made sense to me!

Ken tried to hook Corey's birthday present up tonight, I'm hoping he figures it out by tomorrow night. We got him a functional soon-to-be hardwired two-way LED EXIT sign and he will hopefully just love it. Maybe it will break his addiction to signs? I'm hoping if he sees it everyday, when he points them out in public I can say "just like at home," and be done with it. I also saw a stand-up wet-floor sign at Home Depot today and almost got it. Ken said he thought the exit sign was enough, and we should get Corey an actual 'toy' for his birthday. Anybody who knows Corey knows the wet-floor sign is better than a toy. I'll have to go pick that up tomorrow regardless, because I really can't think of anything else to get the kid!

High winds and snow coming tonight. Should be a fun morning!

And the Toilets are Done

Okay, I did get some cleaning done. Well 2 bathrooms out of 4. I also managed to find a home to much of my clutter on the main level.

I just had a fascinating conversation with Kellie about toilets, heck the conversation was probably longer than the time I spent cleaning them.

Ken just textured the ceiling of the downstairs bedroom and we're going to pick out paint tomorrow and repaint the entire basement. Sorry, Mom, we're going with color, not just white. Another downer, Ken also tracked 'mud' all over the main level after I spent so much time trying to make the house look nice. He also cleaned his tools in the bathtub I had just scrubbed.

Once again, I ask, WHY do I bother cleaning this house?