Nebraska Born but not Raised

Riley had a Midwest States assessment today and he had to label all the states and their capitals. He got them ALL right! Well, he got them all correct except for one capital. You know, the one he was born in! Riley for some reason constantly eyeballs Lincoln, NE, somewhere just south of Yankton, SD.

He did okay with the question and answer section, only missing two insignificant problems. I still think he should have gotten 100% on the test considering his wonderful answer to #9.

(Technically, I'm not too sure he got #2 correct now that I think about it, do they still make cars in Detroit?) Hmm...

Help...

Okay, Ken is getting back at me for my last few weeks, err...days of laziness. Would you believe he made me prime the entire ceiling, wash all the painting tools, paint one wall a grey-mint-green, wash all the painting tools, second coat the ceiling, prime the top foot of all the walls and then wash all the painting tools for the third time??? Believe it. Yes, I am quite taller than he is, but geeze, that ceiling stuff will rip your arms out of their sockets!

Not to say Ken wasn't doing anything, he cut-in the ceiling and the one grey-mint-green wall then washed all the walls. He sanded a little bit, too. And we did this all in five hours. Tomorrow we get to double coat the entire room, get all the stuck-on mud out of the carpets and try to pull the room back together. Then I can finally dust my entire house. That hasn't happened in a month and I am dead serious- there is no reason to dust when your husband is using a table saw or a sander or mudding equipment in your basement.

Shannon enlightened me a little bit about Leprechauns today, and me being a little colleen, well I guess I should have known. Apparently his classroom gets ransacked by Leprechauns on a regular basis and they are very mischievous little creatures. They like to mess up the teacher's journals and they NEVER clean them up. They misplace things and cause confusion for the teacher pretty regularly, too. They can be lured in by chocolate coins but after they eat them they are supposed to leave some golden coins behind. Unfortunately for the teacher, they never remember to leave the gold and she just doesn't have much money for all of the trouble.

Far be it for me to question a Kindergarten teacher, but I'm pretty sure that she has her Leprechauns confused with Gremlins or something. I mean, really! I've never met an Irishman who would be troublesome or mischievous in the least!

Well, there's Grandpa. And Riley. And Shannon. And Corey... okay, maybe she wasn't confused after all.

You Smell Like Feet

It's the first Friday of Lent that I actually remembered to not eat meat! (It is SO hard to be a Catholic sometimes...) We just finished off our french toast dinner, one of the kid's favorite meals. I don't think it's the french toast they like so much, but the fact that I let them put cake 'sprinkles' on them. Whatever holiday sprinkles are on clearance, I buy them. Today we had Halloween sprinkles, which are very cool because we make spider webs with them. Once the black sugar crystals hit the syrup and start to melt I quickly slice the french toast with a pizza cutter and a web pattern appears. To top it all off, Corey usually eats all of his dinner when sprinkles are involved so whatever works for him works for me!

Today was 'Button Day' at Riley and Shannons school, where they could wear any button that had words on it, so last night I made a 'quick' run to Wal-Mart. (It's never 'quick,' but the intent is always there.) I could only find a three pack of buttons that each had a sarcastic bunny on them with various phrases. Typically I would have passed, the first two had the phrases, 'I hate everything,' and 'Like I need your approval.' But the third one was made for Shannon so I had to get them all. It read, 'You smell like feet.' This is only funny because just the other day he told Corey that he smelled like a dirty sock.

Ken's doing his last coat of mud tonight before he starts texturing the ceiling in the playroom. He wants to have the ceiling done and walls painted before the in-laws come on Thursday. A simple task aside from the fact that he has to work all week-end. I've been invited to help him start scrubbing the walls in preparation for paint! Lucky me. But if it means the project gets done, then I guess I'm game. I just don't know when I'll get to cleaning the house, but visitors around here are used to hearing that, right?

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!)

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.