Fresh baked bread and homemade jam. Darn. There goes the diet.
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I’m organizing my volunteer time so that I go in to the school ONE day a week, help for an hour in the 5th grade classroom, then go and help for an hour to an hour and a half in the kindergarten classroom. The 3rd grade teacher/room mom hasn’t asked for my help yet, but hopefully if she does, I can make it work on Thursday.
As I was correcting spelling booklets, I realized that 5th graders do NOT have the best handwriting. Some of those kids probably know how to spell the words, but their handwriting is so bad, they almost got the words marked wrong. I laughed to myself while the teacher taught them about identifying the simple subject and predicate, and wondered why some of these kids still don’t get it. One girl spent more time combing her hair than listening to the teacher. Oh, WHY didn’t my super smart daughter stay in the accelerated class? I’m afraid she’s going to be so bored in this regular class, after being in the accelerated class for the past two years. But she wanted to be back in the regular class so she’d see more of her friends. I hope we didn’t make a mistake.
Down the hall in the kindergarten room, I find the kindergarten teacher VERY glad to have the help. Her army of volunteers haven’t started coming in to do centers and other such helping, and her student teacher was also gone. With 26 kids in there, she doesn’t even have time to escape and go to the bathroom unless someone comes in to help her. I was glad I was able to help her, even if it was only stuffing the homework folders and putting them into the kids’ boxes.
Later, as I was getting into the car, I heard the Pleasant Grove bell tower playing a somewhat familiar tune. It took a minute to realize it was “Bicycle built for two”.
Daisy, Daisy, give me you answer true.
I’m half-crazy all for the love of you.
It won’t be a stylish marriage,
I can’t afford a carriage;
But you’ll look sweet
Upon the seat
Of a bicycle built for two.
Henry, Henry, here is your answer true;
I’m not crazy over the likes of you.
If you can’t afford a carriage,
Forget about the marriage;
‘Cause I won’t be jammed,
I won’t be crammed
On a bicycle built for two.
The song took me back to high school. When a friend of mine, wrote a song to be sung in answer to an invitation to a dance. As far as I remember, it went something like this:
Wade-y, Wade-y, here is my answer true,
I’m have crazy to go to the dance with you.
We’ll have such fun together
No matter what the weather
(something, something, something something )
to the Homecoming dance with you.
I don’t remember who sang it, but they must have sung it in A’Capella, because I know we were in the choir room at the time. Isn’t that funny, what music can do? It can bring back a memory from 20 years ago, just from a song. Wow.
My kids enjoy watching the occasional episode of the Brady Bunch. It’s a fun show to watch while making dinner, and I love quoting episodes I must have seen 10 times. What? There was not much on when I was a kid besides Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, Electric Company and Zoom. Anyway, as we were setting the table, Jenna said, “We’re just like the Brady bunch!” (because there are three girls. Only two boys, but who needs Peter, anyway?)
Megan, the oldest, said, “I’m Marsha.”
Natalie, the middle daughter, said, “I’m Jan.”
Jenna, the youngest daughter, said, “I’m Susan!”
Um… ok.
My husband is out of town for a week or so. That means we don’t have to cook real dinners. The kids get to eat pizza, sandwiches, chicken nuggets and pancakes for dinner. When my husband leaves town, not only does it leave me as a single parent, but things stop working when he’s away. Seriously. The house misses Ryan. Last time he was gone, I had no internet for 3 days. Three days, people! When he came home, he found out that some router thingy had gone bad, and had to be replaced.
This time, he left on Sunday, and by Tuesday, none of my remotes were working. May I remind you that we live in an automated house. Since Ryan works for an automation company, we get to test out all the gadgets and equipment, so I have remotes that control the lights, radio, tv, thermostat, and other things. No remotes, eh? And lights that normally go off at certain times or come on at certain times are also being disagreeable.
I emailed Ryan to ask him about certain things not working, and why I couldn’t run a specific something on my computer, and this is the response I got.
Ryan is out of the office until Monday, the 14th.
Cole is taking his tech support calls.
Have a wonderful week.
🙂
Ryan
Thanks!!
In all actuality, though, Cole is a decent tech support guy.
When Ryan figured out that some power supply had gone bad (after having me poke around behind the entertainment center and tell him which things have blinky lights and which don’t), he arranged to have a guy from his office bring over a new power supply, and then Ryan would talk Cole through were to unplug the old one and plug in the new one. However, the guy came while I was gone to multiple soccer games last night, and Cole let him in the house, to look around for where this little doodad would go (oh, the horror! This guy went in the basement of doom!) After a call to Ryan, they got it installed, and today I have remotes again.
Now let’s hope we can keep everything together until he gets home.
So, Ryan, if you are reading this, checking up on me while you are gone, we miss you!
It’s on. 
And let’s just not forget who we root for around here.
“Jan Jorgensen and Max Hall break out into perma-grins after walking into the “world’s greatest stadium” and wresting a win out of the hands of No. 3-ranked Oklahoma”
Let the football season begin.
John’s long awaited Star Wars Jedi training party was yesterday, and I’m happy to say it went VERY well. I’ll give you the run down just in case YOU someday have a demanding 5 year old who insists on a star wars party.
#1–Jedi training. I gave every member of the family except the birthday boy, of course, a station. At each station the kids had to do some kind of “training exercise” to help them become Jedis. They were actually just things to do, like do a trick on the trampoline, walk frontwards and backwards on the balance beam, crab walk, kick a soccer ball and knock over three stacked #10 cans, go across the monkey bars and down the slide, and fill up a cup with water using a spoon. Don’t ask me what these tasks have to do with the training of Jedis, but at least it kept our little boys busy.
#2–Laser beam limbo. It’s basically just limbo with a fancy name. We used a mop handle and played Star Wars music.
Laser Beam Limbo
When they got tired of going under the stick, we lowered it and made them jump over the stick. Because sticks are versatile that way.
#3–Borrow some cool costumes. When I was complaining about the elaborate star wars party my son was asking me to throw, a friend volunteered that she had some star wars costumes! She said they had used them years ago for her daughter’s party, and we were welcome to use them. Hello! That is awesome! The queen Amadala costume, she told me, had fit her daughter when she was 5. Hmmm. The only person that would fit around here would be John. But wait! My 13 year old daughter, Megan, also happens to be extremely skinny, and what do you know? She fit into the costume just fine!
Especially if by “fit’s just fine” you don’t care that it’s about a foot and a half too short. She was a good sport and wore the costume, even said the lines I fed to her.
My awesome husband also got into the act. While the boys were limbo-ing, he went inside and put on the Darth Maul costume, and came out in all his scariness. He wielded his fancy double light saber thingy and challenged the young jedis. 
Those jedis attacked with vigor when I said, “go get him,” and he was no match for their strength in numbers.
We had to call them off before they did any serious damage.
#4–Get a really cool pinata. My brother-in-law Italo has connections. He has a friend who makes pinatas. And not just ANY pinatas, AWESOME pinatas. When we picked little yoda up, we were amazed at the cuteness. And so BIG! 
Who wouldn’t be impressed with a yoda pinata as big as the birthday boy?
I hated to even let them smack him, but that’s what the pinata is for, right? And for some reason, the little boys think a party’s not a party without either a bounce house or a pinata. They whacked with vigor.
Soon Master Yoda delivered up the coveted candy, and was but a shred of his former self.
#5–Feed them. After the pinata, I served up hot dogs, cheetos, and grapes, with special galactic punch (lemon lime shasta with a scoop of lime sherbet). But some kids eat and some kids don’t eat. It’s a party, so we don’t really care if they don’t chose to eat. And after presents, we ate some more.
#6–Easy cake decorating tip. Just get a cake from the grocery store and put some little star wars toys on the cake.
The kids had a great time, John had a great time, and the party was fabulous. I hope so, after all the stressing I did in the weeks leading up to this birthday party. But it’s all worth it when I asked him if he liked the party, and he said, “It’s the best party EVER, Mom!”
So, there you have it. My 6 easy steps to throwing an awesome Star Wars Party. May the Force be with you.
It’s hard to get a good pictures of a bruised toe. But I tried, really I did.
Here’s the toe I smacked really good on Sunday, and thought it was broken. Over a week later and it still hurts. 
Isn’t it lovely? Well, you can’t see all the wonderful bruisy glory of the toe because it had already started to fade. Because I didn’t take the pictures until Thursday of that week, when I did this 
You see, on Wednesday night, when I was still limping and in pain from the first stupid toe injury, I tripped on an 8 pound weight that was on my bedroom floor. It’s my own fault there was a weight there, but I can still be mad about it. Since I couldn’t shove my feet into shoes and couldn’t really walk or workout, I brought up the weights and just did some mini workouts with the weights. But I left them on the floor. As I was falling onto my bed, after whacking my toe AGAIN, I said, “Are you FREAKING Kidding me?!” So, then my toes were all injured together.
Now, almost a week later, the second toe injury is all better. The first one still hurts when I walk or lift up the ball of my foot. But life goes on. And maybe I’ll invest in some steel toed boots to wear around the house.
My dear, sweet mother-in-law called me last week. She wanted to know if I would like some pears. Of course, we would like pears. The kids (especially Cole) just LOVE pears. She asked how many I would want, because they already had a bushel picked, and if I wanted that one, they would bring it to me (can you believe this? Free fruit, and it’s delivered?!) She told me that Ryan’s sister was planning on bottling hers, and she was taking about a bushel and a half. Me, being not so smart in the ways of canning and all those fancy terms asked how big a bushel was. She told me that a bushel was enough to do so many dozen quart jars. Silly me, now I can’t even remember what it was she told me. Feeling ambitious, I told her that I would LOVE some pears.
She then proceeded to tell me how they go about canning the pears, how they boil them, (I guess the proper term is “blanch”) then take the skins off, cut the middle out, put them in a vinegar bath, etc, etc, etc. I listened carefully thinking, “I could do that, couldn’t I?”
When they brought me the lovely box of pears, my kids were excited and immediately started eating them. Good. Less work for me. I think Cole may have eaten 3 or 4 that first day himself. Saturday would have been the ideal day for putting up those pretty little beauties. Ryan would be there to help me, and the kids could play outside. Except that we had a garage sale already scheduled for Saturday, and add to that the overall crappy feeling I was experiencing due to this stupid cold (that I’ve had for 6 days now, even though I’ve taken the cold-ease, I really have!), and there was not going to be ANY canning going on on Saturday. So, we kept eating a few a day, and we gave some away to our friends at our garage sale, while I daydreamed out how pretty those pears would all look bottled and how MONDAY was surely the day I was going to haul myself up by my bootstraps, tap in to my pioneer ancestry, and bottle those pears!
Today dawned bright and beautiful, and my daughter told me that she had thrown up in the night. All bets are off. All plans of productivity are canceled. Besides that, it’s EARLY day, which means that once John gets on the bus at 8:56, I only have until 11:50 or so to myself, and then kids start the return process. (speaking of schedules, have I mentioned our crazy morning schedule yet? Cole leaves for early morning seminary at about 6:27, and thank goodness he has a friend in the neighborhood who drives who is taking him, then Jenna and Natalie’s bus comes at about 7:35, Megan’s carpool, which I drive on Wednesdays, leaves for the junior high at 7:45, and then John has to wait until 8:45 to leave.)
I realized that my dream of beautifully bottled peaches was just a dream, and not one I was going to see fulfilled this year. So as not to waste the precious fruit, I put 12-15 pears in 5 different bags, and we are delivering them to the neighbors. I think this is what I did last year when they gave me pears, too. I do, at least, share.
So, here I am, with no beautiful pears in jars, only nice ripe pears in my fridge. And I refuse to feel guilty for my lack of canning ability. Maybe I’ll do better with the peaches.
John has GRAND expectations for his upcoming birthday party. He JUST came to me and said, “Mom, at my party, can we have my friends take a picture of them standing by me wearing a storm trooper costume?”
Me–“Well, we don’t HAVE a storm trooper costume, so that will be difficult”
John–“Oh, mom, we can just MAKE one, and cut all the pieces and tape it together. Ok?”
Oh. My. Heck. This kid had these GRAND ideas for his birthday party, and he keeps coming to me and demanding more and more and MORE things. I’m afraid that whatever I do, my best won’t be good enough. Usually the kids are fine with whatever we do, but this kid has been telling me his grand plans for weeks, no Months! I just want his birthday to be over, because the pressure is getting to me! For example, back in July, John came to me and said that we needed to have a YODA pinata for his Star Wars birthday party. Not a Darth Vader pinata, because his friends already did that. So, I told him that I’m sure we could work something out, there must be a yoda pinata I could find online somewhere. Zurchers has ever kind of pinata you could want, right? I guess not. No Yoda. While I was searching, John decided he was going to make his own. Not real good about waiting, that one. He got a box, and decided to draw Yoda on the box.
See the little Yoda there?
Then he had to “cut a whole in the bottom and the top” of the box for the candy. Unfortunately, he picked one of the sturdiest boxes he could have found, and the cutting part wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be, but he was not deterred.
I put something on facebook about how he wanted to make a Yoda pinata, and my brother-in-law told me he had a friend who made pinatas, and that he would take care of that. So, hopefully we will have an actual Yoda pinata on Monday. If not, I guess we’ll be using the custom “box” one that John wants to use.
And he’s ultra demanding about the games, too. And the lightsabers. And the cake. It’s a party for a 6 year old, not a flipping Hollywood movie premier!!! Aaaagh!
Added on Tuesday–We went over to Julene’s house to pick up this Yoda pinata last night. I must say, it far exceeds my expectations. This thing is HUGE! And Cute! I don’t know how we’re going to possibly hit it with a stick to get the candy out. Maybe I can just stand nearby and throw candy at them when they “almost” hit him with a stick.
I’m all for dickering over the price at a garage sale, sure. But when the seller gets down to their lowest price of almost giving it away (let’s say $1.00) and then you insult them by asking them to go even lower, that’s not cool.
Or when you gather up a bunch of baby clothes that looks like about 7-8 outfits and then ask if you can take this armful for $5, it’s NOT ok to be also hiding four pairs of little baby shoes that were clearly marked $1 each INSIDE the bundle of baby clothes.
But other that that, we had a pretty decent yard sale. I sold all the “big” items I wanted to get rid of, such as the little tykes car, a couple of bikes, a double jogging stroller and a ride on pedal car. I also sold a fair amount of games, toys, and clothes, and the cinnamon rolls went over very well, too.
Of course my kids had to also BUY from the garage sale, and they ended up with a bike for Cole (he paid for his himself, so who am I to complain) and a couch for Cole (yes, seriously! He wanted this little couch up in his room! I had to haul it up the stairs with him, of course, because Ryan gets kind of whiny when we bring things home from garage sales and then ask him to do our heavy lifting), OObies slippers for Natalie, some clothes for the girls, a yoyo and a bear for John, and four gallon bags filled with legos.
But, that’s an entire truckload of stuff that is gone from the house, gone from the garage, and we made a little bit of cash from it. Is it worth it? To give up a Saturday sweating and getting sunburned, and the many hours sorting and purging? Hardly. But it has to be done. And as long as you have your garage sale with a couple of friends, it hardly seems as miserable as it is.
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