Getting My Jim vs. Dwight Fix

Happiness is watching a new season premere of The Office. It's my favorite show out there right now. I love love love the pranks that Jim pulls on Dwight. Stapler in jello: funny. Wallet in the vending machine: hilarious. But my favorite is the one where Jim steals Dwight's identity. I've shown the boys clips from the show, and this is by far their favorite, too. They spent the whole summer saying, "Bears... Beets... Battlestar Galactica" to each other, and Thing 1 can quote the whole scene he loves it so much. Anyway, to celebrate tonight, here is a video of some of Jim's pranks on Dwight for your viewing pleasure.

First Day of School 2008

I have been meaning to get these up for a while - first day of school pics! Sparky's family had a tradition of taking a picture of each kid in the same spot on the first day of school every year, and we have done it every year, too, starting when Thing 1 started preschool. This is the first year that I have had all my kids in some form of school; for the last ten years I have always had some little guy with me that I tortured by dragging him on errands with me. What do I do with all this free time, you ask? I've gotten to go on some long runs during the week, which has been nice, I run lots of errands of course, and apparently today I'm wasting away my free time by blogging.

Thing 3 started his first year of preschool. He loves it and is completely frustrated that he doesn't get to go as often as his brothers. We know he likes his teacher, because the other day at church Sparky asked him what Jesus did for him, and he said He made Ms. Diane. If you ask him what his favorite thing about school is, he'll tell you it's the blackberries that grow near the playground.

Thing 1 is in 5th grade. His teacher told me at parent night that he is the top of the class in every subject, although I think she must have forgotten about spelling because he seems to have inherited his father's abilities in that area. Too much spell check! He ran for class president and lost, although the girl who won picked him as her VP. They also have a class legislature and a judicial system, and his teacher said she has had to send him as VP over to the legislative meetings to break up some arguments. I think the class politics thing ended up being more realistic than she expected! She also told me that she had a meeting with Thing 1 and the class president over who to appoint as Chief Justice, and he suggested that they choose one of the two new kids in class, since they didn't really get a chance to run for anything because no one knew them. What a sweet kid.

Thing 2 is in 1st grade this year. His teacher told me that he is Mr. Popularity. Everyone wants to sit by him, and the kids keep giving him gifts - cool looking rocks, twisted up paperclips, pencils sharpened down to little stubs. You know, what most of us refer to as trash but first graders see as treasures. I think the first day of school was a little long for him. He came home from school and plopped down his stuff and went to lie down on his bed. I don't think he has taken a nap since the day he turned two. I hated that I had to tell him to get up and get his cleats on because he had to leave for soccer practice in 10 minutes.

Monkeys

Question: What do you do when you walk into a room and you see your kids doing this:

Apparently I am raising a couple of monkeys.

Whaling Days 2008

Here are some pictures from the races the boys and I did at the end of July. Whaling Days is the big festival here in Silverdale and is always lots of fun. Here is Thing 3 in his first race ever! He is in a navy blue shirt, number 2200. Note how he keeps looking back to check on his mama!

Next is Thing 2, on the far right in a gray shirt, who had a great start and a not so great finish. At the very end, a kid cuts in front of him and trips him. Not the sparkling first place finish we saw at Viking Fest in May.

Thing 1 ran the 1 mile again and did great, finishing in 8:08. This course is pretty hilly, so he was pretty happy with his time. As you can tell, he gave it all he had!

I ran the 4 mile, and had a lousy race. I felt really tired from the start. I had been sick with a cold, and I coughed throughout the race. At the end, I felt like it was hard to breathe, which brought back memories of childhood asthma. Apparently other people were having trouble as well. Sparky said four or five people who crossed the finish line before me puked while crossing. Nice. No wonder the race worker looked panicked when I crossed looking green. I ran it in 33:26 which is a full minute and a half slower than last year. Here is a picture of me at the beginning of the race before I knew what I was getting myself into. Sparky took one of me at the finish line, but I'm not posting that one.

Feel Good Parenting Moment

Today is soccer picture day for Thing 2. I hate when it is scheduled on a Sunday, but I try not to make a big deal about it. I have a big thing about playing sports on Sunday. I only did it once in my life; it was the Gus Macker 3 on 3 basketball tournament. I was 17, my parents were out of town, no one would know. Long story short, I broke 2 fingers, my bishop had to take me to the emergency room, and I nearly screwed up my senior year season of volleyball. Yikes! Lesson learned - no sports on the sabbath.

But what about sport pictures? I figure it's okay to take pictures on Sunday, we do it all the time. I'd rather do soccer stuff on a different day, but whatever. This year it's a pain, though, because I have to take Thing 2 out of primary a few minutes early to make it. Now, let me pause here and tell you that this is the kid that really grumbles about going to church. "Is it Sunday? Aw, man!" "Why do I have to wear a tie? I hate ties!" "Why is church so long and they don't even have any food?!" So when I stopped in primary to pull him out a little early (I know, I'm evil) he surprised me. He wouldn't leave. "Mom, I want to stay. Can't I just put on my uniform for you later and you can take a picture?" I wanted to give him a big hug right there in front of everybody. Of course you can stay in church, buddy. Thanks for teaching your mom about what's important.

Loving the Blackberries

One thing that I hate about the Northwest is the blackberry vines that grow all over the place. They are a weed that I constantly have to yank out of my yard, and they poke me and make me bleed. But one thing that I love about the Northwest is the blackberry vines that grow all over the place. In August and September the berries are everywhere and we can pick them to our hearts' content. All three of our kids would live off them if I let them.

This year was a particularly good year. I got ambitious and made a couple of batches of jam. A friend happened to stop by mid-process and caught me amidst the stirring and the sweating. I also happened to have some bread baking in the oven at the time to give to our awesome neighbors for watching our house off and on this summer, and my friend accused me of going Molly Mormon on her. I told her to snap a picture because it would be a rarity.

Yesterday I took it up a notch and baked a blackberry pie. I had just watched the movie Waitress the night before, and if any of you have seen it before, you know that you can't watch that movie without craving pie. So the kids and I went out to pick berries. An hour and many scratched up arms later, we had a bowlful. Thing 3 insisted on carrying home the bowl. I gave it to him and then two steps later realized that was a bad idea. Sure enough, before I could take the bowl back, he tripped and dumped all the berries we'd picked. He looked up at us with sad eyes and said, "Sorry, guys." He was too cute to get mad at, so we picked more berries, and the pie turned out great. Not as good as Keri Russell's character would have made, I'm sure, but then again I'm not married to an angry, needy wife beater either, thank you very much.

Playground Etiquette

Earlier today I took Thing 3 to the play place at the mall. When he was done, he came over to sit by me and put his shoes on. Before he could get started, a little boy of about 3 came over and stood in front of him. He stared at Thing 3 for about 5 seconds, and then wiped his nose on Thing 3's knee, and then ran off. Seriously, nose to knee. Thing 3 looked confused and then completely grossed out.

What do you do in a situation like this? A) I could go the parent, but it seems like it's an adult form of tattling. "Your kid wiped his nose on my kid." I could B) scold the kid myself, but that never goes well. Kids don't care what you say to them unless you're their parent or their teacher. Plus, if the parent caught me, she'd be ticked. And I'm too repulsed by the whole thing to just C) ignore it and forget it ever happened. I guess I decided on D) rant about it on my blog and subject my poor friends and family to the trivialities of my life.