we're still in the playoffs....

Taylor's game from Thursday night wasn't played until today, because of rain. Because the playoffs are scheduled on the fly our concession stand duties are not planned. So everyone is just volunteering when we can. Trent's parents kept the babies today (and tonight!) so I was able to work in the concession stand for an hour or so. The best part was that I was assigned the frying area. I've never gotten to cook with a deep fryer before (don't own one for sure), but have always romanticized the job of fry cook (I had a really funny friend who was the fry cook and it was in a book once) and this was kind of close. Just me, a deep fryer, and freezers full of horrible food. I cooked corn dogs, tons of french fries, a couple burgers, and chicken wings. It has been a long time since I worked in a commercial kitchen, and it was fun. And, on top of the great frying job, Taylor's team won against the Pirates 12 to 2! Taylor scored a run and didn't strike out once. He also received his trophy (that everyone gets) and the coach had some special words to say about Taylor. It was really nice, not to worry at all, about the babies. Now, we get to enjoy a great night of relaxation. I actually have reading and a project to work on and Trent is playing a game (naturally), but at least it is quiet and I am not pacing the house, cleaning and changing and feeding and washing. And, we are going to watch "Get Smart" finally, so it should be a fun and relaxing night. Taylor's games will be nightly until his team looses again, so he will have another tomorrow. I will remember my camera (I hope). What was that? Oh, I thought I heard a baby crying. he he

tiniest little post...

The coolest thing just happened.... Trevor just read my mind. He said he had to poop, and asked for my help. That normally means that he has already started to poop and there will be some in his underwear. There wasn't any, which normally means that he has to go but won't be able to for a while. So I helped him sit on the toilet expecting him to "try" for a few minutes. Amazingly, in just a minute or two he had actually pooped. A real, the whole shebang, full sized poop. Amazed at this new speed, I was thinking, "Wow, he might actually be potty trained, for real now." And he looked in the toilet and said, "Wow, I am potty trained, now. Mom, I can do it. I just pushed it out." Too funny.

jewel and the book....

tidbit about this week....

Tonight I have my second class of my first semester of school in 10 years. Pretty exciting. I didn't manage to get into a nice safe math class (various reasons) so I am taking anthropology. It is only 7 weeks, and project based, but I should have plenty of time for all the reading and essays and I managed to get a seemingly good group for the projects. It will be nice to get past this type of class and on to the math and science classes. I don't really understand how, but I ended up in a group with a Republican state representative for this area. She seems nice enough, but is a very conservative christian and has already stated that she doesn't believe in evolution. And, before even asking me about anything, assumed (not sure why or how) that I was of the same mind; I did correct her, I think politely. I think she had to take this class, but I expect it to be uncomfortable for her. Our project, luckily, is not the one on evolution or religion, another group claimed it. I quickly put in a bid for the project on the neolithic and urban revolution and that went with the second project on politics and legal systems, so that should go well. Taylor has what may be his final game of the baseball season tonight, and I have to miss it. Trent will also miss, because the babies are much easier to keep up with and keep safe at home than at the ball field. Also, it may rain, so I don't know if that will change the game or not. My parents will be there for Taylor. Also, this morning, Jewel lay in the bed with me singing and attempting to sign the alphabet, it was super cute. I have been signing it to the babies since Trevor was 6 months old. Now, I am trying to learn to sing it in spanish (while signing it in english, minus the extra letters), we'll see how long it takes me to learn it. And, I finally caught her reading, so I'll get that video up soon. Another cool thing is that we bought an external memory device (1 TB), now all our videos, music, and pics are on it, as well as all the homeschooling books and documents. I don't have to delete anymore of the videos of the kids and it freed up a lot of space on our computers and will probably in the grand scheme of things save us some money by extending the usable life of the computers. I doubt anyone else in the family has noticed, but I am loving it; I can use any computer to change the music on my mp3 player, or to print worksheets, or edit the blog. Another cool thing about it is that the Flipshare software works well with it, you can export the videos directly to it without losing the quality or the ability to edit the videos. It's great. Needless to say, we are not finding time for the gym lately and contemplating buying an elliptical for Trent. (I can run outside, and I don't mind missing workouts for weather, or any other excuse.) We haven't even been taking the kids to the daycare there, we've been taking turns going. The habit developed when they were sick, and continued because we were scared they would get sick again. Now, we don't seem to be willing to break the habit. I've suggested taking them a few times, but mysterious excuses have prevented it. One last little bit about this week. I used to have a fish, a south american ciclid. I loved him, he was so cool. I don't remember when he died, but we had another just like him when we first moved in together, and he jumped out of the tank and died (they do that). Anyway, he constantly rearranged his tank, even breaking the filter system. And sometimes would push decorative items right out of the tank. I eventually learned to stop decorating it and let him dig his little hole in the gravel and arrange the tank as he wished. Now, it seems that I will do the same with Jewel's walls. Anything that I hang only seems to invite her to climb up to tear it down. She just destroyed the second poster, I think I have gotten the message. No more posters. So, that's what's up this week.

Trevor and Jewel....

These two little marvels. They are so funny and so much work, all at once. Jewel has taken to feeding everyone, and singing a lot. She stands on chairs or tables and sings like she's in an opera. She also goes through the drawers in the kitchen and bathrooms, so I am constantly finding things laying around from the drawers, and often not finding things where they are supposed to be when I need them. She had to go to the doctor (immunization) and tried to tickle the little fish through the tank, everyone in the waiting room was laughing at her. She has been learning to use the potty, but we haven't had a chance to stay home for a week and really do it right. She is also imitating Trevor constantly, everything he does, she tries, which is sometimes funny and sometimes frustrating. Trevor is about the same as he's been for a year, extremely curious, except that now his questions are more complex. And more frequent, constant is actually more accurate. He is also better at running, now he can run ahead of the stroller most of the way to the park and last week he rode his bike all the way to the park. But, he couldn't make it all the way home, I had to prop the bike up on the stroller and let him ride the last half of the way back. I have some videos of random things that have happened the last few days. This was my attempt at catching Jewel reading, before we left for the doctor's office (Trevor got to go to the farm with Trent.) This was Jewel copying Trevor, he ran down the sidewalk around to the "official" entrance to the little park in the back of the neighborhood. These are two of Trevor's videos at the park, the others are just our walk back home. The dirt road is a path from one empty road (no houses yet) to the empty end of the road we live on. There are two back areas of our subdivision without any houses built and as the park is back there, we like to go there to watch all the birds.

Taylor's baseball adventures and a little about school...

Taylor had a game on Thursday, and I didn't get any videos from it, but it was fantastic. The D-backs won, but now I don't recall the score. But, Taylor played third base in the last inning and tagged a runner out with a super fast catch from the pitcher. It was a fantastic catch, and before that he hit a .....triple!! He even received the game ball, which made him as happy as I've ever seen. We were so proud of him. At practice Friday, he had several great catches and a great hit, however the game Saturday (the first game in the playoffs) didn't go so well, and not just for Taylor. Several of the best players were having off days and got a little moody, which brought the rest of the game down. Taylor didn't get any chances to catch anything really. They lost 4 to 12 (but it is a double elimination) and Taylor struck out once and got 4 balls the next at bat. It was a team we have beaten before, but things just didn't go our way. So, the next game could be the last of the season. I don't know if I'll be able to go, it could be on one of my class nights. As far as Taylor's school goes, this week he spent time away from home for the first part of the week (with my parents, again) and then we worked on writing skills. We've been focusing on the "Building great sentences" lecture course, and it is great. We are reading the book "The Name of This Book is Secret" by Pseudonymous Bosch when we go for walks or when Taylor is playing a video game. Sometimes he reads it to me, sometimes I read it to him. We are also studying DaVinci a bit again. Taylor has become a fan of the show "Doing DaVinci" lately. There has also been a little math, but everything else was forgotten for the week.

8 years together...

Today is the 8th anniversary of the day that our relationship changed from "friends" to "more". Trent showed up at my house with flowers and a Mother's Day Card, with the intention of trying to get a kiss. And, it was seriously about time. We had been (somewhat obviously) flirting for about 3 months, and it took him a while to catch on. He did get the kiss after a few hours, and ironically, this day has become indicative of our relationship. Two years later we made me a mother (again) and now being a mother is the dominant feature in my life. Taylor was 3 when we started dating and now Trevor is 3, which is kind of neat. It is hard to imagine what we will be up to 8 more years from now, but I'm sure it will be great. I could never have imagined how much would change during our first 8 years together, or the things that have not changed. We are still playing with little kids (some of the same games) and we still end up watching Nickelodeon more than any adult should (some new shows at least), we still play video games together, still have tons of legos, basically all the "taylor" things are the same. I suppose that in 8 more years all of this will have changed, and by the time our kids are grown we will have completely new activities to share.

i don't have time for this...

I had time "scheduled" (sort of) yesterday, after a few errands and before baseball practice, while Trent was supposed to be gone to a party (congratulations on your graduation Gabe), to blog about the school stuff this week, Taylor's super sweet game, and the little things the babies do that are so cute and funny. But, (a big one) when I got home from running errands (no, they didn't have what I went to find, naturally) the laptop had crashed, so, I had to fix it instead. Then, just when I got to a point when I could (ignoring other things I planned to do) sit down and work on the blog, Trent called to say he would be home, not at the party because of some work issues. So, I gave up, finished fixing the laptop so Trent's game would work, and took the kids to the park. We did the baseball practice shuffle (Trent dropped him off and ran to the grocery store, I finished reloading the &^%%##%% game, and got the babies ready for bed, then Trent took over with the babies, and I went to the ball field for Taylor) and of course, by the time I got home, not only did I not have time for blogging, I didn't want to interrupt Trent's only fun for the day. I could have used another computer, but I really wanted to salvage the night by at least getting some of my plans accomplished. (I am trying to rearrange/organize some of the furniture and school things, for more efficiency and whatnot.) I didn't actually finish any of it, so all of today's plans are changing and I don't have anywhere to move them to. The only thing to be done is scrap what can go undone, and do the ones I want to accomplish most. This (well, not this exactly, but you get the point) happens all the time, but I thought I'd take a minute to record my frustrations for posterity, or whatever.

tgif, wait saturday, crap....

Well, after a fairly busy week, I am all set for my first class, I have all the medical situations taken care of (in prep. for the busy time), and Taylor had a game tonight, so I got a break. Trent watched the babies after he dropped Taylor off and watched the first couple of innings. I swapped out with him and enjoyed a nice relaxing game. Actually it was an exciting game, but with a book in my ears and no babies to chase, it felt like a vacation. Taylor got in a good catch and a good hit, allowing two teammates to run home, and they were able to comeback from behind to tie 13 to 13. The team they played is ranked number one in the league right now, so that is pretty cool. I drove Trent's truck and because I just rearranged my bag (in preparation for class) I forgot my camera, but it was nice to just sit with nothing to do. I am pretty tired, but really glad that everything went so smoothly this week, everything was finished. Now, only one more week until I start earning credits again! I can't believe we have made it to this step, very exciting. But, it does seem like time speeds up when you get closer to any radical change in your life.

tiniest tidbit...

I asked Taylor, "Where are you in the book?" His reply was, "I don't know, I'm just listening to it." So, I asked, "Well, what is Lyra doing right now?" "Oh, she's with Iorek Byrnison in the town. They just got his armor back." (Trevor told me, last night, that "when I grow up, I'll get to have big underwear, like you and dad." oh boy! and gee, thanks. )