It's kind of sad and somewhat disturbing that it takes something absolutely terrible to make you realize how great you have it! I couldn't imagine being the parents who rushed to school after the shootings just to see whether their child was walking out alive or not.  I know as a teacher, no matter how trying the kids can be at times, you will never let them suffer on your time. We are their mothers and family for half of the year. We eat breakfast, snack, and sometimes lunch with the kids.  In discussions, I heard, "I can't believe the principal put herself in danger like that." But, that's what a teacher/school worker does without even thinking. There's no doubt in my mind that she went to help kids without even thinking about herself.
We do "lock down" drills at school and remind the kids to run to a classroom as soon as they hear the announcement because we won't open the doors after they are locked.  But then again, I can't imagine not letting a kid in when I know they were just in the restroom. Hopefully, that will never be the case.

I started thinking about all the things teachers go through daily that many people who aren't teachers don't think about: watching kids pick their noses, sneeze into their hand as they wait in line to shake your hand and tell you good morning, push and shove each other in line and wait for you to tell them to stop...
Also, I thought about the things mothers go through daily that should be broadcasted to teenagers (maybe in a documenary):
-screaming and yelling at each other in the car - on long road trips, and even on trips less than a mile away.
-wiping boogers off noses, or better yet, telling children not to eat their boogers and trying to have a reason why that they will understand .... the only thing I can come up with is that it hurts your tummy!
-wiping pee and poop off the floor/pants
-having toys thrown at you from the backseat (whether it's a shoe, sock (or as we call it, an "apple pie"), ball, or Ken doll)
-watching the same video over and over and over....
-never sleeping in on days off
I think this list could go on and on.


The past two months have been full of craziness!

We had a great Halloween! I wanted Trevor's costume to match Jack's PacMan costume, but when he found the Buzz Lightyear in the garage weeks before, he fell in love with it!! Somehow, he managed to forget it about it for a while, but I knew when Halloween came, he'd remember it, and he did. He told people he was going to be Buzz Lightyear, so there's not much you can do there, unless you want to be an evil parent. It had to go and be warm that night, so there was a lot of stopping and taking the costume and boxing gloves off and drinking water (which I had to go back and get). We got a TON of candy!! It ended up in Trevor's dump truck (it was a truck-load of candy!!!).

We were actually all well for Thanksgiving. I think that's a first! That's about all I remember from that, though.

We finally had our first official guests over to the new house for our family Christmas Eve dinner. We are loving the new house, although it'll take a while to get things exactly how we want them. Our latest and greatest projects are building shelves for Trevor's room and possibly a bed frame and a loft bed for Jack. Hopefully Grandpa will help out here....Trevor kept saying, "Hey Momma, Merry Christmas!!" It was too cute.

I think Trevor's firetruck count is definitely in the double digits now!! (that's what all the shelves are for!) Before Christmas sometime, we heard a lot of sirens. We finally realized that Santa was coming down all the streets like they did where we used to live. We only had to wait about 30 minutes after we found this out, and Trevor was SOOO excited. He talked for days after about how Santa came on a firetruck with candy! He even said it again today. I'm surprised he knows what a reindeer is since he thinks Santa rides a firetruck! oh, and since we live on a cul-de-sac, it had to make a three or more point turn! Even better!! (So do the garbage trucks! They always honk at us since we sit outside for so long watching them turn around!)

His vocabulary is expanding as well, probably due to the construction videos he watches (and yes, Jeremy, they are made for kids!).  Any yellow piece of machinery has gone from "SCOOP!" to excavator, bulldozer, or backhoe.

I am thankful that I have another entire week at home!! Trevor starts a new daycare that is just down the street on Monday. I'm hoping, praying, and keeping my fingers crossed that it will help somewhat with his behavior, if not his diet. The 20-30 minute ride to and from daycare has been very stressful the past three months. He has also filled up on cookies and candy on some days on the ride home to quiet him. I gave the new daycare plenty of warnings about him....so we'll see. It won't be the end of the world to take him back to the old daycare.

Jack and I took a ride out with "Grandma Mary" to Weimar to decorate Suzy's memorial garden (the best memorial garden ever!) several weeks ago with Morgan and Baby Bear. The kids had a blast running around after we decorated the garden with Christmas decorations!