Friday - things didn't go as expected

Ahh, I thought this morning as I snuggled back into my covers after getting the kids on the bus, I have at least two more hours to sleep until Paris wakes up. Then, just as I was drifting into a lovely rest, I heard my phone ring, "no big deal," I thought, I can get the message later. Then a few minutes later, the phone rang again. "Fine," I huffed as I got out of bed to check the message and see if one of the boys had cut their arm off at school.

"Hi, this is Stephanie King," the friendly voice of Will's kindergarten teacher said, "I have Will here and today is actually a teacher work day and I have to go to meetings so can you please pick him up?"

Darn it! They do a stupid staggered entry here with the kindergarteners - a few went on Monday and Tuesday and a few went on Wednesday and Thursday so I just assumed they all would go to school today. But no, they aren't going to. The bus driver didn't know the difference so she just delivered Will safely to school with the other kids.

Later, in honor of us doing errands, Will had to change out of his conservative school shorts and t-shirt into this so he could be Edward from Enchanted.
(notice the thigh-high dominatrix boots)

But as we get closer to leaving the house, Will adds a few accessories for good measure -
(why yes, that is a light saber, cape and hockey shoulder pads)



This made for good times as he clomped around the stores, if he ever got away from me, I could hear where he was. Today, there will be no playing with neo-pets for Paris and I - just another day with my creative, thoughtful boy who has since changed clothes/accessories about seven times.

First Day of School!

The school day starts early around here. The alarm goes off at 6 a.m. but is not needed because Will usually wakes me up at 5:58 a.m. It is Will's first year - he's in kindergarten - and he has been so excited every morning. I am so relieved, Will tired and stubborn is not a fun time. These are my precious boys before they got on the bus. Will is trying to run to the bus stop and I think Cooper might still have the sizing sticker on the front of his shirt.




While the boys go to school, Paris and I sit around with our shirts off and play with neo-pets from McDonalds


and then we fluff our hair so it looks like Austin's at 11 pm at night - honky -fro.

Compliments

Austin got a pretty nice compliment this week. He was talking to a friend from church who works in Manhattan 4 days a week. They were discussing great steakhouses there and perhaps a chance to meet up when Austin is there on a business trip.

Then the friend said, "Yeah, that would be great! You would be better than no one."

Austin, "Thanks . . . I think."

So now when Austin is having a hard day, all he has to remember is that "he is better than no one" and this will cheer him right up.

Sidenote - this guy wasn't trying to be rude, just put his foot in his mouth, but it makes for hilarious retellings.

Half-Marathon or Bust!

I think I am finally ready officially blog about this so that if I flake out people can ridicule and mock me into actually following through. One of my friends forced me into agreeing to run a half-marathon, and by the way she is totally not even running and joining in the misery this week like I am (j/k Michelle). So I have started my training this week and it has been hard! I can't believe that by following my schedule from marathonrookie.com that I will actually in three months be able to run 13 mile at once. I think I am on track for about a 2 hour and 50 minute time - which is more than the Olympians run a regular whole marathon. Also, I am not really a runner, I don't look like a beautiful graceful gazelle when running like Jolin probably does. In fact, once in college when Austin and I were dating we met up one morning to run and he made fun of how I look when running. His imitation of me looks like a Charlie Chaplin routine or something, or one of the three stooges.

Anyway, I am committed to training and doing this half-marathon even if I walk most of it and it takes 7 hours. I won't win the race but at least I will finish and get my middle-aged, stuck in a rut, old mom booty off the couch for awhile.

When you gotta go, you gotta go!

On our most recent trip to Michigan, the boys had to go, bad. Shanda and I are pretty intense travelers. We do not like to stop. And after looking for empty bottles and not finding any, we relented and let the kids get out of the car on the side of the freeway. This is the picture I took from the driver's seat. It was pretty much the view everyone else had passing by on the freeway. We are officially red necks now.

Happy 5th Birthday to Will!

We spent Will's birthday with family in Michigan this year. Will and Cooper are sharing a bare-chest pose with their cousin Tanner.

Anthropologie Sweater

I am writing this entry to tell myself how cool I am. In my recent copy of the Fall 2008 Vogue Knitting magazine (I know all of you subscribe) there is a really cute, funky cardigan pattern in black, purple and citrine. I decided to make this and picked out my yarn in a little bit different color variation. Anyway I felt like maybe it was going to turn out to be a neat unique piece like what you might see in Anthropologie. And lo and behold today I was looking at the Anthropologie website and they have THE EXACT SAME SWEATER by the same designer and everything. This is the greatest thing that has happened all day. Except for finding that bag of twizzlers under my seat in the car that we had forgotten about.

I'll post a picture of this sweater once I get a new mouse that can right click again.

The Best Day of Will's Life

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from our recent trip to Michigan. Will has been planning his life around riding horses at his Nonnie's friend's (actually her sister, my aunt brenda) house. So he got his big chance on this big horse named Blue. Except decided to rename him Rydo. My Aunt Brenda gave him a hat and taught him the correct way that cowboys wear them.




Even Paris got in on the action . . .





Will even got to wear a pair of spurs.

Daddy Son Campout

Will has been begging Austin to have a campout with him in the backyard for awhile now. This was the lucky night. They snuggled up at 8:30 with some books and a flashlight and they were set!

Will's New Scriptures

These are Will's new scriptures. He told us he is going to write Jesus in them.