Update

The test went great! Thank you all for your prayers – you’re the bomb!

I hate to call people on stupid comments because I’ve been known to make a few stupid comments as well but this girl in my class last night takes the cake. The professor was commenting that we would not be having class next Thursday night because of Easter. The gal sitting next to me leans over as asks “Does Eater fall on a Thursday this year?” I didn’t have the patience or time to go into it with her so I just said no; Eater falls on a Sunday this year.

Since I’m on the education thing, I should share an Alex story. When I woke him up for school this morning, he protest “mom, I’m not going to school today!” He sounded pretty serious so I asked what his reasons where. He sits up in his bed, throws his arms in the air and says “They even want us to write SENTENCES now”! Can you believe that? What next? ;)

Have a great weekend everybody!

Jesus Paid it All

My faith has been challenged lately. Devotions, meditating, praying, church….they all felt like actions/task rather than worship. I have been praying that I get that fire in my heart. I’m sure that I’m probably just in a rut, but it is none the less frustrating. This is a very busy week for me and I’m going on about 12-hours of sleep. I have an organizational behavior exam tomorrow night, four macroeconomics papers due by Saturday and three art history papers due by Saturday. Oh and there is that 4-footer with big blue eyes and blond hair who keeps calling me mom. I tell myself “Amanda, put it on the cross and let God take control” but over and over I find myself stressing about things I have no control over and I don’t know why this is such a challenge for me.

Anyway, after putting Alex to bed tonight, I cracked the books ASAP. About 10:00 I decided that I needed a 15 minute break (that was about an hour ago) and decided to check out some blogs. I came across this video and I think it was just what I needed so I hope you all have time to check it out. I have tears running down my check after the first few seconds of the video. What a great reminder that Jesus paid for our sins and we are all given hope and salvation through him. It's difficult to soak it all in sometimes.

Okay ~ I have to hit the books but if you have time, lift up a prayer for an A on my exam Thursday night! ;)

Whew - What a Weekend

We actually had a pretty uneventful weekend, but it still went by pretty fast. For those of you who don't know the new PS2 rule in the house, the PS2 is a weekend only toy. I wanted to have Alex's pictures taken on Friday night so I picked him up from the community center, dressed him up in his Sunday best, argued with him for 20 minutes on tucking in his shirt, and off we were. The photographer was great - she new just how to get Alex to smile! After having a 50-minute conversation about burbs and other potty humor, Alex was about in tears from laughing so hard. In her book, she even tilted him "Farty Alex". Alex and I then went out for supper since he looked so nice. No dirt, no mud, no food on the face - it was defiantly a moment to capture. Saturday, however, it was one of those days for him. He had the PS2 taken away for the morning after about 10 minutes for talking back which pretty much set the tone for the day. Have you ever had one of those days were you don't even want to leave the house with the fruits of your womb? Thankfully Sunday was a much better day. He played Veggie Tales PS2 game before going to Sunday School and he even thought Veggie Tales would be an appropriate substitute for church but we went anyway. After lunch, I did play Lego Star Wars with him and then we were outside for the afternoon. We played baseball, made our best attempt at skateboarding, rode bike, and walked down to Pizza Hut for supper since he has a bunch of those book-it slips to "cash in". While waiting for our food, we had a pretty interesting conversation. On the paper place mats, there were a set of questions that I thought would be fun to ask Alex but I not sure how to interpret his answers -

Mom - If you were a wild animal, which animal would you be?

Alex - A bear so I can sleep lots

Mom - If you had a million dollars, what would you buy?

Alex - A house and a car

Mom - A house and a car? Would you live by yourself?

Alex - Yes

Mom - Where would mom live?

Alex - Mom, why do you think I got the car? I don't even have a drivers licence!

Mom - (moving on) If you were the president for the day, what would you do?

Alex - I would destroy the city

Mom - the city of Madison? What about me?

Alex - Mom - you're living in the car!

Mom - What about your friends, What about my friends?

Alex - Well everybody would be safe expert *Bob (not real name) because he said that I have a baby backpack

Mom - (moving on again) If you had one wish, what would you wish for?

Alex - Root Beer
*Side note - I wouldn't let Alex have root beer with his pizza

Mom - If you were isolated on a deserted island, what one possession would you bring?

Alex - your cell phone so I can call you to tell you I'm on the island.

Such logic!

Update from last post

Dr. Apt - $60
X-Rays - $200
Look on mom's face when doctor tells her that it's probably just growing pains - Priceless!

Puzzled Mom

My son woke up yesterday complaining that his leg hurt. I usually take his aches and pains with a grain of salt since his is a bit of a hypochondriac, but he kept limping on it throughout the day so I’m going to take him to the doctor this morning. He said that his knees and hips hurt. This if coming from a boy who at the age of four told me that he couldn’t go to preschool because he had arthritis. He is an old man trapped in a 6-year-old body. We had to wait for the dr. apt, however, since the school sent off the boy’s basketball team this morning. The fire truck swung by the school so the elementary kids could wave and wish them good luck. Alex and I bought some “spirit beads” yesterday and Alex said “mom, the basketball team is playing far away….I think California but can we go”? California or bust baby!

Wrestling Tournament

Madison had a wrestling tournament last night just for the kids in Madison. Since this was Alex's first year, I wasn't going to enter him into any tournaments. I just wanted him to see what the sport is about, have some fun with his friends, and get some exercise. After talking to a few parents who said their kids learned the most from tournaments, I thought I would let him wrestle in this one since it was with his schoolmates thinking it would be a pretty safe environment - not competitive. Let me give you some insight to Alex - he's a lover, not a fighter. Alex lives to make other people laugh and is a very tender kid. I've always taught him that getting physical with someone is unnecessary and I usually get after him if he is being too aggressive with someone (which I sort of regret because he can be a little too sensitive). So basically the sport of wrestling is a bit out of his element, but I had hoped that it would give him some "tougher skin" if that makes sense. The first match was TERIBLE! The kid slammed him to the ground and you could just see his eyes filling up with tears. He hung in there continuing to get plowed to the mat for the remaining time (the longest minute in the history of time) walked off the mat and just cried. "MOM - he is so much bigger than I am and he's in second grade and I'm only in Kindergarten...that's not fair" I sat there with him for a few minutes telling him that he did his best and reminded him of David and Goliath which he immediately pointed out if David had to wrestled Goliath, he would have lost too. The coach came over to comfort him and encouraged him to get out there and try again. An HOUR later, he was ready to try again and this time, he did much better. He even "won" that match. He came running over to me and was so proud of himself. The kid who he wrestled was running after him to shake hands. What a good sport! Anyway - it was a good learning experience and I have to say that I was VERY impressed with the coach’s patience and encouraging words. I don’t think that I would have been able to get Alex out there again without the coach’s influence. In the end, all of the varsity wrestlers lined up and the kids walked through the “tunnel” and gave high-fives to them and the kids all received medals at the end of the line.

Megan’s Birthday Bash!

Dr. Seuss is among the lucky people whose day of birth falls on a special holiday….my friend Megan’s birthday. After being snowed in for two days, I was ecstatic to be leaving the house. I was suffering severer cabin fever after being stuck indoors.
Anyway, my friend Megan had a black/white party this weekend so I pulled out that little black dress from my closet, used the duck-tape on parts of my body that needed a little adjusting, and went out on the town. We had such a fabulous time. I just met Megan a few months ago and we just clicked. She is one of those people whose smile and positive attitude just attracts people to her. We went out to Rumors bar for a few drinks/supper, then went to Teezers for a few drinks….then went to Rumors for a few drinks….notice a pattern here? And to think I was just going to have “one” and then head home since I wasn’t feeling well. Like I said, we were having such a great time laughing, joking, chatting…time literally flew by. Before I realized it, the bartender was calling last call for alcohol!! Alex was pretty funny before I went out….he and I baked cookies on Friday and due to sheer boredom, I pretty much gobbled the whole batch in addition to eating Mexican for lunch. Surprisingly (not), I was suffering an upset stomach before I left the house. I was telling the babysitter that I didn’t think I would stay out too long since I didn’t feel well and Alex pipes up and says “well mom, if you don’t feel well you probably shouldn’t be going out with your friends”! Then the next morning, the little man demanded pancakes at 7:00a.m. and when I suggested a bowl of cereal since mommy was tired he proclaims “well if you wouldn’t have stayed out so late with your friends, you wouldn’t be tired”! I hate it when my 6-year-old shows more common sense then I do! I hope he uses that same logic in ten years.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!!!! MWA!

Wrestling and Dr. Seuss’s Birthday Bash!

Whew! That was a nice little snow fall!

I haven’t updated my blog in a week so I thought I would share what has happened in our lives in the past week. Alex had his last wrestling practice on Monday night. This was his first year in wrestling and he enjoyed himself. He said the best thing about wrestling was wrestling with his friends and the worst thing was the stretches because they were boring. I didn’t stick him in any meets this year since he really just started to learn the fundamentals this year. Even though he didn’t travel to any meets, he still had a great time. Here are a few pictures of Alex at wrestling practice.

Then on Tuesday night, the DSU lady T’s played for the DAC championship game against SD school of mines. I’m a huge sports fan so I had planed to attend the game after work deliberately missing the big Dr. Seuss birthday bash at the community center. Unfortunately, as I was picking Alex up from the after school program, a friend of mine asked if we were going to the birthday bash tonight. BUSTED! Alex immediately protested and I gave in agreeing to take him to the community center before the game. So, we made a mad dash through the activities that they had set up; Alex received a bunch of treats, had a great time playing games, and received a new book. Alex was having a great time, but we left at 6:55 to walk over to the field house for the game. DSU won the game by twenty-some points so they will be appearing in the national tournament on March 7 in Sioux City IA. Good luck girls!