This week (or at least the last couple nights) has proved exhausting. I'm so tired as I write this blog- I found myself thinking I should have kept up with writing it throughout the week. Hopefully this evening and tonight I can rest up, because that mountain of laundry has been calling my name for way too long.
Speaking of laundry, while it sat around dirty in baskets, my dogs found a new favorite sleeping spot this week- it became a revolving door of who can sleep in the basket. Finally, I loaded up some dirty sheets and blankets, and added a second basket to cut down on the growling.
We had a lot of school work to do this week- Calib and Peyton both had to start on their Science projects. I always hate the science project- they want them to do random things like count how many chips are in a couple of different brands and bags, and then report it to death. I opted out of a simple thing like that, because it always annoys me that they have to talk over and over again about counting chips for two months while they write papers, and make boards up. This is no Science Project. This year we are growing plants. Calib is exposing them to different amounts of light- and Peyton is 'watering' them with different things (water, milk, and Gatorade)- oh and Hayden is growing plants, because well, if his brothers are doing it, he has to take part. I guess he just has the 'control' group.
We also had to work on Peyton's multiplication- he's been working on his threes and didn't pass them before we went to Ohio, or when we just got back (which, bad parenting on my part I didn't go over them once the Ohio weekend). Asa was drilling him with the 3's just before bedtime. When he woke up in the morning, I was asking him at breakfast. Relevant information: Hayden and Peyton share a bedroom. Here's how the multiplication review went:
Me: Peyton, 3 times 9?
Peyton: um... um.... um...
Hayden: It's 27 Peyton! 27!
Apparently Asa's multiplication drills taught someone something- it was just the wrong kid. Later that day though, Peyton passed his test on the 3s so we're on to the 4s. This is going to be a battle until Christmas at least.
Hayden also was given sight words to learn this week. In an effort to help him learn these sight words, I posted them as passwords to all the bedrooms, the bathroom and the kitchen. He has to say the password to get into the rooms. Unforeseen issue: Hayden not knowing the password to the bathroom and nearly going all over himself. We've since sat down and learned them all, but it's pretty funny when you're sitting in the living room and you just hear him shout out "AND" or "IN" and then fling open a door. I've switched them up every couple of days, and he seems to have them all down in a matter of a couple of days- and he doesn't even have to take his test on them until Friday.
In other homework related news, I have a complaint. Haydens math teacher gives him homework every week. And on this homework Hayden has to write his first and last name- both on lines about an inch and a half long. I'm sorry, but no kindergartner can write 'Waterstraut' on a line that small. Asa said he should just write "Wat" since apparently for most of Carly's early years in school thats what she did. (If you're reading this Hi Carly *waves* we should make a skype time).
Lets talk sports for a minute. Wednesday the Tampa Bay Rays were playing their possible last game of the season. In a couple of weeks, they had come from nine games behind the Red Sox to come to the last day of the regular season tied. A Rays win, and a Boston loss- The Rays would be in, and vise versa. So, here we are late Wednesday night- the Rays are down 0-9 in the bottom of the 8th inning. Boston is winning 4-3 in the 7th. Some miracle happens, and by the bottom of the ninth- the Rays have come back to 8-9. It was amazing! But, it came down to two strikes, and two outs. Boston was still up- and it was likely the Rays would lose, Boston would win- end of season. But, the last pitch comes up and it's a homerun. The Rays end up in extra innings. Boston then blows a lead- with two outs and two strikes, they pitch a homerun- it's tied- still the bottom of the ninth. Next guy up to bat then hits another homerun, and the game is over- Boston loses. Then, like, 5 minutes later, the Rays hit a homerun and win! After being down 9 games, after less than an hour sooner looking so grim people had left the stadium- (some of the kids in Calibs class were there and then left) they won, Boston lost- and the Rays were in the playoffs. Apparently, the chances of that happening was 1 in 278 million. It was amazing. Unfortunately, they used up all their magic that night and are already out of the playoffs. But nobody in Tampa will forget that night- everyone was talking about it the next day. The best part was telling the boys in the morning. They went to bed thinking it was hopeless. It. Was. Awesome.
Friday the boys came home from school reporting about how their were Secret Agents all over their school- I tried to get to the bottom of it. First of all, their school does some weird things- was this just some weird program they had. I mean, after all, they said 'secret agents' like it was a TV Show or something. But then Peyton explained there were guys with guns and guys in black suits with black sun glasses- and Calib said someone said the Vice President might be coming. I found it all very intriguing and mysterious at the same time. I googled it- but found nothing.
Saturday the plan was to stay home, since we were gone all last weekend- and we had things to get done, room cleaning and stuff. Hayden and Peyton are usually on board to clean their room as long as I am in there giving them direction doing some work too, and now we have a nice clean organized bedroom. While we were busy at home, Asa went out to run errands. One of his stops was at the bank to check on getting financed for a mortgage. Our house we live in now is going to be going on the market, and if we're going to buy now is as good of time as any. So stay tuned for all that exciting buying a house stuff. I'm really looking forward to being able to add things and change things in a house that you can't do when you rent. Painting! Wallpaper! Fixtures! Cabinet organizers! Pantry Re-Dos! Oh, so exciting. You should see my pinterest boards- I am loading them up with house possibilities.
I did discover that on Saturday there was going to be a Monday Night Football event at the Mall by our house. They had kids games, some Buccaneers, a MNF announcer- and the best part was it was totally free. We went down there and the boys got to play some games (vertical jumps, long longs, throwing drills-that sort of thing), and meet Mike Williams, Arreliouss Benn, and Mike Tirico. I love Hayden meeting football players, or really anyone 'famous' because he had no idea. This is how a conversation went with Mike Williams, one of the Bucs top wide receivers.
Mike Williams: "Hi there. How are you?"
Hayden: "I'm in kindergarten"
Mike Williams: "Oh yea?"
Hayden: "My favorite part is Fridays"
Mike Williams: "Why is that?"
Hayden: "Because they have Pizza on Fridays"
And then he has this conversation with ESPN Announcer/Game Caller for Monday Night, Mike Tirico
Mike Tirico: "Are you going to watch the game on Monday?"
Hayden: "No, everyone's going with out me"
Mike Tirico: "Well, you could still watch the game on TV" (You know, where he'd be announcing)
Hayden: "Thats ok, I'll just read some books."
Peyton did announce to everyone that he wanted to go to see Peyton Manning play. Mike Tirico said "I know, I wanted to see Peyton Manning play too"
When Mike Williams caught wind of Peyton being a Colts fan he made some comment about watching them lose, I said we were preparing him for that. They were all really friendly and nice about everything. As a bonus we got free 'Monday Night Football' Tshirts and had them signed too. Afterwards, we went over to Dairy Queen to get some ice cream. Can I just take a minute to talk about how awesome the weather is here lately? The humidity is gone, its not super hot- just awesome out. You can eat ice cream outside without it melting all over right away.
Because of school work, and catching up from the long weekend away we didn't do any of our usual after school activities. We decided to do a week in fast forward, and so Sunday Morning we made mini apple pies, made some slime, and had pom pom races. I had no idea the kids would have so much fun with some straws and pom poms. I made little boxes on the floor out of painters tape worth different points and they had to blow the pom poms across the floor into the boxes. Peyton was way better than his brothers at this game- but it was super fun to watch and they LOVED it. We had to stop due to the noise factor since Asa was working from home all day Sunday for some overtime. That game is a keeper though, we'll be playing it again.
Sunday Night was pretty awful. Since we've been gone so much lately Porkchop has decided Gracie is his best friend in the whole world- and he wants to always be around her. Problem is Gracie sleeps in Calibs room, Porkchop sleeps in our room. So, he sat at the door and whined all night. When let out of our room he howled in the livingroom. Asa and I barely slept. It was terrible. I was pretty sure he was going to sell Porkchop to the first bidder the next morning. I'm happy to report we fixed the problem, I'm saddened to report Porkchop doesn't sleep in our room anymore.
Monday we were so tired, I was able to take a nap- and I never ever nap. But I knew we would be out late at the football game. We picked the boys up from school and they had news to report that the Vice President was coming to their school the next day. Again with the secret service stories. Apparently, there were guys with rifles walking on the roof and bomb sniffing dogs back in the woods behind the school. At that moment I thought 'well, crap, they can't miss school tomorrow' because again, I knew we would be at the game really late.
We dropped Hayden off at Justin's- he was pretty excited to be going over there. He ran in the house and told Justin "It's like a party for me, and I get to do whatever I want". I know we had prepared him for this but I don't think any of that came out of my mouth at any point in time. But regardless, thats what he thought of the situation. He wasn't sad at all that we were leaving him there, so bonus for that. And thanks to Justin for watching him- even if he didn't remember he was going to.
When we got to game, I realized how much more traffic a sold out game produces. There were cars everywhere- it was insane. We were trying to prepare Peyton for the situation of him going to the game as a Colts fan- not a Bucs one. He was so upset by the time we got to our seats because of people yelling 'Tampa... Bay' Then, minutes into the game, the Colts fumbled and the Bucs recovered and he burst into tears. All I kept thinking was "I paid 200 bucks for this? To sit next to Peyton and have him cry?" We cheered him up with some cotton candy. But then I started thinking if I have to pay 4 bucks for cotton candy everytime something goes wrong for the Colts, I'm going to be broke and Peytons going to have quite the sugar rush. Luckily, after that, Asa took Peyton down to get some popcorn and had a talk with him. He came back up, apologized and said he was just so excited to go to his first NFL game and see the Colts play in person he was taking every little thing too seriously. It also helped that Peyton Manning was there, in one of the boxes, which he saw on the TVS when he was down at the concession stand. He spent a long time after that looking through his binoculars into the boxes trying to find Peyton Manning.
Parts of the game were awful, there wasn't a whole lot of good stuff going on for the Bucs in the first half of the game. Peyton got to see the Colts actual score, so he was happy- and I was pretty confident the Bucs would come back and win, and they did. Peyton did alright with it, until we were leaving and everyone was chanting 'Tampa... Bay' again as if all the fans were just trying to rub his nose in it. It was an awesome game.. Not so awesome that we kind of forgot where we parked. But, it didn't take us too long to find the car. It was just about 2 AM by the time we got home, though.
Highlights of the game, besides the game itself:
A yankees fan was converted to a Rays fan, threw his hat off into the crowd- and it spent a good ten minutes being thrown around the stadium
At about 11pm we get a text from Justin. It reads "Nick Jr. Sucks"
I knew when we got home so late there was no way I could make the boys get up and go to school at 8:30. We decided we would let them sleep in until 10 since the Vice President wasn't supposed to be at the school until after noon. Hayden wasn't going at all. He had a doctors appointment for 10:50, and because of the Vice President and all the security there would be no way to get him to school afterwards.
When I took the boys at 10 it was insane. The school is about one mile from my house. It is in our subdivision, and even bears the same name. There were tons of police on motorcycles going up and down the main road from here to the school. The villages in the back of my subdivision had police officers stationed at them, checking IDs for anyone who went in and out. When we got up to school there was a secret service presence at the gates, and a police officer who asked us if the boys were Oakstead students. I was then directed to park just past the 25 or so newstrucks that were in the parking lot. There were buses in the bus loop lined back to back creating a sort of barricade. All the staff parking was on the grassy playground area, the driveway in front of the school was full of black SUVs. When we crossed the drive to get up to the office, there were soldiers, and police and secret service agents standing all around. I apologized when I took them into school and explained we were at the Bucs game, and I had no idea it would be such an ordeal to get to school. Some of the staff had been at the game too, and totally understood. They were really nice about it- but it probably helped I had never brought them in late before. When I left I noticed the guys with rifles on the roof of the school. It was so crazy! I mean, I know it was for the Vice President but theres still something very strange about walking your children past men with guns to take them to class. I found it amusing when we got the call about Joe Biden being there, they said it will be a normal day for students. I'm pretty sure it was anything but normal for them.
When they got home, neither of the boys were able to see the Vice President in person, but he spoke to the students, and gave a speech on the school newscast. He went to see the other fifth grade class in Calib's pod- and all the teachers got to leave to go see the speech in person as opposed to the TVs. It was still one of those days I'm sure they won't ever forget. Very cool that their school was picked. Apparently they were deciding between eight or so schools on Friday and narrowed it down over the weekend. It was very cool to see it on the news that evening too. Plus, they seemed to get out of homework because of all the commotion. Which was good because they were still exhausted when they came home from school.
And that was our week
Oh, one last thing.
Haydens best news of the week: Justin didn't eat him. Apparently Hayden takes Justin pretty seriously.
Next Up: The Food and Wine Festival or a trip to the Beach. The weather may not cooperate this weekend though. I hear lots of rain is headed our way.
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