The Man in the Flood

After a long discussion with John, I made the decision to decline the receptionist position at the yoga studio. Yes, it would have been amazing, but the majority of the income I made would have gone towards paying for childcare and that didn't make sense combined with how much I'd be away from them at dinner and bedtime. As I declined yet another job, I was reminded of the story The Man in the Flood:

The man is caught in a flood and as the flood waters rose, his neighbors told him: "You have to leave, the flood is going to wash everything away."

Calmly, the man replied, "It's not a problem, God will save me!"

As the waters rose to the 2nd floor of his house, some rescuers came by on a boat. They tell him, "Get in! The flood is going wash you away!"

Yet again, he calmly says, "It's not a problem, God will save me!"

The waters rise to his roof and a helicopter comes by. They tell him to grab the rope or he will be washed away. He again declines and says, "It's not a problem, God will save me!"

Finally, the flood washed everything away and the man drowned.

When he approached heaven, he saw God. The first thing he asked was, "Lord, I was so certain you would save me. What happened?"

Perplexed, God said, "I just don't know. I sent neighbors, a boat, AND a helicopter for you!"

I feel like I'm being handed these fabulous jobs and turning them down for perceived problems. After I got off the phone today, I was picturing God shaking his head with his arms crossed, muttering, "What a nincompoop!"

It's been two months since I turned down the library job and I STILL kick myself over it, although I haven't had any great ideas as to how we would have made the on-call thing work. I'm pretty sure I'll be kicking myself over this one for a while too.

John graduates at the end of the month. He has two weeks of classes, then one week of finals and then we are done. And then I will start school either for the summer term or the fall (we need a little break from classes for a while!). I'm sure I'll finally feel like I'm doing something good for myself once I get started on school. I just wish I knew if I was really doing the right thing by turning these jobs down or if I'm being a complete idiot.

Addendum to A Mad Problem

For further good thoughts or prayer: Aiden has an appointment with his pediatrician for next week to discuss the anger/irritability issues. While talking to the nurse, multiple possibilities were brought up ranging from the five year testosterone surge to a food allergy to anxiety to Celiac's disease. I don't think it makes me feel any better that the options range from a passing growth phase to needing a special diet and/or medication.

But hopefully we can get started on getting some answers and developing some sort of plan to deal with this.

A Mad Problem

Soon after Aiden recovered from that week long flu he had, he began getting quite angry over the most minor things. Screaming, yelling, stomping, cursing (yes, cursing....thank you school children), throwing things....just getting out of control. Since then, this happens multiple times per day and we never know what might set him off. It's also begun to flow over into his behavior at school so much that his teacher has had to talk to me about it on numerous occasions. This past weekend, he actually broke out in hives while at John's parents.

We have no idea what is causing this and it's getting quite frustrating. His teacher wants to meet with me next week to discuss it. Before then, I plan to call the doctor to see if it's something we need to discuss medically. I have a history of anxiety and tend to break out in hives if my anxiety levels go through the roof, so that may be a possibility. It's also possible that he's having an allergic reaction to something - lots of kids act out as part of an allergy reaction.

Whatever it may be, it's definitely causing a lot of extra stress on us all and since we're still in the thick of John working and finishing school, extra stress is NOT GOOD. If it's something you do, please keep us in thought and prayer while we work through this.

Dishwasher

We'd been without a dishwasher for a little while now and though I had been spending at minimum of hour per day washing dishes by hand, the view below never seemed to change.


The one day I did manage to get a good portion of the dishes washed, it took me right around four hours and the old break in my wrist hurt so bad, I couldn't do any other housework for the rest of the day without feeling like I going to burst into tears.

We had been waiting on a friend for her old dishwasher, but there was a bit of an unknown as to when exactly it would be ready for pick up. After some back and forth, John ended up making the decision that we needed to buy our own. So off to Lowe's we went and we found a great deal on a new Maytag dishwasher. We had talked about choosing stainless steel when replacing our kitchen appliances, but ultimately decided that we liked the features of the white one better. So we still have a matching kitchen. :^)

John being John, he opted to not pay for them to install it, but wanted to install it himself. So once he got home from school last night, we began the installation process together. I learned that just because John knows how to install a dishwasher, doesn't mean he can do it without some problems arising. It will be a long time before I forget him asking me to look closely under the dishwasher to let him know if there was any leaking water coming from the pipe hook-up. He turned on the sink and water went spraying out from under the dishwasher onto my face!

But we finally got it all hooked up and working after about an hour and a half. We are both VERY happy to have a working dishwasher again. It's quieter and washes more dishes than the old one. And the great thing? It does actually WASH the dishes.

Out of the Mouth of Nathan

Last night as I was putting Nathan in bed, I asked him which stuffed animals he wanted. Both boys have been very attached to all of their stuffed animals, so who gets to be in the bed at night is very important. Nathan agreed to a few animals and then told me, "But I don't want my brown bunny because he doesn't have his pants on." Oooooh-kay....I guess that's reasonable!

Then this morning, the boys were drawing pictures and they both started talking to me at once. Nathan held his hand up and said loudly, "Excuse me, Aiden, I can't hear my words!". At least he was being polite about it!

Yoga!

It's been a long time since I'd set foot in a dance/yoga studio. Too long. My mind remembers training 40 hours per week, even if my body doesn't and I mentally crave it quite often. Imagine my excitement when I discovered that a local yoga studio was hiring for an evening receptionist. So I sent in my resume and then forgot about it. It was a bit of a surprise when I came home from parent helping yesterday to a voicemail asking me to call back for a phone interview! So I did and then was asked if I could come in today for an in-person interview! I was able to find last minute childcare and got myself in the mindset of this not being a big deal and if I get it, then I do and if I don't, then I don't. And then I walked in...

Like I said, it had been a long time since I'd been in a studio. The immediate feeling of relaxation and working so your mind and body work together came rushing back. And I was just standing in the waiting room! The ladies who run the studio were fabulous and ushered me into one of the rooms. I've never taken off my shoes and sat on a yoga mat for a job interview before! It was great. I felt at ease and able to talk openly with them about the job requirements and how the studio is run. I got a nice little tour and the thought of being able to take classes again was super exciting.

I won't hear from them again until next week and I honestly can't say how the interview really went, but however it turns out, it definitely made me realize that I NEED to get myself back into classes. Soon.

Feeling Loved

I probably don't have the typical female mindset towards Valentine's Day. Believe me, I used to think that I needed all the cute stuffed bears, loads o candy, and jewelry galore to make the day special. But seeing as now I'm a busy mom and my husband is a very down to earth person (he'd rather buy jewelry because HE wants to, not because a holiday says you should), I've realized that I don't really want those things. Instead, I got something that I really wanted (and is useful for everyone in the family) and I ended the day feeling a renewed sense of closeness to my husband.

Instead of exchanging a bunch of expensive gifts (do we really need a 2nd Christmas?), John built a wall mounted coat/backpack rack for our entry. I've been wanting one since we moved in and now we're able to get everyone's backpacks off the floor of the coat closet. I bought him one of the books that the HBO series The Pacific (stories of the 1st Marine Division during battles with Japan) was based off of: Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie. I'd read it previously and knew he'd enjoy it, and it's a piece of history to get the mind thinking.

Instead of sitting in a crowded restaurant for the evening, I made us a special dinner for after the kids went to bed. We enjoyed a very yummy slow cooker roast and spinach salad by candlelight - ALONE. I much preferred this over a restaurant. It was quiet and we could talk freely about anything that had been on our minds. Since we don't see much of each other during the week due to his schedule, it was nice to finally spend some time alone and discuss how we're feeling. I don't know about John, but I went to bed last night feeling relaxed and renewed in our relationship. And seeing as the past six weeks have been some of the most stressful we've experienced, it was good to remember what feeling that connection with the person you love is like.

It was our 10th Valentine's Day together and I have to say that it was my favorite so far. Thanks for a wonderfully quiet and relaxing evening, honey!

Aiden the Great

I overheard Aiden telling Nathan, "When you're five like me, you can do all the things I can do. Like listening, playing games, reading ALL books, and really, just doing great things".

I guess he's pretty proud of himself for starting on chapter books for 3rd graders!

Wrinkly

Is what my hands are after the past two days. Our dishwasher finally bit the dust, so I've been washing all our dishes by hand. It had been acting up since right around the time the washing machine exploded. Not draining, not washing anything, just filling with water, getting stuck on various cycles. It was about eight years old and I've been told that's pretty typical for the age of the appliance, but it's still annoying. I guess I should be happy it lasted this much longer.

It's hard to feel like we can afford to spend at least $300 on a new one after the past few months (new washing machine, new vacuum, new mattress - why is everything breaking?). But things seem to be in our favor here. An internet friend of mine (we've "known" each other since early in my pregnancy with Nathan - we became friends off of a pregnancy message board for ladies due in January of 2008, so her son is just a few days younger than Nathan) is remodeling her kitchen and has offered up her old dishwasher, which still works. We just have to wait a week or two until they demo their kitchen and then we have to go pick it up in Washington around Longview. Hopefully it will work out to go get it. I'll have to think of something nice to do for her. It's so generous of her and I can't even tell you how much stress it takes off of the finances for this month if we don't have to buy a new one.

For now, the dishwasher is just a built-in drying rack, although a less effective one after this afternoon. The top rack broke off on one side as I was putting dishes in it. Cruddy thing. I'm definitely not cut out for manual dishwashing - I feel like I've been doing nothing but washing dishes for two days and there's still a bunch stacked up on the counter! The old break in my wrist makes for very slow going since I have limited range of motion and it starts hurting after just a little while. I just have to make it through another week or two! And maybe I'll start using up our huge stock of leftover paper plates and cups...

Caught Up: Preschool Goings On

Thanks for sitting through all my catching up today. At least you have lots of reading material if you're bored. :^)

It's hard to believe we're halfway through the school year already. It seems like Aiden's last year is going really fast and he'll be registered for kindergarten in no time. Another mom and I were talking (her son has been in the same class as Aiden since we started there) and she said, "Can you believe that some of the kids that our boys will go to kindergarten with next year will have never attended any school before??". It's really hard to believe after Aiden's been in preschool for nearly three years. It has really made him who he is. He's socialized, he's had to opportunity to learn basically anything he expresses interest in, and he'll have to ability to get through a school day and pay attention to the teacher with no issues. Not to mention that he's fully reading! He was reading a chapter book at bedtime the other night! I feel like I've done my job as a parent by preparing him for school. A study done in Michigan seems to agree:

-65% of children with two years of preschool had most or all of the language and literacy skills needed to be ready for kindergarten. Only 25% of the children who did not attend preschool had the skills needed.

-67% of the preschool children had the math skills needed, compared to 30% of the ones who did not attend.

-Children who attended preschool were 11 1/2 times more likely to have the emotional, social, and fine motor skills needed than those who don't attend.

Plus, the kids have fun and that's super important too!

Last week in Aiden's class, they got to do welding! Aiden was quite excited since John is taking welding classes right now, so he got to tell daddy that he does welding at school too. It was very nice of one of the dads who is an iron worker to bring in all of his gear and spend so much time with the kids. They got to help weld their names into an I-beam which will be put into a new restaurant in downtown Portland.
Two weeks ago, his class took a field trip to the pet store where we got to play with chinchillas, snakes, chameleons, and a rat. They also got a full tour of the vet clinic. I was quite impressed with the staff there and how much time they spent teaching the kids about everything that goes on. Huge thanks to Petsmart on 185th! Back in class, the kids have created a pet store complete with vet clinic and grooming salon. It's really cute.

I'm having fun being the parent rep for Nathan's class. I'm also a table host for the school's annual auction on February 26th. There are still tickets available if anyone in our area would like to attend. Tickets are $55 a piece and you get a full yummy dinner catered at the Oregon Zoo. There is a silent auction at the beginning of the evening and then during dinner, it moves on to a live auction. There's some great things to bid on, including vacations in Sun River, pilates lessons, kid activity baskets put together by each class, tickets to Blazer games and operas, and so much more. Plus you could sit with John and I at our Gene Kelly themed table! This year's auction theme is Lights, Camera, Action!, so it's all Hollywood themed tables. Email or call me if you're interested in attending. It's a really fun evening.

With it being Aiden's last year, it felt strange to register Nathan for next year but not Aiden. Nathan is now registered for the class that Aiden is in now. I won't be able to parent help next year due to the public school schedule, which will be a new thing for me since I've always been involved in the classroom. Next school year will definitely feel different for us, but we're very excited for Aiden to have new opportunities in kindergarten. We just really hope he's not bored!

Catching Up: Nathan's Birthday Party

Nathan's 3rd birthday was basic and low-key and he loved it. He had a pirate party with family and we all had a great time. It will be soon enough that those kinds of parties aren't fun enough for him anymore, so we might as well take advantage while we still can.

I had to buy a last minute cheap gift for him because the $70 worth of presents I'd ordered from the Disney Store were delayed an additional five days (!!) and didn't get there in time. I guess he just got to stretch his birthday out for about a week that way.

I felt super prepared and relaxed putting this party on, which apparently was just my calm before a storm. Later that night around midnight, I ended up with a sudden stomach bug that lasted for three days. No fun! But I'm just glad it waited until the party was done!

Here's some party pictures. Blogger photo is being a bit glitchy for me today, so the photos ended up in reverse order.

Blowing out the candles! He's three!!

Taking a whack at the pirate. If you can, click on the photo to enlarge it. His face is priceless.

The snacks. I'm sure pirates ate veggies and lil smokies, right?

The pirate. Poor guy would have his bum whacked open in a just a little while, but only after we took a knife to it to make it easier for the kids. Even John and I couldn't hit it hard enough to open it!

The homemade pirate cake. All the local stores had run out of pirate decor (why does that happen for every birthday I try to put on?), so I made my own. I even tried to do little waves lapping at the chocolate beach. It's definitely not pro material, but Nathan loved it so that's all that matters to me.

Catching Up: A Visit with Grandpa Major

On New Year's Day, my dad came down from Tacoma to visit with us for about a week. I picked him up from the train station and we headed straight over to John's grandparent's for the New Year's Day celebration we have every year with the entire Minthorne side. I think there's been a new baby every year for the past few years! I wasn't able to stay for too long due to work, but my dad stayed there with John and the boys to join everyone for the first time and he really enjoyed himself.

Over the course of the week, we took a quick afternoon trip to Tillamook (Sorry to Jeff and Emily that we didn't stop by. It was very last minute and we didn't stay super long!). We stopped by the beach to see the Twin Rocks (my dad hadn't been out there in 20+ years). It was Buster's first trip to the beach and he went crazy! So many new smells to check out!

We also took a quick tour of the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Mmm, squeaky cheese! The boys enjoyed watching the cheese get sliced and packaged and Aiden got lots of waves from the factory workers. He was also quite adventurous and tried some jalapeno pepper cheese! He didn't really mean to, but he popped it in his mouth before I could warn him. His eyes widened and then said, "Huh, that's a bit hot." But since he moved right on and didn't spit it out, I consider it a successful test taste for him.

I don't think he was particularly excited about having his picture taken in a fake cow face.

We also took advantage of upgrading our zoo membership and went to Zoolights for a 2nd time, but this time with our free guest! It wasn't raining like it had been the first time we had gone, but I would have taken rain over the 25 degrees it was on this visit. We were so flipping cold, we didn't stay for super long, but enough to see the basics and get some elephant ears.

Pretty zoo train! We didn't ride this time around, but I think it's more fun to watch it go by than ride it when it's all decorated like this.

The boys met Rudolph. I'm happy my kid wasn't the one grabbing Rudolph's face! There was also someone in a cow costume, but I think they didn't try as hard on that one. We actually had to ask what they were supposed to be. It looked like an elk to me!

We always have a lot of fun with my dad and the boys very much enjoyed their Christmas presents. This is the 2nd year that my dad has treated them to Build A Bear and we now have proudly added "Light Brown Bunny" (who wears denim shorts and a Beaver tshirt - Nathan's choice) and "Owl Firefighter" (who is, if you couldn't guess, a firefighter) to our family of various Build A Animals. The present for John and I was Mario Kart for our Wii and we have REALLY enjoyed that! I'm not particularly good at it, but that has given us some good laughs.

The boys can't stand when my dad goes back home, but that just shows that they really love having him around.

Catching Up: Christmas

Since Aiden is barfing today (yes, someone in this house is barfing yet again) and I seem to be developing a nasty cough (like I have time for that), I decided I would take advantage of the slow down day that has been presented to us and catch up on posts.

As was mentioned in a post over Christmas, we headed to the coast for Christmas with John's side of the family (minus a few immediate family members). Laura and Kevin (John's sister and her fiance) were going to Arizona to be with Kevin's family, while Brady and Carrie (John's brother and his wife) couldn't come up from California (or so we thought). We ended up being joined by Brady after all (Carrie had to stay in Cali to work); although he couldn't stay for the whole time, we enjoyed having him there for Christmas day. It was fun and mostly relaxing, except Aiden and few other people ended up with tummy bugs for the last half of the trip.

We enjoyed spending Christmas with the family and getting in a mini vacation at a beach house, although it did mean changing our idea of a usual Christmas. It meant not spending Christmas morning in our new house (there was no tree at the beach house, which actually annoyed me a bit - they couldn't have managed even a mini table top tree or SOME Christmas decorations?), and it meant Aiden couldn't spend Christmas with his puppy (he had been looking forward to giving Buster presents and a stocking full of treats). But Buster got to spend Christmas at a swanky downtown dog hotel (another post for that) and came home acting like a different, calmer dog (that's a good thing).

Here are some pictures to document our Christmas:

Sunset at the coast.

Family time in the hot tub! It was super windy and cold, and I think the only day that it didn't rain. I wish I'd gotten pictures of some of us playing pool in the game room.

Cool Toy Story PJs from Aunt Carrie and Uncle Brady!

Aiden finally got the pillow pet he'd been wanting for over a year!

And Nathan got his!

The whole family for the traditional reading of the night Jesus was born, as we sit through a very rainy and windy Christmas Day. This trip involved wind, hail, and so much rain, the deck door was leaking rain into the dining room!

The boys playing with the best presents ever! Buzz Lightyear and Jessie!

He was so excited!

This is what happens when you try to wake Aiden up for Christmas morning. He passes out on the living room floor.

Almost Half Way!

We have six weeks left before John is totally done with school. We should be super excited. But instead, we have hit the point where we are both wondering how on earth we can make it six more weeks without completely losing our minds.

You see, John is in class 12-15 hours per week. He is also working full time hours, which means he is working seven days a week. None of that includes time spent on homework. Except for my 1-2 shifts per week when he HAS to be home to watch the boys, he's really not home. The boys have noticed and are reacting to it badly. Tantrums have increased, back talking is through the roof, Aiden even had a huge screaming outburst at school today which lasted 5-10 minutes. I shouldn't have to have a meeting with my son's teacher about his behavior.....he's not that kind of kid! I'm not cut out for single parenting and I'm getting more and more frustrated each week.

The other night, John actually came home to eat dinner and help put the boys to bed. Nathan told John that he didn't like him anymore and then he spit on John. What is this schedule doing to my family?

The only problem is that there's nothing we can do about it. John HAS to go to these classes if he wants to graduate. Work is putting more pressure on him than ever and he can't take on any less than he is. He has already tried telling his boss that he's overwhelmed and he was yelled at for it. These next six weeks are going to be some of the most stressful we've ever experienced. Here's hoping that it goes by faster than the last four weeks have.