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I have pics of our house on isoldmyhouse.com if you want to buy it...ad 142315.

Got Boxes??

If you haven't heard by now, The Professor just landed a position on the Faculty of BYU.

YAY!!

I was talking to my sister in law and she asked if I was SOOO excited and happy.
I said, yes, but right now I am too busy stressing out about fitting this:

Into something resembling this:

I used to think that my life would get easier once Cuddles started Kindergarten. I actually think my blood pressure and stress level have gone up instead. I keep having this wierd feeling of being scrutinized, and being reminded of all the things I haven't done well enough, like teach him to zip up his coat or not pick his nose, among other things...It kind of reminds me of that feeling I had one time when I was helping out a friend who did cleaning at the Institute Building. One day I was cleaning for her while she was on vacation and the "boss" guy showed up, just to check on me, you know and make sure I was doing things right. Innocent enough I'm sure from his perspective, but I instantly had this awful sinking feeling, realizing that I was being evaluated. I hadn't had that feeling for a long time, since I had been out of the "working" world for a couple of years so that's probably why I noticed it so much. Didn't much care for it.

So, anyways, with a child in public school I feel a similar, albeit more mild version of that feeling.
But the good news is, in recent discussions with teachers etc, I was steered in the direction of a program/curriculum called Handwriting Without Tears. And I think it's really cool. I just wish I had heard of it sooner! The great thing is that it is not just worksheets (certain people at our house are on strike against those...) But, today we did some "art lessons" with one of the activities it provides. Easy actually drew her first ever picture of a person.

We still have to get into the actual writing part, and they do things much differently than you'll find in most school settings. But I would recommend it. Here's the website: hwtears.com.

Marathon Maniac

My Dad's a Marathon Maniac. It's actually true. He is an official member of the Marathon Maniacs club. Monday was his 26th marathon, the 11th in the last 12 months. He finished in 4 hours and 23 minutes, making it his quickest Boston run (his 5th one). And see how peppy he looks? Seriously, does this look like a guy who just ran 26.2 miles?? (Aside from the astronaut blanket.) It's probably mostly because of the spaghetti I fed him Sunday night and the special delivery we brought for him at mile 16, his home-made power drink of concentrated strawberry Instant Breakfasts. It was just what he needed to hit Heartbreak Hill with a vengeance. He actually beat us back to the finish line. So we bought him an ice cream cone.

And while we were on the T, there was a guy getting ready to work Boston Common in his clown suit, and he of course warmed up his twisting muscles on our kids. We made it home with 3 out of the 4 balloon sculptures; poor Spiderman's demise happened slowly as his "1,000 parts" each popped in succession...

Anne with an e

The other day I had a hankering to watch Anne of Green Gables again. So I grabbed it from the library and enjoyed it over the weekend.
At the beginning, Anne was asking Matthew if he had ever dreamed of being "Divinely Beautiful," which of course he had not. Then she asked, "Which would you rather be: Divinely Beautiful, Dazzlingly Clever, or Angelically Good?"
I think I'm gonna go with Dazzlingly Clever.

Now That's a Wonderful Title!!

The Professor FINALLY won his bracket!!!! He always chooses KU, and they finally won!!
What a close game. I could not even eat. I so did not want to go into overtime (*Hello* overtime started at 11:33--Ugh!!), but special thanks to Super Mario for getting us there.
Another highlight moment for me was seeing Roy sporting his Jayhawk shirt!! That just gets ya right here!!

Rock Chalk!

'Cause I'm a Jay, Jay, Jay, Jay, Jayhawk....
Leading by as many as *28*--See ya next year, Roy! Mmwah!!

The Darndest Things

So we were at the party store the other day and they didn’t have what I went there for, but of course they had something on sale that I *needed*: Care Bears party stuff was totally marked down. So I asked Cuddles if he wanted to have Care Bears for his Birthday (in May). Of course he did. The only thing is, that sparked in him a renewed obsession with his birthday. After a few days of “Is it my birthday yet?” I decided we needed a paper chain to count down. It has worked. Mostly. Then it dawned on my, Hey, Mother’s Day is also on his birthday. When I mentioned it to him, he replied, “Oh, that’s crazy! Mother’s Day is on my birthday and I’ll have to be NICE!” Don’t worry, it won’t happen every year.

Then Easy told me, “I love Daddy a Million, but I love you a Hundred, because you get mad.” You know, this is what happens when Daddy tries to play the Good Cop and makes me be the Bad Cop. What ever happened to the days when you could say, “Just wait till your father gets home…” Instead, what you’ll hear at our house is, “But don’t tell Mom…” It’s seriously like he’s a double agent sometimes!

Oh, and Easy’s new favorite thing to say is, “You RUINED my LIFE!!!” Gotta love it.