What a Difference a Day Makes!

Wednesday, the first preschool day of the year for Miles, was rough on him.  After several hours of downtime on Wednesday, he did tell us about his day... Miss Julie, Miss Jennifer, the little potty, apple trees, snacks (crackers, cereal, and juice), Levi, and toys (2 celery, muffins, and bananas).  Yesterday he didn't have school and was happy about that.  Today he woke up and I told him it was a school day.  He didn't react, so I took that as a good sign.  I was quite surprised when, at 8 a.m., he wanted to go outside and wait for the bus.  Two problems...#1- the bus isn't scheduled to come until shortly before 9 a.m., and #2- he was wearing only his underwear and backpack.  I got him dressed, found his shoes, closed all the windows (because I had to leave as soon as the bus came), and did everything else I could think of to stall him.  That got us to 8:20.  He still wanted to go outside and wait for the bus.  Since I couldn't come up with anything better to do, we went outside and sat on the front steps.  We sang songs ("Good singing, Mommy"), labeled body party, observed pill bugs, talked about the cars that drove by, counted trees, and counted rocks, but it was still only 8:40.  A few moments later, I heard the sound of a large engine.  Crossing my fingers that it was the bus, I looked down the street and could see the yellow bus heading towards our house!  The bus was early!!! Miles saw it and jumped up.  The bus pulled up in front of the bus and Miles happily ran and got on the bus and had a great day at school.  Yippee!

Possible Royalty?

True story, and it makes me laugh... Today in Jonathan's second class, he was given a notification that said... 

"CONGRATULATIONS! You have been selected as a possible candidate for HOMECOMING ROYALTY!"  

He's one of 10 senior boys (men? dudes? studs?) that were selected for a pre-vote to be held tomorrow to narrow the field for the Homecoming King at THS.  I'm laughing.  I think this is a bit out of his element.  He's perplexed and gets red faced when we talk about it.  Maybe he's even a bit pleased.  So, Prince-in-Waiting Jonathan will find out sometime this weekend if he gets/has to compete for Homecoming King or if he gets to resume his regular life.

1st Day of PreSchool

Miles went back to school today.  He wasn't particularly excited about it.  He spent a good part of the time before school crying.  Miles' anxiety level kept rising and rising... you can see it in his body language.

 But then the bus came, and he got right on!

But he still wasn't happy about it.

The day must have gone fine though as he was happy getting off the bus.  I took him to "Happy Star" for lunch to celebrate a successful first day!

The Garden Can Go Die

I know I've whined about our lame garden several times this growing season, and here's another go. A couple of weeks ago, my next door neighbor brought over a large bag full of tomatoes because they can't keep up with the all the tomatoes their garden is producing. Yesterday I harvested our biggest tomato crop of the season. Lame.

While the tomatoes are lame, the pepper plants have had all their leaves eaten off, and the pumpkins and green beans are dead (except for the Jack-Be-Littles, which are doing awsome), the cucumbers won't stop. We've tired of picking them daily, so on occasion we find one that got neglected; like this beast (that's next to a typical Costco cucumber for size reference)-

 Seriously, isn't that the biggest, scariest, Armenian cucumber ever? It's going over the fence...

Impressive Tantrum

Last night, most of us went to a party at Vivian Park.  Miles had a great time playing at the playground and playing football.  He was not ready to leave when it was time to go.  He'd been playing at 110% for nearly 2 hours and it was time for bath, stories, and bed.  He was crying before he ever got in his car seat and the full tantrum quickly ensued when he realized that we were serious about leaving.  After listening to the tantrum for 10+ minutes, I decided it needed to be preserved.  Nolan caught the winding down of the tantrum on video for me...

Vegetarian Confession

I became a vegetarian several years ago for a few reasons.  First, I realized that the main reason I ate meat was because it was in front of me.  I didn't really enjoy it; it was just there.  Second, having studied biology and completed many, many dissections, meat was just too "familiar" for me to eat.  Third, the final straw came from being utterly disgusted while prepping a turkey for Thanksgiving.  Anyway, I didn't go vegetarian for animal rights/ethics/Save the Planet reasons; just for my own personal, irrational reasons.  Although I quit eating meat, I never swore off a return to carnivorism; actually, on rare occasion over the past years, I've tried a bit of meat.  I discovered that my problem with turkey is a texture issue.  I've actually craved a burger based on smell, but when presented with the option of eating one, I couldn't do it.  Recently I've been seriously contemplating trying to reincorporate meat back into my diet.  Why? Well, the truth is that I am tired of going out to eat and looking at the menu and ordering from the extremely limited choices of vegetarian foods that are not exciting instead of ordering something I actually want to eat; a "can eat" versus a "what I want to eat issue."  For the past couple of weeks, I've been thinking about a recipe I used to make- Cajun Chicken Strips.  Yesterday I decided that I was going to make it.  I bought the chicken tenders and prepped them for lunch.  I'd forgotten how much I hate cooking with chicken tenders because of that long, nasty tendon that I have to remove before cooking/eating it.  I was able to prep the chicken with my bare hands without gagging- a huge step in the right direction.  Then I mixed up the Cajun seasoning and cooked the chicken.  It looked good; it smelled good, but I still wasn't convinced I was going to eat it.  I picked up a Cajun tender and ate it.  It was really good!  So I had another one, and then a third.  So, I've made progress.  However, I do not see a return to fast food crappy burgers/chicken sandwiches, sausage, steak, or a Thanksgiving turkey anytime in the near future. 

So, what am I now?  I guess I am essentially a vegetarian who will, on occasion and selectively, eat some meat. 

Future Track Star

While the Big Ones were busy with their triathlons yesterday, Miles had a lot of time to kill.  He showed us his newly discovered track skills involving hurdles that were just his size!

On the way home from Kamas, the boys wanted to stop at Dairy Keen.  Besides the cool Coke machine, the only other redeeming thing about Dairy King is the Kid's Meal prizes.  Last time we were there, Miles got a squirt gun.  This time he got those spring/slinky bug-eyed glasses.  He thinks they are awesome.