A Call For Mrs. Dykstra

 

I don't get very many phone calls.  And, no, my phone doesn't look like this but wouldn't a phone like this be so cool?  Especially if it were turquoise.

Anyhow....

As I was saying, I don't get phone calls very often.  I'm just not much of a chat on the phone sort of gal. Unless I am chatting with the Farmer's Wife.  But lately, my phone rings in the morning and I know exactly who it is.

I get a sick feeling in my stomach.

I carefully pick up the phone, I cringe at the name, my face wrinkles in pain as I tentatively answer, "Hello?"

And it's the school, the office gals, whom I love.

These are the conversations I have had with them....

"Um, Denise, you need to come over to the school.  Your son's toe...yah, you just need to come over and see it."  S3 had kicked the soccer ball with his summer shoes on and literally tore the top layer of the bottom of his big toe right off.  It was just flapping in the wind.  I asked for bandages and got it taken care of in no time flat.  

"We're sorry to call," they said, "But we knew you were right across the road and would want to see it."

They are right, I did want to see it and I was glad they called me.

Another call...

"Denise? Your son just threw up."

S4 had a cough and I am quite certain that his cough that morning was the cause of his throw up because I ran to pick him up (this was the day I was unshowered and looking "rough" was a nice way to describe my appearance) and he then proceeded to eat a huge plate of macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes.

Another call...

"This is the office.  Uh, your son has poison ivy all over his leg.  We just need to know if we can put something on it so it doesn't itch so much."

As it turned out, they didn't have calamine lotion so I ran to the store, got that and anti itch lotion and dropped it off at school.  I had a little ivy dry and we poured that over his leg, the leg that hadn't been mentioned at all all weekend.  The added bonus of the ivy dry?  It looked like his skin was peeling off his leg and it was So. Cool.  Or so I hear.

The craziest call was this...

"Denise? The school.  Somehow your son has had an accident.  He is going to need all new clothes."

I couldn't hardly believe this one.  And on this particular day, I was at work all alone so I couldn't just leave the library open and run home and get clothes and return.

But I did have the suburban and we have been pretty much living in it with football season and all.  I quick climbed all over the seats (in a dress, mind you) and found enough half eaten food and half drinken water bottles to live on for a week as well as numerous shirts, a pair of clean folded socks (we don't even have those at home!) and, oddly enough, a pull up.

As it turns out, this son of mine had an apple and brought it in the bathroom when he had to go pee.  Why, I don't know.  He doesn't know.  Anyhow, he didn't want to put the apple down in the bathroom (thank goodness he thought that much through) but he couldn't just undo his pants so he just unzipped his pants like big boys do and pulled out his "pee-er thing" (as he calls it) but his pee-er thing didn't get out far enough and pee went  e v e r y w h e r e.  

I don't think that word "everywhere" is even strong enough.

Daddy happend to be getting out of work early so I frantically called him, grabbed my son from the school sick room, had him run for the suburban in his long tshirt he got from someone at school, got him into the library and a movie turned on for him with one minute to spare before opening time.

Daddy arrived a few minutes later and saved the day with new pants and underware.

I tell ya, I never know what the school is going to call for.

I am just thankful they always do call me, and I am so thankful I have those office women to help me out this school season. 

But just once, I'd love a call like this...

"Denise? It's the school.  You're boys have no injuries or sickness today.  We just thought you'd like to celebrate that."

Of course, then we would probably jinx ourselves. 

(Thank you Chris and Regina for taking such good care of us!)

Wait...You Are NOT Pregnant???

Yesterday, while at my job at the library, a woman needed help finding a book.  She regularly visits the library and while I have not had a heart to heart with her, I try to make small talk whenever she visits.

I asked her about a certain author she had just read and suddenly she turned to me and was chatty.  "How have you been, dear?"

"Fine and dandy," I replied.

"Now, when is your due date?"

Silence.

Then I stuttered over my words a bit..."Um, well, no baby for us."

She turned her full attention to me and comfortingly grabbed my wrist.  "Oh, my dear, what happened?"

"Well,"I began, touched by her concern for me, "I wasn't ever pregnant."

I will add that as this conversation had gone on, I had gone from lazily leaning against a book shelf to standing tall and maybe perhaps - okay, totally - sucking in my tummy.

The poor lady.  She blushed red.  "Oh, I m so sorry!  Why did I think you were pregnant?  I was sure you were!"

I didn't know.  I could not help her there.  Had I been smart aleck-y and quick on my feet I would have initially said, "I thought you said you were giving me a baby shower?" back when this conversation had begun.

I am not quick on my feet.

That's why I like to toss those bits in a blog post.

Anyhow, this poor lady remembered then that I had been making a big deal out of my birthday and she had just somehow switched that to think I was talking about giving birth.  As in, about to give birth.  Thus being pregnant.

And I was thinking, "I am so walking the track the entire time football practice is going on tonight.  And doing sit-up's.  And never eating food again."

Except immediately following this conversation with this lady we had book club and we had so many good foods to eat and I couldn't not eat the food - that would be rude!  I couldn't be rude.  I had to eat the soup, chicken pot pie, cream puff dessert, pumpkin bar, scone and ham salad sandwich.

Today I am wearing an outfit that makes me look thin - I think.  I hope.  I did not wear my spanx though so...well, I probably look like I am about to give birth.

The poor lady.  The thing that touched me though is she was so concerned about me.  I went from just being the library girl who isn't as good at the job as the head librarian but okay to being a girl she was willing to help and truly cared about.  That touched me.

I need to keep that in mind.  Putting your foot in your mouth isn't a bad thing - totally - when you sincerely care for the person.

But I am really wishing I had worn my spanx today.

Summer Insanity

Last night my honey took all four boys to go get some firewood for us.  He asked me if I wanted to go along.  And then he laughed.  I think he spotted the twitch in my eye and sensed the excitement that soundly coursed through me.  "Home? Alone? You would take all the boys and let me stay home? Alone?"

He loaded up all the boys and headed out.  I grinned like a wild woman.  I flitted from one room to the other not knowing where to spend my precious alone time.  Do I clean the kitchen?  Do I take a nap...oh how tired I am?  Do I read one of the books I have stacked by the bed and the computer desk? Do I watch the movie waiting for me to watch for two weeks now?

But I knew what I had to do...blog.  I have missed it more than I have missed about anything else this summer.  

Well, blogging and walking the track at school every morning when I dropped the boys off at school all those weeks ago.

So this is what we have been up to...

Cooking.

I have cooked so much lately to keep my boys fed - how much they can eat is insane - that my cupboard has given out on me, crashing down on itself.  This requires me to do some rearranging.  Because I can not - at all - give up one of those cookbooks or printed recipes.

Cooking so much means I have spent a lot of time at the grocery store.  Taking all four boys to the store is a trip.  Good grief, they want EVERY bit of food.  They ask me a million times, "Mama, can we get this?'  Recently, in the ice cream isle, S4 asked, 'Hey, Mama..." for the 1,000th time in a five minute span.

I felt myself slipping into that insane place mother's go.  They get there by their name being called too many times in a row.  It flips a switch in their brain that makes them cower in a corner crying for someone else to come take over.

"What? What? What? What do you want now??????" I  quietly wailed.  It was hardly a peep, more an escaped thought.  There in the ice cream isle I caught a glimpse of my reflection.  My hands were tangled in my hair, massaging the headache that doesn't go away.  My eyes were wild with craziness.

S4 looked at me oddly for a moment.  But only a moment.  "Can we get ice cream?" he asked.

To save myself from having a melt down in the ice cream isle, I said yes.

They are getting to me, these boys.

We have been spending a lot of time at the library as well.

Getting to work the same days the kids programs are is really grand because the boys never miss a single library event.  And all should know by now just how much I love the library.  If you look very very very closely, you can see S1 is holding something. 

A ground squirrel.

Now, when the boys go out to play at the library, Alicia and I find ourselves saying - oftentimes now in unison - "Stay together. Do not try to catch anything. Do not get bit. Do no catch anything.  Did you hear me?  Do not bring any animals into the library.  And stay together."

I don't think they hear us.

When we are home, the boys are catching "things".

This is One Eye Toad.  He is called this because he has one eye.  He lives on our front porch and I don't know how old frogs get but he is pretty old.  We look for him every year for a few years now, always relieved when we find him.  One Eye is never allowed to live anywhere but the porch.  The boys know, this is Mama's toad, it never can live in the sandbox or with the other things.

Other things?

Oh, you know, like five snakes.....

Originally, we purchased the large water tank for baby chicks.  The baby chicks grew up grandly in that water tank lined with sawdust.  And when we moved the tank out back for future chicks, the boys got to thinking how grand a place it would be to house some "critters".  

Like reptiles.

So it is currently the home to five snakes (there were six, but they made their favorite snake (how does one even get to have a FAVORITE snake?) a "home" in the sand box, where it slithered away.  Probably to live somewhere far far far away from boys.), a snapping turtle (a little one) and too many frogs to count.

Due to the drought we are experiencing here in this part of the state, the swamp where all these frogs were caught has dried up.  The boys now feel it is their duty to keep these frogs alive for future generations of frogs.

At least they don't live on the porch anymore.

And when the boys are playing in the sandbox making those beaver habitat's, they are in the woods building forts they would like to move into.

It is quite obviously a safe place to sleep the night in.  Mama just keeps saying no for some reason.  

Silly Mama.

So that, dear friends, is what we have been up to.  On our slow days.  

I forewent a nap to share this with you.  That's how much I have missed you all.  Hope your summer is going grandly too, and you are not insane yet.  Tell me what you have been up to! Link your favorite posts! I am so behind in reading up on posts right now as well. 

Special thanks to my hubby who gave me some free time and didn't complain when all i did was type away at a computer screen.  I love you!

Win a Buck Howdy CD!!!

Many of you may recall just what big fans we are of Buck Howdy.

One of my VERY FIRST blog posts (all those years ago) mentioned Buck Howdy.  You can read it HERE.  After that published, Buck Howdy got in touch with us (how he found that post, I don't have any idea) and sent us a bunch of cd's, bandanas and, while sweet, he could have left the harmonica's at home.

Last year, Buck was gracious enough to give a FREE concert at the library I work for.  You can read all about that and the view the pictures of that great event HERE.

This year, on JUNE 21st, Buck Howdy is coming back to play a little concert at the library for us again.  (If you live in my area, email me and I would be happy to send you the details.)

To say I am thrilled would be an understatement.

But there is more.....

Buck's real name (really, did you think his parents named him Buck Howdy???) is Steve Vaus.

Steve has been in the music industry for a long time.

He is just finishing his new Gospel cd, which you can learn more about at his website, and when he is in town for the kid's Buck Howdy concert, he is giving another free concert later that night at a local church with his new Gospel music.

I have not heard the new Gospel cd yet, but I have watched the video explaining his heart on this album.  I have been able to listen to a few of the songs.  One I really liked and said, "Hey, I don't remember hearing that one before but it's familiar too."

He wrote back, "It's because I just wrote it."

Music so good that you think you know it but it is all new.  That to me is a great song writer.

But he also sings a few of my favorite gospel songs too.  He has no idea how thrilled I am over that.

To celebrate the fact that my friend is coming into my little town to do TWO concerts, I thought I would do a give away.

I have Buck's American Dream's cd.  It's filled with patriotic songs that young and old would enjoy.  It IS signed, as well, though the signature is faint.  The cd is open (so it could be signed) but never played.

To win....

Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite Patriotic song, Gospel song or Buck Howdy song.

For an extra entry, "like" Life With Four Boys...Coffee Please on facebook, you can click "like" on the button at the top of the blog or click the facebook highlighted words. (Your friends would probably like this contest being shared with them ;) ).

AND, for one more entry, tweet this... @life4boys has a #GiveAway of a @stevevaus as #BuckHowdy cd. Enter here http://bit.ly/M4EzmS.

Let me know your tweet link in the comments on this blog post.

Happy entering and best of luck to you all! I will draw a winner at random on Friday, June 8th and mail it right out to you.

And, if you are curious about Buck Howdy, just search his new items (as well as his great old ones) on Amazon.  He has a best of kids cd out now, as well as new kids book about a certain man who ate too many baked beans.

Embarrassing Moments

Because I know these things would not ever happen to you, I thought you might enjoy laughing at me.

Since I am sure I will be hearing about them over and over again I might as well share them with you all.

In an effort to be friendly and talk to people more (not really my thing, you recall), I got myself in trouble.

Sigh.

I was chatting with the teacher who loves S4 ever so much and keeps a good eye on him for me.  I would truly be lost without Mrs. W.  S4 loves her to pieces.  Anyhow, I was telling her how S4 had been sick but seemed fine and if he seemed sickly at all to call me and I would be there right away to get him.

As I was chatting with her outside the school, a truck pulled in.

The truck looked just like S2's friend ( and near twin ) Jakob's dad's truck.  I did think through that it was odd he would be dropping Jakob off at school.

Then I remembered I was going to be friendlier like the old lady at the library.

So I grinned a friendly hello and waved to him.  I could tell from his tinted window that he seemed surprised but did wave back.

Sheesh, I need to be friendlier, I thought.

And then I seen the boy leave the truck.

The boy was not Jakob.

I have no idea what man I grinned and waved happily too.

"Oh, Crap!" I muttered in my head.

I called my husband.  "Hey, hon, I was trying to be friendly and just waved at some random guy.  Have no idea who he is.  If you happen to hear your wife is a flirt, it's because of this."

This story only makes the next one even better.

On the SAME DAY, I was working on making plans for our family to get together with one of our favorite family's we haven't seen in forever.  We haven't gotten together at eachother's houses in may be years - all of us, that is.

Anyhow.

Her husband has this incredible zip line he made for himself their three boys.  An mentioned that the zip line was broken and she would be sure that Jeff had it fixed before our boys were there.  So I tweeted Jeff to tell him we had the date planned and to have the zip line ready.  But that isn't what I thumb typed on twitter.  Oh no.

This is what I tweeted...

@DeGraafJeff texting with An planning the --th at your place. Have the zipper ready :)

Oh, yes, I did.

And he, being him, wondered WHAT ON EARTH I MEANT.

I saw what I had tweeted and wanted to die.

So I tried to shake it off, but then I texted An (who is not on twitter) and told her what I did.

She laughed hysterically (via text).

Then I called my husband.

"Hey, hon, guess what I did now? Um, you wouldn't be able to guess so...."

He then about died laughing.

Ugh.

So, I am thinking I may go back to being a guarded shy person and I will be double checking what my auto correct changes my words to.

You all my now laugh at my expense.

The Boy Who Cried Sick

Once upon a time there was a little boy.

He loved his mama very much and liked to spend time with her.

It was hard for him to spend too much time with just mama because he had three big brothers who needed a mama too.

But he would go to the library with her and spend the whole day with her and Aunt Alicia and he would have all kinds of fun.

Then he got so big he had to go to school everyday.

But...

If he was sick on a library day, he would get to come to the library and spend the whole day with his mama and Aunt Alicia.

So sometimes he would have a sorta tummy ache.  It would ache - a little - until he got to the library.  Then he would feel better and get to color pictures and make crafts and check out lots of books.  There was a train track to play with and he could hug his mama whenever he wanted.

One morning, he woke up and didn't feel very good.

But he knew what his mama would say.  "You have to go to school." So he didn't tell her he felt sick.

After not even an hour, he said he needed to go home.

But, mama didn't believe him.

The teachers didn't believe him.

His big brother didn't believe him.

But when he puked....

Everyone believed him.

When his mama, who rubbed his back as he puked into the garbage can, took him home to rest he said, "Mama, you know those super moms they show on tv?  You really the super mom."

And she smiled and told him she loved him.

So he cuddled up with the pillow pet mama had known he would need and fell back asleep.

But he learned a valuable lesson this day.

Don't cry sick unless you really are sick.

(Alice and I thought we should read him The Boy Who Cried Wolf, but then after hearing him puke - again - we decided we could wait to read him that story when he was feeling better.  Thanks to wonderful "Aunt" Alicia who sent us home.  You really are a genius, you know. :) )

A Trip to Kalamazoo Valley Museum

As you know, I work at a library.  I am super blessed to work with Alicia.

In planning our summer reading program (Dream Big - Read theme, focusing on night and Brian Lies' artwork), Alicia and I talked about how cool it would be to tell the kids about the stars in the sky and how to find the different constellations - but pretty much impossible on a summer morning for our library kiddos. That's when Alicia found a link for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum's Planetarium.  They were showing a winter sky special.  We decided we would take our boys out of school for the afternoon and bring them to the museum ourselves.

Seven boys. Two country girls. 

We could do this.

I baked the boys, and Alicia's boys too, some chocolate chip cookies.

When I went to pick them up, S1 mentioned that Miss Alicia's cookies are better than his mama's.

He is now forever regretting that statement.

He's pretty sure his mama isn't making him cookies for a good long time.

But armed with chocolate chip cookies and lots of excitement, we headed to downtown Kalamazoo.

My boys can't recall ever being in downtown Kalamazoo.

It was a bit of shock to my country boys.

And when we DROVE INTO A BUILDING to park...they were shrieking.

Seriously, I could have just driven to the parking garage and it would have been a field trip.

 Because the parking garage was sooooo cool, we needed a photo.

 The planetarium was impressive.  At one point, S4 leaned over and said to me, "Mama, is it night time right now?"  We were the only ones in the planetarium which made it more memory making.  Will I be able to find the stars in the sky now? I believe I will still struggle.  But did I learn a lot?  I surely did!

Outside of the planetarium there was a tornado machine.  I so wished I had taken a picture of that because the boys were enthralled with the tornado.

We headed upstairs and came onto the how to produce Energy race track.  Really, this drew the boys in and we could hardly get them away.  They worked to build a car like the demo.  With an electric type engine, they could race the cars around the track.  

 Even my husband, when I told him about this, thought it was cool.

 The boys had all kinds of fun modifying their cars to race them.  Well, everyone had fun but S4 who you can see crying.  He wanted to make a car, he wanted to race a car and he really needed nap.  Fearing a breakdown, I suggested we go explore.

 Honestly, we didn't know anything about the museum and thought that the little section we were in might be it.  Oh, no!  The museum took a turn and suddenly we were engulfed in Kalamazoo history.

 The boys could not believe they got to pretend play these instruments at the Gibson Guitar section.

 The speakers played the music of the play wooden instruments and the boys acted as though they were the professionals playing.  S2 has always dreamed of playing the banjo.  I am not even joking.

 S1 looked mighty fine.

 This picture of S4 cracks me up.

 S3 was ready to write his own music.

 We wandered farther and came to the General Store.  S4 was more than slightly ecstatic that there was a checker board and didn't want to leave until he had successfully beaten his brother.

 But when we found this.......

 Everyone had to be a newscaster.  The weather was a lot of fun, the boys love watching the weather on Fox 17, as you know, and they just had so much fun playing with the weather map.

The desk?  I mean, how fun was this?!

 They were able to move the camera and pretend they were Mike Davis so to say they had a blast here would be an understatement.

The part of the museum they loved the most though, shocked Alicia and I a bit.

It was the diner.

 I don't know if it is because they don't have play kitchen sets or what, but the boys were enthralled with this diner set up.  I don't think we will be eating any food they make for awhile but, seriously, the boys had fun making up food and taking orders. 

 Even baby Callisto was in shock at their silliness.

 I mean, they were so animated it was hilarious to watch.

 You can see S2 laughing hysterically.  They all were but S2's face cracks me up.

 We had to move them away.  They were having waaaaaaaay too much fun.

There was another flight of stairs.  And at the top of the stairs was a mummy.

 To be honest, this sort of freaked S4 out a bit.  This was an ACTUAL dead person?

Yup.  Yup, it was.

But it is a dead person mummy with a TWITTER ACCOUNT!!!! Seriously. You can follow HERE.

And the boys did find this mummy to be amazingly cool.  

We headed off to the disease section and just as the boys were thinking this was going to be grossly enthralling, we heard the announcement that the museum was closing.  Where had all the time gone?

We hurried out of the building, soaked in some more glorious sunshine of the day, the boys wanted to know if New York looked as cool as downtown Kalamazoo (really, Alicia, we need to take the boys out more) and drove our suburban out of the building (aka parking garage) to head for home.

This was a small miracle.  I usually always get lost but I followed Alicia to the museum without a bit of problem and I drove home without even thinking I may be lost (Siri was there to help).  Easiest trip to and from.

We stopped at Plainwell Ice Cream for some of the world's greatest ice cream.

The boys (and their mama) arrived home exhausted but happy.

S1 emailed me.  "Sure had a lot of fun today.  Thanks."

I think that pretty much sums the whole day up.

As a mom, I was so thankful that all the exhibits were kid interactive.  The museum wanted to kids to be a part of the history, this makes it sink in even more for them.  Had we had more time, the "phones" you could pick up and listen to tell you the back story of the display would have been something the boys would have learned so much from.

When you are so used to saying, "Be careful! Don't touch that!" it was great to just let the boys explore.  THAT made the day fun.

Already the boys are wondering if we can go back again soon.  And yes, I think we shall descend upon the Kalamazoo Valley Museum again in the near future.

There is no cost to visit the museum

There is a three dollar charge for the 45 minute planetarium show

INFO

Monday - Thursday, Saturday 9am-5pmFriday 9am-9pmSunday and Holidays: 1-5pm (Closed Easter,

Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Day)

230 North Rose Street | Map + ParkingKalamazoo Michigan 49007800.772.3370 | 269.373.7990

museumstaff@kvcc.edu

Don't I Know You?

An old woman, cheery in face and sweet in demeanor, shuffled into the library with her walker.

I greeted her from my seat behind the library counter. Her face lit up. "Oh, I haven't seen you in a long time!" she said.

I had  N O   I D E A  who she was.

She must have seen that on my face.  "What is your name, honey?"

I told her.

"Oh my oh my oh my, look at you all grown up! What a pretty girl you are! My, my how time flies."

Still,  N O  I D E A who this woman was.  So I asked, "And I know you how?"

She went on to put me in a class with her girls, and then remembered I was younger than that.

But I didn't go to school in the town I work in and when she realized I wasn't who she thought I was she saddened a bit and then instantly cheered, "Well, it is a pleasure to meet you!" she smiled.  She then made my day complimenting our wonderful town library.

She was such a dear.

She settled in to wait for her family who was using the computer while I went back to work.  But her sweetness stayed with me and brought to mind a conversation I had with my husband this week.

At the beginning of the school year, I saw a girl I had gone to school with.  For the life of me I could not remember her name.  Later, it hit me but I couldn't remember if it was pronounced Cas-ee or Cay-cee. So, I just have not said hello.

In my defense, she hasn't either.

But, the thing is, I DO know who she is even if she didn't recognize me.  And it is driving me crazy to not say hello.  And why don't I say hello?  Because I can't remember the correct enunciation of her name?

Her husband dropped one of their boys off this week.  HIS name I remember.  Matt.  You can't really mess up the name MATT.  But, because I haven't talked to his wife yet...six months into the school year, how sad is THAT (and in my defense, I don't see her often)...I didn't say hello to him.

When I told my husband this, he called me out. "That was rude!" he chastised me.  My husband talks to everyone...me, not so much.  At all.

"But I couldn't be talking to him when I haven't talked to her.  That just looks so wrong!" I defended myself.

Still.

How much nice would I have been had I not said "Hey! We went to school together and now your kids go to this school? Good to see you!"  That's all I should have said because every time I think back to then, that's what I know I should have said.

I could have been nice.

Why do I have such a hard time talking with people I actually know?  A complete stranger of a woman mistook me for someone she knew and was still sweet to me.  I could learn a lot from her.

A whole lot.

Mama, You Smell....

After a day where S4 informed the school he was sick and sure to throw up at any second so our awesome school called and informed me and my friend Korene, who totally rocks and works at the school, drove him across the street to the library at where I work (and was there alone) and he then told me he may have just been hungry so he ate all my lunch because he left school to fast to grab his lunch and maybe a movie would help him feel better too....

....and he suddenly felt all better.....

We returned home.

S4 gave me a big hug....and then began sniffing.

S4 believes he can sniff out scents like an animal or a survivalist.

"Mama....you smell.  You smell like...." he sniffed harder, "Like the library. Must be cuz you are there so much."

S1 gasped. Then,  "Wait, is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"If Mama smells like a library then she smells GOOD."

Wise answer, oh young one.

Pukes NOT Pucks

(a post not for the soft stomached)

Yesterday, I left my house for the first time since Thursday morning.

After dropping the boys off at school

ON TIME

I went home to make Death by Chocolate Scones.

Then I went over the library that I love so dearly.

The library I just happen to work at.

There we ate scones, drank delicious tea from quaint tea cups with saucers and watched this movie.

I so love this movie.

I really love the book as well.

While I have read it before, I never did finish the book in time for this book club.

It was a grand time.

After the movie and chat (we are going to stick with reading woman authors and taking suggestions), we decided to read Little Women next.  My ultimate favorite book.  And Alice hasn't read it and this makes me a wee bit worried about her. ;)

After all that girl time, I picked the boys up from school and we headed to Meijer so they could spend the Christmas money that has been burning holes in their pockets.

S1 loaded up on clearanced hunting gear, and was shocked d things can add up to $45 dollars rather quickly.  He was nearly ready to get in an argument with the cashier, but she was right, not him.

S2 got BB's, air soft bullets, nerf bullets and a target.

S3 got a new game for his Leapster and a case to carry his Leapster.  It was fun to hear him say, "YES! Now I can do subtraction!"

S4 found himself a lego boat he can use in the tub (can it get any better?) and sunglasses.

I was thankful I had some girl time earlier in the day.

But it wasn't long after we were home that S1 informed me he wasn't feeling well, and it wasn't long after that he was puking.

It's been years since he has been this sick, since his Boar hunt, actually.

I don't handle puke well.

Like, at all.

Husband does things like that shockingly well.

I can change diapers, I can clean disgusting things, I can do most anything.

But not puke.

As we heard S1 puking throughout the night, husband (exhausted from hours of plowing and hours of fixing plow trucks) said sleepily, "Go help him."

To which I - and yes, I feel some shame in admitting this - said, "What am I going to do? Just let him puke it out and fall back asleep."

Yah, I'm that kind of a mom.

At around one in the morning, S2 came down and began puking too.

Thankfully, we have two buckets.

This morning I wrote a facebook status bemoaning the fact that I had puking boys.

But I wrote PUCK instead of PUKE.

Which is funny to me, hilarious really, and that could be because of my lack of sleep and the fact that I have been dealing with puke for nearly two weeks on and off.

I could well be sick of pucks.

Because this is a picture of my boys over the weekend.

And people know my boys well enough to know that they COULD have pucks IN the house and how that always seems to turn out.

I'd so much rather have that then this.

My poor sick boys.  I am bleaching and lysoling and hoping that I don't catch this bug at all.

Say a prayer for us.
Say a prayer that I can handle dumping buckets of puke.  I know that sounds awful, but it's really hard on me.  And my two oldest boys are as pale as the snow and lifeless today, I feel so awful for them.

My Boys Asked Santa if He Drinks Beer

Today, I get to go to work and work with SANTA....I really know him!

It's bound to be a memorable day...because last year when the boys met Santa, they asked him if he drank beer.

I wasn't sure if Santa would come back...or ever take the boys off the naughty list...but he did take them off in time for Christmas last year and he is coming back.  And my boys will be there ready to chat with him again.

But all day, I'll be waiting for it to happen all over again.

Here is last years incident........

Sunday, December 19, 2010

My Boys Asked Santa if He Drinks Beer

On Saturday, our awesome little library received a call from Santa Claus asking if he could stop in and say hello to all the good little boys and girls in our town. Our librarian sweetly told him that cookies and good boys and girls would await him. On Saturday morning, Santa flew his reindeer into town, bedded them down at one of the farms and hitched a ride with a farmer just to say hello to all the good boys and girls at the library.

Then he met my boys.

Our boys have never sat on Santa's lap. They are not sure about the whole Santa thing and the last two years we have just sort of gone along with the fun, not really mentioning Santa but not saying Santa isn't real either.

Well, S4 is convinced. Santa is real. He knows this because

A. Santa has a real beard (Not like the one on Elf who has a fake beard).

B. He has Santa's signature. Really, he does.

It was fun to see Santa walk in, watch all the boys and girls eyes get huge and run up to him to hug him and just be in awe that Santa was THERE, in the SAME ROOM as them...in the library they visit EVERY Saturday for story hour!

Because shyness soon swept over the kids, Santa began to flip through a book that was laying out on one of the study tables. My youngest two (only three of them came along, S1 was busy helping Daddy with wood) were sneaking alongside Santa, not saying a whole lot.

Yet.

This was the book Santa looked at....

Santa mentioned he remembered drinking Coke out of a glass bottle but he supposed that these little boys next to him didn't remember that.

S3 chirped right up. "No, but you can drink beer out of a bottle."

I.

Nearly.

Died.

"Yah!" S4 agreed, "You can! WE can't drink beer but sometimes our Daddy can."

"Yah, but not so much anymore." S3 added. "Do YOU drink beer, Santa?"

They.

Did.

Although I wanted to haul them out and....wait, no, I wanted to NOT claim them.

Do you drink beer, Santa?

Santa realized he probably needed to find a seat and sit down and try to leave this conversation. But the boys kept up with him, continuing to chatter away at Santa. He finally told them that, "No, Santa does not drink beer. It would be a crazy ride with the reindeer if he did and that just would not be good."

I hurriedly tried to get the boys to color pictures and let the other kids get some time with Santa. It took some doing. But I think I might have seen a look of relief in Santa's eyes. And maybe even a "I'll be sure to bring a little something special for you dealing with these boys all the time" wink. (well, I can hope!)

Then S3 asked for a BB gun. I hoped Santa said no...he didn't say yes so that is good. Santa did tell him he seemed young, he couldn't be shooting helpless animals or brothers. S3 informed him you CAN shoot birds. Santa told him he couldn't. S3 disagreed. I am pretty sure it won't be under the tree from Santa.

And then S4 asked for a "Piddow Pet" and if he can't find one, they are at Target. Lots and lot of them. Then S4 let him know there would be cookies and chocolate milk and white milk waiting for him and special sparkly oatmeal for his reindeer he arrived.

If he gets here.

And there won't be beer.