4 Paones

You can tell these two kids had fun yesterday! They were exhausted after being out all day, but they’ve been talking about it ever since. Thanks, Aunt Valorie and Aunt Denise. You’re the best!

I thought about it, but once again, I just couldn’t do it. Black Friday scares me and the thought of braving lines, crowds and deals (that really aren’t that great if you play the line and rush game). I did a little internet shopping from the safety of bed. Some day I will join the masses and get all the good savings, but… not today!

What a day! The good news is that after attending my little girl’s open house at school, I found out that besides enjoying her school and trying her best to get all “E’s”, she’s quite a friendly little things and has made friends of most of her classmates. That was nice! The “not so nice” side of things is that I found out I don’t have all the paperwork I needed, so V may end up having to sit out of school for a few days to a week until everything gets sorted out. Ah, well… I was close to tears trying to sort all this out and making multiple trips to V’s doctor, only to find that there is a lot of red tape involved with the paperwork I need. Justin saved the day with his sensible solutions and level headed… “It’s not the end of the world” encouragement. Lesson learned (of do your research). Live and learn — Arg!

My travels are usually fairly problem free. Sure, they’re usually well planned, but in general, you get to the airport, go through security, make your flight, voila.
So yesterday, I figure, give it an hour for a domestic flight, no problemo. I arrive at the airport to a slightly longer line than usual, thanks to the recent Continental/United merger, but, still, no problem. I have 45 minutes and should be “close,” but fine. Until the nice lady who goes through the line to find out if you’re in the right line tells me my flight is actually a US Airways Flight, not Continental, which leaves from another terminal altogether. I take off running down two flights of stairs, catch the shuttle and am standing at the US Airways check in, 10-15 minutes later, only to have the attendant tell me I only have 3 minutes to check in before my seat is given to someone else. I am feeling very lucky as I breeze through security and make it safely to Phoenix where I have an hour and a half to kill beforemy next flight. So I buy a latte on my way to the right gate where I sit for the next hour (and a half) before I realize, my plane is still not there. I finally ask when my plane is expected in, only to be told that the gate has changed. I race to the new gate and find the gate already closed. Thankfully, they let me in anyways and I miraculously make the flight to San Diego. :p. Anyways, I am finally here in San Diego, chilling and hanging out with friends before I head further south in a few days. I will, in case you were wondering, be taking my travels much more seriously on the way home. And… California weather is Heaven!!! I’m sure you already knew that.

Do you know anyone with a missionary background who is heading back to school? Let them know about this scholarship program — The In Recognition of Service Scholarship program. Very nice!

Our two year is at that stage in life when tantrums are a daily occurrence. Lately though, he’s been interjecting his own lyrics and words into his tantrums. The other day he starts jumping up and down hollering over some injustice and he yells out “BOING! BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.” And then last night,  as Nadia is cleaning the room with the kids, he got angry over something his sister did and started hollering away.  In the midst of his hollering they hear him scream “BAD TO THE BONE!” and then continue screaming.  (the lyrics to his favorite Megamind song). That one may just be a rock star one day.

Our two year old idolizes his older sister and copies everything she does. Yesterday they were playing hide and go seek. We kept hearing these girly shrieks and screams. So Nadia  finally tells  him, “You are a little boy. Can you scream like a boy?” He didn’t think twice as he belted out a loud and terrible “BBBBOOOOOOOOYYYYY!!!!!” scream. That one gives us some good laughs.

With a daughter fast approaching school age, finding the right school and set up is one of the big weights on my mind. It doesn’t help that every day a new article blares the news that the school budgets are being slashed, teachers are being laid off, extra-curricular activities are be cut and so on. This article from the Wall Street Journal entitled “If Supermarkets Were Like Public Schools” is amusing and makes me hope and pray that the day comes soon when major (positive) changes come to our Public School System.

Violet’s gotten really into this science book explaining the Human Body.  We got to the page with a big diagram of the human heart and she asks… “Mom, so where does Jesus live in this heart?” I thought of how to explain that one, but then simply pointed to one of the compartments and said, “Probably right here in this little blue room.” Heh. What are you going to say to a 4 year old?