BOB Books

One of my favorite blogs is Clover Lane.  The writer is a stay at home mom with 6 kids.  She often has good reminders about how kids don't need to be involved in everything or have lots of 'stuff' to be happy.  A lot of the blogs I read are just for fun, but I've actually learned and taken things from her blog. 

I learned about BOB Books from her.  They are box sets of simple, little books that are designed to help kids learn to read.  The first book is called Mat.  It goes like this..

Mat

Mat sat. Sam.

Sam sat. Mat sat. Sam sat.

Mat sat on Sam. Sam sat on Mat. 

Mat sat. Sam sat. The End.

You get the point.  They are simple and the pictures coordinate with the words.  Miles and I read through the first book, Mat, last night and sounded out the words.  Then, he read it all by himself.  After that, he read the second book called Sam.  I was so proud of him...and he was so happy. We decided to start on the third book called Dot.  And here's where I discovered that he wasn't really reading the words, only looking at the pictures and guessing correctly.....that is until Dot.  It went like this....

"Dot." 

"Dot has a magnifying glass."

Busted.

Randomness

From time to time, it's necessary to blog about complete randomness in order to get the pictures off my memory cards and my phone. And since I don't have much to discuss tonight, it seems like a good time for a photo dump.  Here we go...

This kid loves to work...

I wish I could bottle up his enthusiasm and save it for his teenage years.

One of his favorite things to do is to build a fire with Darrin.  That is definitely a "boy" job in our house.  They deal with the firewood, start the fires, stoke the fire, clean the ashes out, etc.  I just enjoy it.  This is a picture from the first fire we had in our house... 

I thought I would take a picture in case fires turned out to be a cool thing for us, and they have.  Miles thinks they are the greatest thing ever.

It's official, Miles eats as much as I do on a regular basis.  Tonight, the portions on our plates looked exactly the same.  We had grilled chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, and a salad.  He cleaned his plate, starting with his salad.  Then, he ate some shrimp that I was getting ready for tomorrow night's dinner.  The key to a non-picky eater is no juice/tea/soda and no snacking.  He's always hungry when he sits down, so he eats whatever is in front of him.

We had a big meeting at work the other day and my friend, Melanie, and I showed up in coordinating outfits.  I have a couple friends that I seem to do this with a lot and she is definitely one of them...

That makes me think of this ecard...so funny...and true...

What?  You don't take pictures of your kids during a meltdown??

In case you are wondering, he had shepherds' staffs painted on his cheeks from Sunday School and I tried to wash them off when we got home.  I didn't realize that they were sacred. I learned my lesson.  Darrin would say that he gets his cry face from me...

If you are a bath person like me, this is the greatest stuff ever.  Big shout out to Ms. Donna for the recommendation.  The directions say to use 1.5-2 cups.  I've tried to use less in order to make it last longer, but it's not as good, especially if you have a deep bathtub.  Try it & let me know what you think.

I've been feeling a tad stressed lately and I'm sure some of you can relate.  This is what I repeat when I am stressed....

Well, that's all I've got.  I feel sufficiently caught up and my memory cards are clear.  I didn't give in to the Bachelor last night BTW.  Darrin goes out of town this weekend, so maybe I'll just get caught up then.  If you are still reading, thanks for hanging with my randomness!

Long Day

I started my day at work at 6am.  It was pitch black when I left home.  I have been so busy at work lately, so being off today wasn't ideal.  Of course I'm happy to take care of Miles, but I really needed to go into work for a few hours, look over my to do list, and mark a few things off.  I bet I can count on one hand the number of times I've blogged about work in the last five years.  I'm not sure why that is b/c it's a big part of my life.

A few facts about my job...  I've been working there for 12 years, 10 years as the Marketing Manager.  There are seven full time, and one part time, employees in our Marketing department.  I was the second person hired and we've grown from there.  Our company has 30 bank offices, and we also operate many other divisions, such as Insurance, Mortgage, Consumer Finance, Indirect Lending, Investments, to name a few.  Our department handles the marketing for the entire company.  January is one of our busiest months b/c we are planning and implementing new marketing plans for the year.  Lots of meetings and presentations.  This is my office, which I love....

I work 5 minutes from home.  I love what I do on most days.  It's not without it's frustrations, but no job is.  I am very close with my work friends, especially everyone in our department.  They make my job great.  

I do miss Miles a lot while I'm at work, but I can't imagine our life any other way than how we function.  I'm confident that it works for all three of us.  With that said, I enjoy randomly being home with him, even if it is to take care of him while he's sick.  When I walked in the door from work at 8am, he was bouncing off the walls as if nothing was wrong.  He's pretty much been that way all day.  His eyes look a little weak, but he hasn't run fever today.  He has taken it easy, including a good nap, so he should be ready for school tomorrow.

And now for the most random thought of the day.  I lost the button off of one of my winter coats about two weeks ago.  I searched the garage and my car with no luck.  I found it today in the refrigerator, in my garage, wedged up in a plastic shelf on the door.  I told you it was random, but seriously...how strange is that??  I guess it pulled it off as I reached for a water on my way out the door to work.  Weird.

One more random thought...we got our electric bill today.  Holy moly.  It's the bill that covers the coldest month I can remember in many years.  If you live in Tennessee and haven't gotten your bill yet, brace yourself.  

I managed to clean out my pantry, clean my home email inbox, cook, type my grocery list...yes, type, and iron some clothes, all in between games of I Spy Snap, Crazy 8s, reading books, and tent making.  Darrin is working late tonight, so the plan is to get Miles in bed a little early and settle in for some serious TV watching.  Doesn't that sound amazing??  I'm trying to avoid getting sucked into the Bachelor, but the recorded episodes on my DVR just might ruin me tonight.

Weekend Wrap Up

It's been a good weekend around here.  Friday night, I needed to do some shopping in Paducah, so I asked a couple friends if they wanted to go, b/c shopping is so much more fun with friends.  Christa was able to go. 

It's unusual that our schedules worked out b/c her husband is a coach too & they have two little kiddos.  We had so much fun and it was good to have a night out.  I bought a few things, but nothing off my list.  Isn't that how it works...when you have a list and some money, you don't find anything??  We drove all the way home in the pouring rain and didn't get home until after midnight.  We were both exhausted.

Saturday was chore day around the house.  The weather was warmer and we needed to play a little catch up from the holidays and frigid temps.  The boys cut a lot of firewood...

...and I did a ton of laundry.  It's strange, but I love Saturdays like this, where we just work around the house.  I like for all three of us to be home and I really like being productive.

Oh, and this happened...

Darrin had on jeans and got hot, so he changed to shorts, but left on this tall khaki socks with his shorts & tennis shoes.  I told him that he should be starring in the Dad Life video.  Please tell me you've seen it.  If not, do yourself a favor and watch it now. This blog can wait. My favorite parts are the splash pad & when he throws his back out dancing at the end. Identifiable to say the least.

Even though Darrin was comfortable in shorts, Miles was dressed for Alaska.

After the chores were finished, we watched football for the rest of the day & night.  Last year, we were moving in the rental during football playoffs and did not have our satellite installed yet.  It was so very sad.  This year, I'm actually checking the calendar and making sure nothing interferes with the playoff games. 

Miles & I have both been under the weather today.  I have a slight cold and I'm doing all I can to keep it from getting bad....Airborne, vitamin C, Sudafed, Aleve, honey, nasal rinse....  Miles is a different story.  He was fine most of the day, but started running a fever tonight.  He went downhill quickly.  Darrin can't stay home tomorrow, so I'm going in to work from 6-8am just to look over things and then come home and spend the day with him.

Despite feeling lousy, I managed to clean out his playroom this morning.  My method is to dump it all in a big pile and then sort through it.  There are just so many little pieces...

Miles was being a little hoarder.  He was clearly not down with my plan to purge...

He played with the neighbor girls this afternoon.  In this pic, he is pacing the backyard, waiting for an invitation b/c he was too shy to invite himself.  I later found out that there were seven girls there....and Miles.  He said he didn't play with the girls.  I later confirmed that he in fact did not play with them, and instead spent his time talking to Mr. John and playing with their dog.

More football this afternoon.  We bought Miles this NFL helmet set b/c it's about time he starts learning the teams.  Only the most important matters in our house.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  I'm off to watch the best show on TV...the Good Wife.  Night!

Dentist Appointment

Miles had his second dentist appointment today.  He did great at his first appointment, but wouldn't let them clean his teeth with the thing that rotates and cleans.  They recommended that we get an electric toothbrush to help him get used to the feel and sound of it.  It worked like a charm and he let them today...

Darrin took him b/c the dentist is his in our division of labor, since he has more time off work than I do.  He said that Miles was perfect during the entire visit.  He let them x-ray, clean, and floss.  The dentist says he has great teeth.  Miles watched Wreck It Ralph while they cleaned and said that the toy glider they gave him is the "best toy ever".  Apparently, Santa is dead to him.

Happy New Year

We rang in the new year with 3 other couples playing games and hanging out.  I actually stayed awake until after 2am, which is a total surprise.  We played Telestrations, Moods, Imaginiff, Boxers & Briefs, and cards.  That's my kind of party. 

The kids did pretty well, especially considering that we kept them up WAY past their bedtime.  I discovered this morning that they have a tape fetish.  They made a parent "trap" using numerous rolls of scotch tape.  No harm done, just a little work to get it off everything this morning.  I kind of saw what they were doing last night but chose to ignore it so we could play games.  Small trade off, in my opinion.  The kids definitely provided the best pictures of the night...

After a night of fun, it was time to say goodbye...

Happy New Year, friends!  I hope 2014 is a great one.