I Heart Craigslist!

Thanks to Craigslist my kids can once again watch PBS! We scanned the adds a couple of days and even went to look at a TV last Friday. The girl had an earlier person though who said they would pay 75 for the TV if she would hold it. We said no thanks, we didn't want to match or beat. Then Sunday we saw a TV listed for 20 bucks. Thanks to the switch to digital airwaves and flat screen monitors people are willing to say goodbye to good TVs for a lot less. We called up the girl and are now the proud owners of a new to us 27 inch TV. The picture quality is good and we are happy! Craigslist makes it possible to never pay retail again. Hurray.

A Day In The Life...

Dr. J has recently started rotations and so I feel like I've almost entered real life (real life being not school life :) Here is what today looks like

5:00 - The alarm goes off. Dr. J hits snooze. I start nursing Peach.
5:09 - I ask if he is getting up. Yes he says.
5:20 - Peach is moved to her crib so mom and dad can have some alone time.
5:30 - Obviously not a lot of time was needed (TMI I know but this is married life with three kids people). Dr. J hits the shower, I put on work out clothes and go for a quick jog.
5:55 - I come home and pack a quick lunch, Dr. J leaves for the VA Hospital an hour away.
6:00-6:20- I do some light weights.
6:20-6:35 - Shower
6:40 - I crawl back in bed for a twenty minute snooze.
7:00 - Back to nursing Peach.
7:20 - Start yelling at the kids to get out of bed.
7:20-8:10 - Get G Bear, Big E, and Peach dressed, hair done, and teeth brushed.
8:10-8:25 - Feed the kids cinnamon toast, milk, and fruit.
8:25-8:35 - Drive Big E to school. Walk him in since he is still a little wary about the whole thing.
8:40-2:30 - Free time. Wash dishes, mop floor. Read books to G Bear. Organize dresser. Nurse Peach a zillion more times. Check e-mail. Write Blog. Nurse Peach again. Play games with G Bear. Dance to music with G Bear. Make lunch. Load kids into the car to pick up Big E from school.
2:30-3:10 - Drive to school and wait in crazy line with other parents. Unload kids, walk to school doors, pick up E, load kids in car drive home.
3:40-5:30 - Play with E and G. Feed Peach some more.
5:30-6:00 - Start dinner. Dr. J comes home. Wants to go for a bike ride to unwind.
6:00-6:30 - eat
6:30-7:30 - entertain children
7:30-8:30 - Try and wrestle kids into pjs and into bed.
8:30-10:00 - Nurse Peach. Read trashy book. Listen to Dr. J complain about how he can't get anything done because he has to entertain the kids after he gets home (the result of having him watch them Tuesday night while I went to a woman's group).
10 - pass out so I can do it all over again in the morning.

Despite all this I've decided I'm a school mom. I love the schedule. Summer is fun, but you sleep late, you don't eat until nine, don't get dressed until ten, spend all your time at the pool, and never clean your house. School days might be stressful but by 8:35 everyone is dressed, has eaten, and is gone. Chores get done. Meals get made. And you have more time to work on doing cool projects. This week I had some picture printed off. I framed them and hung them up in my living room next to my papyrus of the judgment. They turned out pretty awesome. When I pulled them out at Sam's to check them out, and said, "Cool." The photo lady said, "Oh we loved these. We usually don't make comments about people's pictures, but we all definitely liked these ones." If you are looking for a place to get big prints Sam's is an awesome place to do it. For each 11 by 16 I only paid two dollars and change.

Day 2

Today E gets in the car. I ask him if he talked today. He said, "No." I told him, "Everyone is scared when they go to Kindergarten. Even your friend T said he was scared." He says, "I'm not scared I just don't want to talk." Mom is a basket case.

Kindergarten

Today my oldest went to his first day of kindergarten. Last night Dr. J gave him a beautiful father's blessing. He blessed him that he would love learning, that he would be a good example, and that he would have good experiences and make good friends. We then tucked him into bed. Little E asked his dad to cuddle with him and tell him stories about his first day of kindergarten. Of course Dr. J told him he didn't let his mom walk him in. He also told him that he wrote his name in all capitals and the teacher asked him to write it with lower case letters. At this point little E started shaking. He said, "We need to practice doing that. I don't know how to do that." This is of course not completely true. I originally taught him to write his name that way, but when he learned capitals he never wanted to go back. Anyway back to last night he was shaking and asked his dad to cuddle him. This morning he woke up and put his uniform on. I asked him if he wanted to wear shorts. He told me no. I then asked him to come downstairs for breakfast. He told me he didn't want cereal because it would take to long. He then ate raisin bran. It was one of those mornings. After a quick picture, I loaded him up in the car along with G-bear and Peach. We drove to the school and like his dad 25 years before he just jumped out of the car and walked in the doors. To G-bears distress mom instantly started crying. I pulled it together enough to drive home, where the thought of him at school is enough to tear me up. I'm excited for my son but I'm also nervous for him. It seems like all the anxiety I had as a child is now magnified in my parent state. At one point this morning the school called. The conversation went like this. "Hi Mrs ____, this is so-n-so from _____ school, everything is OK." At which point I'm thinking, why are you calling than. "We just wanted to know if Little E would eat a hamburger for lunch. We've asked him but he isn't talking much." "Is he talking at all," I asked? "Well really not a whole lot. He's being rather shy, but don't worry he will start up soon enough." "Well he should eat a hamburger," I tell him. She says, "Great," and hangs up. I start to cry. Dr. J left this morning at 5:50 for the first day of his internal medicine rotation in a town an hour away. I have to say I'm relieved he isn't here to see how hard it is for me not to hoover.

RIP TV

Our children killed out TV. First they put high power magnets on it. That pulled the color and we ended up with two huge circles that only had the color green on the screen. For three weeks we've been watching it like that. Then they killed the attached VCR. We think they got a movie stuck and tried to pull it out. The VCR now thinks there is a movie in but when it won't play it shuts the TV off after about ten seconds. It is dead. I remember when we got that TV seven years ago. We'd just gotten married and didn't have a TV. At the time we really didn't need one. With school, work, and a new marriage we were plenty busy :) One weekend though our father in law came into town and asked what sports my husband had watched lately. Dr. J said well not a whole lot, we don't have a TV. Papa Bryant called us from the road the next day to tell us he'd left us a little gift at his sisters. We went by and it was the TV. Since then it has become a part of our family. With our income dates are few and far between but we got a netflix subscription and we have a weekly date night on the couch. Need a Sunday nap, put on a veggie tales and veg out on the couch next the kids. So it was a sad day. What activities can you do without a TV?

Lots of reading. Thank goodness for the library.
Bike rides.
Play at the playground.
Art projects, although this ended in a door covered in stick people when mom had to go nurse the baby.
Dancing to music.
Dress up.
Playing with toys. I don't know why but our kid just don't like their own toys.

It has been ok, although there was one point where Little E wanted to watch a movie and kept screaming, "Plug it in. Plug it in." I have friends that never watch TV but I'll fully admit I miss it. I miss having a second to get something done while the kids watch a movie. I also miss the extra noise. I told Dr. J cleaning the living room up isn't nearly so fun when I don't have some background noise :) Plus there goes our weekend movie night. We watched "Taken" on our portable DVD player last night. Let's just say thrillers aren't nearly so thrilling on nine inches of screen. I think it is time to check out Craigslist.

Jealous

I have to admit I'm totally jealous. When I was a kid I had this list of things I wanted to do in my life...one involved being in an article in National Geographic. My awesome little sister happens to be down in Peru right now working digging out mummies for a professor at her school. This morning she sent me this.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090714-peru-chotuna-video-ap.html

She is the one in the brown t-shirt. It isn't an article but it is pretty darn close! Congrats Jo-Jo!

Harry Potter

The sixth Harry Potter movie is out today. I'm trying to figure out if I can sneak a viewing in. I wonder what my baby sitter would think of being stuck with my five week old. Shoot!