That's my boy(s) !

Richard and Nate changed the tire on my Civic yesterday. It was cold!!



Don't you love those holes in his jeans!

He is so cute in that hat!! You too Richard:)

Pysanky Eggs

At the MOPS group Chris, Amanda, and I attend we do a craft once a month. This past week we made these Ukranian eggs called Pysanky.

The first picture is what a professional pysanky-maker would do. The next pics are of what my egg looked like! It is very hard to draw on an egg! I felt like one of my preschool students trying to trace letters!!

After applying the wax and dipping the egg in the expensive dyes you melt off the wax and wipe down the egg. As I was doing the last step, I reached across the table to get another paper towel and ........

I dropped the egg on the table and cracked it! **sob** Oh well.....

It was fun learning how to do this and I have so much awe for this art form! I still have the egg on my counter wondering when the stink will start. The lady teaching this class on Monday said as long as the eggs are not cracked the yolk will eventually dry and the egg will last forever(as long as no one touches it!) I am curious how long my cracked one will last....but it isn't oozing so maybe it will just dry up as well???

How sweet.....

This is the card Nate made for Richard and I on Valentine's Day. We were both deeply touch by his sentiment! This is from the child who only says "I love you" about 2 times a month. He gives hugs -no kisses. Just not the overly affectionate type like Sophia. He can be so loving a sweet when he wants!!

Then the next week he gets to write something not so sweet. He has a folder the teacher sends home each day with their behavior indicated by a color. Green means they were good all day. If they are asked 3 times to stop a behavior they move their clip to yellow, then orange(each move has another consequence) and finally red. The teacher circles the color they were on that day and then we sign the folder and return it. I love being able to communicate with his teacher in this way. So last week he gets on ORANGE! I couldn't believe it! I ask him what happened and he wouldn't tell me. So I get his folder out and she said "Nate got hooked on the word 'butt-fart' and wouldn't stop saying it". I first wanted to laugh but didn't because this was a serious matter! I let him know I was dissappointed and asked for more details about the day. Some other friend at school started saying it and then Nate and another boy just kept it going. They all got their clip moved! Boys!

I didn't know what to do...what to do....wash his mouth out with soap? Then I remembered reading on a blog how a mother handled her children't foul mouths. She said if they like using the swear word so much then they could spend a lot of time with it. So she would make them write the word they were saying 500 times. I thought that might be good for Nate....but I only had him write it 100 times. He was frustrated at first but kept going and then was proud of himself for finishing....not sure if that was the feeling I was going for! I am proud that he followed through with an assignment though. I sure hope he didn't brag at school to his friends how he wrote that word 100 times! Oh well....

I I was going to post this last week and make the title "what does 100 'butt-fart' 's look like?"....so have you ever wondered that? now you know!

What's the weather??

We went to check out the Coca-Cola Science Museum yesterday while the kids were out of school. It was pretty fun! One section allowed the kids to be the weatherman. They could stand in front of the green screen and see themselves on the TV. Then they had this blue sheet that wouldn't show up on the screen....so you could drape it over your head and be invisible or just have your head showing and it would look like were part of the storm! That is what I think Nate is doing above. It was a fun day!

Digging Holes

The kids and a friend from our street have been digging holes. They started out at the friend's house but I asked them to move across the street where no one lived....because I wasn't sure Wesley's mom would want a hole in her backyard. They worked on one of the holes for 2 days(the one Nate's is standing in). Then Sophia asked for some seeds. We found some old squash seeds and she happily took them down to the holes along with a limb from our rose bush(the one that will grow if you put one of its limbs in the ground...the only kind we can successfully grow!). Sophia LOVES to plant!! Then she came back for a watering can and some plant food(the blue jug). It was so funny to see them out digging. Today they told me if they had some cement the holes were going to be a swimming pool. I remember having those kinds of dreams!

Power of the Transformer

I typed this whole post in what I thought was our family blog but it was really Richard's blog...so read it here.

(with the brown background you can't see that the word "here" is highlighted and underlined so if you click on it-it will take you to the post:))

This was the first one really....

I was fiddling with my scrapbook software last night and came across this page and then remembered that I had made this one. I looked some more and found some I made with Christmas pictures also! ha! This one went well but the problem I am having now is the graphics(like that tag with the ribbon) appears SO large. I thought I figured out why but now it is still doing it. I did find a user's guide for the program on-line and printed it off. I am hoping it gives me some answers!



Maybe I should start my own scrapbooking blog like Trudy has at TJ's closet but what would I call it.....marykatesmessycomputerdeskscrapbookingnook?

My first digital scrapbook page!

This is VERY exciting and what a relief! i have been battling with my mind trying to learn new computer language and a new computer program and getting mad at my VISTA for "maybe" causing some problems!(gotta blame it on something, right?)

I know this page isn't that exciting but completing some of the process is the "YAHOO!" part! I am learning how to resize my pages, export them to jpg format, and now hopefully I will learn how to upload them to the digitalscrapbooking.com website! There is a New Kid On The Block contest starting tomorrow and I hope I can participate in it! Now I am feeling like I can since I figured out this!

OK...enough of that. Gotta go practice my new knowledge! ha! It leaves me so fast these days!!