If she had the proper words to say,

This is the second morning in a row where I've been dreaming of a banana and a glass of milk in the last few minutes of my sleep. Actually dreaming of them.

When I was very young (6 or so), I would spend the summers with my Granny and Pawpaw in Borger, Texas. They liked to get up early every morning and be at the local Recreation Center by 6am. Most mornings, Granny would rouse me from my bed in the guest room, and I would sleepily stumble into the kitchen. I'd sit at the little table, and Pawpaw would fix me a glass of milk with a banana in it. I'd eat it with a spoon! And sometimes, we'd be running late, and the two of them would have me eat it in the car along the way.

I remember that so vividly. Milk and bananas always make me think of Granny and Pawpaw. How I miss them in the morning. :-(

A couple weeks ago was the school year's last 'Breakfast & A Book' morning, that I attended. The busy school activities kicked into HIGH gear this week, however, and there seemed to be something every day!

On Tuesday, I went to school early in the morning again for 'Muffins with Mom.' A.J. and I chose banana nut muffins, while Jack had a chocolate chocolate chip muffin. This event was well-attended, and there were probably 30-some mothers there with their children. In fact, the library was so packed that they boys and I chose a place on the carpet in a corner of the book aisles. We ate our muffins, drank our juice, and then browsed the Book Fair set-up. It was a nice time, and I was glad to see so much participation this time.

On Wednesday, Philip and I had both taken the day off from work, and I made sack lunches for the entire family. We carted the lunches up to the school at noon, and we began eating with Jack's classroom. Ten minutes later, A.J.'s class came down for lunch, and instead of sitting with the 5th graders, he joined us at the 1st grade tables (I asked his teacher for permission, and she had said it was fine). The four of us jabbered on, and Jack's classmates asked us lots of questions. I packed identical lunches for Philip and myself as I normally do for the boys on cold lunch days, and I learned that it's WAY TOO MUCH FOOD! (A sandwich, chips, fruit cup, pudding cup, milk, and a juice box.) I was *so* stuffed when I finished everything! The boys' lunchtimes are 40 minutes long, and they are supposed to eat for 20 minutes, and then finish with recess for 20 minutes. Because we were there, both of the boys stayed longer and spent the extra time with us. It was a really pleasant time, and I'm glad we both got to attend together. There were five or six other parents around, but most of the cafeteria kids seemed shocked that BOTH of A.J. and Jack's parents were there! :-)

Wednesday afternoon, we attended parent-teacher conferences. Philip went to A.J.'s, and I headed to Jack's. Both of the boys are doing so well, and it's always fun to hear good stuff about your kids, right? Jack's teacher was just glowing about his creative writing, as well as her HAL recommendation for him. Since third grade, A.J. has been in the HAL program (High Ability Learner), so we're familiar with those standards and weren't surprised. It's awesome news for Jack! I could go into a bit more detail about Jack's conference, but it doesn't seem quite fair... as Philip wasn't quite as prolific about the nitty-gritty details of A.J.'s conference. ;-)

On Thursday morning, Philip took the boys to school early again, this time for 'Donuts with Dad.' He said there were probably 15 fathers there, and that he had a good time. He took along books, and they were able to read just a bit before the bell.

Thursday evening, we ate dinner a bit earlier than usual, and then skidded out the door to head to the skating rink. We arrived about half an hour late for the 'Pirate Skate,' but we got right into the action. Students were encouraged to come in pirate garb, so Jack wore his well-used, homemade pirate costume once more. (I made him leave the sword at home, as well as his holster. I also made him drop his eye patch to just around his neck each time he entered the skating floor. I figured he needed all the depth perception he could get!) Jack really took to the rink this time, and by the end of the evening (only 1.5 hours later), he was skating with good speed in the center of the track (as opposed to having a death-grip on the wall). He was probably falling once in each lap, but he'd just pop right back up every time. A.J. improved his skill as well, gaining more speed, but still clinging anxiously to the side. Philip and I made a promise to ourselves to bring the boys skating more often - after all, how else will they learn the skill and become better if we keep bringing them so sporadically?

Close to the end of the night, the rink did some drawings for prizes. I heard them call out, "Jack!" and yelped in excitement while skating, but then the DJ finished, "From the 2nd grade." Well, poop. After calling out three more winners, however, the last name rung out, "Jack! From the 1st grade!" And I whooped again, clapped and cheered as our Jack made his way to the music stand. His prize included a lollipop, a free drink coupon, and a free skate pass - neat! Once he claimed his prize, he headed back out on the floor. While Philip, A.J. and I were still standing at the music stand, the DJ yelled out to announce a Grand Prize drawing... and it was, "A.J.! From the 5th grade!" And we were ecstatic again! A.J. was right under the guy's nose as he called out his name over the loudspeakers, and then he went to the front desk to claim his prize: a GIANT bag of candy, and a free skate pass, too.

Sweet! Philip and I quickly giggled about really having no excuse not to bring them skating again now - they both had won free passes, even! :-)

And Friday? No school - yay!

Also, we received a note home at the beginning of the month that a piece of Jack's artwork had been chosen to hang in the Lied Activity Center here in Bellevue. Each year, the local schools create a mural of student artwork, and it was an honor for one of his pieces to be chosen to hang proudly. Jack has played in his second year of the Lied's indoor soccer league, and after his game one morning, we strolled upstairs to try and find his piece.


Jack with his artwork.

( Two more pics. )

School-wise, this week should be pretty quiet. Home-wise? This week is gonna FLY! :-)

Today is 'Push Through Laundry' Day. For the first time in ages, I've not done the laundry every other day or so. In fact, I've not done the laundry since last Saturday, so I've got FIVE loads to do. Both hampers were completely full in the closet this morning! The first load is in the dryer now, and the second is in the washer. Jack's soccer shirt is in that second load, so I have to be sure that it makes it to the dryer ASAP - he needs it for his game this afternoon at 2pm.

I'm such a slacker. I'm not, usually, but I certainly was with the laundry this week. I also know that I'm not going to want to put away this many clothes at one time later this evening when they're all clean and I've got Mt. Clotherest on my bed.

I had M&Ms for breakfast. They were yummy at the time, but my tummy is trying to decide right now if they were worth it. Probably should've gone ahead and eaten the banana I'd planned to first. Hmm.

I just spent the last hour figuring out how to add a 'tag' index to my journal. I've seen tags listed on lots of different journal types, but I wanted a scroll bar for my own, knowing that I've used a lot of tags already (and I can foresee the list only getting longer).

Once I did that, I also added a tags scrollbar to draco_hermione, but I had to re-up it to paid status to do so. A couple of months ago, I spent about a week tagging back through tons of old entries there, trying to make it much easier to find works by title, author or rating, but I kinda lost steam when I couldn't figure out how to add the tags to the sidebar. Since the community's layout is 'Flexible Squares' and my own is 'Component,' I had to do some tweaking and learning. It's all fixed now, and there are many more tags in that community, so the scrollbar was a necessity.

/geek speak

The boys went to bed early again tonight. All this playing in the snow really wears them out, I think. I went grocery-shopping this afternoon and bought three walk-out carts full (the shelved dollies that they bring your stuff out to your car on), and it was only $212, including the tip! I was pleasantly surprised. I'd not done a big shopping trip in a long while - since the weekend before Philip came home, I think - so we needed lots of household stuff, in addition to lots of food.

It's now about three weeks until we fly home. We're going to West Virginia on the 26th, and we'll be back on the 3rd. I didn't want to be away from our own home on Christmas Day, so we're going the next day instead, and we'll spend New Year's Day with all of Philip's family back home. I'm making all kinds of lists in my head, starting to get in "travel mode." :-)

I'm off to fold some laundry and get to bed early, I think. A.J. asked me tonight if he could have oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow, and I told him that we would. We don't usually eat breakfast really, much less hot ones (the boys usually have cereal or something, and I'll eat some granola bars or nothing at all), so I'll have to get up just a bit earlier to make sure we can get breakfast made, eaten and cleaned up by the usual time. I might even make the boys their second tastes of hot cocoa! ;-)