February

I finally gave in and decided to create a blog. I love writing. I love reading. I love photos. I love sharing. It just seems odd to put yourself out there into the cyberworld. It's letting go of some idea I had of control. We all need to let go at some point.

Anyhow, here we are in February, the love month. Grace insists on dressing like a valentine every day, and even though I look like anything but a valentine, she compliments me constantly -- on my earrings or my dress or shirt or my shoes. But my favorite compliment of all is "Mommy, I like you . . . and I love you too". The funniest thing she said the other day, though, was regarding a friend of hers named "Sabine". She asked why there was a "bean" at the end of her name. I explained that it wasn't the kind of bean you eat, but that it is spelled differently and is part of her name. She then said, "I am so glad you can't eat the bean at the end of her name, because if you did, most of her name would be gone. Olivia was talking about school lunch one night, lamenting the fact that some days there just isn't anything she considers edible. "The hot dogs bounce, mom. Sam got a hot dog one day, and it dropped on the floor. But then it bounced back up. . . and the spaghetti. well, you can stretch it from one end of the cafeteria to the other and it doesn't even break. Besides, the grilled cheese sandwiches are sugary and very greasy". It was a pretty good argument, and I don't blame her. I remember looking forward to the Peanut butter squares and the chocolate milk we got every Friday for school lunch. Until one day I found a huge chunk of margarine in my peanut butter square. I stick with Reese's now, and Chocolate Soymilk is much better than that stuff in the carton.

Olivia has been chosen to participate in the Spelling Bee tomorrow. I love, love spelling bees. The movie "Spellbound" is one of my favorites. The thing is, Olivia is so good at spelling that she hasn't been motivated to study much. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Oh, and Olivia just won first place in the region for her dance she choreographed for the "Reflections" program. She is now in the state competition. Her dance is about saving the forests, and she made up the whole thing, including creating her costume, which looks like a tree with leaves on it.

Isaac is a sweetheart. This is a good month for him to exist. He reads every candy heart. He has a crush on a girl named Mary in his class (great name) who is literally -- I am not exaggerating at all -- over a head taller than her. And Isaac is not short by any means. He got some new shoes recently that he loves so much. The first two weeks he had them, he carried them around in the box like a baby, and only wore them inside our apartment or my parents'. Not even at school. Finally he gave in and is wearing them every minute -- even in the 6 foot snowbanks surrounding us. Unfortunately, Isaac kind of ruined his boots one day while on a field trip. He played in too many puddles, soaking the inside of his boots completely. By the time I picked him up and we had driven around for a while it occurred to me that something smelled suspiciously like rotten feet. I assumed it was Grace, who seems to have that problem. But this was beyond the capability of her feet. I should have known it was the boots, since Isaac kept complaining that his feet were wet and hurting. So that's the end of the $3 D.I. boots. And we haven't found a replacement yet, so I refuse to throw the yucky ones out. I keep hoping that if enough snow falls in them outside, they might stop stinking. It hasn't worked. And Isaac's feet are still peeling from the puddle damage.

Well, that's us this week. Friday night is sounding so wonderful right now. Just have to get through all those meetings tomorrow, and the Spelling Bee.