Let Me Tell You About Tagger

Tagger is our oldest son.  He turned 15 this year and is entering the 10th grade.  I honestly don't know where the time has gone.  It both fascinates and terrifies me that he's this old... because, yes, that makes ME this old.

He really is a terrific kid though.  He definitely has his moments of teenage antics, but for the most part, he is the most responsible, moral and thoughtful teenager I've ever known.  Big T & I talk all the time about how blessed we are that he turned into the young man he is!

We joke all the time about who is funnier, him or me.  And so begins the familiar dialogue, "Oh, Tagger... everyone knows.  You can't deny that I'm funnier than you are!"  "Mom, if you had even a fraction of my funniness, it would be a miracle!"  "Every funny bone in your body came from my genes, Tagger."  We can go on for hours...

For now, I AM the funnier one.  But I'll admit, he may catch up some day. :)

Gearing Up for School

Day 1

A few days ago I mentioned that we're getting ready to start our first year of online public school (and home school for Little T)... I thought I'd give a little tour of our school room.  We're now in the decorating phase, so I'll update it when we're finished, but I'm just so excited about what we've done so far!  While Big T & Tagger were out of town a couple of weeks ago, Lucky, Bacon, Little T & I decided to paint the office.  Unfortunately, Big T caught an earlier flight and surprised us a day early, so it wasn't finished.  Fortunately for us, he was able to quickly paint the top trim in the room and we finished much faster than we could have done on our own!

Lucky & I painted all the way up to above the windows, above the closet and above the door on our own.  Bacon & Little T used the small rollers to do what they could reach.  I was pretty impressed with what we accomplished on our own!

Last week, Big T & I headed off to one of the greatest stores in the universe, Ikea!  After much deliberation, we decided on the Galant table/desks.  We went back last night to make our purchase.  When we got home, we fed the kids, then Tagger & Big T got to work with the screwdrivers.  And just a couple of hours later, we had this! 

Isn't it perdy?  We've put two desktop computers on the desk in the right picture and one desktop on the corner desk.  The desk under the window will be used for school work, projects and working with mom.

We have a world map that will go above the desk pictured below and a U.S. wall map that will go above the corner unit (same wall, separated by the (currently) emptier bookcase.  We'll put our Math and Science tools in wicker baskets on the shelves.

Not pictured here is Little T's learning space.  I'll make sure to get it in one of the update photos once we get everything on the walls.

We're all very excited to have a fun place to use all of these school supplies! 

Our big adventure starts in just two weeks! Eeek! Yikes!  YaY!!

Just Another Summer Night in Texas

What a busy weekend we've had - and it's only Saturday night!  Last night we went to the ballpark with  Lucky's Girl Scout troop.  We watched an exciting game (you'll get 'em next time, Skeeters!) and had a very exhausting night camping on the field.  Wow, what an experience.  One that I NEVER want to have again, if possible!  Seriously, someone really should have thought this "Texas camping in August" thing through a little better.  It was like sleeping in a pool of sweat.  Disgusto!  My kids were miserable, Big T was miserable, I was miserable.  Lucky had a little meltdown around 1:30 am. We had just settled everyone into the tent, after watching Chipwrecked on the huge scoreboard video screen.  They'd all had their snacks (chips, water & yummy root beer floats, courtesy of Smashburger), made one last trip to the restrooms, and it was time to go to sleep.

Lucky's problem?  Well, it was the same as everyone else in the tent's problem.  It was a stifling, humid, breeze-less night in Texas.  Earlier in the night we thought we might get out of the sleepover part when storm clouds rolled in.

No such luck.  We were stuck there.  The movie was over, the lights were out and no way was I going to convince Big T to pack up camp at 2:00 am in the dark!  However, I might have been able to convince him around 3:00 after he'd laid on the hard outfield for another hour.  In hindsight, he probably would have grabbed the kids, loaded us all up, abandoned our tent & belongings in a heartbeat with a jolly, "that's what Walmart is for!" if I'd made the suggestion then.

Bacon & Little T stripped down to their skivvies.  Bacon shared her insightful discovery that holding a water bottle on your skin would help keep everyone cool, so that's what we did... and finally, around 2:30 am, my littles were asleep.  Big T tossed & turned, snored & snorted, slept & woke intermittently.  In my delusional state of unrest, I contemplated throwing things at the tent of giggling girls across from us.  Finally, at 4:30 am, I climbed out of the tent and into the camp chairs where I could stare them into submission and finally end their party.  And then the bugs started biting.

Did I mention that there were several rules for sleeping on the Skeeters baseball field?  Apparently, they take their love for the mosquito quite seriously around here, because there was NO insect repellant allowed.  For reals.

At 5:15 am, I began the dark trek across the field & up to the concourse restrooms.  I peeled off my sticky clothing, wiped myself down with wet paper towels & stood in front of the fan for a full 10 minutes.  I could have stayed there forever, but I started having thoughts of mass murderers sneaking into the ball park & hiding in electric fan-cooled bathrooms.  As if that was something to worry about.  They were all home in their air conditioned beds.

Finally at 6:00 am, Big T & I woke the kids up and started packing.  We were in the car and on the way home by 7:00!  We were all showered and happily in our beds by 8:00 am.

But the funny part?  The kids already forgot how miserable they were.  All they have talked about was getting to parade around the field, the cool play area with carousel and feeling like we owned the place.






The things we do for those memories...

Another Blog Attempt

I know I haven't posted much since I started this blog, but I'm really going to try to be better about that. Everyone and their dog writes a blog now... may as well join the fun.

Girls with Aunt Kristi

Kids with Grandma Townsend

We've had a pretty good summer so far.  We've had 2 trips to Tulsa, one for fun, one for a wedding.  Aunt Kristi & Uncle Tom held their Tribal wedding ceremony in a very special way.  It was a simple, but beautiful Eastern Shawnee tribal wedding, held on the ceremonial grounds.  This hadn't been done in over 100 years, as the tribe just recovered the land from the government recently.

Offerings & dowry from Tom's family

The kids had a blast visiting Grandma and Grandpa B's house and seeing the player piano.  We haven't been there in a couple of years, but they all remembered that piano.  Grandpa's health hasn't been too great, but that smile on his face as he "played" the piano with Little T was priceless.  It was a moment of true, pure joy for me to witness one of the greatest men in my life beaming with his namesake.

We're homeschooling this year... I say "homeschooling" but calling it that make me feel like a cheater.  My oldest three will be attending an online public school Texas Connections Academy @ Houston
(same curriculum as the brick and mortar schools, but at home).  Little T is really the only one I'll be HOMEschooling.. traditional homeschooling with 100% of the educational responsibility on my shoulders.  It's going to be F-I-N-E... I already have most of his curriculum mapped out.  It's just a tiny bit scary, but I'll get through it.  :)

Our youngest 3 start VBS tonight.  They're excited... I'm excited about dropping them off and hanging out with my girlfriends.  There's really not much in life that a little Starbucks and girl talk won't cure!

Oldies but Goodies...

I used to blog on a different site and figured I'd share some of the better stories over here. So, without furter adieu..

Proud Parenting Moment
Sunday, January 15, 2006

So tonight my parents watched the girls while Big T and I took Tagger & his best friend to the hockey game. Tagger spent the night with him after the game & we went to pick up the girls.

On the way home, out of the clear blue, Lucky (3 1/2) says, "I am NOT a b!tch." I look over at Big T to confirm what I just heard and he is having convulsions from laughing so hard, while not making a sound. I said, "Lucky, what did you say??" To which she replied, "I do not wear b!tch clothes!"

So yes, I called my mother at 11:50pm to find out WHAT she was teaching my child. (Un)Fortunately, I know she didn't really hear it there, but I have no clue where she got it! The only thing I can equate it to would be Big T's stinking rap music that he listens to everytime he's in the car with the girls. He likes to see them dance in the carseats.. and they dance to anything with a beat.

I swear, if she starts using terms like "b!tches and hos" on a regular basis, I'm permanently removimg the stereo from his car.

Parental Fail

Boy, I was on a productive roll today! Got the kids to school on time (yes, this is progress), ran some errands, grabbed lunch for me and Bacon, got to school with just enough time to get to the end of the hall and wait for her. I was so looking forward to seeing her big, excited smile when she rounded that corner and saw that McDonalds bag (and me, of course)!

And so I waited... and waited...

Several minutes past the time her class usually arrives for lunch, a 1st grade class made their way to the cafeteria. The teacher looked inside and noted out loud, "oh, the 2nd grade isn't here." I replied, "oh, they aren't here yet." And she said, "NO, they aren't HERE. They are on a field trip."

And then I remembered. They WERE on a field trip. A field trip that I was signed up to be a chaperone for.

This parenting stuff is really hard on the brain.

Welcome to Townsend Follies

I've recently come to realize that my life has begun to look like an extended showing of America's Funniest Videos. With 4 kids, ranging from 3yrs to 12yrs old, and a husband who is constantly making me laugh/cringe, life in the Townsend house is almost always chaotic, but entertaining.

Right now, I'm sitting downstairs on the couch listening to all 4 kids and the dog "clean their rooms." I should probably go check out the odd noises I'm hearing, but I can't seem to convince myself that actually walking up the stairs and turning into Drill Sargeant Mom is a good idea. It's fairly quiet down here. No one is following me to the bathroom. I haven't wiped anyone's snot with my bare hands. I may actuallly get the kitchen clean without having any additional messes made.

My good friend writes a series of articles for her local paper and runs a website devoted to coupling and other womanly things. She's asked me to contribute in the Home Organization section. Apparently having 4 children and a home makes me qualified. My tips aren't rocket science (they pretty much center around 2 items - plastic baskets of all sizes and ziplock baggies), but I'll be testing my articles out here before sending them on to her.

And...that was a bang I probably shouldn't ignore. It wasn't followed by any screaming, but it sounded like they were going to come through the roof. Better get up there...