The end of the preschool era...

Jack had a really wonderful school year. We were so so lucky to sort of just fall into this wonderful situation with great friends and the perfect teacher for him. It is really hard for his mommy to believe that he is going to "big boy" school in the fall. I am not ready for him to grow up.

He, however, is completely unfazed. He has been asking to go Kindergarten and do harder work. He says he knows he will miss his friends but "don't worry mommy, he'll make new ones." I guess I'll have to learn to take some cues from him.

Here is a picture montage from yesterday, his last day at St. Luke's Childrens Center.

Mrs. Flatt, Joey, and the class on the last day of school.

Jack walking in to the school program.

I know it is blurry, but our choices were blurry or red eye.


I had to include this one because it is so his personality... a ham.

Looking innocent.


Receiving his diploma.




He graduated!
The class at graduation.

Jack and the best teacher, Mrs. Flatt.

Sam, causing trouble at graduation, but still looking cute.

Jack and Abby.

Julia Wilson, Austin, and Jack.

Shane and Jack.



Jack singing "Tomorrow."



And for the truly die hard fans (aka the grandmothers), Jack singing "I won't grow up."

Even Better

Sorry, I don't have a picture from today, but this is my best week yet at Publix! I saved $94.88 and spent $44.60 out of pocket!

Plus, I got Sam's medicine at Rite Aid and used a coupon for a new/transferred prescription then you get a $25 gift card. I spent the $25 on art stuff to keep two kids busy for Memorial Day weekend when it is raining and we can't leave due to fever!

Saving money is pretty fun.

Extreme Couponing

My mom's group here had a meeting in February about how to coupon. It is not like just taking a few coupons to the store, however. It is more like, taking 30. It takes a lot of planning and you have to buy stuff on sale and stockpile it. I have been fielding some questions about it, so I thought that I'd share some of it on here occasionally. It is really awesome once you get good at it to go into a store and save more than you spend.

I go to a grocery store here, Publix. It is awesome. I know most of you Texas folk don't have Publix, but Kroger's does some similar stuff with coupons. I also do Walgreens and CVS every week, because mostly every week those stores will have items that are free with coupons.

Anyway, here is what I got this week at Publix. My total before was 170.32, I saved 86.75 and paid 83.57. This is with buying produce, all organic meat and we go through about 4 gallons of milk a week here.

Alive

This morning at gymnastics Sam choked on a granola bar, couldn't breathe, then threw it up.

Then we get home from school and do lunch and Sam goes down. I am at the computer (where else?) when Jack starts SCREAMING in the living room (about six feet away, max). I run over there and say:

"What is it?"

He is holding his sweatshirt up to his mouth and he wails, "I need to go to the HOOOOOOOOOOOSPITAL!!!!!!"

I realize I am going to get no good info out of him so I pull down the sweatshirt and look, and see blood covering his molars. I say "WHAT HAPPENED" to him firmly.

"I don't want to SAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"

"Jack, just tell me!"

More crying. "I was moveringmuc and then boeurd."

"WHAT??"

"I was trying to carry three things but I only had two hands!!!!!!!!!!"

"What happened to your mouth?" as I blot the blood with a towel that was conveniently next to him.

"I was trying to carry three things but I couldn't so I put one in my mouth."

"Which one?" I still don't see any of the things he was 'carrying'.

"The paintbrush!"

Yep, he was holding a paintbrush in his mouth, he fell into the couch, and it went up into the roof of his mouth and punctured a hole. This is one of those things that people warn you can happen (and I have warned HIM about before, probably more like with a pen), but you never see. So I get a flashlight out and check out the damage and it is pretty sick but the bleeding is slowing. I go to our great neighbors' house and they happen to have homemade popsicles on hand, so he is covered. I would also like to say THANK GOODNESS that I didn't have to pull it out b/c I don't think I could have handled that.

No hospital today (at least not yet).

I told Keith and he said "It is amazing any of us get out of childhood alive."

Good Morning

Jack comes in and lays in bed with me this morning.

"Good morning" I say.

"Hi."

"Why do you have new clothes on?"

"Oh, I just felt like a change."

Me, laughing, but knowing better: "Accident?"

"I really don't want to have to tell you this, but it was a tee-tee accident, and it is really too bad because I like that lizard and frog sheet the best of all."

More

Last night, Jack went to his room to pick out his books to that we read before bedtime. I go in and he has chosen some fine book and "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go" by Richard Scarry. Those books take FOREVER to read. I said:

"Jack, I really don't want to read Cars and Trucks tonight."

He said, "Well, mommy, that is what I chose, so I guess you are just going to have to live with it."

Gotta love it when the things you tell them come back to haunt you.

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This morning, I go out to put the boys in the car and see three of our tricycles in the cul-de-sac. Obviously we had left them out overnight. I said:

"Dang! We left our crap out all night!"

Jack says "Yeah, I guess we need to get our freaking crap."

I sigh and say "Well, neither Freaking nor Crap is a very nice word. Mommy shouldn't have said Crap either. What else can we say instead?"

Soon he is going to be calling me an MFer and I am going to only have myself to blame.

Outta the mouths of babes

Sam talks SO MUCH now. He repeats absolutely anything you say. He also calls all adult food "chicky" as in chicken. Anything Keith and I are eating, he will come to our plate, say "Ooooh, chicky" no matter what it is. (That is another thing he does, preface EVERYTHING he says with OOOOOOOOOH, like Oooooooh airplane, oooooooooh car, ooooooooooh truck). Mostly he wants nothing to do with any of this "chicky" even though we offer it to him (he subscribes more to the Jack theory of eating which involves no meat nor vegetables and all dairy, fruit, and carbs). So, today I was eating a breadstick and I asked him if he wanted some. He said yes so I passed him one in his carseat.

"Oooooooooh. Mommy. Hot Chicky! "
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Sam is absolutely obsessed with muffins. It is all he EVER WANTS IN LIFE. He wakes up and says "Hi mommy! Chocky milk? Muffins?" This morning he went and sprawled down in front of the pantry door after I told him that we didn't have any more muffins and cried "MUFFFFFFINS!!!" for like five minutes. I would have to make muffins all day to satisfy his craving for them, because he asks for him at least five times a day.

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Sam is also in the phase where he is totally obsessed with books and reading. Jack went through this same phase at about this age. Books are constantly strewn all about our house. He will randomly go into his room, get several bring them to me, and shove them in my face. Then he says "READ! READ!" You get about a five second window and if you have not begun in that allotted time frame he will throw them in your face and start crying "READ!!!!!!!!!!!" It is very frantic. I don't mind so much, since I have brown bear and I Like Trucks memorized. But forget trying to finish an email or do dishes if he gets gripped with the craving for Opposites or any of his menagerie of favorites. You must stop and comply NOW or you will get a board book to the face.

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The other night Keith had just gotten home from work and we were all outside playing. Jack is walking out of the garage with a hammer.

"Hey daddy! Look! A bitch hammer!"

Keith, a little surprised, says "A what?"

"A bitch hammer!"

Keith, not wanting to say WHAT!?!?!? again and call more attention to it, just says "Well, Jack, that is not a very nice word, we don't say that, we'll have to call it a something else hammer."

Jack, completely non-plussed, says to him, "Okay, daddy, we'll call it a Wizzy Hammer!"

We still have no idea where that came from exactly nor if he was actually referring to the curse word.

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We are walking through the monkey house in the Columbia zoo. Jack is walking a little in front of me and this recording of a monkey going "Oooh ooh, ahh ahha ahh" goes over the loudspeaker. He turns to me and says:

"Good heavens mommy! That really FRIGHTened me!"

He really talks like a 60 year old woman sometimes.

The Four Willie Boys

L to R
Wesley - 4 months, Collin, 10 months, Sam 2 years, Jack 5 years

This family doesn't make girls, what can we say?

Easter Pictures - More than a little late :-)

All that pretty hair got chopped off the next day :-(

I love Jack in the background of this one!




Easter tie, only a little too short! (He told Keith the next day "Daddy, you can give this tie to the poor kids"- that is what he calls Goodwill)


The special gold egg...