Toys 4 sale

Asia has been in this groove where she wants to sell her old toys. But she has this funny concept that if she sets up a box of toys and a sign and sit on the sidewalk, that people are going to stop and buy them from her. I think this is all from watching an episode of Max & Ruby where Ruby was having a yard sale and sold off some of her old toys. It was fun to watch Zach and Asia get this big box all decorated with a sign saying 1 Dollar and a picture of money on it. But then when they dragged the box and toys out to the driveway and then sat behind the box shouting "Toys For Sale!" I felt kind of bad. Who's going to buy any of those toys?

John and I eventually did go out there and "buy" some of the toys. I especially wanted to buy back the ones that I bought in Florida from Disney World. They weren't cheap.

Asia wanted to do the same thing again today, but instead of the driveway, she wanted to set up her box of toys in the front by the busy street. Luckily she listens to me because I told her that she couldn't. I told her that if she's going to just pretend that she's selling toys, that she could do it on the front porch. She told me she didn't want to pretend, she really wanted to sell her toys. I tried to explain that no one was going to stop their car to buy her toys, that it was more of something to do in the summer and when Mom and Dad are also selling things. She still couldn't get it. Luckily she was easily distracted again when I let her pick some flowers from my garden so that she could be a hula girl.

Backyard Turkeys

Can you see them? There were actually 3 wild turkeys in our back yard! And they're weren't little things. Jersey eventually scared them away. I think they're turkeys because I heard of some in the area, but I didn't think turkeys could fly and these did. They flew up into the trees and another yard as soon as they saw and heard Jersey coming. They looked almost like ostriches to me.

Goofy Signs

Here are two pictures showing some of the goofy stuff Asia draws and posts on our doors. When she's mad at me, she'll draw a picture of me in a circle with a line on it. No Mom. Then she'll put it on the kitchen cabinet or my office. Yesterday when she was upset, she asked me how to spell, "I don't like my family." I was considering not telling her how to spell that, but didn't feel it was fair. Luckily she got distracted and only got as far as writing, "I don't like." She did draw a dad, mom, and boy and put them in a circle with a line through it.

The pictures here are simple - she wanted to know if I had strawberries. The funny thing is that the sign stayed on our back door for quite a few days until the wind blew it off. I just wonder what others think when they walk to our door and see a sign asking them if they have strawberries.

Soccer Pictures

Team Fusion being goofy.


Team United. Back row - 2nd from left is Tori, then Asia. Boy on back right is Sammy. In the front row, first on the left is Joey, then the next girl is Lydia.

School Update

Zach creamed me in Monopoly today. We have the British version that my brother bought for me when he was in England during a college semester. So you have stuff like Pall Mall, Coventry Street, Park Lane, Water Works, etc. Anyway, I thought Zach was going to lose because he kept mortgaging his properties so that he could buy houses on his group of yellow properties. He eventually got hotels on each one of them. If we had ended the game before my last turn, I would have won. But I let it go a little longer since we were having fun. And on my last turn, I landed on one of his properties and had to pay Zach 1150 dollars (pounds, actually). I didn't have that much and I had to end the game to get ready for my band concert, so the little boy won. The last time I played him, he also won - by like 10 dollars. Anyway, while Zach and I were playing Monopoly today, Asia, who's the banker, was sitting next to me drawing. Then she said, "I wish there was school today." So I told her that she would have school tomorrow (Monday). So she perked up and said, "YEAH!" Now isn't that great? She wants to be in school on Sunday! Or is that saying she's bored at home... Hmmm...
Zach seems to enjoy school too. Though I guess he got bullied once last week, and he didn't even know it. John intervened. The kid's a little naive still where he doesn't realize that other kids he doesn't really know can be mean for no reason. But anyway, he's getting more advanced reading projects since the normal reading homework is way too easy. His math homework is also pretty easy, but he can be a bit sloppy with it. I'm just glad his teacher recognized his level and assigned more advanced homework. Cub scouts is supposed to start up. John's going to sign Zach up tomorrow. So he'll have soccer (that's over this month), basketball starts up first week of December, Cub Scouts, and this art class that's once a week and only for 12 sessions. Zach said that in February, he wants to start piano lessons. At least he said it, not me.

SCORE!!

Asia scored her first goal in soccer yesterday! And on purpose, too! I'm not sure if it was because she was in really good spirits already or what. We went to Antiquitea for hot chocolate and pbj at around 11 AM. She got to wear her pretty pink dress for the occasion. Then we changed in the car and went to soccer. I made sure to get her there on time. Her friend Lydia wasn' t there today, but her other friends Sam, Joey, and Tori were there. Tori and Asia teamed up right away for the drills and you could just tell they were having fun with them. Usually Asia doesn't like the drills because it'll be some group game where some pretend they're the dog and others are the dog catchers who have to dribble their ball to get the dog or something. For some reason, Asia doesn't like those. But this time, she did whatever the drill instructors asked her to do. And then I think it really helped that when the drill coaches told everyone to pair up, Tori grabbed Asia's hand and said that they would be partners. Asia likes it when she's shown affection like that. Plus one of the drill coaches was new and really good with the kids. Asia seemed to really like her. So when it came to game time, the blue team played the white team. The white team doesn't have any star players on it, so the blue team usually scores on them. But all the kids on both teams were really good today - all playing actively. Again, you usually see at least 2 kids who don't know what's going on or like to hang back at the goal and almost watch the game instead of participate. A lot of times, that's Asia. She likes to be in the game, but not really trying to get the ball. This time, she and "Boy Sammy" were telling each other to go get the ball. Then when she scored, she was actually trying to kick the ball. It wasn't a total accident.
On the same day, Zach scored his first goal in a game this year. Last year, he was always scoring goals. Now he's in an older league. John said Zach was playing some awesome defense too.
Now we have a basketball hoop in our driveway. Zach's pretty good. Asia is also pretty good, except that she keeps getting hurt. Once she got hit on the head with the basketball. I told her that she has to watch the basketball at all times. Then she won't get hit on the head. Today, she got hit in the nose. No blood, thankfully.

birthdays

Today Asia and I celebrated everyone's birthdays. Everyone and anyone in the world. We just needed an excuse to put candles on a cake and blow them out. Nevermind the initial reason for even making the cake was to surprise Zach and John after they came back from a sleepover at the Zoo. When you have a cake, to Asia, that means a birthday and candles. That shows you how often we have cake in our house. Pie, cupcakes, cookies, candy - those are another story. I forgot though that Zach and Asia really don't like cake. What they like is the frosting. I didn't feel like making frosting from scratch. I ended up just drizzling some Hershey's syrup over Asia and Zach's servings. Asia usually ends up leaving half of her piece of cake uneaten whenever she has any. The frosted top is just eaten off. Zach is pretty good at finishing his desserts. It's not like he never has sweets, but if you were to watch him eat dessert, you'd think he has it once a year. He practically licks the bowl clean and for some reason, desserts always leave a ring around his mouth. I'll have to watch him one day to see why that happens. I think it's probably because he's licking all of whatever it is from his lips. He has to have every last drop. Silly kid. Asia, on the other hand, when she's had enough, she'll stop. She doesn't take sweets that well it seems. She'll complain of stomach aches. Sometimes that won't stop her, but every now and then I can use it as a warning. "You don't want to eat too much of that. Remember it will give you a tummy ache." Or I might say, "We can't eat too much chocolate. It gives you funny poop." And it's so true too. Chocolate is a laxative, let's not forget that. I'm off on a tangent, but we'll stop here. The new subject isn't too appetizing.

cooking skills gone to pot

I was making Spanish rice the other day. I wanted a starch for dinner fast - so I pulled out this Trader Joe's rice mix. I actually ready the recipe directions which meant put in 2 1/2 cups of water to boil and optional oil or butter. I ommitted those, thinking it'd be healthier. I poured in the packet. Once it got to a boil, I turned down the heat and was supposed to let it simmer for 20 minutes. Well, I checked on it 15 -20 minutes later and it was still soupy, so I let it cook 10 minutes more. In the meantime, I'm cooking some shrimp and what-not. When everything else was ready, I told John that I made Spanish rice too but it didn't seem to be working. He asked me if I put the rice in. I guess Spanish rice would mean that rice should be cooking, right? heh heh. Well, little did I know that John had already used the rice from the box and one of the spice packets. All I was boiling was the spices. I was wondering why the packet seemed so light. I was thinking it was some miracle rice. Like those spongey toys you buy in the store. You put them in the water and watch them grow to ten times their size. Come on! I'm Asian! I should know there is no miracle rice like that!

School Year 2007

The kids are back in school. Asia is in the Pre-K class at Winchester Thurston. It costs about 12,000 and if she's there for 12th grade, it'll cost around 20,000 dollars!! Of course, we'll do our best to apply for scholarships and whatnot. They even have scholarships and financial aid! But it's a beautiful campus (North Hills) and Asia really likes it. She goes full time - 8:15 to 2:30 PM every day. She comes back singing songs - Spanish if it's Spanish day. She tells us about nature stuff that her teacher tells her - like how to bring butterflies into your garden and that goldenrods are blooming now. Zach, on the other hand, said he's bored. His teacher was sick at least 2 of the days of the first week, and that Monday was a holiday, and that Friday of the first week, Zach was sick! He brings home these worksheets where he has to write the letter for the word, write the number of objects - really basic Kindergarten stuff. I'm hoping that he just has easy work now so that the teacher can see where every student is.

Vacation Complete

Vacation time is over. In 3 weeks, we went to Goshen, Chicago, Streamwood, Greenback, Memphis, Mesquite, and Austin with two additional stops at hotels along the way. I forgot the names of those cities. The kids got to see their cousins Lizy, Christian, Justin, Brian, Shauna, Andrew. And earlier at their cousin Faith's wedding in Canada, they got to see cousins Jesse, Nathan, Mary, and Henna - in addition to Christian, Lizy, and Brian. They also got to visit their grandparents on both sides this summer. Zach and Asia love their cousins. Doesn't matter that there's such an age difference. Lizy is the next youngest above Z & A and she's already in what..6th grade, I believe.





Can't visit Chicago without getting some Mario's Italian Ice!

Here's a picture of Zach and Asia riding Shauna's horses in Tennessee. Looks like they're riding on their own, right? Actually Shauna and Cora (Christian's girlfriend) were leading the horses. :)

When the kids weren't swimming at Aunt Mary's house, they were on the trampoline.

Sea World at San Antonio with Gong-Gong and Nai-Nai. John even had fun at the water park with Zach.



We also went to a street fair in San Antonio. It was so hot though, that we spent most of our time in this restaurant. Like the decor?

Whirlwind Vacation

We're on vacation. Have been. Well, more like John and the kids have been on vacation. Mine started tonight. Two weeks ago on Wednesday, I believe, John picked Lizy up from Cleveland and brought her home to play with the kids. I can barely remember all my days, which is why I'm trying to write this in my blog before it all gets jumbled up. So the kids had a ball playing with Lizy. One of those days, the kids and John went to the Science Museum and a thunderstorm rolled in. It rained so much that a small town called Millvale flooded. We usually drive through Millvale to get to the zoo. But maybe 20 minutes or 1/2 hour after John left the Science Museum, a tornado cloud was sighted and blew in a bunch of the windows at the Science Museum! At home, the lights flickered, but stayed on, only the internet and Comcast digital cable went out. At some point, I called John to make sure he was okay, he didn't pick up, so I turned on the TV to see what was going on with the weather. Just after I turned it on, the news was showing the Science Museum and the blown out windows! I then called John again to see where he was. Traffic was pretty bad getting home since roads were closed due to flooding.
Anyway, Friday night, we drove to Lizy's house in Goshen. We got there around 1 AM. Then the kids again had a ball with Lizy. One night, Lizy and Zach stayed up really late (past Tom & JaeHi and Asia) playing a game called Pick 4 or Pick 2 or something. You pick these cards and see if you can move these sticks into that shape, but you can only move one stick each turn. The only way I could get the two to go to sleep was to say they could play in the morning. Then on Sunday, we drove to Chicago and stayed at Tom & JaeHi's old house that is up for sale. Henna and Seth are still living there, but we never saw Seth the whole time. I saw Henna the next morning when she was leaving for work. We also didn't get in right away because no one left the door unlocked and no one was home when we got there. Luckily, Christian and Justin drove up with the key while John and Zach took the train to Millenium Park for a Poster Children concert. John ended up being late to the concert because the train isn't as great as it used to be- construction and whatnot. The train line stopped at some point due to construction and buses were taking people along the train stops.
So Justin and Christian made these great French Bread pizza's for me and Asia. Asia was having a ball seeing her cousins. She was talking up a storm. Then we all drove downtown to pick up Christian's girlfriend Cora from work and met up with John and Zach. We drove over to Justin, Tim Broberg and Carter Sims' place. Oh before all this, we stopped in Chicago for some food on Taylor Street. We parked on Bishop&Laflin area and were walking down Laflin to Taylor for a food festival. Then Joyce Eizenga came out of her apartment there cuz she saw us! We left the kids with her while we went to get some food to eat at her place. It was great to see her by coincidence! Then we also had dinner at Joy Y's at Halstead. That area is really getting nice. And again, while we were first heading to Jamba Juice and then decided to go to Joy Yee's or whatever, we ran into Susanna Johnston and Jubilee! That was neat! So back to Justin's place - we saw Katrina and Tim Broberg there. John was introduced to the game of bags. you throw these bean bags in these holes in a piece of wood. Two teams against each other and some rules for how to score points. As you can tell, I didn't actually play. Otherwise, I'd know the rules better.
Monday - I worked in the corporate office in Merchandise Mart. Then we checked into the HOliday Inn at Merchandise Mart. John and the kids got to use the pool. I eventually got time to use the exercise room. I worked from Merch Mart again on Tuesday, then from the hotel Wed morning. In between that, we had dinner at Pompei with Amy & Andrew Nelson and their two kids, Caleb & Audrey. Joyce also joined us. Then Marissa and Laura took the kids Wed morning to the NElsons to play as well as to Laura's condo. John eventually met up with them. I worked. :) Then we drove to Streamwood where I worked some more from John's dad's house. Crazy, right? Very crazy week. From Streamwood, we drove on Thursday to Tennessee. It was an uneventful drive except that the DVD player in the car decided to stop working during the beginning of the drive to TN. Then John got pulled over for speeding in Kentucky. The police officer told us that John's license had been suspended in Illinois! Boy were we shocked! So I had to drive the rest of the way to TN. John called today and the Illinois office said that the EPA suspended the license thinking we were still living there and that the car hadn't passed state emissions. It's supposed to be unsuspended within a week. Hopefully in time for the drive to Texas. I was not looking forward to 14 hour drive. Of course, we'll probably have to still pay some outrageous speeding fine, but that's better than what could have happened when driving on a suspended license.
So now we're in Tennessee. I worked during the day. Put in 50 hours this week. Nice vacation. Oh well. It's tough because I'm also transitioning to a new team in Allscripts - support. Still doing same thing but not billable and training more people.
Okay, my battery is about to die. I'll have to write more later. For now, just know that I'm in Tennesse enjoying time with Paul & Mary, Brian, Shauna, and Justin Stevens. Cora and Christian are also here. The kids are having a ball!!! They love their cousins. Too bad that there are cats around though. I had to put Asia on antihistamine pills. Her face is starting to puff up. Christian and Cora are also allergic to cats. Zach hasn't been too bad yet.

Too much computer?

Here is a good indicator that your daughter has been playing on the computer too much in one day. We're in Asia's room reading some books before bedtime, then she decides to play a game.
"Mom, do you want to play a game?" Asia asks.
"Sure," I answer.
"Click here to start the game. Then drag your mouse over my pink blankie to move it. If you want to play dress-up, click on my jewelry box. Click here and select me for instructions." Asia answers.

Color of Compromise

Asia asked me an interesting question today while we were painting pictures. Our conversation went something like this:
"Mom?"
"Yes?"
"What's the color of compromise?"
Stunned, I did what any parent would do, I turned the question back on the child. "Well, what do you think the color of compromise is?"
Asia's answer was, "I think the color of compromise is orangish-brownish-greenish-pinkish."

Is that an amazing answer or what? Is that not what compromise is? All colors with some ish in between?

Summer times

Tomorrow is Zach's last day of Kindergarten. He's been reading like a fiend. Three new books each night. He has his small lamp on his bed and he reads to himself three new books from the library. Then he turns out the light and goes to sleep.
Today was Asia's first day of cheerleading. Yes, cheerleading. It's supposed to boost her confidence. She has two friends in the class - Taylor and Chloe. Taylor was in her Hiland preschool class this year. Chloe was in Asia's St. Paul's preschool class last year. Asia and Chloe did not recognize each other, but it's nice for them to see each other again. There are maybe 20 kids in this cheerleading class. All girls. The teachers are college students. They said they've been cheerleading for 7-14 years. Cheerleading captains and whatnot. The main thing is that girls seem to be having fun. Asia's also in gymnastics - started last week. Acacia and her other friend Joey are in the Koala Bears class together. I'll have to take some pictures.

D Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Asia's first dance recital for West View Dance. She and her friend Acacia are doing the Bunny Rabbit Blues. Their outfits are so cute. Almost like a playboy bunny. Don't you think?

The dress rehearsal was Wednesday. That was torture. We had to be there at 4:30 PM. Then there was about 1/2 hour just to get people situated, another 1/2 hour for a slide show of pictures taken throughout the year (cool if you're older, but not when you're in preschool with the attention span of a minute). Next, they practiced the finale of the show. That's going to be interested. Trying to time it just right so that about 60 girls all come out in different groups to do a few moves, wave, and exit the stage to music. At least it provides a good laugh. Then each group practiced in the order of the concert. Asia's group is something like 17 or 19 - after the intermission. Asia did pretty well, though, sitting and waiting her turn. I brought along her V-smile game, so she played a little bit. But actually one of her bunny friends played it most of the time. I had the sound turned off so I guess Asia got bored of it. She likes it when her friends like her things anyway.

I'll try to get another picture tomorrow. She doesn't like having her picture taken. She likes attention but not photo attention. It's interesting.

He has been deemed Jersey

We finally found a name.. after going through Burly, Guffy, Skeet, Kelsey, Kelton - I thought that was funny. Kelton is supposed to mean veal payment. Hee hee. Anyway, just a bunch of names I got off of a pet internet site. I did this with Zach and Asia, too. I wrote down a bunch of names and John and I would mull over them, add some more, put little x's next to some we didn't like but not necessarily crossing them out since we might like them a week later. Finally narrowing down to one or two that we would say over and over til it sounded right. So now, we finally weaned it down to... Jersey. After New Jersey. Zach wants to make it sure you know it's not after the name of T-shirts.
So we gave Jersey his first bath (from us) today. He needed a bath because this morning he woke up with some dried poop on his bottom. I think he tried to hold it when he was in his crate. Anyway, I gave him a bath in the sink. He was so good about it! No whimpering. He did stand up on all two's when I took out the plug to let the old water out. It makes a loud sound when all the water suddenly goes down. But the second time it did that, he was fine.
Now he's all clean. And I didn't get too wet. Very nice. The shampoo is coconut-scented too. We'll see how long that lasts.

New Addition

Well, we did it. We finally got a dog. Yes, a dog. I always thought of myself as a cat person. When Zach was born, we had Dizzy. He was a good cat. But when Asia was born, I had Susan take Dizzy back to Columbus because I felt he was getting ignored. He was probably happy going in and out of the house and doing whatever he wanted, but I didn't think it was too healthy for him. Well turns out that Zach and Asia are allergic to cats anyway. So no cats for us.

John had been hinting about getting a dog for quite some time. So I finally decided to research dogs. If we're going to get a dog, I want a good breed that I can rely on. One that is good with little kids, small, not yippy. The last thing I want is a dog that is constantly barking whenever someone goes by or the neighbor's dog is out, etc. Not when I work at home and am on the phone a lot. So I narrowed the dog search down to two breeds - Havanese and Coton de Tulear. I had John check them out to make sure he was okay with these two breeds. What he wanted at first was the typical dog - Labrador Retriever. They're beautiful puppies, but they're only like that for a few months. Then they're a mass of muscle and energy. Sure, if we were an energetic young couple or with older kids who could help out, that kind of dog would be great. But I knew I wouldn't have energy for such a big dog. So eventually John was fine with the two breeds I picked out.

The next step was further research on the breeds to see the pitfalls. Then find breeders nearby. For the Cotons, they were all about 5 hours away in all directions. They're a rarer breed. I emailed one to find out the cost. The breeder emailed me back that the show-potential puppies went for $3000 and the non-show for $2000!!!! So I went for the Havanese. I found two breeders who were in West Virginia - an hour away. One was actually out of town so I never made contact with her. The other breeder was actually babysitting the first breeders dogs - they were friends! That seemed weird since I'd think they'd be competing, but the breeder (Laura) said that they don't compete. The dogs are just available at different times. Anyway, Laura and I emailed for quite some time and then set a date for my family to come up and see the two dogs she had left to show.

When the kids saw the two dogs, they were a little apprehensive at first. John got attached to the male pup right away, then Zach. Asia hid behind me at first. Mostly because she was afraid of the girl pup who kept barking. The girl pup was more excited and liked to bark to talk to you. Zach and Asia kept putting their hands over their ears. Laura, the handler/breeder, started to hold the girl pup after that to keep her quiet. Then Asia and Zach were all over the boy pup. Asia kept saying she loved him. They would throw a ball and he would go running after it. They were both like, "Mom, I just love this dog! I love him!" So I was sold. We brought the little guy home. He was so good in the pet carrier! And then coming into the house, he was really good. And he's sleeping in his crate right now. We'll see how tomorrow goes. And we have to figure out a name for him. The kids were calling him Fluffy at the kennel. John's not for that name. So we tried a couple of other suggestions - Max, Sidney, Crosby (yes Penguin players), Fleurry, Custard, Sam, Sammy. Still haven't agreed on anything yet.

Asia's First Day of Soccer

Last Saturday was Asia's first day of soccer. She, Zach, and Ethan are all in the same team plus some girls from Zach and Ethan's Kindergarten class - Summer, Addison and Jessica. But at the beginning of practice, all the teams that are 6 yrs and under are together learning drills. So Zach and Asia's friend Emme is also in the same soccer league. Asia was all excited about being in soccer. She got to pick out her own soccer ball - a pink one, of course. But when the actual practice happened, she got all intimidated. That's natural of course. She's never been in any organized sports. I don't think she was expecting so many kids around her. At first, it seemed like maybe Asia would participate.

She looks like she's listening right? But then as the coaches were telling the kids what to do, she spent most of the time like this:

Her hands in her pocket, just standing next to her ball and guarding it. She'd look around and see what others were doing. The coaches were pretty good about it. They'd try to help her out or explain things to her. I could tell that she liked the coaches though because she would talk to them.

It was tough for me not to run out there and hold her hand and show her how much fun the other kids were having. All the other parents were talking to each other or enjoying watching their kids play. My daughter was the only one out there standing there. I had to practically tie myself to my chair. John said that in the past years, they'd even have kids out there crying. I guess that made me feel better.

I kept telling Zach to go over to Asia and help her out since this was his 3rd season in soccer. He would but she wouldn't respond too much. She spent quite some time in this position too:

Finger in her mouth. But again, she is listening. And she's not crying. And she's not sitting in the sidelines next to me or wanting me to hold her hand. She's out there, observing, getting comfortable. The coaches were pretty good too. They had some neat games to help the kids practice dribbling and stopping the ball. In one, they were dogs and some of the kids were dogcatchers. The dog catchers had tshirts that they would use to tag someone (a dog). Then the coach made Asia the ultimate dog catcher. She ran around with another coach and if they caught you, they got to take your ball. That really warmed her up. I thought at first that she'd freak out when the coach pointed her out and everyone was looking at her as the special dog catcher. But the coach was wise. Asia wanted the attention.

The last few minutes, two teams would actually play against each other. That's what Asia was waiting for. She had a blast. And Zach scored quite a few goals. As did Ethan's classmate, Jessica. This last picture is the end of the soccer practice. The kids love snack time. Usually, they get a ticket that they take to the snack stand for a drink and chips.

interesting year

It's been an interesting year for my family. My grandfather (Dad's dad) died in February. My dad's aunt died shortly after that. Today was the memorial service for my Uncle Noel (my mom's brother). My Uncle Noel found out he had cancer in December/January. Most of his liver was removed in January but he never got strong enough to start chemotherapy. The cancer spread and other infections. He passed away last Wednesday. The memorial service was very sweet.
I was a little worried about the kids going to the funeral/viewing/memorial service and just approaching the subject of death. A few days ago, for example, Asia told me she didn't want me to die... ever. I tried to explain to her that everyone dies. She said she would be very sad if I died. She said she'd rather die. But then I told her that would make me very sad. So we agreed that we both wanted to live forever.
Asia also asked me another difficult question this week. She asked me if God was bigger than Jesus. Tough question eh? I tried to explain a little about Jesus coming to the earth as God's Son and then returning back to be with God when He died. And then tried to say that they were now the same and then quickly changed the subject. I wasn't ready to try and explain this subject to a four year old.

Zach and Asia Go Shopping

Today, Zach and Asia had their first real shopping lesson. Or maybe it would be the second. I think the first was actually two summers ago when I gave Zach and Asia some coins to spend at a garage sale. Asia got two Barbie dolls and a magic wand. I believe Zach lost his money rummaging through stuff. John got him some books though. So Zach failed that first lesson. This time, they had to finish lunch and then help clean up the living room. It was quite a job. They both took quite a few trips up to their rooms to put toys away. Then they both had a blast operating the vacuum cleaner. First Zach did some vacuuming while Asia held the cord. I told her it was her job to not let Zach vacuum over the cord or trip on it. Zach's vacuuming strategy was to go around in circles. That left lots of dust left for Asia to vacuum up. It was pretty funny watching her try to push the vacuum. I don't think she knew how heavy it was. Her eyes got all big the first time she tried to push it by herself. Once she got the hang of it, I tried to show her the right way to vacuum - up and down along the rug. I figured she may as well learn how to operate a vacuum cleaner correctly more than Zach since it seems that it's something moms and wives and sisters do more than their male counterparts. Why is that? Giving you a Y chromosome means you don't have to vacuum or do the dishes? I rant...
So the kids did a great job on cleaning and as a reward, they got to spend some of their birthday money. Isn't that a great idea? They get to spend their own money. Anyway, they both have these piggy banks that they got when we moved here. Asia's actually gone through two piggy banks. Her first was a glass one. Then I moved her and Zach's money to these plastic ones I got from PNC bank. Well, it was the plastic one that broke. So now her money is back in the glass one. The glass one that has no way to open it. So I think John used a knife to pry some money out if it today.
You'd think that I would have started small - like let's all spend five dollars each! But what can you get with that? I guess if we went to the dollar store... I didn't think about that. I was thinking more that all you can buy with five dollars is candy. So Zach and I agreed to spend 20 dollars or less at Toys R Us. I figured they'd definitely find something they lucked for under twenty dollars. And boy, was I right. First Asia picked out this megablocks Disney princess set that was for 1 year old and up. It was 19.99. Then as we went through the store, Zach kept picking things that were too expensive. Even one Lego set that was 20.99. I explained, he only had 20 dollars and how to look at the price tags. Then Asia decided she wanted a fairy dancing princess Barbie (after going through some other things that were over budget). The Barbie was 9.99. So she had 10 dollars left to spend. Both kids took a detour in the bike department trying out new bikes. Zach almost spent his 20 dollars on a bike helmet. I asked him if he really wanted to buy a bike helmet instead of a toy. He agreed he really wanted a toy. He already had a bike helmet at home.
I pointed Zach towards the cars and trucks aisle and told him to find something there. Then Asia found a princess Dora for 6 dollars and then a Barbie princess ball for four dollars. She was set. Zach found two race car sets, each 9.99. Then he saw a power ranger sword and decided he wanted that instead of one of the racing sets. So then we went to pay for the toys. When the receipt was printed, I balked at the price. Seemed a little high with the tax and all. Then I realized that one of Zach's racing sets was actually 19.99. So we returned it and went shopping again. Zach decided he didn't want a race set. It took some time, but Zach finally decided he wanted 3 toys like Asia, so he had to get something under ten dollars so he'd have some left over for something else. He ended up getting a tow truck that was on sale and then a Marvel heroes ball. All in all, the kids did good with their purchases. Thanks to the people who gave the kids money. :)

Like Father Like Son

The picture says it all.

January 2007