Luke, the Kindergarten Juvenile Delinquent

Okay, so the other day I got a message from Luke's teacher. She wanted me to call her back "right away". It sounded serious, or at least urgent, and I rushed to return her call. As I was waiting for her to come to the phone, I was thinking, "What in the world could she want?" My sweet little baby is such a good kid. He's reading well, and according to his test scores, he's above where he should be in his school work, so what could it possibly be?

So his teacher comes on the phone and sounds really serious. She tells me that she's having a behavioral problem with Luke. It really took me aback, he's been such an easy kid to raise. So I ask her what the behavioral problem is and she says that he's been yelling in the bathroom...... and I was like, "Huh?" And she says, "I know it sounds like a silly little problem, but I've asked him to stop and he won't". And then she tells me that she's even taken to escorting him to the bathroom and he still won't stop, and that the teacher in the room next door to the bathroom is complaining about the noise.

So, as she's telling me all of this I'm trying so hard not to laugh. Really I am. But she can tell that I'm trying not to laugh and it just makes her mad. So (as I'm still laughing) I promise her that I will talk to Luke and tell him not to yell in the bathroom anymore. And she thanks me (in a kind of mad way) and hangs up. And then I really start to laugh. And I'm still laughing about it when Luke comes home, but I don't want him to know, so I get a hold of myself before talking to him about it.

When I do call him in, I say that I need to talk to him, and he says, "Is it about the bathroom thing? I told my teacher that I'd stop and that she didn't need to call you." We chatted for a minute (while I did an admirable job of not laughing) and he promised me he'd quit. I told him that if I got another call from his teacher he'd not be able to play with his best friend for a while. When I asked him why he was yelling in the bathroom, he said, "Me and Ruger (his best friend) just like to be crazy in there! I'm crazy!" And then of course, I had to laugh.

And when Marty came home and I told him about it, he immediately started laughing too.

That's what's so great about being married to your child's other parent. They're the only other person in the world who's as cracked up about things your kids do as you are.

The kindergarten teacher certainly isn't.

for Jaxon.....

Not every son
would never miss a chance
to tell his mom he loved her.

Not every brother
would play so well and
be so good to his brother
and sister.

Not every friend
would always be this kind,
forgiving and fun.

Not every1o year old
would be this smart and
willing and artistic

There's only one Jaxon,
and he's mine.

More about PW

Okay, so I'm still SO in love with Pioneer Woman's blog that I have to put in another plug for it. I'm pleading, PLEADING with you people to check it out, there's something there for everyone.

Here she is, ain't she cute? - yes, I admit it, I do have a crush on her. (And her dog....)

(I also admit that I stole these photos off her site - but only with the best of intentions!)

Tara, if your listening (reading... whatever) Pioneer woman has the funniest blogs about her dog, Charlie, this one's for you...


"He's short. He's stubborn. His ears hang in his food. He's Charlie the Bassett Hound, and every day with him is an adventure."

thanks to Parelli....

Ha! I figured out how to add a template to my blog! I'm not sure I'll keep it, but at least now I know how to do one. And it feels good to have some horses on the scene, don't ya think? (If anyone knows how to make your own custom template, please drop me a line!)

I haven't talked much lately about the horsie side of my life, and I haven't done much with my own horses for the last couple of months. I'm SO missing them, but at least I'm "forced" (poor me!) through my job, to play with horses a couple of times a week, no matter the weather, and I love my Sanctuary horses, too. I'm especially fond of Mr. Felix.

He is a horse who's trust level with people was extremely low when he came to us. I've never seen a horse who was more scared of whips than Felix was. He'd obviously been lunged a lot and ran completely blind or tried to give birth to himself whenever he was asked to circle or shown a whip. He also didn't want to be caught and didn't know how to respond appropriately to any kind of pressure. He was also very claustrophobic and had a special dislike for our little two horse straight load trailer.

Through Parelli, I came to understand that Felix is a Right Brain Extrovert. In other words, he's scared to death and not afraid to show it. He was especially afraid of anything behind him, or in Parelli-speak - zone 5. But through the Parelli program, Felix has continued to become braver, calmer and smarter. His trust level with me and with people in general has skyrocketed and he's offering me some incredible things these days. He is even backing into the horse trailer! He can also stand on a teeter totter (and teeter it himself), lead backward by his tail, run to me the second I ask him to and many other wonderful things. I'm so proud of Felix, and I'm so thankful for Parelli.

He's totally in love with going in backward now and will load himself at liberty. "Sheesh, I don't know why I never realized it before, but when you go in backward, you can see out!" (Felix)

Luke's first bike ride!

I have a theory about kids learning to ride bikes - it goes like this: If they learn to ride a scooter first, they can then just get on a bike and go. The scooter is less scary to balance on, but they learn the same concept. Worked really well for Jaxon, so last summer, we got Luke a scooter for his birthday and he rode it on and off until fall. But about the time he was ready to transition to a bike, we had shorter days, bad weather, and a dad who could never remember to fix his bike tires.

Lately, we've had a bout of good weather and the days are stretching out, and Luke's had a renewed interest in his bike. Daddy fixed the tires on Saturday night and took off the training wheels, but then we were busy for the first few days of the week and didn't get home until after dark. He almost couldn't stand it! Finally, sandwiched between several activities on Wednesday, we got a minute to got out and give it a shot. I thought I'd have to help him and hold him up and run along with him. But before I could even get there, he pushed off with his foot and started to ride............

My baby!

He's so cute when he's proud of himself.


.... and all the rest of the time, actually. I'm pretty in love with this kid. And I don't want him to grow up, but I'm proud of him anyway, but I want to keep him a baby, but I love it when he succeeds, but.....

I think I'm just a tad bit conflicted here.

My love language...

After posting the other day about my husband's truly pathetic gift giving abilities, I thought I'd better mention some of the things that he does really well - just to balance things out.

I'm sure many of you have heard of Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages. If you haven't heard of them, they are:

• words of affirmation
  
• quality time
  
• gifts
  
• acts of service
• physical touch

So which is your love language? All of them, you say? Well, me too, but if you had to pick just one.....

It's a good thing that my love language isn't gifts. In fact, luckily for me, gifts rank right down there at the bottom of my list. My #1 would definitely have to be acts of service, and again, as luck would have it, that's the one my husband is best at.

Case in point:

One of my least favorite things is having a sink full of dirty dishes and a dishwasher full of clean dishes. If I were a halfway adequate housekeeper (which, less face it, I will never be) I wouldn't let the kitchen get to such a state, but several times a week, this is how things stand. I will come home from ___________ (insert activity here - tonight it was pack meeting. last night it was cooking group, etc....) and finally get the kids to bed and be wanting to go to bed myself, and am stuck with a sink full of dirty dishes, but can't do them until I put the clean ones away. So I sigh and trudge over to the dishwasher to open it and get to work. And about half the time, expecting to open the dishwasher to a full load, I open it and this is what I find.......

Isn't that a beautiful sight? And I know my lovely husband has come along when I wasn't looking, WITHOUT EVEN BEING ASKED, and emptied the dishwasher for me.

It gets me every time. And I'm sure that the reason he keeps doing it is, #1, he's a really good guy, and #2, I'm very enthusiastic in my expressions of appreciation each and every time. And tonight, when I thanked him, he said, "Oh, and by the way, I put the clothes in the dryer, too."

Be still my heart.

Oh, and did I mention that he's cute?

My new favorite downtime thing....

My friend Katie (Hi Katie!) turned me onto the greatest blog the other day and now I'm totally addicted. Because I've enjoyed it so much, I've decided to pass it on to anyone else who might be interested. So if you like ironic, sarcastic, self deprecating, slightly irreverent humor about childrearing, cooking, marriage and everyday family life, this blog's for you. She also takes gorgeous photographs of her kids, husband, animals and their working ranch. She's a city girl who fell in love with a cowboy and moved to the country. It's called Pioneer Woman.

Wow, that was the first time I've ever linked a site without using the actual web address. You learn something new everyday. Go me!

Here's one of my favorite entries, called "What Do You Do with Girls?". (It's actually not one of the funnier ones, but still, it stuck with me.)

There! I did it again! So check it out, and be careful about starting to read the romance section about how she met her husband called "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels", it will totally suck you in.

I can see a lot of similarities between her husband and mine - her husband gave her a riding mower as a wedding present. Mine gave me a car battery charger for Christmas this year. (Yes, really - and nothing else!) And both our husbands look sexy in chaps.

But she's a much better cook than I am.

So check it out! (Thanks, Katie!)