My children need counseling

I'm waiting for Ellie to finish eating so that I can take her to a fund raiser for band (6 am bowling- YAY!). I walked into the bathroom to splash water on my face and was greeted by this.

Yes, Ken is bound and gagged. I was pretty happy to find the dog's leash though. . .

I believe I will buy this. . .

This is the new ipod touch.

A friend of ours has an iphone that he really likes- maybe a bit too much, but that is another story. I am in need of a new ipod, as my first generation behemoth keeps having issues and has to be reset (but the sad face it get amuses me every time!).

I just can't decide if:
1) I really have the disposable income to get it and
2) If I will even use the functionality it offers.

I mean really, will I download and watch videos?
Then again, it might prevent me from missing episodes of Heroes for weeks on end like last year. . .

Priceless Picture of Rebi

So, Nate and Rebi were goofing off with the camera tonight. This was the best photo of all. . . It's made all the more amusing by the fact that Nate looked at it after he took it and said, "Rebi! You look like our cousin Jenne!"

Jen, your thoughts on this? :)

Ellie

I don't post much about Ellie, and there are two reasons for this.
1) She is always gone to school and gymnastics.
2) When she is home, she's usually doing homework or freaking out over homework she still has to do. I know, a tough problem to have.

So, I just wanted to to tell everyone that Ellie is still alive and quite happy. She is at the Middle School, apparently oblivious to the aspects of it which made Rebi and Evan so grumpy. She continues to live in her own little world, mainly blissful- other than the homework. Oh yeah, and chores. She hates those with a mad and fiery passion. And, we usually get to hear about it in detail, at full volume.

The Verdict is In

Well, after several teacher meetings, we have been given a ruling on Nate and his behavior at school. Here it is:
Nate is not willing to be compliant. (Say this sternly for maximum effect).

What?!?! When did that happen? Oh yes, that's correct, it happened at birth. I remember that now. 6 years of asking 95,000 times for him to do his chores or find his shoes or even to put his pants on right-side out. Was I supposed to be shocked? horrified? repentant? I'm not sure. I do know that I was not supposed to smile and agree. Clearly, I am complicit in this behavior. Clearly, I am not strict enough in my house and he is deteriorating into a hapless pile of non-compliant goo. Surely, he is bound to end up addicted to drugs, homeless (maybe even a hobo- wouldn't he be thrilled?!?) and a drain on the upstanding members of society. Don't think she didn't go there, because she did. And implied that I am also non-compliant. Well, right. I am. I don't mean to be, and I'm often horribly conflicted by my lack of desire to obey, but he most certainly does get this from me.

I have tried my entire life to "be good" and do the "things I am supposed to" but underneath it all is this snarky little voice in my head saying, "this is stupid" and "rules are meant to be broken". But I digress. . .

So, I explored in more depth what exactly it was that was driving this teacher straight to Starbucks to fortify herself before facing him every day. It turns out he hates to color and write sentences. Well, DUH! I told her that as soon as we knew she was the teacher. And, I'm not convinced she clearly defined how she wanted him to comply, because the work she showed me was technically done. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't neat- OK, it was barely legible- but it was complete.

Evan had this very same problem in 1st grade, and his teacher put him in time-out every day for a month before either of them saw fit to tell me. He went to school every day, knowing he was going to get punished for not being willing to write and color. Nate comes home every day with a pouty lip, sad that he got in trouble, again. I do not find this cute.

So, we are home schooling one more. Rebi has already agreed to teach him Spanish and Evan is dying to work on science with him. Luckily, I am still capable of first grade math!

Stalked by Hobos

Just now, as we were getting out of the car, Nate said, "Mom, you're being stalked by invisible hobos!"

And really, that makes a lot of sense to me. Clearly, something or someone is following behind me making messes while I clean. And if I were invisible, I just might dent a bumper to try and get some attention. Naturally, an army of invisible hobos could give me that sense of overwhelming dread I've been experiencing lately. Frankly, I like the hobos! Think of all the things I can blame on them.

In all seriousness (and I say that tongue-in-cheek since Nate is involved), my son doesn't have an invisible friend. Rather, he has spent all day talking to Bob the Invisible Hobo and Bob's family (mom, brother, I don't know who else).

Bum Bumper

I was driving the kids to gymnastics today when I noticed I was nearly out of gas. I dropped them off, and pulled into a gas station. Imagine my surprise when I looked down and noticed a huge dent in the side of the bumper on my van. Now, I am pretty happy that it's ONLY the bumper. It could have been several thousand dollars worth of damage, and replacing the bumper is probably only going to cost me a thousand. That said, ARRRRRRRGH!

Who runs into someone and goes, "oh well!" and leaves?!?! It's a freaking crime! Besides, I didn't actually want to replace the bumper on my van just yet! GRRRRRR. The worst part is, I have no idea if it happened at school, wal mart, or even for sure if it happened today (although I'm pretty confident). Totally annoying.