Reid McDowell Autobiography, Age 7

Reid's class has been working on their autobiography in school. He brought his home this week. I thought I'd share it so I had it documented as well. (portions in bold were pre-written on sheet for the students)

This story is all about Reid McDowell. I was born on September 17, 2003 in Olathe.

When I was little, I called fruit snacks fruit fracks. I called pancakes canpakes. I think that was funny.

When I was in kindergarten, I had a teacher named Mrs. Drescher. She was nice. My friend was Cohen. I loved kindergarten.

Now I am in first grade. I have a teacher named Mrs. Welch. She is ok. I have a friend named Adi. Adi has a cool mask. I love first grade.

When I grow up I want to be rich so I can have a jet pack. I would like to be rich.

I thought this was so cute and so funny that he put that his kindergarten teacher was nice and his current teacher is ok. We're going to have to work on the sucking up with him. :)

I also loved that he put he wanted to be rich because then he could have a jet pack. I asked him about it at dinner and he said he just made something up so he could be done. Yep, good 'ole Reid... still about as unenthusiastic about school as he can be.

He also told us that he was mad that Mrs. Welch made him write "I think that was funny" at the end of his story about fruit snacks and pancakes because he does not think that it is funny. He didn't have a detailed ending on his first draft so she "made" him put that.

I couldn't read what kind of mask Adi had but finally figured out that it's "cool." I remember him telling me about it now, it's some type of ski mask/stocking cap type hat.

Reid got +'s on all three of the grading criteria: Writes sentences with capital letters and punctuation, adds details to each topic sentence, and spells "expected" words correctly and close on others. The teacher wrote 'excellent effort' on his paper.

More McDowell Mania

We have three ENERGETIC boys. We are BLESSED to have them AND an 18 year old boy that stays with us and PLAYS with them. I'm often told that I'm crazy for housing another kid when we are as busy as we are. Obviously our family LOVES it so I thought I'd publish some proof why. These videos are from some post-dinner play. Russ and Ross had the boys in the living room keeping them out of my hair while I cleaned up the dinner mess and then I sat on the couch watching them play for a while... until Ross decided he wanted on my lap (third video).

This is NOT a rare occasion at our house. This is almost every night!!

Weigh In Wednesday

Ok, weigh in down. I'm trying to go with 'satisfied' as my reaction although I didn't win so it's hard for me. I'm not happy for sure. Down 0.6 pounds and I worked HARD this week. Ok, yes, I cheated some so I should be glad for the down. Next week if I get to 166 I earn a facial and I haven't got my pedicure from 169 so I might just throw them together and do a little spa trip!! :)

Since I'm a numbers gal, here are a few numbers:

22 - Days until I go to DC to see my BFF

65 - Days until Rock the Parkway Half Marathon

6 - Pounds I am down from the date we started at work (new pics of me when I hit 10 pounds, we'll see if we can notice a difference yet).

7 - number of Reese's peanut butter cups in my freezer from Christmas (is it sad that I know this?)

0 - peanut butter ghosts left in my freezer that my sister left at my house

100 - ounces of water I plan to drink today

Ok, that's all for today. Here are the team results from our third weigh in:

Mrs Consistent: -0.69%

Carmen: -0.36%

The Cheater: -0.35% (lost the same pounds as me, but I'm a very tad smaller)

Nancy Nazarene: 1.09%

The Lone Male: out this week (sick kid)

A new look

I've been meaning to post these pictures for a while now. They aren't the greatest but it's hard to photograph a small half bath and get a decent picture. I recently had the half bath painted (previously JoCo beige) and when Courtney was home over Christmas break I had her help me pick out some new accessories. We got a new mirror (the old was the basic builder oval), a "BATH" sign, and an "M" picture. I really like the way it turned out. All I need now is to change the towels that are in there. I need some black and gold ones.

I currently have TONS of projects all over the house that I want to do. Our house is a MESS! Let me tell you - I think we're at that stage (6.5 years) where it's not "new" anymore and it's sure taking a beating from the three boys. We have some 'maintenance' projects stacking up as well as a bit of updating that needs done. We have a few "trouble" areas as well that could use some major organizing/de-cluttering. My guess is Courtney will never come visit us again because I always put her to work when she does :)

I should have taken some before pics of the bath but I didn't so maybe I'll be brave and take some before pictures of the several other areas that I want to tackle in the coming year(s).

Some updates and good pictures

Last night Russ took Reid to hockey practice and I had the little two at home with me. Dinner needed to cook for an hour and the little boys don't have much patience. I told Ryan that he could pick out what he wanted for dinner but it had to be healthy. This is what he came up with (and the order he ate them in):

* water

* jello

* fruit cup

* cheese crackers with peanut butter

* green beans (I think he ate one)

* peas (I think he had like one spoonful)

And, OF COURSE, he wanted it all in his lunch pail. We've been playing "school lunches" a lot lately and he really likes it.

I thought Ross looked so cute yesterday in a shirt that we got from a friend so I wanted a picture in the morning. He was not having a great morning so he was not having it:

When we got home from daycare he was much more cooperative:

Isn't he getting to be such a big boy? Here are some pictures from the last three days. Notice any similarities? He is ALWAYS carrying around either one of his hockey sticks or this toy rubber axe that he actually got for Ryan for Christmas. He likes to whack people with the axe and he carries his stick everywhere finding balls all over and hits them. He LOVES hockey sticks.

Not sure if he was carrying anything here but I thought it was a cute picture...

And a belated thank you... but THANK YOU Grandma Cella for the blankets and pillows that you made for the boys! They really liked them and they love getting packages in the mail.

I got robbed (and other pathetic excuses)

Ok, weigh in is over. I thought it was going to be bad and I was pleasantly surprised that I lost 2.4 pounds. (weighed in at 167.4) I didn't win though, the Cheater lost FOUR pounds and is now within two pounds of my weight.

I did hit my 169 goal and earn a pedicure!! WOO HOO! At 166 I earn a facial and I've been wanting one for a while now. So, I've met both weekly goals that I have set so I'm going to say that my goal for this week is to lose 1.4 pounds and get to 166.

I had MANY sins this week

* Red Robin fries

* Ritz crackers with peanut butter covered in chocolate (Courtney left in my freezer)

* A ghost peanut butter cookie (Courtney left in my freezer)

* Handfuls of popcorn the minute I walk in the door

I could go on and on. I didn't deserve to win based upon my eating this week... but I still wanted to.

So, I've lost 5.4 pounds in two weeks. If I can keep up this pace I'll be happy but I'm still mad that I didn't win :)

The Cheater: -2.31%

Carmen: -1.41%

Nancy Nazarene: -1.01%

The Lone Male: -0.49%

Mrs Consistent: 0.23%

No pictures this week (I took them but they still look the same). I'll post pictures next week if I hit 166 and we'll see if we can tell a difference yet.

My three sons... and our night out on the town

I wanted to document most of this just so I would remember this night - the boys and I had a good time and made some great memories, good and bad...

Russ had plans with his best bud, Mike McConnell, tonight. McConnell recently found out that he has colon cancer and Russ wanted to spend some time with him just hanging out. They were going to watch a football game and drink a couple of beers. Being the home-body that Russ is, he preferred to watch the game at home (quieter) and drink beers at home (cheaper). So, Russ went out to eat with Mike and I got the boys around (woke baby up from his nap) for a night out with mom. I typically think I can handle anything with the three boys so I was up for the challenge.

When I went in to wake up Ross he was laying on his back with his eyes wide open but he did not react to me at all. Then he saw me and acted surprised and stood up, but shaking. He was having a hard time actually waking up so we left with one very crabby baby. He came around in the van and I took the boys to Monkey Bizness for some open play. They were CROWDED when we got there. Adults standing everywhere and tons of kids. I talked to the older two about the areas they could go in and not to leave without coming to me. I went in the toddler area with Ross and then we took trips out to check on the older boys. The boys played for an hour and 45 mins and they played HARD! Ryan's face was bright red and he was sweaty. Ross climbed, slid and played until he was just pooped (well, mostly hungry). There was one slide that he could stand up on and see all of the birthday balloons and he stood up there and said "boon" about 100 times.

We left Monkey Bizness to go find some dinner. I told the boys that I would take them to Red Robin but there were three of them and only me so they had to be really good. I told Reid that he had to be the man of the table. He asked me if we could pretend that he was the dad so I told him that was fine. To make Ryan happy, we were pretending that he was the oldest kid. They both seemed to think this was a good idea. It worked pretty well too! (mom 1, kids 0) When they got out of the car I got Ross out and Reid held Ryan's hand through the parking lot (never happens). Then when we got our menus they both circled what they wanted and ordered all by themselves. Ryan ordered 'lemons* and mac n cheese' (*melons - cantaloupe). Reid ordered spaghetti and mandarin oranges. We got a basket of fries almost immediately and Ryan had a little fit because they were so hot. Then when we got our food he had a big fit because his mac n cheese was too hot. He ate all of his cantaloupe and I ordered another side of it because Ross was loving it too. Ryan never touched his mac n cheese.

Towards the end of our meal Ross was starting to get unsettled and Ryan had to go to the bathroom so we went in there to go. On the way back Ross was 'tooting' quite a bit. When we sat down to sign our check he was throwing a HUGE fit. I think he had some more toots stuck - his tummy was really bothering him. He was arching his back and nothing would make him happy. The waitress came over and asked 'is there anything I can do to help mom out?' Deciding not to punch her, we grabbed our stuff and got out of there - screaming baby in tow. I didn't even put Ross or I's coat on. We grabbed our balloons and hit the van (and I couldn't even get Ross excited about the 'boon'. As we're getting in the van, Ryan asks "Are we going to go home and eat dinner now?" I'm not sure what he thought we'd been doing for the last half hour at Red Robin!!

Finally Ross settled down. and we decided to head to return a movie and some library books. On the way there Ryan says all nonchalantly to me "bad guys are a son of a bitch." I just said... "well, bad guys are bad, but let's not say that word." That kid cracks me up - earlier in the day he popped off with a "God Damn It Ross." I think mom and dad need to start watching our mouths a bit closer :) As we were running our errands we got a text from Russ that McConnell had left and he was missing his family. As much as he wanted time with his buddy - he kept texting us to check on us too :) We finished our errands and headed home. After some playing around with balloons, bouncy balls and reading books the boys were in bed shortly after 8:00 without a complaint!