Adventures in Rob and Laney Land

Sorry for the lack of posts, but things have gotten insanely busy again.The four older kids are each enrolled in the activity of their choice; Megan has art classes Thursday nights, Kylie has soccer practice Wednesday nights, soccer skills Monday nights and games Saturdays, and Beth and Jack have gymnastics on Tuesdays. I am now one of two leaders in charge of Achievement Day girls for church (girls ages 8-11, of which we have 24!!!), which is on Tuesday nights. I am getting back into helping with the group I used to work with on Sunday nights as well, so our schedule is pretty full :) I have three and a half weeks left of this quarter and am doing well in my class. Next quarter I will be taking two classes, one of which is to prep me for my first residency, which I will also be doing next quarter.

We filed our tax return a few weeks ago, prompting the usual deterioration of everything in our house in order to insure that we never actually get to use any of the money we get back. This year the a/c compressor died and since our a/c is so old, we're replacing the whole unit. Considering how much that costs, we thought it would appease the tax return gods, but not quite! Last night Rob got to go into Dallas to see one of his favorite bands perform. Usually I go with him, but since Eva is still so young, he went on his own this time. After the performance his car wouldn't start. He tried jumping it and discovered that it wasn't the battery. He called roadside assistance (which fortunately comes with our car insurance) and I woke the kids up and loaded them into the car to go pick him up. By the time the kids and I left the house, it was after 1am. We managed to find Rob without the gps, which was in Rob's car. We got there just after the tow truck and the kids were thrilled that they got to see the car pulled up onto the bed of the tow truck. As we were driving home, Beth piped up "this was the best night EVER!!!" Not exactly what I was thinking, but at least Rob was ok and I was able to go pick him up :) We're hoping it's just the starter as those tend to be significantly less expensive to replace than, say, an alternator. We're waiting to discover what other casualties this tax season will bring. We had to replace our grill already and our washer is hanging on by a thread, but we'll see! :) We're grateful these things happen when we have the money to pay for them and that the a/c went out now instead of in July :)

We've had some fun moments lately too. Jack and Beth both LOVE gymnastics and it's so much fun to watch them enjoy it. Next Tuesday Brittney doesn't have to go into school until 1pm, so she's coming with us to gymnastics and then we're having a picnic at the playground afterward, which Beth, Jack and I are looking forward to :) Kylie is loving soccer. Megan (who takes after me and is probably the least athletic of any of our children) has helped her come up with some moves. My favorite one involves standing in front of the goal with the ball, pointing to one side and saying "Look!", and then kicking it in to the goal when the goalie looks to see what you're pointing at :)

I love listening to the things my kids come up with. They are more entertaining than any show on TV, in my opinion. Yesterday Beth was playing with Eva as I tried to work on homework. Beth pulled Eva into a sitting position on her lap and in a deep voice (emulating Santa) said "So little girl, what do you want?" Eva (through Beth) responded in a high pitched voice "I want baby toys and breastmilk". Santa Beth replied "You got it cutie!"

It is so interesting to listen to the differences between the girls playing and Jack playing. A friend recently gave us a bag of "boy" toys like cars, monster trucks, and transformer figurines. Jack LOVES playing with them. His games usually involve one toy crashing into another toy, repeated a bazillion times. The girls love playing with them too. Their games involve creating families ("this one is the mommy truck, this one is the daddy truck, this one is the kid truck and this one is the baby truck" - the monster trucks are usually the dads) and having conversations. They don't need toys to play though. The other day Beth found a sample of hair products that we got in the mail and dictated a story about the baby shampoo (which I think was hair gel or something) that missed his mommy shampoo.

Both of Kylie's front teeth have been loose for several months. She finally lost one of them at school yesterday. The nurse gave her a little tooth-shaped container to put it in. In the process of showing it off to her friends, the tooth got lost. Kylie was in tears when school got out, convinced that the tooth fairy wouldn't come since she didn't have a tooth to put under her pillow. I tried telling her that we could leave a note and that I was sure the tooth fairy would still come, but she wasn't convinced. She was still crying when we got home, but after I made a quick trip upstairs, we miraculously found the tooth stuck in the lid of her tooth container. This may or may not be related to the tooth fairy's husband's inability to discard anything connected to our children, including teeth, if you catch my drift. It was nice to be able to fix something :) Heaven knows there are and will be enough times in our children's lives that we won't be able to fix things they are upset about!