Mahem in February

Sammie and Nathan are rolling around on the floor acting like drunk gorillas. They're making more noise that an entire ape family being attacked. I'm ready to rip out their vocal chords and strangle them. Why choose to write now? If not now, when? I see that it has been a couple of weeks, and I'm long overdue, no matter the noise level in the house. You'd think they could at least go to another room. But they find great joy is seeing me writhe and squirm in frustration.

Life is good. Valentine's week at school is fun. There are lots of treats and love notes and fun activities. I'm helping with my own class party, and helping with Leah's class party. And I just got a desperate call from one of the moms in Nathan's class saying that she can't get a hold of any of the moms who were supposed to help her. Could I please help her? So it looks like I will be going to three Valentine class parties on Thursday. Life couldn't get any sweeter, in my opinion.

Kids say the darndest things. I was doing reading with one of the kids and he put his head down on the desk and sighed. I said, "What's wrong, Gavyn?" He answered, pouting, "This school just makes me so tired!" He looked surprised when I started laughing.

After we gave a lecture last week about no fingers in noses and using tissues, the class was very good about running to get tissues instead of wiping their noses across their sleeves. But they also made comments while throwing their tissues away. "Cool! It's all glittery and sparkly!" one of them said as he tossed it into the trash. And "That one's heavy!" 'Tis the season of drippy noses. I'm so grateful I've managed to stay healthy even though I am exposed to legions of germs each day.

Don't ask me how, but one of my friends has talked me into training for a mini triathalon. It's the end of April. Yes, that is rather funny, isn't it? Darren says I can get new counters if I finish it. I don't have to do well, I just have to finish it. I've only been wanting counters for nine years now. I guess I've finally found a way to get them--by swimming, biking and running my way into them.

Only nine weeks until New York! Or maybe eight. The kids are busy earning all kinds of money to take to the Big Apple. They now get one ticket for every thirty minutes they read. Each ticket is worth 50 cents. The pile of tickets is growing daily. Darren and I are going to go broke paying the kids for their tickets. There has been much less TV watching and computer and video game playing this week. I like this a lot.

My sister in law, Kim, is having twins girls in June. Up until two weeks ago she thought she was having only one baby. Now she has 3 1/2 months til they're born and her life is in a whirlwind of trying to prepare for this. How do you ever prepare, though? Her children go from 3 girls and 1 boy to 5 girls and 1boy. Poor Josh. You gotta feel for the guy. That's a lot of hormones in one household.

I just found out that a couple of my earlier blogs got accepted for publication in a new literary journal called The Sigurd Journal. I guess it pays off to ramble on the compter every once in a while.

Happy Valentine's Day friends and family! Love to all!