Happy Birthday Willie!

For as long as I can remember, we've all teased my mom that Willie Nelson is her boyfriend.  She's not a huge music buff, but she does love his music.  Growing up I listened to quite a lot of it.  Being from Texas, I guess that makes sense.  I even got to see him in concert once at a Farm Aid benefit.  He is one entertainer that my kids can recognize by sight and sound.  And to be honest, I love his music too. He's got such a distinctive voice.

So in honor of his birthday, I'll post this special message:



As well as this classic for my mommy:

Benjamin's Birthday Bash!

Well, my baby turned three yesterday and I survived it!!  He woke up before his siblings on Sunday morning and met me in the living room.  "I'm three, Mommy!" were the first words out of his mouth!  The next words out of his mouth were, "Can I watch TV?"  so we snuggled up on the couch until the rest of the household awoke.

We started our day with his requested breakfast of cereal (not chicken) and then got ready for church.  He wouldn't let me take a picture of him with his birthday shirt on, so you'll have to settle for a picture of the shirt by itself.

I am especially proud of this one.  I got the three monkeys positioned exactly the way I wanted them and he loved it!! (He just didn't want to stand still for a picture.)

After Mass, we went home and sent Daddy to the store for last minute party stuff.  We had a small party, but it was full of people we love, so we had a great time.  I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted because I was too busy chatting and watching the kids play.

I think his cake turned out pretty well. I had a picture online that I was trying to follow for the decorations. The cake itself was a really dense strawberry cake.  As Julie pointed out, "It's so dense there are barely any crumbs!" And the best part is that there were not leftovers, so I don't have to use my willpower to not eat cake all week!

As usual, the kids had a good time climbing on Grandpa and Uncle Alan.  I'm pretty sure everyone slept well last night!

Five Minute Friday: Friend

I'm trying out "Five Minute Friday" today.  It's just like in high school when your English teacher said, write for five minutes on whatever comes to mind.  I hated it then because my mind never wanted to go towards something to write about.  This task, however, comes with a prompt.  And a new one each week.  I've been seeing Five Minute Fridays all over blogs lately, so I decided to dive right in with one this week.

And the prompt this week? Friend.  I've got a great story for that one!! So here you go' five minutes on the word "friend."

I was at church a few weeks ago waiting for things to get started.  Someone said something over my head that annoyed me.  Actually, it more than annoyed me, it made me mad, mainly for the sake of my child.  It wasn't something necessarily mean or unkind, it was just thoughtless and my momma bear claws came out.

I turned to my friend sitting next to me and said, "I can't believe she just said that!"  I went on with a bit of a rant about why it had made me mad.  Friend turned to me and said, "Maybe she's just feeling_______. It could be that _______ & _______."  The actual response doesn't matter so much as the fact that it wasn't what I wanted to hear.

I looked at friend and said, "You are probably, most definitely correct. However, that is not the response I was looking for. "  So being the great friend that she is, she smiled and said, "Oh Sorry!  Let me rewind and try that again!" ...  "I can't believe she just did that! That is such a rotten thing to say right in front of you. GRR!! She makes me mad too!"

Thank you, friend.  That's what I wanted to hear.  Sometimes (OK, fairly often) I don't want someone who can fix my problems.  I want someone to commiserate with me.  To agree that sometimes life sucks and is unfair.  And I am so fortunate to have a great friend who can do that for me!!

You can check out other answers over at the link-up.
 

Benjamin, On Turning Three

I interviewed Benjamin the other night while we were waiting for his brother and sister to get their pajamas on.  I like doing this interview with my kiddos near their birthdays so I can have a record of how their answers change as they grow.

1. What is your favorite color? Blue
2. What is your favorite toy? motorcycle (I hear stories every afternoon about whose turn it was to play with the motorcycle at day care)
3. What is your favorite fruit? oranges and strawberries
4. What is your favorite tv show?  Team Umizoomi
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? strawberries & "the other chicken" (He was referring to my audacity to serve some chicken and black bean concoction instead of plain chicken tenders for dinner the other evening.)
6. What is your favorite outfit? a shark shirt
7. What is your favorite game? trains
8. What is your favorite snack? strawberries
9. What is your favorite animal? a giraffe
10. What is your favorite song? "A B C D E" (and then he sang it for me)
11. What is your favorite book? His Mickey Muse search and find book
12. Who is your best friend? Daniel & Simon
13. What is your favorite cereal? both (he likes to mix regular Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios)
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? bikes
15. What is your favorite drink? lemonade
16. What is your favorite holiday? winter
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? giraffes
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? chicken (haha!)
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? cake (hahaha!)
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a monster "Grrrrrr  ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!"

And after the interview, just for fun, I asked him his whole name.  He replied, "Benjamin Uncle Alan Lieber."   I LOVE IT!!  Have I ever told this back story?

The book is called "I Was So Mad" hence the facial expression.

One night the kids were talking about their names.  You may recall from this post that Frances is named after both of my grandmothers.  When it was time for Henry to come along I felt like we should pick names from Ken's side of the family.  Ken's maternal grandfather was named Henry and that name "fit" with Frances' name so we picked it.  Ken didn't really want his first name used, so we went with Charles for a middle name.  It's Ken's middle name and his father's first name, so it counts double.

Did I mention that we never found out ahead of time what our kids' genders would be.  I knew Frances was going to be a girl and I knew Henry was going to be a boy.  So far we were two for two.  I knew that Benjamin was going to be a girl, so we had a great girl name picked out and ready to go.  When Benjamin was born, Ken said, "I have good news and bad news.  The good news is we have a beautiful new child. The bad news is we don't have a name!"

We spent a lot of time in the hospital going back and forth on names.  We really couldn't decide on anything. Somehow we came to Benjamin and agreed on that, but couldn't figure out a middle name.  Someone (not Alan) suggested the name Alan and I liked the sound of it.  Alan is also my dad's middle name, so it counts double too.

Back to the night my kids were talking about their names...The older two know who they were named after, and they are quite proud of the stories. Then they told Benjamin that he was named after Uncle Alan.  From that point on, Benjamin has told us that his name is "Benjamin Uncle Alan Lieber."  Makes sense, right??

Check back on Monday for a report on birthday festivities!  Have a great weekend, friends!

Guest Blogging at Cluttered Genius Today

Blogging has given me the opportunity to "meet" lots of new people and make new friends.  Today I get to mark another item off my "Bloggy To-Do" list: Guest blogging!  Check out my post over at Cluttered Genius!

5 Things I Hope My Kids Never Figure Out

Last night I was making dinner and supervising chores (fine, I was yelling threats from the kitchen...) when I said something that I've said many times before. For some reason though, this particular instance made me giggle.  And I decided it would make a good post.  So I present you with...

1. What started it all was when I said to Henry, "What did I tell you would happen if you didn't get that laundry put away."  The reason I laughed is that when I said it he ran quickly from the room, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what would happen if he didn't finish.  I have a couple of go-to "motivators" for each child.  I like to keep the consequences of the actions something logical, so, for example if you don't do your chores, you won't get to watch your TV show because you'll still be finishing what you were supposed to do.  If you don't wash your hands before dinner, you won't be able to sit with us at the table because your germy hands could make everyone sick.  But in this case, I have no idea what I had told Henry.  In the end, it didn't matter because apparently he remembered and he did get his laundry put away.  I just hope my kids never figure out how often I forget which consequences I promised.
2. One thing that Ken likes to roll his eyes at me about is my over-dramatization of lateness.  If we have a particularly busy Saturday where no one gets a nap (or any kind of downtime) I like to get everyone into bed early.  But I know that if I tell them they are going to bed early they will see it as a punishment and resist.  So around dinner, this is what happens, "Hey guys! We need to eat quickly because it's really late and everybody's got to get to bed."  When in fact it is only 5:30.  Or we'll be on our way home and I'll say, "Kids, we are getting home really late tonight, so as soon as we get in the house it's time for jammies and brushing your teeth."  And it's only 6:30. By setting this up early and stressing how late it is, I can get the kids in bed by 7:30 with very few problems.  I just hope my kids never figure out how to tell time.
3. I try to feed my kids a good diet of healthy food. However, I am not perfect about it and we all occasionally indulge in some junk: candy, prepared food, take-out, and fast food.  One thing I have found that helps to prevent temptation in regards to candy and junk food is to just not buy it.  I don't typically have those kinds of food around the house unless there is a specific reason. Around the holidays we get quite the influx of candy, just as I am sure that most of you do.  We put all the candy in one basket and the kids are allowed one piece after dinner if they have finished their meal.  They are pretty good at this rule and Frances and Henry clear their plates almost every night.  I just hope they never figure out how much of their candy I eat!
4. I've seen lots of pictures and videos of kids being naughty all over the Internet.  Some of them have gone viral and brought their parents fifteen minutes of fame.  Some of them are from my own Facebook friends.  I usually give a little chuckle, and then move on.  Sometimes I've gotten a pretty good "LOL, share with your friends" reaction.  But I always hide those pictures from my kids and I never take them myself.  Sure it's cute sometimes, but I know what would happen if I laughed at my kids while they were being bad...they would keep being bad. They would do it over and over again just for the laughs.  So I don't laugh.  Or at least I try really hard not to and I leave the room if necessary.  And we're all in trouble if Ken and I make eye contact!  Some of the naughty things they do are kinda funny, so I hope my kids never figure out how cute they can be when they're being naughty!
5.  Frances is my first born. She's the child that made me a mom. She's my only girl.  She hugs more often than my other kids.  She is just like me in her love of reading, her sense of style, her kindness and love of others.  Henry is my first boy.  He's the one who introduced me to the concept of how harrowing the life of a "boy mom" can be. He climbs things I never thought of as climbable.  He hugs tighter than than my other kids. He is just like me in his sense of curiosity and wonder with the world.  Benjamin is my baby.  He loves his brother and sister fiercely.   He hugs longer than the others.  He is just like me in his love of singing and music.  Sure they all drive me crazy at times, but more importantly I love them.  I love them each in different ways. I love them more than I ever thought I could love another person.  I just hope they never figure out which one I love more! (Because that one doesn't have an answer!)

Team Umizoomi: Geo's Shape Belt DIY

Benjamin is quite obsessed with Team Umizoomi on Nick Jr.  He sings the songs from it constantly in his cute little voice. All three of mine enjoy watching it together and Mommy is happy because the characters are two boys and a girl, so each of mine can claim their own during the show without too many arguments.  The show is pretty cute. It doesn't annoy me like Yo Gabba Gabba or Dora.  Since Benjamin's birthday is on Sunday, I was trying to think of some Team Umizoomi birthday ideas for him.  I will be attempting a Geo birthday cake for him this weekend, so check back to see the outcome.  I also made his invitations in the style of the show.

He loved the invitations when he saw them. He is so excited for his Umizoomi birthday party this weekend.  I can't wait to see his reaction to what I made him!!

Geo's Shape Belt-DIY

For this quick, easy project you will need the following:

• nylon webbing (long enough to go around your child's waist, plus about 6 inches)
• a lighter
• scissors
• needle and coordinating nylon thread
• belt buckle
• assorted felt scraps
• hot glue gun and glue (not pictured)

1.  Step one: Cut the nylon webbing to your desired length and heat the ends with a lighter to seal them.

2.  Step two: Following the directions on the buckle, wrap the webbing around the middle piece and hand stitch together. I suppose you could also hot glue this piece if you don't like sewing.

3.  Step three: Cut out shapes from your felt.  I made sure to make them the same width as the belt. I want this belt to be functional as well as fun for my skinny mini.

4.  Step four: Attach shapes at intervals around the belt.  You could sew them, but then the stitches would show, so I hot glued mine.

5.  Step five: Tah-dah!  He's going to be so excited!!

Henry and Frances have been drawing him blueprints all month to go along with his shape belt.  Now he can build anything...with his shapes.  Super Shapes!!


What do your kids like to watch?

Weekend Recap

I had a hard time dragging myself out of bed this morning, that's for sure!! i know it's Monday and everyone hates Mondays, blah, blah, blah. But I honestly don't usually mind them that much.  I enjoy my job, so I'm not dreading coming in to work.  I just had too much fun over the weekend and could have used an extra bit of sleep.

So what did we do this weekend?  I'll tell ya!

We had donuts with our breakfast Saturday morning.

We tried to remove the pedals and associated pieces to turn this bike into a balance bike.

We went for a ride, scoot, push together.

We made up stories at the podiums in the cemetery.

I laughed at the memory of my mother making me mow around all the wildflowers in the back yard.

We watched Dr. Who with daddy on Sunday morning.

Got carried into the grocery store by a daddy who was showing off and being silly.

Jumped so much at the birthday party that his arms got blurry!

Got lots of bling in the goodie buckets at L's birthday party.

Had an epic sword fight in the front yard with a bunch of neighbor kids.

Survived several hundred "fatal" stab wounds.

How was your weekend?

Old School Blogging

The Old School blogging meme was started by Elaine at The Miss Elaine-ous Life and Heather at Theta Mom. Their questions for this month are in bold.

How did your husband pop the big question?
It was our 5-year dating anniversary.  I had the feeling that he was going to ask, so I was kinda excited that day.  Then he didn't ask, so I was trying not to be upset. Actually, that's a lie. I was annoyed.  And by late that evening I was bordering on pissed (not proud of that, btw).  Anyway, late that evening I was on the couch pouting.  He came over on one knee and popped the question.   I was very excited and called my family right away.  Later he told me that he had wanted to ask earlier in the day, but I seemed upset about something.  HA!!

What are the three most surprising things about married life?
Three surprising things about married life?  1-It's exciting (sometimes) 2-It's boring (sometimes) 3-It's worth it (all the time)

How did you find out you were pregnant for the first time?
I was teaching at the time. It was my first year and things were stressful.  Things haven't ever been regular for me, if you know what I mean, so when I started feeling queasy and sick to my stomach I thought I had a stomach virus.  When it continued for another week I thought maybe I was dying.  Then we went out for dinner on Ken's birthday and in the middle of eating, something dawned on me.  I asked him to stop at the store for a test on the way home and sure enough-there were those two blue lines! Pretty good birthday present for him, huh?

How did you choose your baby’s first name?
Frances is named after both of my grandmothers.  My maternal grandmother died in February of 2001 and my paternal grandmother died in May.  Ken and I got married that year and we honored both of them with flower arrangements at our wedding.  Since I was teaching while I was pregnant, I knew I didn't want a common or popular name for my child.  I didn't want bad or annoying associations from a kid of the same name to carry over to my own child.  My mom's mom was named Frances (It's my mom's middle name too) and my dad's mom went by Jane.  I thought Frances Jane had a nice ring to it.  Incidentally, we never had any medical confirmation that she was going to be a girl, I just *knew* it and we only had a girl name picked out. 

After I typed that I re-read the question (because I was a teacher and all...) and noticed that I told you a story about my first baby's name instead of the other way around.  Oh well, I'm leavin' it!

Describe where you see yourself 10 years from now.
Ten years from now I will have three teenagers. I hope that my living arrangements will not involved padded cells or bars on the windows. Check back for updates!!

Describe how you find bliss either by using words or images.
Bliss! Such a wonderful word.  I like listening to music. I like being outside on a hot, sunny day with a nice breeze.  I also like cuddling my babies and kissing their heads.

***

How about you, dear readers? How would you answer any of the questions above? If you have a blog, consider yourself tagged to join in the fun! If you do go old school, remember to tweet your post with the hashtag #OSBlog.

5 Things that Made Me Happy This Week

If you've been reading here this week, you already know that it's been a rough one.  Here are five things that made me happy this week:

1. New staples arrived!  When I had checked on office supplies last week, I saw a whole bunch of boxes of staples. Turns out they were the wrong size and we ended up running out.  Some of the students were upset because their free staples were not available.  I ordered them Monday afternoon, but didn't reach the free shipping threshold, so the company put it on hold.  I re-ordered on Tuesday and they showed up yesterday.  I seriously did a little happy dance with the boxes of staples.  Lame, I know.
2. Eating dinner with the most interesting man in the world!  When Ken and I first met, I think we were both attracted to each other because of our similar sense of humor.  As life has moved on, things have changed and we don't always laugh together as much.  But last night we took the family out for dinner. We ended up at a table in the corner and there was the Dos Equis guy on a stand up, right behind our table.  When the waitress came to the table, Ken ordered a Dos Equis and laughed about it.  "I am the most interesting man in the world," he said!  We had a really good laugh at that one and I was reminded how much fun we can have together!
   
3. Meeting new people!  One of the reasons I have been stressed out is that I have been doing interviews the past two weeks to fill student positions here at work.   But in some ways, it is also fun. I enjoy meeting new people and talking with them.  I get excited about new faces coming to join our team (even at the same time that I am sad about people who are graduating).
4. Frances got invited to a neighborhood birthday party! I have posted before about the lack of good friend choices in our neighborhood.  Then on Sunday a friend from Frances' class came over to play from down the street.  They had such a great time imagining about fairy circles. Then on Tuesday we found a birthday invitation from this girl in our mailbox. Now, not only is there a friend in the neighborhood, she is a friend with parents that I could get to know.  (Most of the parents in our neighborhood, while perfectly good and nice people, often speak little to no English, so making friends with them is difficult for me.)
5. All the love and encouragement I got from people after my posts this week!  It is so encouraging to me when people reach out to help each other through a tough time.  I got lots of real and virtual hugs yesterday and they just made my day!

What has made you happy this week?

This Is The Day

I was a little down yesterday. There's usually one week a month where I am.  It just happened this this one hit at a time of crappy news on the radio, TV and internet.  It also hit during a crazy, busy time at work.  And I haven't been sleeping well.

Then I am reminded of my favorite bible verse: Psalm 118:24.  {Side note: Just as I started to write this my Pandora station loaded with The Beatles "Here Comes the Sun.} {Second side note: As I am still trying to continue typing, one of my students posted my second favorite bible verse to her Facebook status (Matthew 6:25-34)}

Let me try this again...Yesterday was a rough day, I need a hug, I keep getting interrupted while I'm trying to share about my favorite bible verse.  YES GOD I HEAR YOU!! :)

When I was born, my mom sang Psalm 118 to me.  I don't actually remember it, but she's told me a few {thousand} times.  It's always been "our" verse.  Ken and I used it in our wedding Mass.  Then I sang it each time my children were born.  I love the Easter season because we hear it a lot at Mass.  Ken always puts his arm around me when he hears the first few notes.  I think he's knows I'm about to cry.  Frances knows it's special too because she flashes me and "I love you" in sign language.

I have little notes and plaques with this verse on it all around my house.  I'd have to double check, but I might have one in every room.  Heck, it's even on my license plate for my van!  It's my go to verse whenever I need to do some serious praying and reflection.

On hard days, I force myself to remember that "Yes, this day too, is a gift from God."  It calms me and reminds me that no matter how difficult and depressing life seems that He has a plan in mind.  He will prevail.  He will bring good out of all things.

I didn't talk to the kids about Boston.  I didn't feel like it was something I needed to bring up.  I did talk to them about Newtown, CT; Frances more than Henry.  I felt like that was a situation she was very likely to hear about elsewhere and be impacted by.  I wanted her to hear about it from me first and get my take on it. 

What I told her is basically what I needed to remind myself of yesterday.  There are bad people in the world who cause bad things to happen.  But the good in this world truly does outweigh the bad.  The bad just seems to get more attention. I do have to say though, that the media seems to be trying to shift their focus lately in the aftermath of disaster.  All of the heartwarming stories of runners helping each other across the finish line, finishers who kept running to go donate blood, and people willing to offer living space for people who were stranded while waiting to hear about loved ones.  Those stories don't make me cry any less, but it is for an entirely different reason.

Goodness needs to get more attention on a regular basis.  We've become numb to the bad because it's all we hear. We start to think that the bad is everywhere, constantly surrounding us.  Out to get us, even.  But that's not true.  We are surrounded my God's goodness and love.  We just don't look for it.  There are days that I force myself to seek it out because I am trying not to forget.

And as I couldn't sleep last night, Psalm 118:24 was the verse that kept going through my brain.  I had lots of ideas floating through my brain of what I wanted to say. Of course most of the "excellent" blog posts that I write in my head while trying to go to sleep never actually make it here.  And this morning it wasn't any different.  Probably because of what I realized as I was writing this post down.  It wasn't about what I needed to say.  It was about what I needed to hear.  And the hug I needed. Because I have gotten the message loud and clear.

"This is the day the Lord has made, Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

"Here comes the sun!"

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"

Have a blessed day friends!   

Moment of Silence

I've been trying really hard to blog every day during the week.  I've got a really good track record this year and I'm proud of myself, but today I'm just not feeling it.  Personally, I am a tad overwhelmed with work responsibilities right now and I slept funny and have a huge cramp in my shoulder.  Beyond that, there are tragedies going on and tragedies being remembered and I just don't have anything to add to all of it except my prayers.
So this is my moment of silence for the world.

Do You Believe in Fairies?

Frances does.  Wholeheartedly. A year or two ago I showed her a fairy circle in our yard.  She was fascinated with it.  She loved putting flowers in the circle for the fairies and finding little sticks or berries she could leave as offerings.  Well all the snow and ice we got at the end of winter has been good for our yard and the fairy circle is back-bigger and better than ever!

See the darker ring of green?

She had been adding little things to it off and on over the past week, but Sunday afternoon some friends came over and things really took off! S* brought her four year old sister, A* with her, so I had five kids in my yard between the sandbox and fairy circle. 

I loved all the descriptions of what they were bringing to the fairies.

Food...

This branch is an entire collection of fairy blankets

See that stick?  It's a cane.  You know-For the old fairies!

 

 

 

Clothing...

And the love with which they placed all their offerings!

 

And my heart just melted when I walked up on this scene in the backyard!

 

At dinner, Frances explained all about the fairies and that she hoped they would be able to use all of the gifts they had been given.  I said something to the effect of, "I'll bet S* and her sister had a great time imagining with you."  And Frances deftly replied with, "What do you mean 'imagining?'  Fairies are real! Don't you believe!!" And I truly didn't have an answer for her.

And in all seriousness, it makes me a little bit sad to mow the yard!

Friday Fill Ins

1. Right now I'm starting to stress out about all the interviews I am doing in the next few days.
2. Humming is my well known quirk.
3. Are you ready for the weekend!?
4. Chores first, then fun!
5. That's why my kids groan so loudly on Saturday mornings.
6. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of my favorite tv shows ever!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to dinner and a movie at home with the kids, tomorrow my plans include a question mark (after all the rain soccer is probably cancelled) and Sunday, I want to go to Mass and hang out with my family!

Friday Fill Ins are a lot of fun! Check them out here:

Student Worker Appreciation Week

This week my university is celebrating Student Worker Appreciation Week. We have such an awesome group of students here that I enjoy the opportunity to go all out and say thank you to them for the awesome job they do here. 

On Monday, I put out a Candy-Gram sign.  I've seen these before and I've always wanted an excuse to make one. I actually made the sign last year, but I bought new candy and put it out again this year. In front of the posters there are two bowls of assorted candy that the students (and I) have been snacking on it all week.

"In honor of STUDENT WORKERS APPRECIATION WEEK we would like to say thank you for all you do.  You do {Good & Plenty} around here. You process {Mounds} of books and other materials for students and professors. Instead of being {Nerds}, you have been real {LifeSavers} for professors who are having technology issues, or when their computers are running as slow as {Turtles}.  And thankfully you are not a {Butterfinger} when handling laptops and projectors.  We know that the lessons you are learning will help you both {Now & Later} in life.  You are definitely not {DumDums} when it comes to juggling school and work.  You are {Almond Joys} to have around. We are very fortunate to have hired such a group of {Smarties}. We wish we could give you {100Grand} on {PayDay}, but you will have to settle for {Hugs} and {Kisses} and a {Symphony} of voices saying "thank you!"

My co-worker also made confetti cookies on Monday and those were a delicious addition to the sugar coma we started!

On Wednesday, I brought in BBQ and cole slaw.  Apparently the whole outer area smelled good enough that several students commented on it when they walked in.  To those students who were studying and completing class projects, I must apologize for the teasing aromas coming from my office.  It could have been worse-you could have been me sitting two feet away from a crock pot of BBQ all day!!

Today my boss brought bagels and orange juice for everyone, so the day has started out quite nicely.  Friday another co-worker is bringing a "candy bar."  As in an open bar of a variety of candies that the students can mix, match and bag up. 

Next week should be back to business as usual. It's a good thing too.  Otherwise, I might need to go buy some new clothes because those new dresses I talked about yesterday aren't going to fit so well if we kept this up any longer!

Megan, Kelsey, Lauren, James, Michelle, Jessica, Ashley, Deserae, and Kate: You guys rock! Working with you on a regular basis is one of the reasons why I love my job so much!  P.S. Next week you'll have to bring your own food, sorry!

Mommy, You Look Beautiful

For Easter I went dress shopping and came home with 3 new dresses. Isn't that how it always happens!!  One I bought for Easter, one was a winter-type sweater dress that was on clearance, and the third was just because I felt like it!  I wore the Easter dress for Easter and the sweater dress when the weather was cooler (you know, last week?), but I hadn't worn the third one yet. 

Easter dress

Since the weather is finally warm enough, I chose to wear the last of the new dresses to work yesterday. I don't have a picture of me in the dress, but this is it, if you are wondering:

Just for the record, I was wearing turquoise wedges with this dress

While I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup, Henry asked me to help him with his shirt.  I did a bit of a double take when I saw him because of the outfit he had chosen.  He was wearing plaid madras shorts and a blue and red plaid cowboy shirt.

He is neither funny looking nor dressed strangely by his mother

I said, "Ummm...Henry, usually when people go for a pattern in one place they opt for solids elsewhere."

He replied, "Huh?"

Then I said, "That's not an outfit I would have chosen, but if it makes you happy; then you go for it, Bubba!"

He grinned widely and ran off.  He met up with Frances in the hallway and she gasped and said..."Henry!! You look so handsome!"

As we all got our stuff together and started to head for the door, Francs looked at me and said, "Mommy, you look beautiful today."

And I wasn't quite sure if that was a compliment...

Rabia: The Story Behind the Name

According to my sources, today is "Name Yourself Day."  Most everything I read mentions that today is a day you can change your name if you don't like the one your parents gave you.  I can see that if you have the same name as everyone else around you, but that is obviously not a problem I have.  I've only met one other Rabia in my whole life and she was an Afghan refugee I met through a school I worked at.  We didn't have a whole lot of conversations because I don't speak Farsi and she didn't speak English. 

I'll start with the obvious: How to pronounce my name.  I have heard lots of different pronunciations over the years.  I've been called Robyn, Robbie and Rabies(haha, I've never heard that one before!!).  My neighbor of ten years still calls me Robie (with a long "O" sound).  (*Side note: In high school my best friend's name was Robyn.  At one point she was dating a boy named Robbie.  My poor boyfriend had the darndest time trying to talk to the three of us when we were all together!!) Anyway! The pronunciation: RAW (like uncooked) bee (buzz buzz) uh (uh...).  Put it together RAW-bee-uh. 

The funny thing about telling people how to pronounce my name is that they then want to change the spelling. I can't tell you how many times I've spelled my name for someone and then pronounced it only to have them say, "I'm going to put 'Robia" over here on the side so I can remember how to say it." Inevitably, the next time I talk to them, they call me Robia (long "O" sound again). 

I lived with people mis-pronouncing my name and mis-spelling my name for a LONG time.  Even my own brother used to spell it wrong all the time.  I'm used to it.  Learning to gently correct people has been a great lesson in assertiveness.  Having a unique name has also been a great conversation starter when I meet new people. The story I tell is actually kind of funny.

I have an Arabic first name and a German last name, but I am neither Arabic nor German.  Technically I am Native American on my mom's side from an Alaskan tribe.  My parents met where all girls from Alaska and boys from Iowa meet: Afghanistan!  They were both in the Peace Corps. My mom was a nursing teacher, teaching young Afghan women how to care for themselves and each other. My dad taught English.  The story goes that with each new group of volunteers the current volunteers would go out to meet the planes. Apparently the pilots always let the prettiest girls sit up front in the co-pilot's seat.  That's where my dad first saw my mom. (That's the way he tells it anyway!)

My parents got married, had a kid (my brother John), moved around a bunch and 9 years later had me.  My mom named me Rabia after one of her former students in Afghanistan.  As I've heard it, the choices were between Rabia and Nadia. Before I was born, my older brother used to go around the house chanting "Naughty Nadia! Naughty Nadia!"  And that's how I ended up as a Rabia. Thanks John!

When I was in Sunday school growing up, there was always a class about Saints.  The teachers would always talk about which Saints the students were named after.  My dad taught me to explain that I was named after a Sufi Saint. That didn't always go over well. 

Also, if you ask my dad who I am named after, he will tell you that I am named after Christopher Columbus.  Actually all of us are named after Christopher Columbus.  Mainly because Christopher Columbus was named in 1451 and the rest of us were name sometime after that.  (I get my sense of humor from my dad, can you tell?)

I like my name.  I've never had to use my last initial. I've never heard people ask "Which Rabia?"  I can weed out telephone solicitors like nobody's business!! "Umm...Hello. May I speak with Rah-ray-robe...Mrs. Lie-ber?"  "Sorry, no one here by that name!"  It gives me a great story to start conversations with when I meet new people. 

Do you like your name? Would you change it if you had the chance?  Or do you go by a nickname?

And of course, not a hippo

I got my kids back on Saturday morning!! They had a wonderful week at "Camp Grandma and Grandpa."  They got to play outside, see some snow, go to the movies and visit a coal mine in Beckley, WV.  My mom didn't look too tired or worn out when she dropped them off, so I will assume she had a good time too.

We met up at Henry's soccer game and transferred stuff from her van to my van.  Henry's game was fun because he only has six kids on his team and three of them didn't show up!  The other team donated some players and they just went out on the field and had fun.  That's the point at this age anyway!

On Sunday, we went to Mass, as usual.  We dropped Frances off at Sunday school after Mass and then I tried to figure out what to do for an hour.  Usually I take the boys to the grocery store, but we had shopped the day before.  We all walked over to Ken's store and dropped him off there before walking downtown to our town's community garden.

I have never used this community garden, but I had heard of it.  It is a public garden where anyone can plant, care for, and harvest homegrown veggies.  It is obviously in a dormant stage right now, but there are walls around it, so I thought it would be a good place for the boys to run around a bit while we waited.

I was in the "mom-zone" while we were there.  The boys were running around asking me questions about rocks and plants and dirt and I was answering the best that I could.  Henry found some honeybees and watched them, fascinated for a while.  Benjamin joined him and both of them were enthralled. 

Henry already knew quite a bit about bees and he told me that these were collecting pollen to make new flowers.  We even got to see the bees covered in pollen as they went from flower to flower.

We also found a lot of ladybugs.  They were not moving as much as the bees, but the boys got excited each time they found a new one.

At one point, the boys were looking for a ladybug that was crawling around.  I pointed at it with a stick because I was across the bed from them.  Benjamin immediately yelled at me, "Don't kill the lady bugs!!!"  I laughed and told him that I would never kill a lady bug.  I explained that ladybugs are good bugs because they kill the bugs that eat your garden.  Henry told me that spiders catch bugs and kill them too.  Then he asked, "Mommy, can a ladybug get caught in a spiders' web?"

"Yes, I suppose the do every once in a while."

"Can a person get caught in a web?" he asked me next.

"No, not really. People are too big to get caught in a web.

And then, in a very serious manner, he looked at me and said, "And of course; not a hippo."

No, son, hippos don't get caught in spiders' webs.