Karate belt testing

Ryan had his belt testing tonight and after two months of karate classes, he "did his best" (a class motto) and earned his orange belt!! We are so proud of him - I think he is just as proud. When he got that belt he had a huge smile on his face and made sure to show it off as soon as he could. Below are some pictures of the big event.

working the karate moves

practicing self-defense moves

shaking hands with the black belts after receiving his orange belt

showing off the goods

After the testing was over, we headed home, showered up and the boys went downstairs to celebrate by watching Monsters vs Aliens with some popcorn and cocoa - Ryan's dream come true. Lauren and I opted for bed (her) and blogging (me) - not a bad night for anyone.

A quick side story . . . I know that I mentioned that Ryan gave us all new names a few days ago. Well, I thought the names would last just for the day and he would completely forget about them - unfortunately I was wrong. Not only does he remember all of our "new" names, he actually refers to himself as "John" out in public. So the other night we went out to eat and the waitress comes by and says, "hi, my name is Sara." Ryan says, "his Sara, my name is John." So the waitress says, "hi John, what can I get you?" So the whole meal, he was John. Then, tonight at karate when the teacher called him to his spot in class, he says, "Ryan, run real fast." Ryan's response, "I'm not Ryan, call me John - I changed my name." The teacher shrugged it off, laughed, and said okay, "John Ryan." People I probably are going to start thinking we stole Ryan and made him changed his name or something. Hopefully this is just a phase and Ryan, or John, will just go back to being good ol' Ryan Quast.

Squeaky clean

So my desire to have a clean house might be an obsession. What makes me realize this now you ask? Well, I've started noticing some things with the kids lately that make me wonder why they do the the things they do. Then I realize it is because they are just doing what I do pretty much everyday. So what are they doing? Well, this . . . They are miniature "clean freaks." Now I'm not saying that I don't like the additional help, and I love, love the fact that they want to keep things clean, but it is almost getting to the point where that is all they want to do. Every morning it is a race to see who can eat breakfast the fastest so they can get down from there chair and select their cleaning item of choice. The little sweeper and dustpan is a favorite for both of them so when they get stuck with the duster they are none to happy. And then there is Ryan's monster truck. Instead of wanting to drive it, he just wants to clean it all the time. I made the mistake one day of giving him a baby wipe and telling him that it was a special "Monster Truck" wipe. Since that day, all he wants to do is get the "Monster Truck" wipes out and polish his baby up. We literally have to beg him to take Lauren out for a ride just once before we'll let him wash it - what a weird little boy. Or should I say, what a weird little boy just like his weird big momma.

One more quick story. The kids and I were sitting out in the front yard today while Trav was mowing. So we're just laying there and Ryan says to me, "I'm done being Ryan now." I asked what he meant and he said he wanted a new name. So I said, "sure, what do you want to be called now?" His response, "John, John Kurtz." I laugh at him and he says, "you have a new name too, Sally." So there we sat, John and Sally Kurtz, just hanging out and saying, "yes, John, and what did you say Sally" back and forth for way too long. After that got old Ryan (or should I say John) decided that Lauren and Dad should have new names too. Trav became "Josh" and Lauren became "Kearse" - Kearse Kurtz - what a name! I have no idea where he came up with the names, especially not the last name - that was pretty unusual. Before long our neighbor boy came over and said hi to the kids. It didn't take long before Ryan was correcting him and telling him that, "I'm not Ryan, just call me John."

That's all for now. Ry has his belt testing for karate this Wednesday - hoping he'll pull through and get that new belt!

Fun weekend!!

We had a fun-filled couple of days this past weekend. First up . . . "Girl's Day" with Mom, Ash, Ann and myself. Trav was away with some buddies so the kids got to have some fun with a babysitter while the girls went and had deluxe pedicures - yeah!!! After our fun and very relaxing pedicures, we headed out to a local, favorite restaurant of ours for our nightcap of dinner and some drinks (and by "nightcap" I mean we were home by 7:30pm). I think the babysitter was a little surprised when we walked through the door at 7:30 versus the 8-8:30pm time frame I had given her, but what can I say, we just aren't late night people. Plus, with us home, she didn't have to worry about putting the kids to bed so that had to be a bonus for her. Once home, we said our good-byes to Ash and Ann and got the kids bathed and in bed. Mom stayed the night so the two of us cuddled up in bed together to watch 48 Hours Mystery - unfortunately neither of us made it to the end (we'll have to catch a rerun some other time). On Sunday Mom/Grandma Donna and I took the kids to the local Corn Maze for an afternoon of fun. We started in the giant corn pit where Ryan took off right away but Lauren was a little hesitant. She wasn't sure about the whole thing so I took off my shoes and got in with her. Before long she was jumping and running (well, at least trying to run - it was really hard in that corn!) right along with Ryan. After a good half hour or so of this, the kids were ready for some new fun so we dusted off our clothes, shook out our socks, and headed off to another adventure. Next up was a stop at the hay bale maze where we made our way down and back once before it was time to move on. After this, we headed over to the big promise for the day . . . horse rides! Both kids picked out a horse and mounted up for an exciting ride around and around and around - they loved it, it made me a little dizzy. After the horses we headed over to check out the animals. There were a lot of new, crazy animals this year - a zebra, lemurs, a camel, monkeys, you name it, they had it. I gave the kids four quarters to use to feed the animals, the only made it to three before Ryan bumped his arm on a fence trying to pet a goat and got mad - no more food for the animals. That left me to use the last quarter, but not being really excited about the whole feeding thing, I opted to do more of a "drop and let them eat off the floor" kind of thing - the deers who we gave this food to didn't seem to mind. After the petting zoo, we sat down for some food and rest then it was off to milk a fake cow - Mom and I got to be the "ladies who needed milk" while Ryan was the "farmer" who provided it to us. After that we caught a magic show - which made Ryan cry because he was never chosen to be a helper (not even after he came up with the idea to stand on top of the bale of hay to make himself more visible) nice effort, put to no avail - damn that magician. With the tears done, we caught some pig races and then started for the exit. By this time the kids were dirty and getting tired so it was back home, into the showers, then off to take naps - have I mentioned before how much I love naps? With the kids down, I saw Mom off and then caught a little nap myself - a perfect ending to a fun and exciting day. Thanks Grandma Donna for spending the day with us - hope you had as much fun as we did!Oh yeah, went down a giant slide at some point during the day - don't remember when that happened but here is a picture of the three of us coming down the final stretch - just too much fun to remember everything!

A day of firsts

So today was the big day . . . Ryan's first day of school! The day kind of snuck up on us as we had a busy weekend and didn't have a lot of time to plan for the big event, but it still went off without a hitch. Late last night (while everyone else was sound asleep) I dug Ryan's backpack out from the bottom of his closet. When I finally found the backpack, I had to spend the next ten minutes emptying out all of his toys that he had stashed away in it. With the backpack ready to go, I wrote out our first tuition check, tucked it inside, and set everything by the door. After that, I set out an outfit, laid his name tag on it, and went to bed - time to sleep for the night. And then this morning came . . . and everything went way better than I expected - yeah! Ryan got out of bed without a fight, ate breakfast in a reasonable amount of time (for him that means less than 30 minutes), brushed his teeth, and got dressed all without any major drama. With Ryan ready to go I concentrated on getting myself and the babe dressed and then we headed outside for some "first day of school pictures." After the pictures, we piled into the mini and pulled up to the school at 8:51 - nine minutes to spare. The extra time allowed us to venture into the classroom and let Ryan show us around a bit. By the time we (Lauren and I) left, Ryan was already engrossed in a complex four-year-old conversation with one of his friends - a good start to the school year. With Ryan safely taken care of for the next two and a half hours, the girls headed to the gym to work off some of the dreaded "weekend weight." This was also a first for Lauren - her first time going to gym school without her protective big brother there to watch her back. The drop off was simple - she was off running around before I got to the door, and the pickup was even easier. The teacher said Lauren did just fine - played with all of the babies, cooked some food for everyone, and just had fun. Great, both of my kids are just fine without me - is that a good thing or a bad thing? After the gym, we ran a couple of errands and then headed back to get Ryan from school. In his own words, school was "FANTASTIC." No surprise there - the kid was dying to get out of the house and do his own thing. Here are some pictures of the first day of school for both of the kids - Ryan's preschool, Lauren's gym school flying solo.With school done for the day, we headed home, had lunch and then everyone laid down for a well-deserved nap (mom was included on this as well). After supper we had one more "first" for the day . . . Ryan's first day of swimming lessons. He was pretty excited, but really didn't have any idea what to expect. When we got to the pool, he could hardly wait to get in and was excited when his class, "The Crayfish" were finally called. He lined up with all the other kids and off they went. It was pretty basic stuff - get in, blow bubbles, kick, splash, and even a couple of trips around the pool with the teachers - good times! The class ended with each kid getting to jump off the edge to the waiting teachers - Ryan's favorite. As we were walking out to the car after lessons, I asked Ryan what his teacher's names were. He said, "I don't know but he has nipples just like these (pointing to his nipples)." What do you say to that but "okay" and move onto the next topic of conversation. I truly never know what is going to come out of that kid's mouth. I thought I'd throw these pictures in as well. They are from last Friday night when Ryan was getting ready to go to his "first friend" birthday party - which he absolutely loved!

Was I Lauren, Is Lauren me?

So Lauren has been a (I'm looking for a kind, real gentle word to describe her, but not finding one so I'll just write the truth) little shit lately. She is constantly picking at Ryan while he is nicely playing by himself. She lurks around him, waits for him to take his hand off a toy, and then steals it. With toy in hand, she runs away screaming bloody murder and then throws a fit when I make her give it back. Another one of her favorite things to do is to close the doors to the cabinet that holds the t.v. in our room while Ryan is watching a movie. And when she is in a real mood, she'll ball up her fists and give Ryan a couple of quick punches just because. Why she does these things, I have no idea, but it got me thinking. And then one day I remembered that at some point my mom (I think it was her) told me that Grandma Loken used to say that I was the instigator of all the fights Aaron and I ever had (Grandma was apparently able to figure this out in a very short period of time because from what I can remember, we only spent one week a year at their place). I'm sure at the time I heard this, I was blown away. No way could I, precious little girl that I was, be the "real" problem when it came to fights with my much bigger and meaner older brother. But, after witnessing Lauren's tactics, I'm thinking Grandma Loken might have been onto something. Maybe I was the same little shit that Lauren is now, and maybe I made Aaron's life a living hell just like Lauren is making Ryan's right now. Is it possible that her behavior is mirroring exactly what I was like back in the day? If so, I hope I wasn't terrible for too long, but if I was, I guess it is just karma coming back to bite me in the ass. To Aaron, if this is indeed true and I was a less than perfect little sister, I'm sorry. And to Lauren, I hope someday that you will have two kids, a boy first, and then a precious little girl. And I hope that precious little girl turns out to be kind and gentle, but if she doesn't, you have no one to blame but yourself (and me too I guess).

Such an innocent looking little thing

The Real Housewives of . . .

You know those reality shows, "The Real Housewives of Orange County, Atlanta, and New York", well, I'm here to say those shows are NOT true. So the other day I was watching (yes, I do watch those stupid shows) "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" and I started thinking, that is not how real housewives live or act. So here I am going into my second full year of being a stay-at-home mom and I finally feel like I am somewhat of an authority in the area. For starters, real housewives do NOT put on make-up or do their hair. In fact, I can honestly say, I never put on make-up, and only "do" (this means wash, blow dry, and straighten) my hair if I know I have something special to do. Something "special" could mean anything from dropping Ryan off at school to visiting the local library - I know, real exciting. And then there is the clothes that these women wear. They have heels, skirts, and tight fitting clothes - all lies, lies, lies. Real housewives don't wear that stuff, they wear comfy, loose fitting clothes that can usually be found in any local Target or Wal-Mart. That's right, I do my clothes shopping at Target and I'm proud of it. I even go as far as buying "nice" sweatpants and "everyday" sweatpants at my beloved store. My "nice" sweatpants (which are categorized as more fitted and suitable for wearing outside the house) can be found hanging in my closet. They have assumed the positions that were previously held by my business suits and dresses. My "everyday" sweats (which are loose, big, and comfy) are folded nicely into their own drawer in my dresser. As far as shoes are concerned, there are no heels in my collection. In fact, the lower the shoe, the better for me. The other day during Famous Footwear's buy one, get one half price sale, I was able to score both an "everyday" shoe, and a "dress" shoe all for the bargain price of just $75. The "everyday" shoe is a typical white running shoe which provides lots of comfort during our countless walks around the neighborhood. My "dress" shoe is a black and grey Nike casual sneaker. The black and grey colors provide lots of versatility with my "nice" sweats, and the purple Nike swoosh on the side provides a splash of color to let everyone know what a "hip" mom I really am. And finally, probably the most important garments in a woman's wardrobe . . . bras and undies. Most people probably shop at Victoria Secret for items like these, I say, who is Victoria, and what is her secret? Instead, I turn to my "go to" store, Target, where I browse the Intimates area to find the perfect items. A 7 pack of Hanes cotton underwear with a "no wedgie" guarantee for only $5.00 - unbelievable - I'll take two (that way they should last all year). And to hold in my large rack - a 3 pack of Fruit of the Loom racer back sport bras in a variety of colors - just perfect! My outfit is complete, I'm comfy, I look decent, and most importantly I'm happy.

Now that is the true "Real Housewives of _____ (fill in the blank)!"

Ryan

A quick little catch up on Ryan's life lately. Karate is still "tops" when it comes to activities outside the house. To date he has earned four stripes . . . parent stripe (earned for eating healthy foods for five straight days, orange stripe (for bringing a friend/Auntie to class), knowledge stripe (for knowing what he is doing in class), and just this past week, his attitude stripe (for having a good attitude in class). He is so proud every time he gets a new one. We literally drive home, and look for anyone he can show off his new stripe to - sometimes it Lauren and Daddy, sometimes it is whichever neighbor happens to be out and about at the time - he doesn't care as long as someone will listen. He has also earned his first badge (which Grandma Connie is sewing onto his uniform because I have no skills in that area) and is preparing for his first "belt testing" (a test to see if he is ready to move up to a yellow belt - I think) later this month - what a busy little boy. School is also just around the corner. Last night we went to his orientation to meet his new teachers and some of his classmates. He wasn't so sure he wanted to move up to the "big kid room" because he really liked his old teachers, but to our surprise, we found out that one of his two teachers from last year has moved up to the big kid room and will actually be his teacher again - what a good deal! School officially starts on Monday - not a day too soon if you ask me. The kid needs to get out and talk to someone else every once in a while otherwise we might both go crazy! After orientation we went to Target to go shopping for a birthday gift for his first "friend" birthday party this Friday. It wasn't as much fun once Ryan realized the present we were buying wasn't for him, but eventually he got over it and picked out what he thought was the perfect Transformer for his buddy Colby. Upon leaving Target, Ryan asked me what he was going to get for a gift at Colby's party - I had to break the news and tell him, "nothing" because it is Colby's special day, not his. He was a little shocked by this, but accepted it and went on with business as usual. Tomorrow is the big day, and Ryan can hardly wait to see his friends and try his hand at bowling - should be interesting. The other big event that starts next week is swimming lessons. I signed him up for the real basic, "get in the water and be comfortable" session so I'm hoping it goes well. Needless to say, we have a very busy little kid on our hands. It is such a change from last year when all he had was school two days a week. But, I guess his life will only get busier and busier so we might as well start adjusting now.

One last thing concerning Ryan . . . yesterday while I was running around upstairs getting lunch ready, I hear, "damn it, damn it, damn it!" coming from downstairs. I head down there to see what is going on and find Ryan standing right in front of the t.v. pointing his finger at the screen with a Nintendo controller in his hand. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, "yelling at the t.v." When I asked why, he said, "because that is what Daddy does when he loses." Needless to say, we had a sit down conversation together where I explained to him that first of all, we don't say "damn it", second, he will not be playing games if he can't control himself, and third, I'll talk to Daddy about the rest of it. All those things we don't think kids pick up on, apparently they do - oops!