Zach started school on the 14th. He didn't turn in his home work on the 18th or 19th (no homework prior to that). He lied to his teacher and said it was done. He lied to me and said he didn't have any. On the 20th, I went to pick him up early for an appointment and had a half hour discussion with his teacher. On the 19th, his teacher said if he didn't turn in work on the 20th, he went to the principal's office to do the work. On the 20th Zach lied and said the completed work was forgotten at home. Mr. D said he'd call me to bring it. Zach fessed up that it wasn't done.

He didn't have all his homework done this past Monday. I told him to bring all books home Tuesday and he did not. We DROVE to school to get them. He said the homework was done, he showed me work and said it was his completed homework. It was not. His teacher and I talked yesterday when I drove to school to see the completed work. So Mr. D knows I'm all up Zach's ass about this.

Today it's time to grade work. Zach has done one out of five assignments. Off to the principal's office he goes. She called, but I didn't answer the phone in time. I drove down there after listening to her message. Zach got to spend this morning in her office doing his work. She and I talked. The next time he doesn't have his work finished, it's all day in her office. THe second time it'll be ISS (in school suspension) where they bus him to the middle school and it's a day of no interaction with anyone. You do work all day, you eat by yourself, you get no recess etc. It's harsh, but it's because he's lying to everyone about it.

TODAY I told him to bring home ALL books. Mr. D gave me his cell number. We have each other's emails. Zach didn't bring his books home. He said he didn't have time to grab two of them, but it's okay because he did those class assignments. So off we drive to school and he finally confessed he didn't have the work done, but he lied to me before he admitted he didn't have it done. I asked (not accusing either) "Is your homework done for those two subjects." no hesitation, he said yes. "Think really freaking hard about what you just said because I swear to god if I find out you lied to me about your homework and we're already driving there to get the books anyway, life will become hell for you Zach. If Mr. D looks in your folder, will he be able to grade these assignments?" Zach finally said no.

OMFG. I thanked him for coming clean etc., but this stuff has got to stop.

Right now he's doing homework. All of it, even the stuff he said he already did and left at school. He's whining about doing it over again, but I keep telling him "If you'd brought your homework folder home so I can SEE it, you wouldn't be doing it over." He also gets to write apology letters to Mr. D and the principal for wasting their time because he didn't do his homework. Then he gets to help me do stuff around the house that I didn't do today because I went to the school twice to deal with this. He also gets to clearly label all of his work with what it is (math, english etc) the page number and the problem numbers.

I'm hoping today is the last time we have to deal with this because I'm not sure what his punishments will be if he keeps lying to me.

A calendar project

I made this yesterday and love the way it turned out. It's made using some of my favorite scrapbook papers and a button maker. I printed out all the numbers, cut it out, pressed the buttons, and added magnets. It's enough buttons for the entire month plus one "today" button.

Zach made a bunch of super hero pin buttons yesterday and Wesley got a "16A" button for his back pack so they don't have to keep sticking a sticker on him. The boys both got a super hero key chain for their back packs as well. Apparently I'm now the coolest mom ever.

Little Orphan Annie or What I got for my anniversary

The 18th was mine and Cody's 8th wedding anniversary. He took a day of leave and we went out and did stuff. I got him some really spiffy shoes and a leather jacket that don't fit... We'll be returning those later.

He gave me a puppy. Her name is Annie because he gave her to me on my anniversary. I was going to name her "killer" but it didn't seem to fit her. Mouse loves the new dog, Pumpkin tolerates her, Daisy flips out.

Cody got his choice of dog when we first got one because I had the cats and it was his turn. I really really wanted a cute little dog though. So since he's leaving the Air Force, he gave me a puppy. She's the cutest damn thing. I heart her. She was the best present ever

ITunes is missing

I started ITunes the other day and noticed some weird music in my "shared" section. First, the folder was named something I didn't recognize and second, it was full of mostly jesus music. It was also taking up room on my server.

Cody had opened our server connection so the wii could connect online. He forgot to secure it that day and it's been open awhile. There's nothing important in my shared documents though so it was okay.

Whomever has been using my server can't say the same anymore though. I deleted their entire ITunes collection and kicked them from the server. It was .... Cody got a huge laugh out of it. He may have also mentioned "bitch" while he was laughing really hard.

It's 3:33 am and I am awake

"Why are you awake?" you might ask? Because Cody got me the cutest little puppy for our anniversary. She's small and white and fluffy and I named her Annie ...
She's probably the most mellow puppy I've ever had. We played cards with Susan last night and Annie laid on the shelf under the table and fell asleep. She also laid on a pillow at my feet while Susan and I made buttons. Then she watched tv on the couch while she snuggled Zach. She wants to play with the kitties but left them alone after Daisy bapped her in the head. At least Daisy didn't use claws this time.
I didn't wake up in time to take her out to potty, but she did attempt to wake me up. It took Mouse's cold nose to my face to wake me up and realize with the claws on the kennel door meant. It was Annie trying to get outside to potty. She also already seemed to learn not to potty on the patio.
Right now she's IN Mouse's bowl eating Mouse's left over wet dog food and Mouse is letting her. Mouse is pretty protective of the new puppy and was pith when we gave Annie a bath. Mouse is just very very attentive and it's incredibly cute the way she babies my puppy.
It'll be a great way to start my college classes today. I'll have minimum sleep and I go to two different classes from 5:00 - 10:15.... joy.

First day of School

These are photos of the boys on the first day of school. The first photo is of Wes trying to look brave. The second photo is of the boys in front of the school and the third photo is Wes' teacher reassuring him it would be okay.

I'll have to do a more extensive post later, but it's been a rough week and I'm tired. Photos will have to do for now.

YAY School

We went to open house last night and it was... meh. They really should stagger the time table for different grades/teacher last names or something. It's a mad house.

Not that it matters because Wes got Mrs. Y for his teacher this year. The same teacher Zach had. The same teacher we've seen in the halls for three years. He was beyond excited and truthfully, so was I. I really like Mrs. Y. She's great when your kid is a little anal retentively organized (because she is too). We got hugged when we came to her class and Zach got to show Wes where fun things were. Zach's 2nd grade class was Mrs. Y's buddies last year.

Anywho. We did the scavenger hunt and the only thing that went wrong was Wes had no desk with his name on it. Mrs. Y was horrified. She kept apologizing to him and then she let Wes pick out where he wanted to sit and he could sit where ever he wanted. So he sat by someone he had class with last year.

We went to Mr. D's class next. He's also an awesome teacher and Zach was very excited to be in class with him this year. Mr. D's room makes me a little claustrophobic due to the sheer amount of crap he has in there, but he is an awesome teacher and I won't be in his class much so I'll deal with it. There's a kid that was in Zach's 1st grade class that was nice to Zach when other boys weren't around and if other boys were around, he was a jerk to Zach. We got to discuss this boy's behavior in first grade and how real friends don't treat you like dirt when other people come along blah blah blah. So I'm hoping this kid has learned from first grade and isn't so much of a jerk again this year. Zach said it's fine if he is because Zach just won't play with him. Afterall, he knows a lot of kids in class this year and they like him as he is so who cares if Jack doesn't. I heart Zach.

We played this game called "Munchkin" after we came home from the open house. My phone rang in the middle of my turn, but I didn't recognize the number. I answered the phone anyway and was surprised to hear Mrs. Y say hello. She was calling to talk to Wesley and tell him he had a desk now, who he was sitting by, where he was sitting, and how sorry she was that she forgot his name. Tell me that's not an awesome teacher. Wes had the biggest grin because Mrs. Y called him at home to tell him all that.

It'll be a good school year. I can feel it. The boys are excited, I'm excited about free days for a while. I have volunteer opportunities previously closed to me, I am taking more college classes, I've got some projects in the works, and I'm job hunting. It's a good time right now and less then a year until Cody gets out of the USAF. YAY!

"I almost gotted squisheded!"

Cody and I bought the boys some new book cases for their room. We wanted to move the books to their bedroom so that when people brought their kids to our house, I could say the bedroom was off limits and know my books would be okay. We had one child visit recently that pulled out all the books from the bookcase while his mommy watched. He ended up ruining several books, the neighbor girl yelled at him, Zach ended up crying... it was wonderful.

Add to that: the bookcase is a little wobbly and tall. I was afraid it would hurt one of the kids eventually and bolting it to the wall won't work because our walls are cheap and stuff falls out. Plus the boys can't safely reach the top anyway.

So we bought shorter bookcases, put them together, put them in the boys' room, and started filling them with books. At one point, Wes decided to put his beanbags next to the top heavy bookcase and climb a little to get more books. The whole thing toppled on him.

Yeah. Big tall heavy book case laying on little Wesley's back. Luckily the beanbags absorbed most of the impact and we didn't need to go to the emergency room. Zach helped Wes to the couch and got Wes an icepack for his head. I overheard Zach tell Wesley "WESLEY! I'm so glad you're okay! You could have DIED!"

Wes said " /sob I know! I almost gotted squisheded!"

All is well now though and the big book case is out to the curb. None too soon either.

Toothless

I was hoping Zach would lose them on picture day, but alas... no such school photo like that for me. /cry.

Zach does look awfully cute with his missing teeth though and he totally fits in with the locals now...

Zach's birthday

I was slow and lazy and didn't post Zach's birthday photos. ooops

Okay. So for Zach's birthday, we went to the dinosaur cafe in Kansas City. It has anamantronic dinosaurs everywhere and a build a dino workshop. Zach's been bugging to do a build a bear thing and we figured now was the perfect time.

We started the day off with notes left for Zach. Happy birthday notes (Wes made his all by himself and tried to spell happy birthday. it was cute), instructions on when he could wake everyone up etc. Then Zach got his favorite breakfast of biscuits and gravy made by Cody. It was really really good... like always. Zach also got to open one of his oma presents with breakfast. He loved it.

We took Zach to Kansas City and did some shopping. We had lunch at the Atlanta Bread Company and then we saw a movie.

We went to the dino cafe a little late, but the boys enjoyed it. We did build a dino while we waited for our table. Zach was really in to the building part, Wes kept looking at the stuffer like she was psycho when she told him to rub his dino's hearts (yes hearts. 2 just like the doctor) against his head to make the dino smart, against his belly so it's never hungry, and dance so it's always having fun. Yeah. Have to figure out how to upload videos because it was hilarious.

Then we got to eat and have Zach bug the crap out of us the entire time about when would they sing happy birthday. He'd get sad when the birthday singing went to someone else (and there were a lot of birthdays there apparently). Cody finally told him (yet again) that it would happen when we were all done eating, quit bugging or we'd just take him to the car and go home with no birthday dessert. Harsh, but omg was he bugging.

The boys played with some dinos while Cody and I finished eating part of our food. It was a lot of food too. Dino sized portions even...

Then they brought Zach out dessert, sang to him, the boys ate it and we all went home. Fun times had by all. mostly

Getting Out

Cody has finally made a decision and he's decided to get out of the USAF. He's done in Oct of '09 and we're stuck here until then. He can go on terminal leave in like July of 09 though. They can't make him go to Korea because he doesn't have enough time left in service. England just doesn't look as spiffy as a big pay raise. We're shooting to move to OR, but he can take a job basically anywhere and I'll be happy.

For now, I'm doing stuff to the house (currently making a lamp out of a friend's violin). We're both taking classes. The boys start school soon. I'm looking for a job for something to do now. We're also working on putting all of Cody's computer talents on to a resume and then going fishing with it. He hasn't told work yet, but he will if that's what it takes to get the orders cancelled.

I feel better knowing he's decided what he wants to do. Military is not for everyone and he's no longer happy serving. We've searched for a reason for him to stay in and sometimes you just have to call it quits and part ways before you end up hating it.