Sunday, August 30, 2009

Turning Three

Well, it’s no new thing that the kids are three. Their birthday was months ago! Just look at thr age ticker! It’s also no surprise that I’m just now finally getting around to commenting on the new age! “Always behind” is becoming my new middle name! Oh, well.

Nevertheless, the kids are three, and there are some things that need to be documented. Like the results of our three-year dr’s visit!

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At the time of the checkups, Jonathan weighed 26lb and was 34.7in tall. He is the shortest and the lightest, but he at least was able to qualify as 3%, rather than BELOW 3%. He has been removed from the endangered species list for the time being. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, click HERE) I’d say this is due mostly to the fact that J has decided that food is yummy after all and he wants to eat it no matter what! He is still a slow eater, but he will sit in his chair and clean his plate no matter how long it takes him. He and Thomas are competeing for the title of best eater, and J may just win!

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Zachary weighed 30lb (25%) and was 35.2in tall (5%). This actually makes him the second lightest and shortest, but due to his build, I still think he LOOKS bigger than Thomas. He is easily the pickiest eater, as he has always been, and the most stubborn. This stubbornness has had a great impact on potty training, but that’s for another post!

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Reagan weighed 31lb (55%) and was 37in tall (50%). I feel certain that either her height or Thomas’ is wrong, by the dr’s office measurements. Reagan is easily the tallest of the four, but the official measurements have Thomas at a quarter of an inch taller. That just can’t be right! If I had noticed it while we were there, I would have had them re-measured. Oh, well. She’s completely average compared to other girls, but definitely looks tall compared to her short-for-their-age brothers, especially Jonathan!

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Thomas weighed 30.5 lb (50%) and was 37.25in tall (50%). He is still a fabulous eater, and the most likely to try new food, although J is quickly catching up! He may be officially bigger than Z, but he doesn’t look it.

All four kids are using the potty now, although only Reagan was at the time they actually turned three. It has been quite a bttle at times, continues to be quite a battle at times, but we are making progress. Reagan went to church in underwear instead of a Pull-Up for the first time today! She did great! Yea! Progress is wonderful! And Zachary had his first accident-free day on Friday! More progress! It gives me hope when the days are full of poopy underwear! I plan to have a whole post devoted to potty training soon. It may have to be a series of posts. We’ll see!

The kids are talking more and more all the time! They love to tell and retell their favorite stories and TV episodes, as well as act them out. This has been a fun new development for playtime. They like to dress up in costumes more than they used to, and pretend all sorts of things. It’s a really fun part of this age!

The not-so-fun parts of this age is the incessant whining, temper tantrums, strong opinions, and fighting with each other. These things make every day a challenge, one that I don’t always meet with patience and gentleness. Actually, that I very rarely meet with patience and gentleness! But I know that to an extent, these problems will not always be what they are now, and as they pass away, so do my little kids become big kids, a change that I anticipate with both relief and regeret, as all parents do!

The boys have become pros at riding the tricycles they got for Christmas, racing each otther in circles around the patio and claiming to be lightning McQueen or the “mean green car.” Reagan is not quite as trike skilled, but she’s making progress too and ought to catch up with them before too long!

Reagan becomes ever more girly, twirling about doing “pretty dances” and talking about ballet while the boys zoom past her with their dump trucks and racecars. It’s interesting to witness their varied natural development, since they are so being nurtured so equally.

The kids start preschool this week! Yea! They are excited, and SO AM I! I’ll have more to tell about that later! I guess this will do for now. I can’t think of anything else to tell at the moment!

By the way, the pics I used are their actual 4:30 birth pics. I always take the kids' pictures around 4:30 on their birthday because that is when they were born. It's a fun tradition that I enjoy!

Have a great week!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Harris Cousins

We went to Memphis last weekend to visit my side of the family, but before I post about that weekend, I need to post about our visit from and with Jim’s side of the family.

The second weekend of August was a big, busy weekend. The festivities actually started on Thursday with the arrival of Jim’s three cousins, Josh, Koda, and Caleb, and josh’s wife Erin. They all spent the night at our house that night, and we got sitters so we could all go out to see our favorite local band Flipside Runner.

DSC_2483 We were just a wee bit crowded, but it was worth it!

Friday brought the additional arrival of Uncle Clay, Aunt Carey, and Cousins Tyler and Avery. (The adult cousins did not spend the night a second night, in case you were curious as to where we managed to bed down so many people!) That night the menfolk all went to UT’s Welcome Back BBQ and had lots of football fun. When they returned, Carey and I got to go out to dinner and enjoy some relaxing non-child time.

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Sat we just enjoyed each other’s company. We managed to get the kids in the pool for a little bit too, but they got cold and wanted out before I was able to get many good pictures. Actually, I didn’t get many good pictures at all the whole weekend. There just always seemed to be so much going on that there was never time to think about grabbing the camera!

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On Sunday, we all went to Jasper to visit Gammy, Granny Kat, Pawpaw and Nene. We had a DELICIOUS lunch at Gammy and Granny’s house, then paid a visit to Pawpaw and Nene’s. Again there is a lack of pictures, but we did get a couple cute ones of the kids’ first times in Pawpaw’s big truck.

DSC_2576 Jonathan and Pawpaw

DSC_2577 Thomas

DSC_2598 Uncle Clay and Tyler

There are no pictures of Reagan or Zachary in the truck because they refused to get in it!

It was a hectic, fabulous weekend! We always cherish the chance to see family no matter how quick the visit! Or how poorly documented!

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Why Live Writer?

Okay, I said i would explain my insistence on getting Live Writer to work, so here it is:

Quite awhile ago, a fellow blogging friend of mine discovered that someone had stolen pictures of her children from her blog and was using them without her permission. I think that the stranger had entered one of my friend’s pics in a contest, claiming credit for him or herself! After that, my friend started putting a watermark on all the pictures she posted to her blog.

At that time, I considered that I might want to do the same to protect my own pictures, but like most things, I put it off and put it off and then forgot about it!

Well, a couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a friend with a link to an ABC.com news article about a family who discovered that some scammer had stolen pics of their son from their blog and was using them to advertise for a child who was up for adoption! Can you imagine! You casually glance at an adoption advertiselent and discover your own child in the picture!

After that, I was determined to have watermarks on my pics, at least from now on! I don’t know if I can go back and add them to previous posts or not. I haven’t tried it. But they are on now! Windows live Writer is a free download that works with Blogger and will add a watermark to pictures easily. I love the program! It’s so easy to use, and I love that I can crop and edit pics right there in Live Writer!

It was just a little tricky getting the pictures to work right. Once i knew what to do, fixing the problem was easy! I just had a little trouble finding out what to do. I finally had to send an email to the Live Writer support team. Their response was fast, pleasant, and exactly the answer I needed!

So if you want watermarks on your pics, I recommend Windows Live Writer! And if you have trouble publishing your posts with pictures, let me know! I might have an answer for you!

More Fun in the Pool

This is not the most recent event, but the pics were pretty cute, so I hated to just skip over it for the sake of catching up!

Our friends Josh and Cris came over one afternoon with their son Carter, who is only three months older than JonZReaTom, and the whole posse enjoyed some fun times in the pool. They brought baby Kennedy too, but she didn’t go swimming!

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DSC_2253 Carter and Reagan

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DSC_2257 Wait a minute! Just how many kids are in this pool?!?

It was a super-fun afternoon for everyone! Too bad Josh and Cris don’t live right next door anymore. We could do this all the time!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Email

Okay, I’m going to rant…just a little…okay, maybe a lot.

I love email! I love that it makes keeping in touch with friends and family so easy and so fast! But let’s be serious. It isn’t perfect. The ease with which we transmit information via email often means that we don’t take as much time to consider what we’re sending. We just send it! Because you never know!

Your warning could save a friend’s computer from a virus attack or hacker!

You could save a friend from the newest schemes of dangerous criminals and scam artists!

You could save a friend from cancer!

You could defeat the evil plans of evil people by signing this petition!

The list goes on and on. You know! You’ve gotten these mass forwarded emails! Come on, you’ve sent them, haven’t you! Because really, you never know! You could save a life! The info must be true, right? It came from someone you trust and respect. That person would never send you false information, would they? So you don’t check it out. You just send it on. Because you might save a life…or something.

Except so much of it ISN’T TRUE!

CSC_2241 WHAT?!? Not true!?!

Long-wearing lipstick won’t give you lead poisoning. Atheists didn’t get “Touched by an Angel” removed from network TV. And so far, every heart-breaking email I’ve received about a missing child has been a fake!

How do I know? Because no matter who sent me the email, I check out its validity before I send it to anyone else. I didn’t always do this, but too many times I have forwarded emails only to discover later that they weren’t true! I might as well be outright lying! I couldn’t have that on my conscience.

Now you may be thinking, Geez, Allison, who has the time to check out every email? Well, you’d be surprised how little time it actually takes. You really only need to know one web address:

www.snopes.com

This website is dedicated to discovering the truth (or lack of) in email forwards. I have yet to receive a forward that I couldn’t find on Snopes. In fact, I’m going to put a link to it in the sidebar, in case you can’t remember it!

So check it out and make sure it’s true before you send it on! Unless it’s am e-petition. Those are useless no matter how true they are. Thank about it! I show up at the White house with a petition. It has 240,000 signatures on it! Pretty impressive!Now our voices will be heard! Except, oh, wait, they aren’t real signatures. Half of them aren’t even full names. You can’t tell where these people came from. There’s not a single shred of evidence to prove that these are real people. Useless!

If you feel strongly about an issue, do something about it! Call your representative and tell the intern hired to answer the phone and listen to you. You don’t have to have a lengthy conversation. Just say, “I would like to tell So-an-so that I feel this way about this issue. Thank you.”

Don’t know who your reps are? I can help you with that too!

www.whoismyrepresentative.com This website will give you names and contact info on your Representatives and Senators

www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml This website will additionally give you info on your governor and state legislators

Now I feel at peace. You are fully equipped to stop the spread of false information and then pick up the phone and make a real difference.

As I liked to always tell my students as they left my classroom, Go make the world a better place!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

The Missing Picture

Okay, now that I have this whole Live Writer thing working, here’s the picture the I meant to include before, of me reading to the kids, in case you just were that disappointed that it wasn’t there! ha!

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I still have no explanation for the hanger. My kids love hangers!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Happy Days Are Here Again

…the skies above are clear again

Lalalalalalalalala (I don’t know the words to this part of the song!)

Happy days are here again!!!!

Thank you Live Writer helper person! I have published my post with pictures! Yea!!!!!

Texas Comes to Visit

You know those friends, the ones you’ve had for years and years and no matter how far away they live and how rarely you speak to each other, much less actually SEE each other, you still manage to keep up? And when you FINALLY do get to actually spend some time together face-to-face, it’s like you’ve never been apart? Well, I have a couple of friends like that, and one of them came to visit recently!

This is my friend Becky! And her three beautiful children, Lucas, Nate, and Ava (from the left), ages 2, 4, and 6. She packed them all up in the car and drove with them BY HERSELF all the way from DALLAS! I’m SO impressed!

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Becky and I went to church, high school, and college together. I was in her wedding, and she was in mine. Sadly though, we hadn’t seen each other since Ava was 6 months old. For you not-so-mathy types, that’s 5 and a half years ago!

It was SO great to have Becky for a visit. It was nice to catch up in person, instead over over email and blog posts. I loved getting to know her kids and showing off my own!

We had lots of fun playing together. We took the entire group to the park one morning. It wasn’t crowded…until we got there!

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It was a bit much sometimes for Ava and Nate to be surrounded by so many little ones, but Lucas blended right in. He’s only 6 months younger than JonZReaTom and just as tall, so he could easily have passed for one of the set. In fact, at first glance in this next picture, you assume that Becky is reading to all four of my kids, but then you realize that they are all boys, no Reagan!

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Becky reads to JonZ-Lu-Tom

We made special time for Becky's kids to get in the pool. It was a little cool for the pool during their visit, but Ava especially had her heart set on it, so we went out in the heat of the day while my kids were asleep.

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N-N-No, it’s n-not c-c-cold!

The kids had fun playing with Jim too, and he thoroughly enjoyed them. Jim also enjoyed cooking some super-fabulous dinners in Becky’s honor!

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The whole gang: Thomas, Reagan, Zachary, Jonathan,Ava, Lucas, Nate

And Becky and I had some fun recreating our favorite picture from college. Here we are freshman year of college in one of the famed Harding swings. We both loved this picture. Even with my big glasses, I’ve always thought it was a pretty good pic of both of us, especially in comparison to most of the pics back then!

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So there we are in the spring of 1994, and here we are 15 years later in the summer of 2009! I’d say we’re aging pretty well!

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It was a really great visit! I’m so glad that Becky was able to come and so honored that she would make such an effort! I sincerely hope that it won’t be another 5 and a half years before we see each other again!

If you’d like to read Becky's version of her trip, and i assure you it’s an entertaining read, check out her blog HERE, but be warned! What Becky Thinks is addictive, and you’ll find yourself going back for more!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Grrrr

As you may have noticed, I'm having some posting issues. They are not Blogger issues. I'm trying to get Windows Live Writer to work because I really LOVE how easy it is to compose a post with Live Writer and it has some editing options, specifically for pictures, that Blogger doesn't have. Unfortunately, I can't seem to publish any posts that have pictures. I'm working on it. Also unfortunately, I wrote an entire beautiful post about my friend Becky's recent visit and I refuse to re-write it! I want to make the silly thing work and then the post will be here! Bear with me. I'm getting help!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

And now Let’s Try a Picture

Okay, I’m still testing some things here.  I want to try a picture.

There was a picture RIGHT HERE.

Zachary, Jonathan, Reagan, Thomas

Here I am reading a story to the kids recently.  I have no idea why Jonathan has a hanger.

The post wouldn’t work with the picture, so I removed it.  Now I’ll try it again.

One More Time

Actually, there will probably be more times after this.  Bear with me.

Checking Again

Okay, I’m still working on figuring something out.  I’ll explain it when I get it to work!

Just checking

I’m trying to get something to work and am trying this out