photo proof

so i went to the school w/plans of taking some photos of the little girl kindergarteners laden in sparkles. i even brought my telephoto lens. but something abt hiding in the bushes to avoid being seen struck me as slightly perverted. and if i had openly taken pictures of these cute little kids, i might have appeared to be...um...slightly perverted.

i guess i'll have to wait until some legitimate school event before i whip out my camera again....

little lectures

so we're riding our bikes home from kindergarten, and living in a small town, we are all over the roads. so taylor's used to my instructions..."move left"..."stop at the next corner"...etc. today i called out, "wait till this truck passes"... he looked ahead and sd, "mom, that's not a truck. ...actually it's a van...not a truck..." then after it passed i could hear him still going on..."actually it wasn't a van. and it wasn't a truck either. it was just a car. mom, that was just a car. you can't say wait for the truck when it's not a truck. it's just a car". for pete's sake...w/sweat pouring down  my backside, and beading on my face i wanted to scream "I HEARD YOU ALREADY!!! QUIT THE LECTURE!!" when an old song came to mind.... i could faintly hear the words as i started humming to "cats in the cradle"... he's grown up just like me..yea, my boy, is just like me.... :)

sparkles...glitter....pizzazz...

maybe it's bcs i grew up a bit of a tomboy. maybe it's bcs i'm the mom of 6 boys. maybe it's bcs i am jealous. i don't know, but i cannot seem to understand the latest fashion love affair with glitter. i see sparkles EVERYWHERE. little girls have them in their hair, on their backpacks, hairbands, shoes, shirts.... adult women have them on painted in letters on their derriere on sweatpants (and since when did THAT become a fad?!?) , and in their makeup.... teenagers have them on their lips and bras that peek out of too-low v-neck t-shirts. i just don't quite get it?!?! is it a princess thing??

i'm not kidding. this morning as i was riding my bike w/taylor to kindergarten, i saw a little girl dropped off . she had the prettiest light blue backpack, but it was shining so brightly of glitter, i nearly careened into a truck as i was blinded on my bike. don't get me wrong, moms can do what they want in the name of fashion. just be aware that at SOME point, fashion borders on hazard.

american pride

this morning i took taylor to the groundbreaking of the local museum. i think it's called the great basin museum. we rode our bikes there, and it was quite fun.  the usual dignitaries and speeches. in the hot sun, taylor kept saying "can we go now?" ....i gave him $1 to put in the donation jar bcs they are still collecting money for the museum. so he went to put it inthe jar, and a lady stopped him and sd, "this is for teh adults. kids go over there". so we walked over to the kids' jar just as a guy sd, "great, let's get a picture". do you think i could get taylor to put anything in the jar?? do you think i could get taylor to come out from behind my shadow?? do you think anyone saw his face the rest of the time we were there? you are right. HECK NO. :( 

anyway, sammy's whole school was there and sang "proud to be an american" by one of my heroes whose name has escaped me. :) it was one of those heart stopping moments. course this is what most of us heard...... from the lakes of shshakrkhag  mm mm hills of tatatat...blblabla.....georgia....from sea to something sea....from baldktjwel bla bkajlwjelabk....I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN...WHERE AT LEAST I KNOW I'M FREE AND I WON'T FORGET THE MEN WHO DIED AND GAVE THAT RIGHT TO ME AND I'LL GLADLY STAND UP....blablabla...

but o, how sweet it was. :) sammy was smiling and waving. i was standing there grateful for big dark glasses to cover my teary eyes. yea...it's all hormones. :)

school started

taylor was cranky when i told him we were going to school. he started to get that nervous disobedient thingy going on and i reminded him how well he did on his homework and how fun it was. anyway, he was fine. we drove there w/him talking all the way. he even talked as we went into the classroom. then the teacher tried to talk to him, and he IMMEDIATELY froze up. got scared. started crying. climbed under the table and refuseed to cooperate. i was seeing yesterday's doc appt all over again, and i started getting mad. i was impatient and mean. and i knwo i was. he persisted. i even left the room. she tried in vain to get him off hte floor and to take the tests (which, incidentally, i dont think I ever had to do in KINDERGARTEN, for pete's sake...man kids are supposed to know EVERYTHING by the time they go to kindygarten! ). finally she came out and sd, "we'll go see the principal and see what he wants to do". how humiliating. i walked w/my 5 yr old past all hte other mothers waiting in the hallway w/their kids taking tests. my tail was tight between my legs and my eyes were welling up. i had to look down at my feet as i was marched to the principal's office. another failure point for mom. :(   and lo and behold? who is our principal?? none other than our STAKE PRESIDENT!!!OH THE SHAME!!!  so the teacher went in and talked to him first. then they called us to go in. i could have gone back 40 yrs and not felt any worse...sitting in that little chair looking up at the all-powerful principal. arrgh. so i went into defense mode. i told him all abt taylor's insecurities and fears and how he combats them and how i'm worried that taylor will be clinging like ivy,etc.etc. and what are we going to do if taylor doesn't cooperate?? etc.etc.etc. had to answer a bunch of questions and then we were excused. they were very nice. turns out taylor doesn't even START school until thursday. so they're going to arrange for us to start on friday instead.  anyway, long story short.... i don't knwo when he starts, or if he's afternoon or morning or anything else. they will call tomorrow and let me know.    sooooo...we were walking out and taylor turns all chipper again. "look mom! a coyote!". i was ready to pull his hair out, when i decided to use that to my advantage..."taylor, can you write your name on THIS paper?" and sure enough...perfect letters. just then the teacher came out and saw that. she sd, 'can you come to my classroom and do it?" and guess what?! he DID!! we went BACK to her classroom and he went through the entire test. he was shy and distracted most of thet ime, but he did it. he sd, "i dont' know" whenever he had to think for more than a second, so he didn't come across as knowing nearly as much as he actually does, but i coudl care lss!! i was soooo pleased that he cooperated. !!! YAY!!!! i wanted to kiss him and hug him and carry him out like a baby. but instead, i let him slap me five and we walked out....the little man and his happe momma. :)