Family Game Night

We devote our Friday nights to pizza and games. It has become a family tradition that the boys just love. As Alec gets older it becomes easier to find games that he can do. I'm extremely thankful for this because most of last year the game of choice was Hungry, Hungry Hippos. Frankly... I believe that particular game needs to get "lost" this year. Last night were were able to play Connect Four and a pre-school age version of Uno. It was fun!

Finished

I am finished writing my novel.

(I'm waiting for lightening to strike or for my computer to blow up... still waiting... no?...sigh of relief)

Okay, so I am finished. I've been working on this all summer in my moments of quietude during the day (because there are SOOOOO many moments of quiet with two boys under foot in the summer time) and usually late into the night when the creative juices are flowing.

It's finished. I printed and edited it this week and just finished printing it again tonight. It has 83, 279 words in it. That's actually quite a lot of words when you really think about it. Single spaced with smallish margins, it is 130 pages in length.

I know there are still things that I haven't caught. But I just can't look at it again. I'm finished.

Now I need to make some decisions regarding its publication. I still have the offer from Tate Publishing, but I am wondering if I should try other publishers first before just going with my first offer. In all honesty, most of me is so incredibly eager to see my writing in officially bound print. I know this is totally dorky, but as a grad student at Harding I wrote a thesis on the impact of writing centers on freshman comp students. Harding bound a couple of copies of the thesis and I have mine proudly displayed on my bookshelf here at home. Isn't that kind of selfishly dorky? I realize that it is, but I also realize how much work I put into that thesis and it's just a good feeling to see that hard work in something tangible. Same thing with the novel. I started writing it a year ago. Most of the work has been done this summer, but it has been a creative brainchild for over a year and the thought of it being in print is really exciting.

Anyway, I just wanted to make it officially known that I'm FINISHED!

Night frights and flushes

My boy Zachary has started sleepwalking. It began this summer while we were on vacation at the family cabin in New Mexico. He's done it several times since then. It always freaks me out a bit and I've started deadbolting every possible door in the house at night and I put a bar in the sliding glass door that goes out on the deck. (I learned my lesson from my friend Cara's experiences with her little boy getting out of the house while sleepwalking!)

Anyway, so the past couple of days I have been smelling urine. At first I thought it was from the new kitten. I caught him (Oliver the kitten) peeing on the carpet on his first day with us but that was before he really knew where the litter box was. I haven't seen him do it since then. Anyway, after literally putting my nose to the carpet today I have found two spots in the house that have been urinated on, and I'm almost positive that the culprit was not a tiny little kitten because of the size of the carpet area. I think my sleepwalker has been sleep-peeing!

So... how do I deal with this new problem? How do I keep Zach from roaming the house and then peeing in the living room? This is a completely new one for me and I'll appreciate any advice!

Frustrating Financial Situation: Dentistry

So yesterday I had my much needed dental check-up. I knew the prognosis would be grim due to the pain I've been feeling on the right side of my mouth. Well... it was worse than expected. I've got a mouthful of very old silver fillings from my childhood years and about six of them need to be fully replaced because they're either loose or they've just deteriorated. I also need a crown put on one of these teeth. The joy of sitting in a dentist's chair is more than enough to make me giddy with excitement, but my true concern is the cost of all of this dental upkeep.

My friend Sara and I just discussed the frustrations of dental insurance. Our insurance pays for silver fillings but since most dentists (including mine) will no longer do silver fillings, that leaves me with a grand total of $136 per tooth, plus a nice sum of about $500 for the crown. Hello hello.

I'm very frustrated with this for several reasons. I posted awhile ago about our freedom from debt. After 11 years of marriage we finally paid off all of our creditors, with the exception of our car payment. In doing that we wiped out all savings. So now we're faced with this dental issue and very little savings to pay for it. Christmas is also coming quicker than we might expect and we are always faced with the expense of flying a family of four to Oklahoma/Texas at that time.

So... bleh on the whole thing. I'm praying for God's peace and for Him to work in this. And I definitely do feel better about the whole thing today than I did yesterday which helps me know He's at work. Still, I find the entire situation frustrating.

Anyone else struggling with some financial stress or anything else frustrating?

Flurry: n. meaning a burst of activity

FLURRY.

My friend Cara recently posted on her blog about the differences in personality between her two sons. I laughed when I read her post because I could have written it myself. Zachary is my worrier, my cerebral child who is normally so caught up in the world within his head that he is oblivious to the world around him. People often make comments like, "He's such a good boy. It must be nice to have one so calm and well-mannered." And yes, it is nice to have a calm child but I have to admit that with any child there are always the unfavorable characteristics that go hand in hand with any favorable ones. With Zachary, his outward demeanor of "calm" just masks his intense internal conversations. There is ALWAYS something going on in that brain of his. Some scheming, some fantasy play, a lightsabor battle, a song lyric, an in-depth question about good vs evil. His body may be at rest but his mind contains a FLURRY of activity.

With Alec, on the other hand, the demeanor of calmness is non-existent. He's my child who is constantly ON: he's bonking his head, running laps through the house, jumping, sliding, tumbling, falling, giggling and wobbling his way through life. He is a constant FLURRY of activity. I'm not saying that he's not smart, because I truly believe that he is. But he's just much more physical and much less mental than his brother. I've laughed about my photos of Alec for years. For every decent shot that I get of his face there are SCORES of blurred, out-of-focus ones of the top of his head or the back of his head or his back or, my favorite, his bottom.

My boys are so precious and I love them both with such fierce abandon. They frustrate the crud out of me sometimes, but I cannot imagine my life without them and I thank God for them every single day. Their differences are what make them so much fun!

I'm posting some photos of my boys so that you can see for yourself how their personalities are portrayed in picture.

Fun new friends

We had an indoor playday today due to morning rain. Grace and Travis came over for a few hours and made our day much brighter. I was pleasantly surprised by how well Alec and Travis played with each other. No crying or arguing or complaining at all! Yay, what a blessing. And what cute kids!

Furry friend

So I think I'm going through some sort of empty womb syndrome. As a result of this I hounded Mike into letting me have another kitten. We got Molly Rainbow last summer. Her picture is already posted. She's a big ol' fluffball. Zachary named her. His 6-year-old wisdom explained that since she was a girl and "girls like rainbows," then her name should be Rainbow. I gently suggested that Rainbow would serve a cat quite well as a middle name, but perhaps another name would work better as a first name. So, as he and Alec played with our vast collection of Thomas trains, he picked up a train named Molly and said, "How 'bout Molly Rainbow?" And that was that.

Two days ago we brought home a 6 week old orange boy. I was hoping Molly would like having a little brother. I was hoping in vain. She's done nothing but hiss at him since we brought him in the door. And yet, life goes on.

This little boy is terribly, terribly cute. And keeping with tradition, Zachary named this little ball of fluff too. Since Molly was named for a train, he thought her brother should also be named for a train. So the first name of Oliver was chosen (Oliver is a green engine). And then we began the task of choosing a middle name. This was a much more lengthy job. We had suggestions such as Moon, Leaf, Tree, Green, Orange, Poozles, Shoozles, Tyrone and, of course, Alec's favorite: Window.

And then Zachary said, "How 'bout Oliver Whiskers?" And we all smiled and nodded and that was that.

So, this is Mr. Oliver Whiskers, newest member of the Bishop family.

FINALLY!

So, last week I finally moved Alec into Zach's room and he's actually stayed there. I've tried this combining exercise two other times and it never has worked, for whatever reason. But finally my two boys are ready to share a bedroom. We dismantled the bunk beds and put them side by side so that Alec wouldn't be tempted to climb (very far up, up, up) into bed with Zach in the middle of the night. A couple of days ago I woke up early and poked my head in to check on them and they were both asleep on Alec's bed. Apparently Alec had called for me in the middle of the night, but before I heard him Zach just scooted into his bed and they happily went back to sleep. I'm deeply satisfied with this new arrangement. "Why?" You may be asking. "Why, dear friend Andrea, why are you so happy that they are sharing a room?"

Well, since you asked:
I GET TO HAVE AN OFFICE! No more grading research papers at the kitchen table! No more lesson planning/scrapbooking/whatevering at the kitchen table. I'm completely and totally thrilled with this idea. My plan is to get it changed over into office space within the next three weeks. I'm already searching out furniture and have found a couple of interesting items at an antique/junk store downtown.

Yay! Finally!

Faith Healing

Last night Alec stumbled over the edge of the bathtub while he was getting out "all by myself." He smacked his bottom and inner thigh in a position that would make most men cringe. Shudder.

A few minutes later he was still crying and rubbing his bottom. I'd already kissed his head and cuddled him but the pain was apparently still there. I said, "Where is the owie, Alec?" He rolled over onto his tummy and showed me his cute little birthday suited butt. Sure enough it had a big ol' red mark on it.

Sniffling, he said, "Kiss it, Mommy." And so, naturally, I did.

And that was enough. The tears dried up, the wailing and gnashing of teeth dispersed. All was well with his world, and with his bottom.

I wish I had that kind of faith, that kind of belief in such simple healing.