I was going through Skyler & Spencer’s school bags reading the weekly newsletters, reading their writings and admiring their artwork when I came across field trip forms. Remember when I said I was happy with our decision to put Skyler & Spencer in different classrooms because they were so competitive and being in different classes gives them the chance to make their own friends and bond with their own teacher and learn at their own pace. Well all that’s nice and stuff, but it really has it’s drawbacks sometimes.

Like when they have their holiday parties. Every party I’m running between both classrooms trying to spend equal time with both of them. Imagine how it will be next year when Caleb starts kindergarten. Thankfully they no longer have these parties in the middle school and high school so I don’t have to worry about attending a party for Keaton and Justis too.

On America Reads day I pulled Skyler out of her class and took her to Spencer’s class to read. She was a little upset because she wanted me to read to her class, but I can’t be in two places at once. She handled it well even though she was a tad disappointed.

And then there are these field trips. They had a field trip earlier in the year. Skyler’s class was on one bus and Spencer’s class was on another. I rode the bus with Skyler, but when we got to the rock quarry I escorted Spencer and one of his friends and Skyler and one of her friends. Most parents were in charge of four or five students from their child’s class. Skyler & Spencer’s teachers worked it out so I could be with both of them. That was nice.

Now they are having another field trip to the IMAX theater. Apparently there are so many first graders they are breaking them up and taking them in two days. You know what this means right? Yeah, it means Skyler’s class is going on one day and Spencer’s class is going on another day. They are the only twins in the first grade. Is it too much to ask that they have their two classes go together?

In any event, I think we have it worked out. I’ll go one day and Lee will go the other day. The IMAX is nice, but I don’t need to see the same movie twice.

I set some new ground rules with Keaton and Justis today. I promised to be more timely with their allowance, paying them every other Friday when I get paid, and in return they won’t ask me for “loans.” I told them they need to figure out how to budget their allowance for the things they want. They seemed receptive to this.

Then I told them we decided they should do their own laundry. Up until this point I did their laundry, but just threw it back in their laundry baskets for them to hang up or fold and put away. Justis had a unit on how to do laundry when he was in eighth grade. He brought home a checklist of things he needed to do. This included sorting clothes, using the washing machine and dryer and ironing [which, honestly I never iron so he's one up on me there]. I walked him through it, he got an A in the unit and then we promptly threw all of his new found laundry knowledge out the window. But it’s time to bring it back. He’s ready for his own laundry responsibility. I’m a little worried it might be overwhelming for Keaton, but I’ll help him out in the beginning.

When I told Keaton I was going to have him do his own laundry he asked why. I said, “Because it will really help me out.” He goes, “Ok, I’m all about helping you out.” Oh, the sarcasm. It starts at such an early age these days.

Tonight Keaton and Justis went to an all night LAN party. When I was a kid we had overnight skating events. Now they have all night gaming parties. My how the times have changed.

Between Spencer’s soccer game and Skyler’s dance class we have a busy morning tomorrow. I told the boys I can either pick them up and take them to dance with me or they can ride the bus home. They chose the bus. Then Keaton said, “Are you going to give us a couple of bucks so we can ride the bus?”

Seriously? I’m all “didn’t we just have this no loans discussion like, oh I don’t know, five minutes ago?”

Keaton wasn’t buying it though. I said, “well the alternative is I pick you up and you go to dance with me or you don’t go to the LAN party.”

All of a sudden him using his own allowance money was a great idea. It’s funny how that logic works.

On Tuesday, as I was making my way through my favorite blogs, I was shocked and awed to find that the wonderful Mrs. Flinger awarded me the Thinking Blogger Award. I spent all day writing the perfect acceptance speech, picking out just the right shoes to go with my little black dress and scouring magazines to figure out how to style my hair to accentuate my cheekbones. Imagine my embarrassment when I discovered there was no awards show.

But instead there’s something better. I get to pass the award on to five other bloggers.

At first thought, this seemed like a wonderful thing. Who doesn’t want to spotlight some of their favorite bloggers? But then the pressure got to me. Only five? I subscribe to around 100 blogs in my reader, how can I limit it to five?

Apparently all that thinking was too much for my little brain. [Either that or American Idol is trying to kill me.] Because I ended up with a migraine. It wasn’t my usual migraine that leaves me in the fetal position praying to God to please just take me now. But it did have me wishing I could gouge my eyes out with a spoon.

Umm….so this post about winning a wonderful award has suddenly turned so dark. So let’s just get on with the awards.

Childs Play X2: I feel his pain joy, as he talks about raising his boy/girl twins. I love reading about their adventures. Plus who can’t relate to a guy who has never met a donut he doesn’t like?

How About Two?: Rob makes me laugh. He makes me cry. Sometimes he makes me laugh and cry at the same time. He’s gone through some gut wrenching heartbreak in the last month with the loss of his Doss, but he’s keeping his head high. And I’m so happy to see him bonding with his new little beautiful girl.

Organized Chaos: She’s a thirty-something raising five kids. How could I not love her blog? We’re living the same life. She even has some anxiety issues when leaving the house just like me. It feels good to know I’m not alone.

Wonder Mom: I can totally relate to just about every post Kris writes; on kids, on weight, on everything. Only it’s so much more eloquent when she writes it. She’s a phenomenal writer.

Sarcastic Journalist: I’ve been reading her blog for years now. I’m practically a stalker. I blog because of SJ. I read her blog for months and she inspired me to start my own blog. So you can all blame her.

You may have noticed I’ve been a little quiet over the last few days. I refer to that as my mourning period as vacation ends and my real world begins again. If you could all just take a moment of silence to grieve with me at this time.

*silence*

Thank you.

Yesterday the kids went back to school and I went back to work after ten days of being home together. We didn’t go anywhere for vacation but it was so wonderful anyway. The weather was fantastic. We had that day when it was 74 degrees and the rest of the week was in the 40s and 50s. That’s beautiful March weather for this part of the world. The kids got to play outside almost every day. We went to the park nearby and we played soccer outside. Nothing like a game of soccer with your kids to remind you how old you’ve become. After about 20 minutes I was panting like a dog. I gave some serious thought to firing up the garden hose for a drink. But instead I just sat on the front step and pretended to be the coach.

Besides spending some time with the kids, I got to spend some time with my husband. We watched movies together. We went to Dairy Queen for a yummy, yummy blizzard. And we went shopping together. For fish plants. [I told you we are crazy fish people.]

But yesterday my fairy tale ended. Early in the morning I was rudely awoken by my alarm [at least six or seven times because I'm a snooze addict]. My body put up a good fight as I tried to drag it in to the shower. I think I cried a little as I drove myself to the office. I spent much of the day making my way through hundreds of emails. When I was done with that I raced to school to spend my night learning about consumer behavior. It was a full day and I was exhausted by 10pm. I’m getting old…er. I need to ease back in to this hectic schedule.

Either that or I need to win the lottery. And since I don’t play I’m not holding my breath on that one.