News

First things first....Evan passed his first test!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay, yay, yay! Melanie and Nathan were out on the front porch blowing bubbles (around 9:30 Friday night, waiting on Uncle Eric and Aunt Holly to arrive), and Melanie thought I must really like bubbles when she saw me come out and do a dance on the front porch. ha! Then I ran over to our neighbors across the street (in my pj's) to tell them. ;-) I had told Evan earlier that week that I wasn't going to lose hope until we got the scores in (I had fought off the earlier hopeless bug). I think the fact that he failed the Becker practice test really got me down since I don't usually believe Evan's proclamations of doing horribly on tests. Then I had heard someone mention that the Becker tests are harder than the actual CPA exams, so that is probably what helped me kick the hopeless bug.
Melanie, Holly, and Eric all came in Friday night to be here for Nathan's birthday. Oh, rewind.
We were all set for Nathan's b-day party on Saturday. There were supposed to be 19 adults and 17 children at our house; everyone responds "yes" on the years I have it at the house. The year I had it at a huge park the group was small enough to fit in my kitchen. Anyway, I was only slightly panicking. Friday I decided to take Noelle to the doctor to have a rash checked out that had started earlier in the week. Since the doctor had no clue, she did a strep test since Noelle's throat was a "tad red." No fever, no sore throat. The strep test was inconclusive or faintly positive, so it had to be sent off. No results until Monday. So I had to tell everyone about the possible contamination, and that took the party size down to 13 adults and 7 children. ha We had a really good time. Well, other than me forgetting to put sugar in the vanilla ice cream. Next time I make two different batches of ice cream that call for two different types of sugar, I'll think about that. The black bean cupcakes were good, though!
My parents came on Saturday, so we had a houseful of people! It was fun, though; and I considered my planning a success since we didn't have to run to the store or go get take out at all! ha Nathan got lots of art things, and he is really happy right now. He loves coloring and painting.
Monday I mainly tried to get a few things back in order and finish the mountains of laundry from the weekend. :-) Yesterday I took the kids into the garage during a thunderstorm to color (I'm also trying to get Noelle okay with thunder again...ever since that severe thunderstorm she's goes crazy over thunder), and that ended with both kids in the mud having a wonderful time.
I must say, though, I have been exhausted lately. The last two weeks Evan has been extremely busy at work (which means getting up, or at least setting his alarm, at five o'clock) and getting home late at night. I generally can't go back to sleep in the mornings, although I do try; and I have a hard time going to sleep before he gets home at night. I need to do better at that, I guess; but that IS our only time to talk. This weekend we stayed up really late, too.
Hmmm, Noelle is really taking off with her language. She is putting subject/verb sentences together and repeating everything Nathan says. She dropped a crayon or something the other day and said, "Aw, man!" And whenever I ask her to do something, she generally replies, "Otay!" in a wonderfully adorable voice. She is a mischievous little chick, though. She loves to play games, especially at bedtime. "Teetee potty?" "No." "Yes." "No." "Yes." "Yes, no, yes, no, yes." And she grins her crazy mischievious grin. (She did poop tonight in the potty, after I told her that if she got up from the potty again I was going to put her diaper on.) ha
Noelle's preferred method of telling Nathan to stop being annoying is to hit. Unfortunately, it doesn't hurt him in the least. ;-) She is pretty quick to repent and pat him saying "AWwweee." On good days, the two of them get along beautifully. Nathan will ask Noelle if she wants to do something with him, she'll say yes, and they trot off chatting happily. On bad days, Nathan grabs things from Noelle, Noelle is super-sensitive about her personal space, and there is a insane amount of screaming.
This morning I took them to the school park that is close to our house, and Nathan finally figured out how to swing by himself! He was so excited and kept telling me that he wanted to stay at the park forever. ;-) Noelle was a bit scared of the lawnmower in the lot beside us, so she was content to lay against me and let me swing. Sweetness. You know, one thing I love about my children is how much they laugh. Sometimes they laugh for no other reason that to make each other laugh, but it is still hilarious and makes me smile.
Rambling post. Sorry. I am tired and should be doing something else. But blogging is important sometimes, right? :-)