Lately

•Garrett graduated from preschool.

•The boys have finished their Mother's Day Out program for the year. It's hard to believe Garrett has been going there every year since he was 2.

•Garrett pulled down the curtains in his bedroom the other day. Today he broke the hinge on our hallway cabinet. I wish I could say that he just happened to be touching these things when they broke, but he's a boy. And he can be rough. And I will confess to more yelling on my part than is probably ok after both of these situations.

•Cooper has been sleeping in his big boy bed for a week now and it's going great! I'm a bit OCD when it comes to this sort of thing. I've turned the doorknob on his door with the lock on the outside and a door knob cover on the inside. I also put a cover on the closet door handle. I put a latch on his toy box and I put his other toy baskets into his closet and shut the door before he takes a nap and goes to bed at night. That way he has no toys luring him to play rather than sleep. He does have some stuffed animals that he sleeps with though. And there are some books and puzzles out too.

•My braces were put on yesterday. Eating while wearing braces can only be the equivalent of having a mouthful of rocks and knives with a little food thrown in the mix. Half of the food goes down your throat and the other half ends up in your braces. Good times! I'm mostly sticking to a milkshake/pudding diet right now. Next fall cannot get here fast enough.

•Keith took my SUV in to get new tires last week. They scratched up the rims on it very nicely so now my SUV is sitting on jack stands in the garage while the scratched up rims and brand new tires are getting redone courtesy of the tire shop. It's always a good time when you go from 2 vehicles down to 1.

•I'm putting together plans for Cooper's birthday. It's hard to believe he turns 2 next month!

•I redid our hall bathroom into a surfboard theme. I'm really liking it! I thought it was cute for 2 boys and will hopefully not be deemed babyish by them a few years from now.

Braces

When I was growing up, we didn't have dental insurance, nor the money, for me to get braces. Once I graduated from college and got my first teaching job, I just couldn't bring myself to get braces when I was not only paying on student loans (and we were buying our house and all the additional expenses that come with that) but also a first year teacher who looked young and didn't want to add braces, making me look even younger. So I put it off. I wanted braces. I wanted straight teeth. I just didn't have time/money/ideal situation, etc to go through with it.

For the past year, my desire for braces has just continued. I've mentioned it off and on to Keith and he calls me crazy and doesn't understand why I would want to endure that torture (he had braces and despised every minute of it.) Once he finally understood this wasn't just a passing wish of mine, but a very real desire, he told me to go for it. I immediately scheduled my consultation with a local orthodontist and went for my first visit. (Even took a slightly feverish Cooper along for the ride. I was that determined to get this done.)

Today I went for my final preliminary appointment to take additional x-rays and nail down a treatment plan and I have a date for my braces. This Wednesday. In just 2 days, I will begin the process to finally having the straight teeth and nice smile that I have wanted for a good 15 years.

Thankfully technology has come a long way over the years. I won't have to wear braces for 5 years like some people I know have had to do. Between 15 and 18 months is the expected amount of time that this process will take. I also won't have a mouth full of metal and bright colored rubberbands. They now make relatively clear brackets and discreet wires that won't make the braces quite as noticeable. Of course I'm under no illusions that no one will be able to see them, but hopefully they won't be glaringly obvious.

There are other even more discreet options like Invisalign which looks like a rubbery mouth guard, but is actually a set of braces. However, thanks to genetics, my teeth aren't quite to the point where I would be eligible to go that route.

Sadly for Garrett, he will get to start kindergarten with the cool mom who has braces on her teeth. But hey, at least we won't be wearing braces at the same time. I would have to imagine that would be more embarrassing.

Daily Schedule

My cousin, Melissa, asked me to write a post for her blog about my schedule at home along with any organizational tips I wanted to share. She's currently doing a series with a different mom contributing a post each Monday sharing what her day looks like. You can read my post here if you're interested. It's a bit on the long side, but hey, if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, that won't surprise you in the least!

Mother's Day Top 10

10. On the Thursday before Mother's Day, the boys' school had a Mother's Day tea party. It was really nice and I enjoyed myself a lot. Cooper tooted really loudly at one point, which could have been embarrassing, but all the other people there were moms with small kids. No one even batted an eye. Cooper found it hysterical though.

9. We went out for breakfast on Saturday morning to IHOP. I love eating there, but we don't go very often because there are other breakfast places closer to us. I splurged and got biscuits and gravy, my all time favorite breakfast.

8. I spent the day on Saturday cleaning and organizing. No, it's not your typical Mother's Day weekend activity, but a couple of our closets were driving me crazy, not to mention the floors that were desperate to be mopped. By the end of the day, I felt really good about everything I had accomplished. And I was able to do all of that because Keith kept the boys outside most of the day where they were cleaning out the garage.

7. A couple of hours to myself on Saturday evening. Keith took the boys to run errands and stopped by a friend's land so the boys could play while I had time to myself. I did fold laundry during that time but it was nice to watch what I wanted to watch on TV while doing it. When you're a mom, it's the little things...

6. We slept in a little on Sunday, which is rare because Cooper is in a bad habit of getting up at 6am (or earlier!). We didn't wake up on Sunday until 7:40am, which was nice, but we have to be at church at 8:30, so we had to rush to get out the door and not be too late.

5. Our pastor's sermon was great on Sunday. I felt very convicted to be more "in the moment" with my boys. We also watched a video clip that was so cute. It was kids answering questions about their moms. There was nothing overly sad or emotional about it, in fact it was mostly really funny. But for some reason I got so choked up watching it. Garrett kept patting my hand saying "It's ok Momma." At the end a little boy said something like "My mom loves me like God loves me" and any attempt at playing it cool was over.

4. The boys gave me 3 pink roses and some potpourri they made in school that smells really good.

3. Keith and the boys bought me a new purse and a bracelet. It was really sweet.

2. For supper on Sunday, Keith grilled steak and chicken. We had a nice family dinner that I really enjoyed.

1. Spending the weekend with my 2 boys and my great husband. I felt like we got a lot accomplished and I also feel very appreciated and loved. Garrett put a bit of a damper on it with his bedtime prayer on Sunday which went: "Thank you God for my mom and thank you that tomorrow won't be Mother's Day anymore." We need to work on being happy when others are in the spotlight. One more job to add to this mothering list...

Our Day

For the longest time I've felt really guilty about something. I had never taken Garrett to Chuck E Cheese (CEC). It seems almost like a rite of passage for little kids, but I had stayed as far away from the place. It helps that we don't have one real close by and have only been invited to 2 birthday parties there, both of which we skipped because 1. CEC is the last place I want to be for a birthday party. Many kids loaded up on sugary cake in a small space? No thanks. 2. A birthday party at CEC on a Saturday? Double whammy and a guarantee we will have to decline. I can't handle small spaces with lots of kids, says the former elementary school teacher. Hello irony. But at least in school I had some semblance of control over the group. And there is no ski-ball. (This is in no way an offense to anyone who has held their child's b'day party at a CEC! I completely understand that when your child really likes a place, it's always nice to have their party there!)

Well, this changed today. I've been trying to occasionally go places during the week where we normally would avoid on a Saturday. We had to go to Best Buy to pick up a gift, so I thought we would swing by CEC and see how many cars were in the parking lot (maybe I'm borderline agoraphobic?) I didn't tell Garrett this ahead of time because if there were school busses of kids outside then we were not going in. But when we pulled up the parking lot was fairly empty, so I asked Garrett if he would want to go in and, well, I'm sure you can guess his response. Just because he's never actually been there doesn't mean he doesn't know the basics of CEC. He's seen the commercials and heard other kids talk about it. And he's mentioned several times he would like to go there. (He calls it Chuck E Cheeze-its.)

Surprisingly, we were the ONLY people there. There were at least 4 employees there and us. It was a lot of fun. The boys enjoyed the games and rides. We also ate lunch there. I used to think CiCi's pizza was probably the bottom of the pizza-barrel. That's no longer the case. I have been to CEC a long time ago. (Back in the day, it was called Showbiz Pizza for all you young'uns reading this.) But I didn't remember the shoddy pizzas they serve. Let's just say we left our leftovers there, which is usually something I never do. We always take home leftovers for lunch the next day or whenever it might sound good. But we passed on that option today.

The boys accumulated 170 tickets while we were there (I won 16 of those playing Deal or No Deal. Just sayin'.) And 170 whole tickets bought us: a small rubber snake, a CEC tattoo, a pencil, and a piece of paper that looked like a game in the display, but is sooo not worth 20 tickets. But at least they got the fun of riding the rides and playing the games. Even if we could have bought more junk at the dollar store than we got with our tickets with the amount of money we spent on them.

*On a different note, I spoke with the neighbor girl's mom about her babysitting for us. Mom talked to her and she said yes! I told her what we would pay and there wasn't any discussion about it, so I assume they found it reasonable. Mom told me that this will be her first babysitting job (besides with her 2 younger brothers) so they're excited. I told her she would be our first "real" babysitter outside of relatives, so we were both doing something new together. Once school is out for the summer, she will come over to get to know the boys and discuss details. Thanks for everyone's opinions! Apparently $10/hr for a babysitter is high! I've just heard that said in passing, so I had no idea, but that's good to know.

Can I get a little help here?

I am in the beginning stage of arranging for a sitter for the boys this summer. Their MDO/preschool ends at the end of the month, but I still need to work one day a week all summer. I am planning on talking to a teenager in our neighborhood about doing the job. It's only 4 hours, 1 day a week, but I'm having a hard time figuring a good amount to offer to pay. I thought I would ask my friends here to see what sounds reasonable.

She wouldn't have to feed my boys any meals, nor would she have to put Cooper down for any naps. It would solely be playing with them and keeping them from killing each other and/or burning the house down (and maybe give them a snack, of which I would be sure to have enough for her to eat too). She lives 2 streets over so it will be easy to figure out how to get her here or take her home. She's just 13, so no driver's license yet. I'm sure if she can't/doesn't want to ride a bike over, then Keith or I could pick her up and I would take her home. Her mom will be home all summer too since she teaches, so I'm sure she might do some of the driving too if that's needed.

Since it would be a weekly job and with it being 4 hours at a time each week, I can't afford to pay her $10/hr. That would end up costing me more than preschool does. I know that's typically the going rate for a babysitter (I guess?) but most of those jobs are maybe monthly or sporadic and maybe not for 4 hours at a time. My initial thinking is to offer her $25/day. Does anyone think that's too little? I'm not going to go any lower because I do think it's worth that. Dividing it out, that comes to $6.25/hr. The problem is I also really can't go any higher than $30/day, but I would be willing to offer her that if the consensus is that $25 is too little.

When I first quit my teaching job to stay at home, I babysat a friend's baby 2 days a week. She brought him to my house and I watched him from around 9 or 10 in the morning until 6 or 7 at night. Sometimes those hours would vary, but that was the average. They paid me $25/day so that's what I'm basing this on. Of course, this girl would be sitting for 2 kids instead of 1, but she also wouldn't be watching them all day like I did, so I figured that would balance it out. And the only "extra" she will have to do is maybe change a diaper.

Opinions?