Boyd Bear Tracks

Yes, it's still here in the middle of the living room floor! The mechanic said that he may be interested in it; however, he's been so busy he hasn't even been by to look at it yet! Sigh!!! Maybe we ARE keeping the mattress!

The kids and I had to do quite a bit of walking today (Does that count for P.E. class?? :-)). They didn't even complain -- which was nice. We needed to go shopping, but Jon had the car. Fortunately, there are several grocery stores nearby so were able to get some exercise and get the shopping done at the same time! The only problem was getting everything home. Usually I just take the stroller --for the groceries, not for a kid! :-)

Tomorrow we have a "goodbye" party for the Ericssons who are transferring to Florida. It will be sad to see them go, but I'm always ready for a party (especially if I'm not planning it!). I'm supposed to bring the grated cheese. {*Of speical note: They don't sell economical grated cheese here.--that can go in the "luxury" list with whipped cream :-)} I thought I would have to grate all the cheese with the hand grater (which is somewhat dangerous for my fingers). Fortunately, someone loaned me their Salad shredder which worked great for grating cheese! And, I won't be going to the party tomorrow with band-aids covering all of my fingers :-)! I'm going to have to look into getting myself one of those Salad Shredders :-).

For my birthday, I put together some of my gifts and bought a bike. Jon says I'll never use it. He's thinking about the bike I had in the States. It sat in my mom's garage, then in the bike rack at Faith, and then in my grandma's garage. Finally I "let go" and sold it. It was a very nice bike, it's just that I didn't really ever encourage myself to "get out there" and ride it. However, now that I have a new bike, my secret dream is to train Boomer to run with me. Jon is very worried! :-)

I took Boomer out the other day--practicing--and we almost had an accident (on the sidewalk, thankfully). I couldn't use the brake with my left hand holding the leash so, apparently, I was just using the front brake. One time, when I stopped, the back of the bike started to "rise" and was going to hit me in the back of the head. Since, by then, I had my feet on the ground, I tried to compensate for the moving bike and I stepped forward--right onto Boomer. It was a loud and ungraceful incident :-). The funniest part of this whole story is that Jon had gone to the park ahead of me and he was watching and thinking, "Boy, that dog sure looks a lot like Boomer!" :-) Apparently he didn't recognize me (with all my biking gear on)!

I'm thinking maybe I should invest in a "Springer" (a bike jogger for a dog). I don't really think "bikejouring" is going to work out with Boomer. He'd probably end up under the wheel (and I would end up learning to "fly through the air")! Ultimately, I'd just like to find a way to exercise my dog! Walking to the park isn't working (he just stands around and sniffs everything)! So, I have my new plan --I just have to figure out the details of connecting the dog to the bike so we both can be safe. :-)

Lucas is doing great without his training wheels! Although, he gets really nervous when he comes up behind someone (he's not so good at braking and balancing). Ellie loves her bike too, it's just that the chain keeps falling off. Hopefully, I've corrected that problem and now she can bike too. Maybe someday we can all go out biking (hmmm. . .first Jon would need a bike). Or, if we wanted to fit in here, we could all just get on my bike!! No kidding! We've seen whole families on bikes, and motorcycles! I sure wouldn't want to be the person pedalling the bike! :-)

School is going ok. We've reached the point where it's not that fun anymore (Must it be in the 2nd to 3rd week?). However, I am amazed at how well Lucas is doing with his reading. Of course, he needs fluency (he's beginning to hate that word :-)); but, he's doing well at figuring out what the words are.

Ellie is participating in the Math calendar time and is doing really well at counting. Once she hears Lucas and I say the 10--like 20, 30, 40, etc.--she can count along with the other numbers. She did a page today matching groups of the same number of animals, and she did it all by herself! She seems to really like to "do school". Usually, she asks, "What can I do now, mom? I don't want to color!" :-) It's too bad that so many of her preschool sheets are all about coloring :-). I can see how she could get tired of it!

So, that's what we're up to lately! Just plugging away at the regular things -- and trying to add a little excitement :-)!