Holiday

Me:  You don't have to go back to school until Tuesday!

Brenden: Why don't I have school on Monday?

Me: It's a holiday.

Brenden: What holiday?

Me: Uh... President's Day?

Brenden:  No, that's in February.  It's the one about the man who tells us about our dreams...

I stand corrected.  I know President's Day is in February (it comes after my birthday, which is the day before Lincoln's birthday - the president, not my nephew), but it was the first thing that came out of my mouth - oh well, my five year old is smarter than I am.  

Friday's adventure:

Most days I get home and get started with all of the things that need to be done all day and then look up at the clock and it is already time to get Brenden from the bus stop.  Friday was just the opposite.  I felt like I had been working so hard and so long and looked up and it was only 10:30.  By evening, I was dead tired and all I wanted to do was go to bed early or sit in front of a movie and not move another muscle.  The kids were all in their pajamas by 5:30 and I was cleaning up from dinner so we could have our traditional Friday night movie.  I could hear the kids down playing on the treadmill and went down to supervise.  I stepped on the carpet and suddenly a puddle appeared around my foot.  I started inquiring who had spilled something and no one fessed up.  As I look a few more steps I realized there was quite the flood going on.  I freaked out and tried to sop anything I could up with towels, but the towels were soaked before I even had a chance to step on them.  The kids were continuing their, "Mom, can you...  Mom I need you to..." to which my response was, "I am already doing something!"  Ethan was getting into anything and everything, so he was finally closed in Brenden's room for nearly an hour while I tried to figure out what in the world I was going to do.  I used the wet vac for what seemed like an eternity, but it was slow going for the amount of water down there.  In the end, I pulled up the carpet and when Doug (finally) got home, he pulled up the pad.  Where I had pulled the carpet back, I put bowls to collect the water flowing from the overturned carpet.  We figure the water must be from all the rain in addition to the rapidly melting snow.  As soon as it was Doug's turn the deal with the mess, I tried to be supportive, but sat down on the couch and instantly fell asleep.  The thing that upset me more than the carpet was that I had no one to call - we are thousands of miles from family and friends and have never even seen a home teacher. 

This is what the boys have been up to:

GeoTrax - which Brenden worked very hard on...

and then Godzilla (aka Ethan) promptly did a face plant on.

Jan. 1:

and then again the next night... (Jan. 2)

Yes, he's still holding the book.

And a view of our scenery...

We have had enough rain that you can actually see dirt in places.  It seems insane to me since last week was so darn cold.