Spring school performance night!

Nathan had to leave for a last minute business meeting on Sunday and this is just the perfect week for him to be gone... Monday and Tuesday night we had spring performance nights at pre-school. Which means there is the potential for it to have been total and complete MADNESS..not only was it beach-themed and that all the kids are wearing sunglasses(dropping and losing them every second),carrying beach towels to trip them onto the other children(which happened of course on the podium, sending the entire audience into UHHHHHHHH) but all the kids from morning/afternoon classes are there with loads and I mean loads of parents,grandparents, neighbors and maybe even a few pets, I don't know. I do know that people out here are all about pre-school, all about their kids performances. It was packed the heck out!!! So..Monday I have to take my children along with me. Kendal's class was going to be Tuesday night so that means all three were going to be together the whole time with no adults and in an audience of madness. I was terrified they'd be talking(kendal) or standing up, getting in everyone's filming or picture taking way and who knows what else. I of course THREATENED and THREATENED and THREATENED some more... You may die if you do something wrong, I may drop you off at the foster home, not sure but I May...Well that worked because they did awesome..Cole of course read the entire time, through the entire thing. The girls sang along and I didn't hear fighting or hear Kendal..whew! Night one down...So, I take my kids out to a late dinner at fancy subway(they seriously can't get enough of it, so much so that I am like..can we go to McDONALDS, PLEASE!!) and tell them I am so proud and that teachers and parents came up to me to tell me how well behaved they were...They were beaming with joy! Okay...so maybe I fluffed their little heads up? I should have THREATENED more until Tuesday night was over probably. Last night Kendal would be with her class so I only had to worry about the other two. Cole would be reading his next 400 page novel (surely he finished the other one the night before) and CJ would take pictures for me... No Kendal talking loud enough for Nate to hear in Oklahoma, all should be good! Well, well, well...I knew I was in trouble when I got there and CJ's twin friends were there this night. I went into panic..their Mom is a teacher at the school, so they would be unattended too as well. I find seats in the front row reserved for our families and I sit my two kids down and I tell them, DO NOT GET UP, DO NOT MAKE NOISE, HOLD YOUR BREATH UNTIL YOU ALMOST PASS OUT, get the picture... I leave to get my school kids and the performance starts..I get to the front of the stage and I see CJ, Cole and the TWINS now sitting together. Oh no, I think... okay, Cole reading, good..CJ taking pictures of her and her friends faces..bad, bad, bad..this is going to be bad and I just feel it.
There are lots of classes coming up and off the stage, lots of singing and just lots of stuff going on... I am sitting on one side of the front where I can see Cole and CJ(I'm on the floor with approx. 16 3-4 yr olds)and please tell me why I see CJ standing up taking pictures. Right in the dang front, standing there taking pictures of the stage(Kendal isn't even up there YET) Omg..I am dying already...A little later Kendal is sitting in the row behind her and the twins now have my camera and are standing up and taking pictures of Kendal, SMILE KENDAL, KENDAL SMILE..oh yes I can hear it on the other side of the room...right there..in front, totally blocking everyone's view... Okay Kendal is coming up on the stage next and she happens to be placed closer to where I'm at(and just understand how NO ONE can hear their kids sing over Kendal, it was Kendal solo night for the brown room)...Oh no I think... that means one of the girls will be trying to get over here to take pics.. Oh yes I turn to my left to see ALL THREE GIRLS walking in FRONT(well ducking about 1/2 inch, how considerate of them) of the stage with the camera giggling trying to take walking pictures of Kendal until they get to me...They didn't get close enough to me so that I could PINCH anyone..dang it! I wasn't even able to get CJ's eye attention to DEATH RAY GLARE HER! Is this dang thing over yet? So a little more performance goes on and the next thing I see is all three girls again..the twins are both dragging CJ to me saying, SHE HAS TO GO TO THE BATHROOM. I am shhhhh'ing them and saying, go, go, be quiet and get out of here!!! Okay this is so in the front and everyone can see the ridiculous 8 yr olds... It's almost the end..please hurry!!! Before the last song, the girls decide to walk down the center isle(then duck approx. 1/2 inch) when they walk yet again in the front of the stage, looking for somewhere to sit up with all of us. The twins Mom was up there too, so they of course assumed they could be wherever they wanted as well. I grab CJ's arm on her way by me really, really hard..She looks at me like.. Oh NO...Oh yes I was thinking in my head, you are dead meat... The last song is ready and that's where every class goes up and every staff member too. We all do a wonderful and exciting compilation of the chicken dance, itsy bitsy, head shoulders knees and toes, into a faster chicken dance.. it's way over the top thrilling! I am getting all my school kids in order when my son is now standing on stage, with me yelling..MOM, MOM, MOMMMMMMMM!!! I look at him and he is panicked, holding his book and saying, I've lost my sisters, I don't know where my SISTERS ARE!! Can someone please just stab me..please just stab me right now! I look at him with a blank stare and he just knows, oh no.. oh yes I think.. oh yes.. you will DIE TONIGHT!!!!!!! The performance ends, I round up all my children away from the cookies, try to laugh at how everyone is telling me about people hearing Kendal from down the street and I am just thinking about how this is to be my kids last cookies, ever...The car ride home..... Cole knows...he just knows by the silence of me that it's bad. He says.. Mom, I was reading my book the whole time and when I looked up CJ was gone and I didn't see Kendal. I say, Cole, KENDAL WAS UP ON THE STAGE SINGING and your other sister was trying out for girls gone wild. He then says, oh yeah the teachers were telling them to be quiet the whole time. Ummm, what?? So not only was CJ being a ridiculous picture and video ruiner but school teachers were shhh'in her on the other side??? OH H-E double hockey sticks NO!! Her face has fear on it...total and complete fear. Her defense starts with, THEY wouldn't leave me alone! THEY kept talking to ME, dragging me around everywhere, they took your camera and so on and so on.. Okay.. so I do know that the twins drag her around all the time normally and she definitely doesn't make the best choices with them around but I am so not feeling this Poor Victim CJ thing... so, CJ is on MAJOR punishment needless to say and to make it worse, I just told her that it's coming and it's BADDDD.. Kendal and I even went to Arby's for dinner just to make things worse for the older two(Cole and CJ think Arby's is like dog food or something and would rather starve than eat there) and ate our curly fries and ham sandwiches with the happiest of smiles on. So...yes night two was not one of the fischer's better nights... Well, tonight the kids have Awana and wouldn't ya know it's PET NIGHT!! They get to bring a pet for the wonderful pet parade(parents required to stay)So, umm, I am suppose to bring two dogs, and three kids for the stinkin pet parade alone now??? I know I'll make it through tonight, I can't promise all three kids or dogs will......
I did get a text from Nate this morning and it said.. You are the most amazing wife and mother, I love you and I owe you for these last few days.. I'll make it up to you..thanks so much.
He knew that's what I needed to hear and quite honestly he wants to make sure none of the wrath comes down on him upon his return.. smart, smart man......
Okay, so can it be worse than last night?? Let's hope for the fischer kids survival that it is not...

Sunscreen?? What?

This winter has been soooooooo long. Most people are probably well into spring and just about summer. Not us...winter decided to park it's coldness here in Missouri and not move F-O-R-E-V-E-R(in classic sandlot sound) but beloved spring has finally become victorious!! This weekend we had soccer games on Sat/Sunday. Well it was in the H-O-T 70's this entire weekend and sunny..so, I didn't even think about sunscreen..hello, it's only the 70's and hello isn't it still winter?? Well..after a long day at the fields we got home and I took a good look at my kids and well..... my poor girls looked like serious tomatoes!!! In pain immediately..their faces, their necks, a spot on the back of the legs where shin guards and shorts don't meet(well not Kendal, you can't see her legs)and arms, hands..OUCH! I felt so terrible..they got in the shower and when they came out, you know they were looking even worse.. Kendal is not the pain tolerance kind of girl. She loves to cry, it's one of her favorite things to do..so with her natural state of whine plus the sunburn drama, I think I had a good 4 hours of ear pain last night before I could sentence her to bed. CJ kept saying.."my face is burning up, my face BURNING UP, MY FACE IS ON FIRE!!!!!!!!" And laughing the whole time... Nate left last night for Oklahoma city for a few days looking just as bad, possibly even worse(he shaved his head in the morning to get it even more ready for the sun to tear it up)than the girls. Surely he'll make quite the impression at the meeting...
Cole pretty much lucked out...he isn't as fair as the girls so he got a tiny burn on his nose and was a good actor with it this morning when I told CJ she had to stay home from school. You'd have thought his nose was literally about to fall off. I told him he should try out for the school play or something, he might get applause or his name in the program for his good performances.. but unfortunately I am not clapping, so off to the bus you go...
CJ is mad and wants to go to school with her tomato face, Kendal looked in the mirror this morning and while crying..told me that her face is," GOING TO BE RED FOR 12 WEEKS!! " Now that seems a bit excessive, so I told her that probably only 5-6 weeks max.
Yaaaa, so good start to this week..I have two nights of spring performances at Pre-School I am working tonight/tomorrow. I'll have to bring the rotten tomatoes and tell them to sit somewhere and not cry...Can't hardly wait for all of this fun...

Volunteering dreams may be coming true~

I have been wanting to volunteer somewhere for such a long time. I really just wanted God to find me a group of people or a place and then have them ask me. I figured that way God would chose and He chooses the best and it would all be awesome. Well, that never happened. Weird, right? Ya... so I finally figured out that I was going to have to go after this and God would work it out that way. The past few months I've been looking for the place or places. I haven't found anything that just made my heart YELL, YES YES YES until now! I am going to meet with both organizations next week and I am so excited. One organization deals with kids that are HIV positive. The other organization supports women and children recovering from sexual assaults. So who knows.. maybe both? Maybe one? Maybe neither...? Can't wait to see what happens...

My crazy, wonderful kids

I think my kids are the funniest people on earth.. I wanted to share this story that I found out a few days ago because it made me laugh and think that this is what happens when a crazy person raises children....

Cole and CJ came home from school and I asked, "How was your Day?" They responded with,"great, fine, good." you know the usual kid responses. Later on in the night we were sitting on the couch and I overheard them talking about something on the bus.. I perked up immediately and said,"excuse me, what are you guys talking about??" Cole says this..,"well there's this third grader who sits behind me on the bus and he is really annoying." I say, "ok and what does that mean?" because if you don't ask questions, kids will be done telling the story at that point, like , what? that was a pretty good story they just told..they said more than one word,ya know? Cole then says,"well he's really mean and just annoys everyone and last week he grabbed my head and smashed it into the seat really hard." Okay...so.. Cole is a 4th grader and CJ is a 2nd grader and this mean bus kid is in 3rd grade. I said," Well what did you do?" He says.."nothin"...hmmm.... my son. He is such a neat little guy. He will defend anyone and stand up for injustices and fight the good fight..he's just not real good at defending himself. So then I say, "Ok well what happened today on the bus, what were you guys talking about that happened today?" So they both look at me with huge eyes and with these smiles like it was good.. the kind of good where you don't really want to tell your parents but that it was so good you can't hide your smiles good. CJ says," well today that guy was grabbing Cole's head again and I saw him and I told Cole to move seats, I told him(mean bus boy)he better leave my brother alone... then I moved into Cole's seat and... well I grabbed his head and smashed it into the bus window!" Cole chimes in.."YEAH I TURNED AROUND AND I SEE CJ GRABBING HIS FACE AND BANGING IT INTO THE WINDOW AND IT MADE A LOUD SOUND!!" I am sitting here looking at them with very big parent eyes at this point(honestly not shocked hearing this about my daughter who is very much like me sometimes) and looking at them, look at each other smiling about their victory! I said, "CJ, what in the heck happened next? What did the kid do to you?" She says, " Well he sat there and said, that didn't hurt that bad you know!" Cole said,"after that all I saw was CJ going crazy on the kid!!!" Apparently CJ was going to make sure it did hurt BAD so he wouldn't mess with Cole again and so she starting smacking him around pretty good!!! Cole all the time watching and thinking GO CJ in his head....

Well, what can I say???I love that they look out for each other...I love that she took ACTION even if it wasn't the BEST choice to go smackin that mean bus boy around. They could have talked to him again and said please stop..again. But CJ handled it, her way.

So, luckily for Cole...God made a CJ and he made her his sister..she'll be able to defend him, for now...until he takes up that cause himself.

Tax Day

So, I decided to jump on this blogging business...I always have so much to say and so many thoughts in my head so I thought that maybe if I talk to myself(and whoever bothers to read it.lol) I'll get some things figured out and I won't talk Nate's ear off when I see him and see that look on his face like..I wish my wife had friends here to do this with. He's been so amazing these last three years with me having my lack of girls to hang with. I must say that my phone calls with Marie have kept me as sain as can be expected and really makes me feel like she is closer(in distance) than she really is. I love you Marie so much..you are so in it.

So today I finally sent my taxes in. The last possible day and down to the last minute. So completely unlike me, right? Well in my defense we owed state taxes to two different states Kansas and Missouri so I wasnt really feeling the rush.

And on to Pre-school today .... I have this little boy who's 4 and he just really can make me crazy. He licks everyone, licks everything, blows snot bubbles at all of us, spits on us, hangs on everyone,bit me pretty good a few times, hits all of us and has been known to pee on the other boys while in the bathroom. Now.. this little guy has some kind of learning disability. His Mom says he's been tested and there is nothing but some speech problems. Having spent the whole school year with him, it's obvious there is something wrong. It's really not intentional and he is completely happy 100% while doing all these things and it doesn't come from an angry place. Not sure why Mom and Dad don't want to talk about it.. maybe it's just a hard truth.. So I mostly dread what everyday is going to be like with him. My other kids look at me like..SAVE ME when he's around or when he's licking their arms, slamming their hands in the trash can or flailing around and kicking them all in the face. Well today he was in full form and I was so exhausted because he just wouldn't quit. By the time we got to lunch I found myself glaring at him across the lunch table as he snorted out some snot onto all his lunch. I literally felt my own face in an evil freeze and what it was looking like to this child. I snapped out of the face freeze and my thoughts went immediately to God. All I could think about was how much God loved this little snot blowing boy that He created. I went over and cleaned up his face and opened the snacks that he didn't destroy with his goo and watched as he yelled in the face of the boy next to him.. and I laughed inside.... thankful for opportunities like these.