All is well

(random picture of Ben's LEGO awesomeness)
(You should see the spaceships... dude)

It's been pointed out to me that I haven't been blogging enough lately.

Let me explain.
No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
Buttercup is marrying Humperdink in little less than half an hour...

Sorry, wrong story. I get sidetracked easily.

Summary:
1. Pregnancy
2. Therapy
3. Gymnastics
4. Lots of babies
5. Lessons in fire safety

So we're good? Good.

What, you want more? Fine. Here's the rest of the story.

1. My dog, Elphie the Boston Terrier (best dogs in the world) went and had a romantic weekend in Tucson in January. Actually, it was the same day of the shooting. It was breaking news on the radio while I was driving back from Tucson.

She was there to spend some time with a Boston stud named Romeo. Seriously.
They had good times, got snuggly, and I came home with a pregnant dog. It took us awhile to know for sure, and I know there's still a slight chance I'm wrong, but the dog seriously looks pregnant. She's gained 5 pounds (I can do that with one bag of chocolate, but when you're only 14 pounds to begin with, 5 more is a lot). Her nipples are ginormous and squishy. The kids think they look bizarre, and although a good belly rub is one of her favorite things, we're all kind of avoiding it right now. The vet squished her belly and said he thought he felt one little puppy floating around in there, but it was kind of early to tell. An ultrasound is $350. No thank you, I'll know for sure on or around March 12, which would be her due date.

Anyone want a puppy? Boston Terriers are the BEST!

2. Therapy. So Ben and I have new therapists, and I'm encouraged. He's working on some behavioral techniques that will help him manage his ADHD. He was on a waiting list for a long time to get into this group, so I'm pretty excited. It's been frustrating to get two or three phone calls a week from his teacher because of his behavior in school, so we're all hoping for some improvement. I'm in therapy too, laying on a couch and talking about why the color yellow makes me sad. Then some old guy throws a box of kleenex at my head and said we ought to take a trip to manby-pamby land to find me some self-confidence, you jack wagon! Wait...

3. Ben is thriving in gymnastics, they promoted him to level 2 last week and he's so proud of himself! Austin took a picture on his phone, which I haven't transfered to my laptop, of Ben doing the splits. Now we have lots of pictures of that, but in this one both of Ben's legs are elevated and resting on chairs. He's suspended, and his split is actually inverted a little bit. It makes guys cringe when they look at it. The dude is bendy.

4. The last month has been filled with babies! Josh and Sarah had their baby 8 weeks early, Madilyn, but she's home from the hospital and doing great. I haven't taken my kids to meet her yet because she just seemed so vulnerable. Then Noelle and Eric had their baby, Valette. Grace is enamored because her middle name is Valetta, which is almost spelled the same. Both babies are beautiful and Ember can't wait to be their favorite babysitter.

(kids at the hospital the day Valette was born)

5. Lessons in fire safety. First of all, nothing was seriously damaged and no one was hurt. That being said, the boy is grounded from matches for life. He will never build a campfire, set up a romantic candlelight dinner for his future wife, light a pilot light on a gas stove, light candles on his kids birthday cakes... seriously. Grounded for L.I.F.E.

The setting: Austin was out at a meeting. The kid were watching a really irritating cartoon that I wanted to block out, so I was in my room reading a book. With the door shut. I opened the door to walk out and get a drink and check on the kids, and smelled something funny. I asked if anyone lit a match and they all looked at me like I was insane. I went into the kitchen and garbage can was empty, no bag. Ben told me he took the trash out all by himself. At 8:00 at night. In his pajamas, barefoot. In the cold and dark. Hmm. That's when I noticed the little black ash all over every flat surface in my kitchen. I opened the cupboard that stores the matches, and they weren't up on the shelf, they were taken down. I believe I have enough evidence to proceed.

I hammered all three kids for awhile, even though I knew who did it. They were all scared, but I zeroed in on the kid who volunteered to take the trash out without being asked, without any kind of a reward or threat. The girls went to bed. The boy finally spilled his guts, after swearing for over an hour that he was innocent and after we went out to the dumpster and brought in the evidence.

He lit a match. He didn't know what to do with it, so he threw it away. The trash caught on fire. He threw three cups of water on it to put the fire out. He took the trash bag out to the dumpster. He went back to watching cartoons, thinking his tracks were covered. The trash bag was melted, the styrofoam take-out containers were melted, there was blackened napkins and chopsticks and other things inside and it looked awful. We explained to Ben how lucky he was, because the trash bag is stored in a corner of the kitchen filled with paper and cardboard... he could have lit the entire kitchen on fire, and because I was in my room with the door shut, we could have had a major disaster before I would have even been aware of it.

I KNOW we were watched over and protected that night. I'm grateful Ben was smart enough to throw water on the fire, and that we were able to have a good conversation with him about fire safety and honesty. *whew* What a scary experience.

So..... that's our update. Not so many pictures, I just haven't been taking any. I'll have more next week after Grace and I go to the zoo for the Kindergarten field trip.

Stay tuned for some Grace-isms and funny quips from the other two kids...