Tying Up Loose Ends

Brace yourself; this is a rambling post. This week has really flown by. There were several times when I wanted to write up a post, but simply didn't find the time in the evening. And I know that I left those clues from a few weeks ago hanging. So, here are some explanations:

ES is a saver. He very rarely sees little things that he wants to spend his money on. Instead, he saves up his money and makes large purchases (i.e., his go-kart, Rock Band, drums, etc.). He had been begging and begging for us to purchase an I-Touch for his birthday in the beginning of last month. I wouldn't agree to it. Finally, we compromised and gave him some money towards the I-Touch. He paid for over half of it.

Our computer really stinks. It has a very small main drive and a very large secondary drive. The problem is that everything seems to go on the default drive (the smaller of the two) and then the computer begins to freeze up. This is why my husband is constantly removing my photos from the hard drive when I upload them from the camera. I find it frustrating because I don't really know much about computers and don't know how to easily retrieve older photos that I might wish to add to a letter or post on my blog.

Anyway, ES had to put I-Tunes onto the computer (in order to access the many applications which are available to I-Touch users). He wisely put the I-Tunes on the larger drive. However, every time he connected his I-Touch to the computer to charge it, the I-Touch was sync-ing to the smaller drive.

The night before the computer went haywire, ES was proudly showing me the multitudinous free applications which he had uploaded to his I-Touch. I was thrilled with some of them. He has an app. which provides him with a schedule for reading through the Bible in a year. He has actually been sitting up in his bed in the evenings reading portions of the Bible on his I-Touch. I certainly won't complain about that.

The I-Touch apps basically took up all the space on the default drive and everything froze. Thankfully, my husband knows more about computers than I do. Otherwise, I would have been calling in the "Geek Squad." Hopefully, we won't run into any further problems.

As for MS, well ... I thought about taking a photo of our tablecloth, just as a teaser. You can always tell where MS sits at the table because I have never had a tablecloth which he didn't destroy. Everyone else's spot at the table is fine, but the area where MS sits is full of holes and rips and all manner of tablecloth carnage.

Alas, it wasn't the tablecloth that he cut while I was downstairs working out. He has always had access to his safety scissors because of his endless art activities. Plus, he does know where the grown-up scissors are kept.

Here is his cutting masterpiece:


He had been telling me that his hair was getting close to his eyes and he didn't want his hair to get too long, like big brother's hair. Unfortunately, he took matters into his own hands.

Finally, the tale of YS. We went to the library, after his nap, my exercise and the foray into a salon career. I spent a few minutes too long in the library book sale room, where they were offering a bag of books for $1. Realizing that they were too stir-crazy to look any longer, I led them out into the main section of the library (where all the computer terminals are and where the adults look for their books) on our way to the children's section.

YS suddenly felt that MS was chasing him. He took off at great speeds and ran shrieking through the library. Of course, MS tried to stop him, which only made YS shriek louder and run faster. It was mortifying, as every eye followed them. YS was climbing beneath computers where people were working. MS was scrambling after him. Oh, the humiliation.

The other day, we had a chance to meet a dog belonging to one of ES's friends. It was a Golden Doodle, the kind of dog I would like to have when we finally get around to granting our boys' deep desires for a dog. As we mentioned how beautiful Zeke was, my husband reminded us all that a dog would be getting loose and running off into the woods, coming back with ticks, etc. MS decided that he knew the perfect answer for this. He declared that we should merely make a collar for him that would zap him every time he went near the creek or headed into the woods or met up with a snake or a skunk.

I did inform him that they have something like that, called an "Invisible Fence." However, in my mind, I was imagining how wonderful it would be if I could merely make a collar for my boys that would zap them every time they ran shrieking through the library or began to cut their own hair or stealthily played with fire or ... I'm sure you understand that my list of "or's" for these boys is endless!

Of course, the collars would have to come with positive feedback options as well. So, my ES would have received some sort of token or stroke (or if was me wearing the collar, a piece of dark chocolate) for his act of kindness earlier this week.

I mentioned that ES is a saver. Well, he tends to save all of his ticket totals whenever we go to Chuck E. Cheese's. We went to CEC's, on Tuesday, to spend the 20 free tokens which ES received for his birthday (I couldn't believe they sent them for a 13th birthday) and the free tokens they provided for his straight A report card. We had a few tokens left over from a previous visit. ES gave each of the little boys about 8 tokens and then went off to play the games where you can win large jackpots.

The little boys spent most of their time in the climbing area. When ES was done with his games, he came to tell me that he had checked out the prize offerings and didn't see anything that he wished to spend his tickets on. However, he noticed a stuffed snake which he thought MS would really like. He asked me if he could run out to the van to get his ticket stash (11,000 tickets saved up). He proceeded to spend 1500 of his tickets on the stuffed snake for his brother.

One of the reasons this impressed me so much, is that he tends to ooh and ahh over his youngest brother (telling him he is the greatest brother in the world) and often makes MS feel left out or unloved. I had recently had a talk with ES about what his favoritism could do to MS emotionally. His actions made a great impact. MS couldn't get over his brother's generosity. He thanked him over and over. Here is a photo of MS with his new pet snake (whom he, surprisingly, hasn't named yet):



Oh, and here is a photo of the large snapping turtle we found in our back yard last week:

And some baby birds we were able to watch take flight for the first time last week:


Sadly, we saw the blue heron again the day before my friend, Leti, came for a visit. It would have been so cool if she had been able to see a heron when she was here. She did get to see a baby bird in a nest in one of our bushes.

When she left, she promised that she would come for a visit again and next time she would bring something (although, she brought something this time - a birthday present for me, an unnecessary action which brought a smile to my face). MS piped up quickly with a suggestion. He told her she should bring us some chocolate. Now there's a boy after my own heart!