Friday, February 8, 2008

It's Been A Hard Day's Night

Hi!
I've been behind on keeping you up to date with our family's goings-on because I've started working again as a private voice instructor at Fairmont State University. It means that I teach from 5-9 on Monday nights, stay overnight with my sister in Fairmont, then get up and teach from 10-2 for the University theatre students, and then travel 1/2 hour farther south to Clarksburg to teach from 5-6:30 and then drive the 1 1/2 hour to arrive home by 8pm or so... I like teaching voice lessons, but I hate having to spend a night away from home. Reality is, though, it pays pretty well and it's too many miles and too much gas to drive home and then back when I've got a place to stay in Fairmont. You gotta do what you gotta do, I guess.

I had a day at home today, and instead of stressing out that I wasn't substitute teaching or making money in some other way today, I just enjoyed being with my kids. Ingrid has been pretty "testy" lately...neither Andrew nor I were sure why, but I think it's mostly because I've started teaching again. She hasn't felt well (all three of the others in the family have bad colds and coughs again...), but I think it's because I've been gone so much, even though she loves my sister who takes care of them when we're gone... She was a different kid today, knowing that I wasn't leaving until next week. *Sigh...* Andrew will be home with them this next week, though, so that's good. What do you do, you know?

Rowan is growing like a weed and is as sweet as ever! I have some really good video of him in his Johnny Jump-up, but I don't have my camera with me to post it...I will soon. He's the kind of kid who just makes you light up--and it doesn't matter how stressed out or down you are! I'm so glad God gave him to us.

Ingrid is so smart. She's starting to come up with her own ideas, and while it doesn't always end up like she wants to, it gives us a laugh every now and then. Here are a couple of examples:

One day, Andrew was taking her to the farm in the car. She was testing his boundaries a little that day, and when he put her in her car seat, she told him that she didn't want to sit in her seat. Andrew told her she had to sit in her seat when we rode in the car. He wanted her to stay safe. She said no, she didn't want to sit in her seat, she wanted to drive! Andrew told her that she couldn't drive. She was too little. Ingrid said, "That's Ok. It's alright." Andrew said no, she couldn't even reach the pedals. Ingrid said that was going to be OK too.
Andrew by then was trying not to laugh at her because she was NOT JOKING. He said that she didn't even know how to drive. Ingrid looked back at him and said, "Yes I do. Vroom, vroom..." making the steering wheel gesture... I guess when he finally told her she couldn't drive and started the car himself, she continued to throw a fit as he drove to the farm.

Who puts these ideas in her head???

Another thing... We've found that our Library has children's DVDs to check out, so we checked out The Little Mermaid a couple of weeks ago because it is my favorite Disney movie, and I was hoping that she would like it too. Well, she didn't watch it much while I was around, but when I went to Fairmont and she stayed with Andrew, she watched it a couple of times on her little DVD player that Gramma Camra gave her.
Well, the next day, Andrew came down from the office where he had been working while Ingrid played on the floor behind him. He asked me if anyone in the Little Mermaid said anything about their father killing them... I said--laughing--that yes, there was a line where Ariel said "My father's gonna kill me!" when she misses her singing performance, knowing her dad would be angry at her. Andrew said that as Ingrid was playing with her little dolls, she kept repeating, "My father's gonna kill me!" And then, that morphed into "My father's gonna beat me!" over and over again...

We had a little talk about what not to say to other people...

I'm telling you, life must have been really boring before kids. :)