A Mouse and a Ninja go to school...

St. George's has a week that celebrates children's literature with various activities for all the kids. This coincides with the Book Fair that is a favorite for all!

This year was the first time Evan got to participate in some of the events.

First was the Book Fair Poster Contest. Evan has really taken an interest in drawing and art. Me, who could have qualified for an IEP in art, am not a lot of help, but I did want to foster his new passion. I encouraged him to design a poster. We chatted about it for a couple of days before finally committing to do the poster. Being mom of the year, I kept forgetting to bring home the poster. Funny enough, this lead to why I think he won. I told him a lot of artist sketch ideas before finalizing their drawing/creation. Evan miiiiiight have watched a season couple of Project Runways with me, so he's not unfamiliar with the concept. He spent two days sketching and editing his idea. He changed the title three or four times, but the concept stayed the same. He asked me to look up things on the internet so he could research different types of things he could include. Most, if not all, of this was done after school before dinner on HIS OWN TIME. Like I said, he has a new passion.

The night I brought home the poster, I knew my type A personality had to walk away. He found his sketch and got started. The ONLY thing I helped him with was the spelling of some of the words, and yes, I still had to do that at a distance. His concept was that the ocean is filled with all different sea creatures who had books as their bodies. There was a diver who wanted to 'learn more about stuff' so he was going to "Dive Into the Ocean of Curiosity".  He worked on it for about 2 days. He was three fourths the way through when he broke into sobs. He messed up his turtle. It was ruined. I sat down with him and explained this happens to artist all the time. They take their 'mistakes' and turn them into part of the masterpiece. Perfect isn't what people want. No one and nothing will ever be perfect. I then told him the moment this project wasn't fun, we were done. This wasn't mandatory. This wasn't for a grade. This was something we were doing because he likes art. He said, "I just can't explain it, but I do want to and I don't want to enter the contest." We decided to sleep on it before he made a decision.

The next morning before my alarm had even gone off, Evan bounded into the room and announced he was back in the game! He would fix his turtle and finish his poster! I was very proud of my little dude for making such a grown up decision. He spent the rest of the morning eating his breakfast and finishing his poster. The only advice I offered him was to trace his title in black. Otherwise, this is a completely child created project!

The following week, Evan was awarded FIRST PLACE in the Book Week Poster Contest for his grade. (For the record, our art teacher judges the posters without knowing which kid did which poster.)  He was on cloud nine. He was recognized in chapel by his librarian, Mrs. Williams. He also won a $10 gift certificate to the book fair! That prize helped him buy his favorite book at the book fair. I am still so stinking proud of him!

Evan also participated in the Book Character Parade. Evan dressed as the ninja from The Boy Who Cried Ninja, which was given to him by his California family. We just so happened to have a ninja costume from Halloween. Funny how that worked out. :) I was a mouse from When You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The mouse get up was 50% off at Target the week after Halloween. I love it when a plan comes together.

 

The Big Easy

Someone once asked me about my marriage and how we stay so ‘in love’. She said, “In all your pictures you look so happy and so in love.” I jokingly replied, “Well, I don't post the bad ones!”

 

John and I take our relationship very seriously. We have been together 20 years (married 13). We know what pisses each other off and try our hardest not to do those things. We also know each other’s love language. We can pinpoint most of our arguments, hurt feelings, and general negativity to when one of us has an empty tank. You see, when my love language tank (quality time) is empty, I get irrational, distant, and passive aggressive. I know this. John knows this, so we both work hard to keep my tank full and the same for him and his love language.

 

One thing we do to keep our marriage as a high priority is take a yearly trip just the two of us. For our 10th anniversary we went to Cancun. We have been looking for a way to go back there ever since. In the mean time, we have been taking ‘long weekends’. For my birthday this year we went to New Orleans.

 

We walked around the first night. I stepped my feet on Bourbon, just to say I did. I just couldn't look at a puddle of water and not think it was pee. We ate at Broussard's and found a cute little bar for after. 

We stayed at The Saint. John stayed here on a guys’ weekend and liked it. When we tried to make our hotel reservations, it was literally the ONLY place that had a room. I checked and checked for events going on that weekend and came up blank. We found out when we got there, that a national realtors conference that weekend PLUS a LSU and Saints game. Football….the one thing I didn’t check. We still had our room, so we considered ourselves lucky. I chatted with one guy who was just in town for the game who was paying almost twice what we did for a room.

   

The Saint is like nowhere I have ever stayed. The foyers has big long white pieces of fabric hanging from the ceiling and very very large and ornate lighting. The elevator has a “Play Naughty” rug and old black and white movies playing on a TV that hangs on the wall. The hallways are all blue-lit. The room was just fabulous. Padded headboards, beautiful carpet, navy ceilings, white furniture and screenprinted shades in the bathroom. It really was unique.

 

The hotel has a bar called The Burgandy Bar (the hotel is on Canal and Burgundy). Everything is red. Small bar, big chandelier and even bigger price tags on their drinks. Outside the bar in the lobby is a pool table and this chair. I loved this chair. One slightly tipsy evening, I ran up to another couple sitting in it and begged to take their picture. They said okay and just smiled. I laughed and said, “no no, with your phone. I don't want a picture of y'all!” Wow….classy Amanda.

Friday we went to the World War II Museum. Everyone I talked to about NOLA, mentioned this museum. I am not a history buff, but John is, especially WWII. We watched the 4D movie Beyond All Boundaries which was narrated by Tom Hanks. So so so well done. If you happen to go to the museum, include that part in your package! The museum itself was amazing. By far the best museum I have been to. John and I were silent the entire 2 hours we walked through it. There was so much to take in. To be honest, now that I think about it, there wasn't a lot of talking by anyone in the museum. It's one of those places I could walk through again for 2 solid hours and see completely different things. I learned so much history I never knew and gained quite the appreciation for my freedom. 

Friday night we took in a movie. The theatre offered beverages and food brought to your seat. On option was popcorn with truffle oil. Truffle popcorn…I didn’t get any. Really crazy story; we went to buy tickets and they were sold out of the movie we wanted to see and the other ones didn't really fit our schedule. We walked around for a bit talking about what we were going to do. I decided we needed to go back and just see the other one we wanted and work out the rest of the night later. It was vacation after all! When we got back there, there was a couple in front of us and a family of 4 in front of them. The family was returning their tickets because they had two teenagers, but no one under was allowed in the theatre because they serve alcohol. The family just happened to be returning 4 VIP tickets to the show we were originally tried to see. The couple in front of us got the first two, and we got the second. I (of course) started talking to the couple in front of us because we were now the proud owners of 4 VIP seats. The theatre seats 24 people. Each chair is a recliner. Full fledged recliner! The couple beside us laughed when we said we were on vacation and at the movies. I told them, the only way I get to see a movie at home was if it was at noon and animated. 

Saturday we walked the city with no plans. It was fabulous. I did yoga in a park. We found a place where you could watch glass being blown and go back into their workshop. We found lot of shops and did too much shopping, but like the movies, not something we get to do together at home.

Saturday night we ate at Luke. There was no way we could pass up a John Besh restaurant with the same name as our youngest! It was delicious! We enjoyed the best bowl of gumbo (I was on a search) and a fine fine dinner. We went to another bar, Swizzle Stick, after that where they served all their drinks off a large block of ice that was in the middle of the bar.

But the BEST meal we had was breakfast at The Ruby Slipper. WOW. I have decided why breakfast was both of our favorites. We’ll splurge on a nice meal at home. John takes me out about once a month and we eat well. We NEVER splurge on breakfast. So to eat such big amazing meals at the start of our day was a real treat. Ruby Slipper – keep it on your list! 

But the best part of anytime away together is how we reconnect. It’s so nice not to worry about who pushed who, or if the lunches are packed, or the laundry sitting in the dryer. It’s just about us. Thank you John for keeping US a priority.

 

Halloween 2014

This year, I feel like Halloween was met with as much excitement as Christmas! There were tons of decorations around the neighborhood and excitement with the boys. We waited to carve the pumpkin because of the temperatures. John told the boys the only way he’d carve the pumpkin was if they cleaned it.

Side note….I prayed for a long long time that God would bless me with boys. I really didn’t feel like I would do good with the drama that usually comes with girls. I mean, I am dramatic, but there is a difference between the two. I don’t do drama very well. God laughed and then gave me Evan…the most dramatic little boy ever.

 

We lucked up with costumes. On a Costco trip Evan fell in love with a ninja costume. This was a huge score because a) it was $15 and b) ninjas were not cool 6 months ago. As we were looking, we asked Luke what he wanted to be. He promptly answered without a beat Spider-Man. Guess what Luke was last year…yup…Spider-Man. Score again! The adult Asbells were feeling quite lucky at this point. 

Both boys dressed up several times before Halloween. What’s a good costume if you can’t wear it a bunch?! They also loved telling everyone they saw what they were going to be. Luke would shout Spider-Man at the top of his lungs and Evan would go into some ninja like move while telling people about their costume. 

Both boys had great Halloween parties. Luke got to eat a spoonful of icing and Evan had a whole hour of fun. The parents did a great job organizing these events. I am very lucky that all I have to do is walk down the hall to get to the events.

This is our scary face!!

   

 Friday night came and it was cold….I mean COLD! With a full belly and the excitement at an all time high, we trooped upstairs to put on our costume. But low and behold, Luke had changed his mind. After WEEKS of telling everyone he came in contact with that he was going to be Spider-Man!! He literally sat in the middle of the hallway with his arms crossed and said “I not going to be Pider-Man.” I took one look at him and immediately said “JOOOOOOOHN…come deal with this.” 99% of the time he has more patience with this kind of thing. I tend to be too strict.

If I had been alone, it probably would have gone down like this: 

Luke: I not going to be Pider-Man. 

Me: Then you NOT going trick or treating. 

Luke: *lays in the floor and screams and cries* 

Me: **Walk away until he decides Spider-Man is good enough to wear or he falls asleep because SURELY this manic episode is induced by lack of sleep.** 

And the boys really ask why I dress up like a witch every year…. 

But that is why God sent me John Asbell. John picks up Luke and takes him to the closet. He presents Luke with all of his choices, otherwise known as, all the old Halloween costumes. Luke, with great excitement, tells us he is going to be IronMan! Well great….Halloween hasn’t been cancelled. Candy for everyone!!

     

The Lawsons came over to trick or treat with us. Gemma was the cutest little Mike Wazowski. Quinn also joined us for tricks and treats! Since I wasn’t feeling 100% John volunteered to take the boys trick or treating. Have I mentioned how spoiled I am??? When they came running back to the house only 50 minutes later, my first question was “What’s wrong?? What happened?” I expected them to be gone much much long. John explained that the boys participated in some sort of speed trick or treating spiriting from house to house. Sure enough, their buckets were full and they had rang almost every doorbell. The boys delighted in dumping all their candy on the counter and comparing treats. I, of course, let them have too much candy, but hey – the day only comes around once a year. 

I am pretty sure, like last year, we’ll have candy until April.

It's what I am made to do

Evan has been in drum lessons for about 5 months. He goes once a week for half an hour. He really really enjoys it. This fall, when I asked him what sport he wanted to play he simply answered, "All I want to do it drum."

A little back story. I love music. I love musicians. Someone with that gift really inspires me. The way someone can manipulate an instrument (voice included) has always put me under some sort of spell. The expection to this rule was drumming. Not that I don't appreciate people who play the drums...I DO! It is just that if you are a drummer you are always drumming. Drumming fingers, pens, notebooks...it drives me batty. I even remember having conversations with my girlfriends about never dating/marrying a drummer for that reason.

Fast forward to my mid (cough cough) thirties. I am thrilled Evan wants to start music. Music isn't a contact sport. You can't blow out a knee or get a concussion drumming. Plus, I am very excited his daddy's music gene was passed down. While I love and appreciate music...I, myself, am not musical. I have sung in choirs where my voice will blend nicely with others and I might have spit into the played the flute for a couple of minutes (there is no photographic evidence of this) but I am not musical. I was even happy he wanted to drum...until he started drumming.

He drums on the table. He drums in the car. He drums on the water in the bath. He drums on his body. He drums on MY body. He drums on the couch. He drums in bed. He drums on his brother's head. He drums in his sleep. He. Does. NOT. Stop. Drumming and I literally might lose my mind.

So today, while I was making dinner, Evan was drawing, a new hobby he's picked up. About every 45 seconds he'd stop, step back, evaluate his picture, wait for it...while he drummed. I have told him about 50 times today to stop drumming. So I sharply yelled said, "Evan!!! The drumming HAS to stop!" He froze and melodramatically put his head on the table. When he looked up at me he said, "But moooooommmm, it is was I am MADE to do."

So without further ado, here is what Evan as "made to do".

Luke is 4!!

Last month was Luke's birthday month. I call it that because we seemed to celebrate all. month. long. But there is a reason for that.

I had to work the night of Luke's birthday, but it was more than that. July and August are very busy for me. This year didn't even hold a candle to any other year. There was so much going on at work that Luke's birthday slipped up on me. Mommy guilt hit me full force and there might have been some ugly cries in the shower. My amazing and calm husband reassured me that Luke prefers a smaller quieter affair. A big birthday party with a ton of people just isn't his bag. The guilt was hitting hard because 4 was when Evan had his first 'friend' birthday party. Through some major counseling sessions with my husband and friends, I did come to terms with Luke having a family birthday party.

John and the boys celebrated the night of his birthday with some cupcakes and presents. Luke really was only interested in the cupcakes (note to self for next year). The 15 minutes I was home before bed I got some sweet birthday snuggles. He went to sleep a happy boy that night.

A couple weeks after that we celebrated with the family. Fun, family, friends and BBQ! Luke opened presents with the insistent help of his brother. I am not 100% sure who was more excited about presents, Evan or Luke.

 

Luke chose to have cupcakes instead of cake. When it came to sing to him, he said, "Oh no! It will be too wowd!!" (That's too loud for you non-toddler speaking folk) and immediately covered his ears. I promised him we'd sing quietly. We sang quietly while he grinned with his hands over his ears. He blew out the candle (while still holding his ears) and gobbled up the cupcake.

 

We also got to have a silly string war. Sadly, the silly string was bought at the dollar store and the war only lasted a hot minute. But there was still some belly laughing and fun. PS. Luke wanted nothing to do with the silly string war. I don't think Pop did either.

 

 

Later that month Luke received a birthday book from Mommy, Daddy and Evan to be put in the St. George's library collection in his honor.

Poor guy has really been confused by the month long celebration. He keeps asking me if he's still four.

Swimmy Wave Corner: Part 2

This is part two of the fish saga. To find out the how we came to own a fish, read here. To back up even further, you can read my feelings on fish here...or here. So for us to have a fish in the house, let alone as a pet, means you know I love my kids.

Evan, Andrew, and Andrew's sister, Caroline, each won a fish. Caroline actually left the fair with two fish, one which died before they even got home which didn't give me high hopes for this fish. Thankfully our good friends, Terry and Angela, are fish experts. They have had a fish tank with many different types of fish for a while. They know what kind of fish need what kind of water/food/temperature/etc. All the things I have never wanted to know. I texted Angela for help and she has an entire goldfish habitat set up in a margarita pitcher in less than 5 minutes! I may have even texted her "I'll make sure to give you the pitcher back as soon as he dies." Again, not high hopes for this little thing.

As soon as we got home, I start prepping the water while Evan literally walks room to room with the fish bag giving Swimmy a tour...of our house. I can see attachment issues already. As we are discussing Swimmy's new home, John and I make sure to say over and over, fish don't live forever. Fish sometimes die after a couple minutes days. We are going to love and care for Swimmy as long as we have him.

Evan fed him his first meal that night and all went to bed happy.  Naturally, Swimmy was housed in Evan's room. Evan, being the most tender hearted little guy there is, asked me if Luke could have a turn feeding him in the morning. I told him that was fine as long as Evan was the one who got the food out of the container. He could put it in Luke's hand before Luke put it in the alcoholic beverage container bowl. The next morning all went according to plan and Luke got a turn to feed the fish. Evan brought an iPad to my bed that morning and asked me to go to a goldfish website so he could learn how to take care of Swimmy. Thinking this was absolutely adorable, I conceded and we read about goldfish for about half an hour. We read about how to care for their water, how to not over feed them, how to change their water (because there is a multi-step process to changing water...), what they like to eat, etc. I felt like we could teach a goldfish 101 class after all of that.

Fast forward to 9:45. I am doing yoga downstairs. John and Evan are playing Skylanders and Luke is playing with toys in different parts of the house. As I am doing yoga this is the conversation I hear.

Luke: I feed him all da seeds!!
John: What, Luke?
Luke: He have a lot of dem.
John: What do you mean sweetie?
Luke: He has all da seeds!
John: Can you show me what you mean?

They walk down the hall and about 15 seconds later I hear, "OH NO!!!! It's EVERYWHERE!! OH NO!" Followed by Evan shrieking at the top of his lungs. Of course from the first "OH NO", I unpretzel myself out of whatever yoga pose I was in and start sprinting up the stairs. When I hear "It's everywhere!" my first thought is the water. In my head I pictured the pitcher on its side, water spilling everywhere and Swimmy flopping around on the floor. Thankfully I made it up the stairs in about 2 seconds to see that wasn't the case. Luke had decided feeding Swimmy was so much fun that he wanted to do it again. But this time he gave him "all da seeds". To Luke's defense, no rules had been explained. We had had this fish for less 14 hours. He had no clue what he was doing. As soon as he saw/heard us freaking out, he went into hiding. I still have no idea where he went.

Now remember, not 3 hours before, Evan and I read about overfeeding being the number one killer of goldfish. So Evan is convinced Luke killed Swimmy. John grabs the pitcher, I sprint back downstairs to start prepping new water. I grab a bowl and the water conditioner and try to get the faucet to a decent temp. The good news is Swimmy seems unfazed. I am not sure if he even ate any of the food Luke so generously gave him. Once we deem the water ready we have to figure out how to get Swimmy from bad water to good water without getting any of the floating food into the new clean water. John knows without even looking at me, I ain't touching that thing. Being the amazing husband and father he is, he scoops Swimmy out with his hands and drops him in the bowl.

Keep in mind, Evan is still hyperventilating about his fish dying and Luke is in still hiding. Once Swimmy is placed in the clean water, I sit with Evan and calm him down enough to explain, he might die, but we've done all we can. I swear it was like a version of Fishie ER. We sat by his makeshift bowl watching him kind of gasp every 3 seconds of so. Anytime Swimmy would start floating on his side, Evan would plead and beg, "pllleeeease don't die, please don't die Swimmy!!!" I told him Swimmy was probably freaking out from all of this so we had to stay calm for him. He sat with Swimmy and talked to him for at least 10 minutes. And if I am being honest, I sent a prayer up to the big guy to keep Swimmy alive....but don't tell anyone that.

Thankfully Swimmy survived the dramatic event. Since there was nothing we could really do about Evan's co-dependent attachment to the fish, we decided we needed to upgrade Swimmy's habitat to something a little more permanent. More hours of research and one hundred and twenty dollars later, Swimmy has a permanent home in the Asbell house. Good news - if Swimmy does pass on soon, Petco has goldfish for 15 cents. Anyone see the irony here?? anyone??

Swimmy Wave Corner Asbell: Part 1

Evan has been begging us for a pet for about a year. John and I had dogs for 12 and 13 years. We were kind of enjoying the pet free home. Not that we don’t love animals, but we also love our pee-free carpet, no-vet bill budget, and dog hairless couch. Let’s just say I have had more success potty training two boys than house training animals.

Evan was in the right place at the right time this summer. There was one day…just one day, he had to come to work with me due to lack of childcare. He did great. Read books, played on the playground, enjoyed his time. Sometime mid afternoon, Mrs. Gano came to visit the lab to ask a question. She immediately grabs Evan to go get some toys. He comes back with legos and building items. He’s in heaven for a while. When he takes them back he looks around her room and notices her class pets, the frogs. Mrs. Gano realizes she hasn’t fed them (it had been a month, don’t call PETA just yet), and enlists Evan’s help. She sees how enamored Evan is with the frogs and asks him to take care of him the rest of the summer. All this takes place AWAY from me. All I know is when he comes back, he has a small frog tank with two frogs that we are taking home.

He names the frogs; Rocky and Crystal. Guess what two things were in the frogs’ tank besides the frogs themselves. Rocks and a crystal. It’s a black and white world, people. The frogs live on his nightstand. He prays for the frogs. He brings every single person that enters our house up to his room to ‘meet’ the frogs. The boy loved having a pet. We cried quite a bit when we had to give them back to the class.

Fast forward to Labor Day – We were discussing over dinner Sunday before Labor Day that we didn’t have to go to school because it was a holiday called Labor Day. Daddy and Mommy didn’t have to go to work and the boys got to stay home. Evan interrupted me and said, “And I get to go to the Delta Fair!!!” I did a double take to make sure I heard him right. I glance at John, who is looking at me just as confused as I am looking at him. I then say, “wait, what?” He proceeds to tell me he has a ticket and he is going to the fair on Labor Day. I am still looking at him like he has 4 heads.  I explain that we aren’t going to the fair because none of this was passed through me. He proceeds to melt down, say, “but I have a tiiiickeeeet!” and question why I am ‘in charge of the house’. (his words…not mine…but he’s not wrong).

The more time that passes, the more I think of what a horrible mom I am for not taking him AND Evan doesn’t let things go easily. So we decided if he could control his talking at school (something he comes by naturally...have you met his mom??) he could ‘earn’ the fair. I know, I know. He broke me. But really, have you seen those dimples. Jeez.

 On Thursday, the day we planned to go to the fair, a mom emailed me and invited him to go with their family. After talking it through we he made the decision to wait until the weekend and go with his friend. Despite a rain delay, the boys had a blast! And the mom sent me tons of pictures and videos. This was the last picture I received with the caption of “ummm….well….”

Part 2 coming....