Some stuff...

The troop
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

Here's a picture of Megan's scout troop. Yes - there are lots of them. This is why my stress levels are high. That's a lot of kids to register, organize and keep busy. What was I thinking?

Megan came with me to watch the Chicago Marathon a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty chilly that morning, but she was a great cheerleader.


Some of my friends asked her if she was going to run a marathon someday and she was pretty positive that she would. On the way home from dropping Jake off at school today, Megan was asking me if I ever won a race. I explained that I had when I was younger, but not so much lately. I asked her if she was going to be a runner and she said, "Yes....and a doctor. I can be two things, right?"

There's one more funny Meganism that comes to mind. Often, she will ask if we can watch the Hurting Show. Go on, take a guess as to which show that is! Yep, America's Funniest Home Videos. I guess someone is always getting hurt on that one.

Jake has decided that Halloween is scary and he doesn't want to dress up. When someone asks him what he's going to be for Halloween, his reply is either, "nothing" or "just Jake". I guess it's not his thing. He's not really a fan of the dark either. We usually have to turn on lights before he'll get near a room. One morning last week, the light in the stairwell was on and it was too bright so he asked me to turn it off. I was holding his hand when he stumbled a little bit on the stair and he said, "The dark felled me".

Ok, now the latest thing that my kids were up to. This morning, I went to the grocery store while Jimmy was home with them. Megan wanted to paint his face and he agreed. The following is what I came home to. They named him the clown lion. All I can say is he wins the award for being the most fun today.

Oh boy - am I behind, or what?!

Butterfly
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

I just noticed that my last post was right after the first day of school. Dang - guess I've been pretty busy. Both kids are really enjoying school. As a matter of fact, Jake was originally set up to go to school on M, W & F, but he loves it so much that he wanted to go every day. So, Oct. 1st I switched him to the 5-day program and he couldn't be happier. This morning, as Darin was taking Megan to school, Jake looked at us with a huge smile and said, "I go to school every day!" He's pretty proud of that.

Megan still gets up for her 7:30am start time without too much trouble. She's a big fan of school too. She gets home and wants to do her homework right away. We got her progress report and apparently, she is "a joy to have in class". Well, duh. :-)

This photo is from the Cleaveland's annual Octoberfest party. They had an awesome face painter. Megan tricked Darin into washing off her first paint job, so she could get a second. Here is the original:



Jake is not a fan of face paint, so he decided to just jump in the bouncy house. This was one great party. The kids had a fantastic time.



In addition to keeping up with school, I was somehow roped into becoming a Daisy Scout leader. That's right - the leader. Megan's school doesn't offer a scout program, and she's been exposed to Girl Scouts through the O'Donnells since she was a baby. So, when I called to get her signed up at Queen of All Saints, the coordinator asked me if I would be one of the adult volunteer leaders. I said sure, since Megan is kind of shy and she only knows one of the girls from that school. I had to go to a volunteer orientation one evening and when I showed up, I noticed that I was listed as the troop leader. That woman was tricky. So, we've had our first meeting and it was a big success - but now I've got to start working on a plan for meeting number two. Fortunately, when they're this young, they only meet once a month. Phew.

I've got more to say, but I've got to get some work done today. More to come soon.