I am Michelle D. Carter

On Saturday, March 28, the snow began to fall. It is the end of March and it is snowing?!! It wasn’t just a little dusting of snow, but nice big heavy flakes. It started late afternoon and continued well into the evening. The kids were thrilled.

“Can we go outside and play?” was asked by one of the kids just about every half hour.

“Not now!”

When we woke up Sunday morning the sun was shining and we had about five inches of snow.

“Can we go outside today?” Alyssa asked.

With the prediction of 45 degree weather, I knew they’d have to go out in the morning before the snow completely melted. All bundled up and ready to go, out they went.

It was perfect for building snowmen. Several graced our yard. The kids had a great time!!

Today, we still have a little bit of snow on the ground. I believe it is suppose to be around 45 degrees again today. I suspect that will take care of the rest of the snow.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go get the lawnmower ready. The grass is overdue to be cut. Ah, life in the Mid-West. If you don’t like the weather today, hang around a day or two, it will definitely change!

Trusted friend, confidant, best bud, companion and pal.

Alex “built” Don at the Build-a-Dino store in the T-Rex Café just after Christmas last year. He was a bribe. I wanted to do some after Christmas shopping and told the kids that if they were good, I would take them so they could spend their Christmas money.

After lunch at the T-Rex Café, we were off to make dinosaurs. I was surprised at the price of the dinos. They averaged $5 – $8 more than the Build-a-Bears. Alex found Don and he knew that he had to have him. I tried to explain to him that he would take all of his money and he wouldn’t have any left to get him clothes or anything else. It didn’t matter. He wanted Don. Andy, on the other hand, had decided to put his back and would wait until we went to Build-a-Bear, which would be our next stop.

Don is a pteranodon. For simplicity, I suggested “Don” for his name. Real original, I know. But Alex thought it was a good name. Stuffed and bathed, Don was now ready to come home and be part of the family.

We then made our way to Build-a-Bear for Alyssa and Andy. They picked their bears and clothes. I thought this might bother Alex so I reminded him that we did have some clothes at home Don could wear. He didn’t seem to mind.

Don has been by Alex’s side since we brought him home. He won’t go to bed without Don. After playing a little rough with him one night, he developed a scrape and began to bleed stuffing around the house. It was bed time so I told Alex he would have to wait until tomorrow before I could fix him. You could see the fear build up inside of him. Go to bed without Don. NO WAY! Alex began to cry and I knew it wouldn’t wait. I performed emergency surgery and all was well.

Unlike so many other toys, Don remains a favorite. He is there for Alex all the time, still to this day. I must say, it was money well spent. I’m glad I was unable to talk him out of it.

Socialism, is it really all that bad?

Last week we heard about the AIG retention bonus payout. Many Americans were outraged. I am outraged.

I believe that corporate greed has put us in this position. The executives who are running their companies into the ground and making a ridiculous amount of money doing it. Now their companies are in trouble and they are asking for money from the government to save them. They get the money and appear to be conducting business as usual. Business as usual didn’t work before, why would you continue to still do it? You better believe that I’m outraged. In Europe, when this happens, those executives lost their jobs. It’s obvious that they are responsible for the demise of the company. It would be foolish to keep them in a position to run the company. Yet, here in the United States, that is exactly what we are doing. Seriously, who thinks that this is OK?

In the meantime, millions of middle-class Americans are loosing their jobs. Unemployment is at an all time high because the jobs we once had no longer exist. Smaller companies are closing down because they aren’t getting the loans they were counting on to continue to do business. Where’s their million dollar retention bonus? Instead, they are headed to the unemployment line and worry how much longer they’ll have a roof over their head and food in their bellies.

Have you heard about Leonard Abess, the bank president from Miami? Abess’ father started a community bank in Miami Beach in 1946. Since then, City National has grown to include 18 branches and is one of the top-rated banks in the country. Abess’ primary goal was to take care of his customers and his employees. It wasn’t to become rich at the expense of other individuals.

Over the years, Abess received numerous offers to buy the bank, but never believed any of the suitors would take care of his customers or his employees adequately. But, in November 2008, when Abess was approached by Caja Madrid, a community-minded, privately held bank that he trusted, he sold a majority stake in City National, turning a $60 million profit.

Using a formula of longevity plus merit, Abess distributed much of his profits to the bank’s 399 employees, and 72 former ones. Although he gives bonuses every year to every employee, these checks were far bigger, totaling anywhere from tens of thousands of dollars to more than $100,000.

Abess’ values, instilled at the family dinner table, have carried him, albeit reluctantly, into the national spotlight. He was an honored guest at President Obama’s address. “I’m amazed by the attention that this has gotten,” Abess confessed. “I’d prefer to live in a world where this is ordinary and didn’t need to be mentioned to anybody.”

In my opinion, Abess rocks!!! This is a man who is doing well and helping others along the way. More people should be like him. Perhaps we wouldn’t be in this mess if more people followed his lead.

I know it goes against the American dream to put limits on what people earn. But is it OK for executives to earn extremely high salaries at the expense of those people working for them? The typical raise in corporate America is three percent. That’s below the increase in the cost of living. And that’s after you’ve put your heart and soul into your job and worked long hours for your company.

We definitely need a better system. One that will make us a stronger America.

Sorry for the lack of posts last week. It was a whirl wind of a week and Spring Break to boot. It started last Sunday with the boys’ birthday party with their friends. As they get older I often wonder how we should do their party – a party for the both of them or two separate ones. We’ve always held one party. They have a lot of the same friends. It just seems to work easier that way. Plus, if one of their friends makes it to one party but can’t come to the other, there won’t be hurt feelings. I can already hear, “Why did Jake come to Alex’s party but not mine?”

This year we kept with tradition and had one party. It was a swimming party at Legacy Park. I sat down with each of them and asked them who they wanted to invite. They both picked 12 kids from their class. We also decided to invite their soccer team. If everyone attended, we would have 34 kids, including Alex and Andy.

What was I thinking?!! We had 21 total kids at the party. While 21 doesn’t seem like a large number and is significantly lower than 34, 21 six-year-olds is crazy. It was chaos!! We had the kids come and swim for a couple hours before we had pizza. The pizza was late. Not good with 21 hungry screaming kids. They were all crammed around the table chanting, “pizza, pizza, pizza…” We ordered more pizza than what they recommended and we still ran out.

Let me back up a minute. We had the party room from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm. The facility closes at 7:30. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to swim, so we had the kids come at 4:00 to swim. Swim from 4:00 to 6:00, have pizza at 6:00. Cupcakes after that and then open presents. It was the perfect plan… or so we thought.

After the late delivery of the pizza, the kids wolfed it down in about ten minutes – literally. We passed out the cupcakes and sang happy birthday. Two minutes later, the cupcakes were gone.

Present time! Rip, tear, shred, the presents are open. Yelling, screaming kids. My nerves are shot. This party is OVER! Wait, it’s only 6:50. There is still 40 minutes left.

Now ending the party early is certainly not a problem except for the parents who dropped off their kids and left. We can’t leave because there would be un-chaperoned kids. I’m ready to call it a day but have to hang out longer. Of course, the kids couldn’t just sit and wait either. There was running. There was yelling. There was crying. And don’t even get me started on the kids.

Finally, the last kid was picked up and we could leave. I have vowed not to have that big of a party again. Tim said next year we’ll do two parties. I’m not so sure about that, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Kindergarten in Lee’s Summit is only half a day. The boys go in the morning and ride the bus home around noon. The bus stops at the end of our street. The driver sees me and the boys come running. They aren’t supposed to let Kindergarteners off the bus unless they see an adult.

Generally I can hear the bus come, but I constantly watch for it. Once I see it coming, I step out on the porch and all is good.

Yesterday, I heard the bus, saw it coming and went outside. However, this time, the bus kept going. I freaked out a little. Were my boys not on the bus? If they aren’t there, where are they? Oh, I am sure they were on the bus. She probably just missed the stop. Do I call transportation? No, I’ll wait a few minutes and see what happens.

Sure enough, here comes the bus and she stops and the boys come running.

Andy: “Mom, Mom, Mom, the bus driver forgot to stop.”

Alex: “Andy, she said don’t tell.”

WHAT?!! OK, things happen. I understand that but to tell them NOT to tell me. That is so wrong! I am really annoyed that she told them that.

So, I’m faced with the dilemma. Do I call the office and tell them what happened? We have about two and a half months of school left. Plus, next year will be all day Kindergarten so will she even have a job? Do I let it go? Let me know what you think. 

Last night was Longview Farm Elementary’s Spring Spectacular. It is a little production put on by the music teacher and includes first, third, fifth and sixth grades. Since the boys are in Kindergarten this year, they weren’t participating. Although they seemed to enjoy it, I wanted to see if they were really interested.  

Me: “Alex, you’ll be doing this next year when you are in first grade. Do you think it will be fun?”

Alex: “I’m going to be doing that? But that was a stupid song.”

Me: “Each year they do something different so you would be singing different songs.”

Alex: “Would I wear a hat?”

Me: “I don’t know, sweetie. It will be different next year.”

It seemed to keep their attention and I think both of them will be excited next year to be part of it.

When we got home, it was late. We told them to put on their pjs, and then they could have a quick snack. After snack, it was bed time. Andy was being very helpful and took all the DSs upstairs for me to put on the chargers. He was finishing up when I came over to see if he needed any help.

After a little inspection, I asked: “Andy, where’s your DS?”

Andy, as he goes tromping off to his room: “Uh! I wanted to play it.”

Tim laughing: “He has it in his room.”

Andy, coming back with his DS in hand: “I wanted to play it in bed a little bit.” That’s something his sister does on a regular basis.

Yep, he tried to pull a fast one over on his Mom. Had he finished putting them on the charger just a few minutes earlier, he would have gotten away with it. Although I’m sure his brother would have ratted him out. Little stinker!

My babies turned six this past Sunday. It’s hard to believe just how fast they are growing up and how opinionated they are.

Alyssa had gotten Heelys for her birthday in January. Andy thought they were the coolest thing and began wearing Alyssa’s old (and much too big for him) Heelys. Obviously, at that point, Heelys went on the birthday list for the boys.

Andy continually asked for Heelys for his birthday. “Mom, I want Heelys for my birthday.” It was all cute… until this past Saturday.

Andy: “Mom, you better get me Heelys for my birthday.”

Me: “Andy, that is not how we talk. It’s not very nice to demand things like that.”

Andy: “Well, you better get me Heelys.”

Me: “We’ll just have to wait and see now won’t we?”

Alex was extremely excited about getting his cake. Every time we went to the grocery store for the past couple of months, he would head to the bakery department and say, “I want the driving cake.” I took both boys to order it. Alex knew we were going to pick it up on Saturday. All day he kept asking if we could go get it. We had the heating and cooling guy out to fix our furnace so we couldn’t leave until after he finished. Alex was having a hard time understanding.

Alex: “Can we go get the cake?”

Tim: “Later.”

Alex: “Is it later yet?”

Tim: “NO.”

A little while later…

Alex: “Is it time now?”

Me: “No, the guy is here fixing the furnace so we can’t leave until he’s done.”

Alex: “But it is taking FOREVER.”

Later…

Alex: “Can we go now?”

Tim: “Get in the van and let’s go.”

Alex: “Wahoo!”

On the way home, I’m holding the cake (in the passenger seat) and Alex (is sitting right behind me) is on the very edge of his seat looking over my shoulder looking at the cake box with a big smile on his face. He couldn’t have been happier.

We were getting ready for bed. Andy realized there weren’t any presents.

Andy: “Where are the presents? Are you going to buy them when we are asleep?”

Tim: “Do you think you’ve been good enough to get presents?”

Me: “You’ll have presents, don’t worry.”

The kids went up to put their pjs on. I brought the presents up from the basement and put them on the hearth. Andy came downstairs to get a drink.

Andy: “There’s the PRESENTS! Alex, the presents are downstairs!!! Do we get to open them in the morning?”

Me: “Yes, you can open them in the morning. But you have to wait for us.”

Andy: “Do we have to wait for Alyssa?” She likes to sleep in and he knows it.

Me: “Yes, you have to wait for your sister. But if it gets too late, we’ll wake her up.”

Sunday arrived and they were SO excited. They were happy with their gifts and thrilled that we had decided to take them to Chuck E Cheese’s. All in all, a good day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX & ANDY!!

Last Sunday Tim decided we needed to get out of the house. He was getting a little stir crazy, as was I. He looked to see what was playing in the theatres but couldn’t find anything of interest. He moved on to the IMAX theatres.

Playing at Union Station in 3-D was Fly Me to the Moon. I really didn’t know what to expect since he didn’t give me any details but we were getting out of the house so…

It was SO cute and the kids LOVED it!

The movie begins in a swamp with bugs flying. Because the movie is 3-D, the kids were jumping to get away from the flying insects. The premise is three flies hitch a ride with the Apollo 11 crew as the first manned (and flied) mission to land on the Moon. As the movie progressed, they were trying to grab at things that seemed to be right in front of their face. It was fun just to watch the kids.

So if you are looking for something different to do, I highly recommend Fly Me to the Moon.