“Mom, does a real cootie shot hurt?” she asked me.

“There’s no such thing as a real cootie shot,” I told her. “They’re just pretend.”

“I thought you had to get one when you get married,” she said. “You know, so your husband won’t give you cooties.”

We are settling into Little Rock.  It seems a little easier since we moved so recently.  We know what to do, or more importantly, what not to do.  The kids were so isolated when we first moved to Memphis, so I started trying to get them into homeschool groups before we even moved this time around.  They are going to enrichment classes (art, music, creative writing, etc.) one day a week at a place called the Homeschool Academy.  They are also taking P.E. classes at Arkansas Baptist through a satellite group.  Elizabeth seems satisfied with the number of new friends she’s made, so I’m happy with the arrangement.

The only thing we haven’t been able to jump-start is finding a church.  Looking for a church is a long and tedious process– I’ll never enjoy being a visitor.  We’ve visited five churches in the West Little Rock area so far, and I think we have one more to try tomorrow.  We definitely have a “type.”  Lannie (in particular) prefers a modern worship style, and a well-organized children’s program is important to me.  I also like a great missions outreach (local and international).  At this point, one church is definitely our favorite.  The only problem? It’s not a Baptist church.  This is really only a problem for the daughter of a Baptist preacher (who now works for a Baptist seminary).

One thing that has really suprised me since we’ve moved here is how easy it has been to re-connect with old friends from high school and college.  Facebook makes it so effortless!  I’ve messaged with friends and set up get-togethers without even having a phone number.  I’ve actually been out to eat with three friends in just a couple of weeks.  That has done so much to keep me from feeling lonely.

I’ll try to do better about keeping up with my blog.  The kids have said some really funny things in the past month.  Hopefully, I can remember what they said!

Caleb and I have noticed that Phillip acts especially crazy right before each meal.  I’ve finally figured out that if I keep snacks on-hand for him to grab himself, it regulates his blood sugar and keeps him from acting insane.  That was no small victory this week!

Elizabeth’s emotions have manifested into sleep walking this week.  Last night marked the third time this week that she has wandered into my room while asleep.  She is the strangest sleep walker– she cries at the top of her lungs for the first few minutes, then she says things that don’t make any sense.  It honestly took us a couple of times to figure out she was sleep walking.

Last night, she wandered down the stairs crying, and I met her in the hallway to keep her from waking Phillip up.  We went into the living room, and she said, “I need to go to…”

“Go where?” I asked, knowing she wasn’t going to make any sense.

She never answered that question.  Then she said, “When are you going to get in on the…”

“Get in on what?”

“Get in on the…you know…get in on your age?”

I didn’t know what that meant, so we sang Jesus Loves Me until (I thought) she woke up.  Then I told her she needed to go back to her room.  “Okay,” she said and laid down on the couch.

“No, go to your room,” I said, and she got up and kissed me, then laid back on the couch.

I eased her up and prodded her to walk back to the stairs.  I started walking up the stairs, and she started down the hall to my bedroom.  “No, to your room,” I said, guiding her up the stairs.  Unfortunately, she is too big for me to pick up and carry.

She laid down in her bed and kissed me good-night.  I left the room, and she started crying loudly again.  I went back and asked her what was wrong.  “What do you want?” she asked.  Apparently, she never woke up in that entire exchange.

I am so ready for Lannie to come home.  This is exhausting.

In an odd twist of events, this is the same job that he accepted at UAMS last fall, then he backed out of the deal to go to the Commercial Appeal in Memphis.  He left on good terms, though (obviously) because they called a few months ago to ask him to consider coming back.

I won’t get into everything that happened at the Commercial Appeal to lead to Lannie’s departure, but needless to say, a lot changed in the last couple of months and he wasn’t happy with the situation.  We were also in a good position to move, since we had not bought a house here.

Over the past couple of weeks, we decided to move, Lannie finished his last 2 weeks at the CA, and we signed a contract on a house in Little Rock.  Lannie will start his new job on Monday, but the kids and I will have to wait until we close on the house to move in mid-December.

My head is still spinning a little at how quickly all of this has happened.  In the midst of all of these other decisions, we have also decided to homeschool Elizabeth again.  She’s a little unhappy about that, even though her semester at public school has been less than ideal.  I’m hoping to find some active homeschool groups in Little Rock to ease her transition a little.  I think she would be happy with a weekly program, similar to the program that Caleb has attended this fall.

I’m not looking forward to waiting three or four weeks to move while Lannie is in Little Rock, but I know it could be a lot worse.  I’ve been thinking a lot of my friends who are military wives, some of whom have had to be alone with their kids for ten months to a year at a time without seeing their husbands.  I am so glad this will only be for three or four weeks!  Plus, he will be home for a couple of days for Thanksgiving, so that will break up the monotony a lot.

Phillip had a hard time staying still and paying attention throughout much of the movie.  The musical numbers kept his attention, but the dialog and story line were lost on a three year old boy.  He did catch the kissing scene between Troy and Gabriela, though, as evidenced by his very loud, “YUCK!” which caught the attention of everyone around us.

As I was putting him to bed, I asked him about his favorite part of the movie.  To my surprise, he said, “The kiss.”

“Really?”  I said.  “I thought you said the kiss was yucky.”

“I liked it,” he said.

“Do you know what it means when people kiss?” I asked.

He thought for a moment, then said, “People bump their lips together.”

To bring you up to speed, she had to change teachers after the first week of school because her teacher was moved to third grade.  The explanation offered by the school was that there were not enough second graders registered to warrant the number of second grade classrooms at her school.

Teacher number two turned out to be kind of flaky.  He was in his second year of teaching, and Elizabeth was unhappy with the number of rules he had and how difficult it was to follow the rules.  In fact, she spent so much time trying to follow the rules that we worried about whether or not she was really trying to keep up with her schoolwork as well.

My mom visited Elizabeth’s classroom to read while she was here for the Hurricane Gustav evacuation.  She is usually not critical of people, but she told me when she came home, “There’s something wrong with him.”  She thought at first he might have some kind of disability, but later she thought maybe he was just very socially awkward.

That day turned out to be his last day in Elizabeth’s class.

For the past two weeks, she has had a subsitute teacher– actually, several different substitute teachers.  She cried Monday and Tuesday of this week because she didn’t know who her teacher would be.  I called the school on Wednesday and spoke with the assistant principal who is over her grade.  I was told that Elizabeth’s teacher had taken a leave of absence, and they didn’t know when or if he would be back.  In the meantime, the school had hired a permanent substitute who began teaching on Wednesday.

This makes Elizabeth’s third teacher of the school year– a school year that began six weeks ago!  She’s seriously regretting the decision to quit homeschooling and go to public school, and so am I!

She had a great first week at school, but unfortunately, we received a call last Friday from the assistant principal saying that the school did not have enough second graders, so Elizabeth’s teacher was going to be moved to third grade. This meant that Elizabeth would be moved to a different teacher after the first week of school.

Elizabeth’s first teacher had been a 25 year veteran, who had spent 12 years teaching second grade at that school. I was shocked that they moved her. Elizabeth’s new teacher is a man who has been teaching for 2 years. Big difference!

She had a rough first few days, but she seems to be doing better. She told me the second day that there were a lot of new rules, and she was having trouble keeping up with them all. By yesterday, though, she told me she was able to relax a little and have fun. So, things are looking up!

Caleb is having a great start to his year. He is tackling a lot of difficult subjects this year–particularly Latin, which he wanted to take–and I am pushing him in math and language arts. He’s not happy with me this week, because I am making him read Alice in Wonderland, and he is struggling through it. Once he finishes this book, I think his attitude will improve!

Caleb is also taking some new classes in Germantown this year. Their homeschool group has weekly classes, so he is taking Creative Writing, geography, and karate. I’m involved in a Bible study during his classes. He loves the classes, and I love the weekly interaction with other adults.

I feel bad that Ellie’s school year is not going as well as Caleb’s. I could be made to feel guilty about it, I guess, but I also think it was her decision to go back to public school. She is adjusting, and I think she will be fine by Labor Day.

Caleb is usually a pretty independent kid, so we were not too worried about him, but I guess he has become a little more dependent on us this year because of being home with me most of the time.

Caleb also is a bit of a “loner,” which means it can be difficult to fit in with the group when he is in a large group. He does well one-one-one with friends, but large groups are intimidating for him. This “loner” mentality meant he broke away from the pack to participate in a class that he liked during free time (the tech track, which taught him how to run sound and lights– his dad was so proud). He also spent a lot of time reading while the other boys in his cabin were busy planning pranks on the girls.

I should point out here that unbeknownst to me, this church group has a penchant for pulling pranks on each other (and the rest of the campers). If I had known that beforehand, there is no way I would have let him go to this camp with that group. My own youth group in high school was notorious for prank-pulling and general obnoxiousness at Siloam Springs before my dad laid down the law as their pastor, so I know a thing or two about being the uncomfortable odd-man-out in the middle of a fun-loving group.

Caleb spilled his guts about what all happened to him at camp before we pulled into the drive-way when we went to pick him up from the church on Thursday. His cabin mates filled his shoes with toothpaste (see above– he didn’t clean them out or wear them all week), spread mashed potatoes in his hair while he was sleeping, stole $20 from his bag, and called him “gay” when he wanted to take his tech class. One of the boys gave him a daily spanking for reading during free time.

I was appalled! Knowing, however, that 9 and 10-year-old boys will be boys, I was more appalled at the response of the male counselors in Caleb’s group. They told him “Prank pulling is just part of camp” and “Get over it.” That’s it. No tips on how to handle the other boys, no reprimand for the other boys, nothing.

Lannie and I cleaned out Caleb’s tennis shoes (between the two of us, it took about 2 hours and 2 washer/dryer cycles), and discussed whether or not to complain. We decided it wouldn’t really matter. This group has a deep-set mentality about pranks, and they’re not likely to change their minds by listening to us. Even though I think responsible adults should be protective of kids who don’t like to participate in this kind of thing, I can safely say that these aren’t responsible adults. We just decided to visit some other churches (we haven’t joined this one yet), and move on.

Lannie did mention that he thought my “mother hen” response was a little typical of a helicopter parent– you know, the kind that hovers over her children in case something bad happens. What do you think? Did I over-react? Would you have reacted the same way? What should I have done differently, and how can I give Caleb appropriate defense mechanisms so this doesn’t happen again?

Lannie called me on the way home from work yesterday and wanted to go out for dinner. He had been seeing IHOP commercials and was craving pancakes. I already had dinner in the oven, but I saved it for later, and we took Phillip to IHOP.

Normally, a last-minute dinner out like that would have been an ordeal with all three kids, but since the other two are gone this week, it was just the three of us. Phillip was in a pretty good mood, so I felt good about taking him out.

We sat in a booth with a glass partition separating us from the lady in the booth beside us. Phillip had one little outburst when the waiter came to take our order because he had been playing with the syrup, and Lannie took the syrup away from him. It wasn’t a big outburst, just a little yell of protest.

I was distracted by Phillip and the waiter when suddenly Lannie turned to the lady in the booth next to us and said, “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make comments to me about how to raise my kid.”

I looked at him quizzically, then the lady yelled at Phillip to “Sit down and shut up!” I think the original comment had been directed to Lannie about how Phillip needed a spanking, because she then threatened to spank him herself!

Lannie told me later he was proud of the way he controlled himself, but he threw down his menu, picked Phillip up, and headed out of the restaurant. He turned back to the waiter and told him, “It’s not you.” As I was chasing him out the door, I heard the man in the booth behind us chewing out the other lady, saying, “I’ve never seen anything as rude as that in my whole life!”

Thinking about it later, I wondered if maybe the lady had some kind of dementia. She was about 70 years old. Lannie thought she was just mean. He said he thought the threat to spank Phillip was a real physical threat, and he had to get him out of there.

We did find another IHOP down the street, so Lannie got his pancakes. We all eventually had a pleasant meal.