A Special Birthday Song

In my last post I mentioned Andrew's performance of a Spiderman song for the Joy School Christmas Program.  Well, on my birthday he told me that we would have cake and he'd sing Happy Birthday and Spiderman to me.  Here's the video of him singing Spiderman....it's great!  And just so you know, he's saying "I'm saving people...."  At first I thought he was saying "I'm seven people" and that didn't make sense.  He also says his key phrase "I'm a genius" a few times. Enjoy!

Joy School Program

This weekend Andrew had a Joy School Christmas Program.  It was full of spontaneity and surprises.  The program consisted of a short Nativity skit and a few songs.  Andrew didn't want to put his Shepherd costume on because he gets too hot in it.  Then he wouldn't even go "on stage" for the skit.  The highlight was when, at the end of the skit the kids sang some Christmas songs.  Andrew sang -- loudly.  The only problem is that Andrew sang a Spiderman song that he was making up as he went.  To top it off he also swung his arms and swayed to the music. 

I guess you can't expect too much from a group of 3 & 4 year olds.  Three of the girls did really great.  Another girl was crying because she suddenly wanted to be Mary.  And then there's Andrew, doing his own thing.  

You know it's a bad day at church when....

You know it's a bad day at church when several people up to you after the meeting to tell you "You're doing a great job."  

The meeting began with Eric standing in the aisle for the first 10 or 15 minutes arms folded, scowling, and "Umph"ing because he wanted his Dad who was on the stand.  When he started kicking the bench and then hit the guy in front of us, I finally let him wander up there.  That was okay until the first speaker stepped down and Eric decided he wanted to stand on the podium stool.  Thus began wrestling match#1 between Dad and Eric.  Unable to calm him down, Brian brought Eric down to me.  I took him to the hall.  We returned 2 more times to try and last the meeting out.  (Thank goodness for a kind friend who took care of Andrew during the fiasco.)  

With only a few remaining minutes of the meeting Andrew was laying in the aisle trying to crawl up to the stand.  I was hanging on to his leg.  So with only the song and prayer left, I let Andrew go up to sit on Brian's lap.  But Andrew decided he'd rather stand on the stool next to the podium and grin at everyone.  Brian tried to hold him.  I went up to the stand to help and tried to sit the last 3 minutes out.  But I lost the fight again, carrying Andrew out of the chapel.  

After the meeting more than one person came up to tell me what a great job I'm doing.  I even got a couple of hugs.  It did make me feel better to know that there were some very understanding people watching the whole mess.  But then while I drove home I thought "Must have really been bad."  

Before and After

In November some of my family came and helped us with a couple of big projects.  My brothers and Dad did some great work!  And their families were so supportive and helpful too.  Thank you!  I've been waiting to post before/after pictures until I finished painting one of the rooms. :

First project, our storage room.  What was once a big, cement room with cheap plastic shelves and a lot of stuff on the floor...

is now an organized food storage room with lots of shelves to fill!  

Next, I wanted to make a play room under the stairs.  So, this mess is what we started with -- an unfished closet full of piles of stuff.  

 

What we now have is a cute little play room, complete with a window in the wall.  I finally finished the painting (6 hours of work which took me 6 weeks to accomplish.)  Andrew had requested red paint...well it's a very small room and red seemed too dark.  So we compromised on light orange.  Not my first choice, but still fun for a playroom. 

When we put the kitchen in the room Andrew was very excited.  He said "Now we just need a couch in here!"  

Thank you to our wonderful family!  You're the best!