Bye Bye Trash Man

I think every kid loves to look out the window at the trashman at some point in their lives. I remember when it was just Alyssa and I during the day. We would watch out the window together and I would tell her he was taking her stinky pants away. She would cup her hand around her mouth and yell "Thank you!" through the closed window to him.

So here's a little video from last fall of me trying to teach Lauren, Drew and Jack appreciation for this very valuable service for our family.

Lauren, Drew and Jack just love watching the trash man. I must say, that we had two of the best ones around. (I'll get to the had in a minute.) They worked so hard, and always did such a good with whatever mess we left them. And they never left cigarette butts all around the driveway like the previous guys did (not to mention how that company charged less to our new neighbors than us!).

One exciting day, the trash men came came just as Lauren, Drew, Jack and I were unloading from the van, after dropping Alyssa off at preschool. I let them stand at the edge of the garage and watch with their big blue eyes wide open. Our trashman not only did his job with a bunch of people staring at him, but he also ran the empty can up to us, which I thought was so sweet. I told him how much the kids loved watching him, and he told me how he always looked for my kids waving out the window, too. Then he had to run back to his truck, and waved to the kids every chance he got. They waved back as he went around the bend, hanging onto the back of the truck and waving his arm off at the kiddos. I think it made their week. They were so close they could touch him!

But alas, change has come. Our city recently adopted a citywide trash and recycling service. This is good, as our trash bills have gone down, and we now have recycling service included. (It is shameful to see how much we used to throw away. We fill our 65 gallon tub every week now.) I was also so glad that our current trash company won the contract for our city - as you can tell I am very pleased with their service.

But, there was a downside. With having to taking care of the whole cities' needs, 2 guys manually dumping the cans wasn't efficient enough. So we have been assigned the "sideloader" trucks now. Those are the ones that have the big arm that lifts up your toter and dumps it out over the top of the truck.

On the first day of the big change, the kids were fascinated by the big sideloaders coming through right before breakfast. First the trash guy came, then the recycling guy made his rounds. I was hoping one of our two favorite guys would be driving the new trucks, but no such luck. But, then, as the recycling guy was coming through again to take care of the other side of the street, down the road came our two favorite guys! They checked a few cans along the way, but they were already empty. Then our favorite guy came up to the door and told us it was his last week to come to our house. What kind of a trash guy goes to all that trouble?! I wondered if they made a special trip to our neighborhood just to say goodbye. We told them how much the kids really looked forward to seeing them, and he said it was a highlight of his week, too. He also told us how he had a little girl at home watching out her window, too.

So the next week, the trash men came before Lauren, Drew and Jack even got up for the day. We took Alyssa to preschool like we always do, and I brought in the trash cans afterwards. When the little kids realized I was putting away the trash cans, without them witnessing them being emptied, they got very upset. I think in their own way they were trying to tell me that I was doing it wrong - that they couldn't be empty. But ever since then, they seem to have accepted that they don't get to see the trashman anymore. It's probably just as well. The new guys could never replace our favorites.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Jack's First Haircut

Well, the time had come for Jack's first haircut. I handled this one much better than Drew's (it's all about me, right?). I made the appointment several weeks in advance, so I could get used to the idea. (It also doesn't hurt that you still have one kid left in your back pocket to get their 1st haircut.) To be honest, I probably would have done it sooner, but there were some naggers that didn't like how nicely Jack's rat tail was growing. (I know it's very passive aggressively mature to respond to nagging by doing the opposite.) This pictures don't give you the full effect of the rat tail. Straightened out, I bet it was at least 5 or 6 inches long. Yep, he was going for the 80's Billy Ray Cyrus look. Or maybe he just wanted to be like his Daddy.

Here are some "before" shots of Jack's hair.

 

 

 

While we were waiting our turn, I let Jack sit under the hair dryer. He thought that was pretty fun.

When we went to see Ms. Pamela, he did great. He didn't seem scared at all. He showed her the stickers on his shirt (courtesy of Alyssa) and told her all about the colors on  each of them. He liked sitting up high in the special chair and getting his "Superman" cape. Here is a picture of him meeting Mr. Clampie.

But through it all, Jack seemed to handle the whole experience like he was thoroughly enjoying himself. When Pamela put a little spray on his hand or showed him how the razor felt, he even let out a little chuckle. He did a really good job of sitting still and contently watching all the action in the mirror. When he was all done, he even let Ms. Pamela pick him up and show the other stylist his new haircut. They both loved his auburn-colored hair.

I'll let the pictures and captions show you the happy ending.

Pamela showing Jack the envelope where his first curls will go.

 

 

 

The first cut

 

 

 

Bye bye rat tail

 

 

 

A little off the top and sides

 

 

Razor time

 

The new view of the back of Jack's head.

 

The front view of his new haircut.

Another little man in the making! I can't believe how much older he looks. <sigh> 3 down - 1 to go!

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Child Dedication

Way back in November, we had Lauren, Drew and Jack dedicated at our church. I wish you all could have been there, so I have included the next best thing I could come up with. I have put the pictures that our awesome neighbor, Dave, took for us, and combined them with the audio from the service. I'll tell you more about the video in a second.

We got Lauren all dolled up in a brown party dress and even got little ties for the boys to wear. We didn't want Alyssa to feel left out, so we brought her along, too. She was excited that she got to wear her purple Christmas dress, even though it was in the 80's here that day, and we were all sweating in our winter clothes.

The dedication was actually at the end of the service, and by then the kids were squirmy, to say the least. Right before we went up front, the Grandmas sacrificed their cell phones to keep the kids entertained. If you listen closely to the audio, you can hear them going off in the background. Once onstage, we had another little squabble over who got the cell phones, so a good friend, Joey, tossed his into the mix, too. We almost dropped it a couple of times and I was scared that we were going to owe him a new blackberry.

The kids also found other ways to occupy themselves during the ceremony. Alyssa was picking Drew up and putting him down. This was louder than you would think, as we were standing on hollow risers. Drew later kept stopping his foot down repeatedly (with a little encouragement from Joey), as he really liked the noise it made. Dave was speaking while all this was going on and he stopped at one point and said, "Are you enjoying the show? Come over. If you've never been over to the house, it's like this every day - nonstop." After the service was over, people came over and congratulated us. But even more frequently, people came up to us and said, "Your family is very entertaining." Yep, that's us. We were put here to turn a solemn ceremony into something entertaining.

Actually, it was a very special time for our family. Dave spoke first and took the opportunity to thank the many people in our church who have helped us in so many ways. We couldn't have survived that first year, especially, without them! Then Dave told a couple of stories about each child (I have included that part in the video below). Then the congregation came forward to put their arms around us and pray with us during the dedication, and our pastor prayed for each child (also included in the video). The really neat thing is the words he chose for each child were definitely divinely spoken. Drew is our least jealous kid and our pastor prayed that he wouldn't be envious or jealous of his siblings. One of the things he prayed for Lauren was that she would lead people in the right way to go. Once Alyssa is at preschool, she is the leader of the pack, let me tell you! For Jack, he prayed that he would have courage and that no one would be able to sway him. When Jack has his mind set on anything, no one can sway that kid from changing course. Even though our pastor didn't know these things about our kids (most people can't even keep the names straight - let alone their personalities), I thought it was really neat that he prayed these things about them. Take a listen for yourself and see what you think. (I tried to condense it as much as possible, but if you want the full 45 minutes from the service I can send it to you!)

 

After church, a few of us went out to eat to celebrate. The kids were actually pretty good and we enjoyed ourselves a lot. While we were waiting for our table, though, our friend Mark played a little trick on Jack. At this point, Jack still had my mom's cell phone in his pocket. Mark had gotten a hold of it briefly and set it on vibrate. He also called himself from it, so that he was able to get my mom's cell phone number. So when he least expected it, Jack's pants started ringing. It was so funny to see his expression. At first he got this look on his face like he was really uncomfortable. Then he started stomping his foot like he thought that would make it stop. Then when he couldn't get the cell phone out of his pocket, he got really upset. Once we got him calmed down, we shared a good laugh about it. Don't worry, it didn't scar him enough to stop carrying cell phones in his pocket at all.

Thanks again for all of the help that so many of you have given to us to help us survive to this point! We loved having all of you there who could join in the celebration. We appreciate your continued prayers as we do our best in raising our little blessings.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/