Pens Don't Cook, but Underwear Entertains

update August 26:

So, I forgot about the fire. Last week (Thursday before this last one), we were watching 4 kids in addition to our own while their parents went to the temple. Gary wasn't home yet, and I was making dinner. All of the sudden a fire started on the back burner. I assumed it would quickly flame out as those little drips tend to do, but instead the flames grew much larger! I considered a few different ways of tackling it, then suddenly remembered that Dawn from the Babysitter's Club used baking soda to put out a stove fire.  It worked right away! Phew! When I saw those foot-high flames I was plotting how I'd get 8 kids, including 2 babies, out of the house. Turns out there was a pen under the burner. Say what?

I also didn't say that when we went to the temple we did sealings, and somebody had brought in the names for a family with 6 daughters, no sons. They got six of us around the altar with the parent proxies, and there was not a dry eye in the bunch. I know those sisters are so excited!

As for this week, it's a new school year. Josh tells me about how awesome it is to eat lunch at school, but not much of anything else. His teacher is cute as can be, and says she likes for the kids to do lots of hands-on things. I've also heard she does a little more science than some others. I'm really excited for Josh to be in her class now that I've met her. As for Noah, no matter how many times he sneaks his backpack downstairs by Josh's for me to pack, he won't be going to kindergarten until next year. We do start preschool on Tuesday, and it's here, so I guess I'd better get on that. It's hard to compete with last year's camping idea.

Soccer practice also started this week, and Josh is excited to play "the new kind of soccer." Which means they are actually having a goalie and playing positions. For some reason he is pumped about the rule that says that if the opposing goalie touches the ball out of the box, your team gets a free kick. He talks about this often. He hopes for it. Gary is coaching Noah and Andrew's team, and all 3 did great the first time. Andrew might not totally get it, but at least he's not left out for once.

So, the highlight of the week, which I did not see coming - buying new underwear. It was high time, so I got two packs for Josh, one each for Noah and Andrew. Picking it out was pretty great, but just the beginning. Josh couldn't believe his fortune when he came home and saw his, and the boys immediately went upstairs and laid out all 20 pair end-to-end in my room. Then they played a game where one person says, "What's your favorite batman?" and then another person runs and jumps on their favorite batman underwear. They played this and variations on it for at least an hour. Then, they put them all on at once. 6-11 pairs on each boy, then they used their new powers to jump on the trampoline. Then, they played hide-your-brother's-underwear, then went and found their own. Over and over, even two days later.  (Don't tell me how I am crazy for paying $1 extra for the designs. It makes their lives complete, apparently. How else to psych-up for potty training?)

And that's a wrap . . . Oh, and I had someone over this week to make freezer meals. Gonna have to recommend to myself to do that more often. It's way better to make dinner when you have someone to talk to!