Bein’ Franklin

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 25th, 2007

Zachary just woke up from his nap. So, I went upstairs to change his diaper and to have him sit on the potty before I put his underwear back on him. I said, “sit down, please.” He sat down and said, “i not Jesus.”

Good to know.

While I am certain that he just misunderstood me when I said please, he did make me wonder if he thinks my expectations are a bit too high.

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 25th, 2007

Since Scott has started his new job, it is odd to see him without a packet a papers in his hand. He is reading tons of articles as he learns all about the exciting field of Bioinformatics. He recent gave a midterm in the online Algebra he is teaching, so test papers have been added into the mix of papers that he is often seen carrying around. Last night as Emily read “The Cat in the Hat” at storytime in the boys’ room, he was writing the key to his midterm. After Emily was done reading, we tucked the kids in bed and went downstairs to fold clothes.

After swimming lessons today, the kids and I were playing upstairs in their rooms. I noticed that Scott had left his test paper, a yellow notepad, and his blue pen sitting on the boys’ table.

With exception to the answers that I cleared out, this is what the test looked like when I found it. Scott has been known to draw pictures that he calls conch art from time to time, but this is not quite what those look like. So, I asked the kids about it. It didn’t take long for Timothy to confess to drawing the picture. I told him it was a good drawing, but he really should not have drawn on daddy’s paper. His response? “Daddy gave it to me, so I drawed on it.” Finally it became clear that Timothy had decided that since Scott had left the paper in his room, it was his to do with whatever he pleased.

Hmmm… by that logic I now have a “little blankelet” (Timothy’s), a teddy bear (Zachary’s), and various other items that have been left in my room by the kids.

Sorry about your test, Scott. It has become a work of art. I am sure it’s not the worst thing someone has drawn on one of your tests.

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 24th, 2007

Emily is currently reading “Sideways Stories from Wayside School.” It was one of my favorite books as a kid, so I got really excited when we saw it in the library last week. She is really enjoying reading it. Today she read a chapter that included a couple math problems, so she started asking me for some math problems. I was fixing lunch at the time, so I quickly gave her some addition and subtraction problems to solve.

Once we had all gotten sat down for lunch, she asked for a division problem. I gave her one. She solved it pretty quickly and asked for another. So, I gave her the problem 10 / 2. She thought on this for a bit and then said, “it’s easier for me to solve problems if they are in a story.” Interesting. Most of my students froze at the thought of working a word problem. So, I thought for a moment and told her this story.

While going for a walk, Emily and Hannah came up to an apple tree with 10 apples. They both decide to take the apples home so their moms can make apple pie. How many apples can each girl get? After they deliver the apples, they walked to their friend Karissa’s house. The three girls decide to go see all their grandparents. All three girls have four grandparents. How many people did they go see? While they are at Karissa’s grandparents house in Oklahoma, they play hide and seek in the backyards of all the houses in the neighborhood. Karissa is hiding in a tree. There are 4 trees in each yard. Emily and Hannah have already searched 4 yards, and have 6 more yards to search. How many more trees do they need to search? They decide to split up to search the rest of the trees. How many will each girl check? Once they find Karissa, they discover that she can’t get down from the tree. So, they each go find two people to help. How many people are at the tree now? Once Karissa is down, they decide to walk through the 10 yards back to Karissa’s grandparents’ house. If it takes them 10 steps to get through each yard, how many steps will each one take? How many steps will they take altogether?

She thought and thought and figured out how to answer each question correctly.

What? You mean everyone doesn’t sit around the lunch table making up math problems?

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 18th, 2007

Okay, Scott told me that I may be worrying grandparents by not filling you in on the details of Zachary’s fall. Let me start by saying that he’s fine!

The children and I went to Plainview yesterday morning to turn in the receipts from my trip to Kansas City so I can be reimbursed, to return a bag that was left in the van, to close our old bank account, and to visit some friends. We left to come back home around 1:00. Zachary fell asleep on the way home. He got about a thirty minute nap, so I thought it best for him to lay down for a bit longer after we returned home. He would have no part of that.

Then, of course, the phone rang. The caller id said it was a friend of Emily’s from Plainview. I had tried to call her while we were there, and had learned that they were in Lubbock that day. So, I left Zachary crying in his bed and went to answer the phone. I was talking with Emily’s friend’s mom about when her friend could come over to play when Timothy came to tell me that Zachary was awake and to ask if he could play in his room. I didn’t have any more plans for the day and would possibly be going to the park to meet up with Emily’s friend, so I decided not to push the nap issue. I told Timothy that he could play with Zachary.

A few minutes later I see both boys head downstairs. They really like the hardwood floors. The like to slip around on it. I continue my phone conversation and then hear a crash and Zachary crying. I figured this was a result of fall and being tired, so I looked down from the stairs landing just to be sure everyone was okay. Zachary was laying on his belly in front of the couch. He was looking around and was crying pretty loud. So, I made my way down the stairs while talking on the phone. Zachary met me by a chair in the living room. There was a little blood on his mouth, so I figured he had busted his lip. This happens at least once a month, so I headed to the kitchen to get a wet paper towel and an ice pack. I finished my phone call and checked him out. That’s when I saw the extent of the damage.

Can you see it? His top left front tooth is chipped. Timothy informed me that Zachary had jumped off the couch and slipped.

Coincidentally, I had called the Texas Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) office on Monday to get information about the dental coverage mailed to me. We had not used it in Plainview, so I did not have any information about the program. Turns out they have pretty good dental coverage.

Obviously, the dental I.D. cards and provider directory had not arrived yet. So, I called CHIP to see what I need to do with Zachary. By this time, he was fine. He was wandering around the house saying “couch, break teeth” to Emily and Timothy. I called CHIP and filled them in on the situation. They told me not to worry about not having our dental I.D. cards, I would just need to show the dentist their health I.D. cards for now. So, I asked who I could take him too. After informing me that there are no pediadontists in Lubbock who are in-network, they gave me the names of three “regular” dentists to call. The first two were very close to here, so I called them. They both told me that they do not see kids until they are 5 years old. This bugged me as I couldn’t understand why a dentist who is covered by CHIP would not see young children, even in an emergency situation. So, I called the third place and learned they would see him but not until Friday at 2. I went ahead and made the appointment just in case I would need it.

Waiting until Friday just did not sit well with me, probably because I had so many dental problems as a child most likely as a result of falling on a Little People bus when I was 2 years old. I knocked my teeth completely out though, so this was a little different. I wanted to be sure there was no permenant damage to Zachary’s mouth that is already a bit messed up due to his extensive thumb sucking, and I was wondering what we could do about the chipped tooth.
So, I called the insurance company back and told them what I had learned.

CHIP gave me two more numbers to call, both of these were out of town at least thirty minutes away. I called one and was given the same story about them not seeing children under the age of 5. It was explained to me that young children don’t sit still. (Hmmm…. I didn’t know that!) Anyway, I asked this one if there is anywhere in Lubbock where I can take him. At this point, I really didn’t care if insurance covered it or not. I just wanted him to get checked out before Friday. She gave me the number of someone I could try.

I called the place she recommended. The receptionist told me that they do not accept CHIP and told me how much it would cost. The visit would be $71 and x-rays would be $25. I told her I would pay it myself, and she said the doctor could see him in 15 minutes. By this time I had found some information at the CHIP website about emergency dental coverage. The dentist office is about 5 minutes from here, so I called CHIP to learn about the emergency coverage. I knew the extension of the person I had been talking to all afternoon, so I got past the automated directory very quickly. She explained the emergency coverage to me and said she would fax something to this doctor. It would be there waiting for me.

So the kids and I get in the van and head over there. The fax was not waiting for me. I didn’t worry about it. I would pay what I needed to pay and straighten things out with insurance later. The dentist called us back and looked at Zachary. Everything’s fine. His tooth is chipped. There is no nerve damage and the tooth was not pushed up into his gums. There is a slight bruise where his gums meet his lips at the top of his gums, but that is all. His tooth may be sensitive for 4-6 weeks. We need to watch for discoloration, looseness, or any pain. In 4-6 weeks, we may cap it so he doesn’t have a chipped tooth for the next 4 years or so. All three kids got a new toothbrush and sticker. I paid ($57) and went on my way. I called CHIP again when I got home to have them send the fax again and they said to check on it in a few minutes. By this time it was after 5, so it was going to need to wait until morning.

The saga continues. I just called the dentist office. They still don’t have the form. I will be calling CHIP in just a minute.

I am going to keep the dentist appointment for the in-network provider that we have for Friday. I realize the tooth is a baby tooth, but I would like to get it capped. Not only because it looks a little odd, but also because I don’t think it would be good for Zachary to get used to his tooth being like that. Poor guy is just now starting to talk in a way we can understand. I’d hate to set him up for a lifetime of speech defects.

This is really pretty trivial, but has served as a good distraction for me. A good friend of mine is have an endoscopic upper g.i. done today and my dad is having a needle biopsy on some swollen lymph nodes. At least Zachary’s fall is something I can actually do something about without just waiting for details.

UPDATE (later the same day): After four phone calls each to CHIP and the dentist, the form has been received. The dentist doesn’t really know what to do with it, so she will be filling out what she can and will send it to me to send to CHIP. Strange.

My friend came through the upper g.i. just fine. I haven’t heard from dad yet.

UPDATE (Friday): Dad called with good news! His biopsy came back negative for cancer.

After speaking with a Speech Therapist friend of mine, I have learned that having a chipped tooth at the age of two should not affect Zachary’s ability to speak. Apparently, the “th” sound doesn’t develop until about age 7 anyway. Sure enough, Emily is the only of our kids that says “thirtieth birthday” correctly. To the others, it is “firstief birfday.” We did not take Zachary to the dentist today. The pedidontist we saw on Tuesday said we should wait 6 to 8 weeks to do anything anyway. No need to have another dentist tell us the same thing. We’ve not yet decided if we will get the tooth capped or not.

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 8th, 2007

For the last 6 years, our summers have pretty much been the same. Scott has done research at Tech. The first week of the summer found us at Vacation Bible School. The last 3 years, Emily has taken swimming lessons for a couple weeks at some point. I usually have the opportunity to attend a week long conference at some point. We generally travel to visit our families for at least one weekend during the summer. Basically, we spend a lot of time at home. No major plans, just enjoying our time as a family. We’d like to take more family trips, especially now the kids are getting big enough to go camping. We did take a trip to Colorado Springs a few years ago, before Zachary joined the crew.

This summer consists of many of the same elements, but the move has made things quite different. With the exception of the year Timothy was born, this is the first summer I have ever not gone to or worked at Vacation Bible School. Growing up in a Christian family and being involved in a local body of believers just includes attending Vacation Bible School every year. But, as we moved two weeks before our church in Plainview had VBS, we didn’t sign up to work this year. Don’t worry! The kids have not missed out on VBS. As we’ve been visiting churches in town, we’ve had fortunate timing in that we’ve visited the day before Vacation Bible School begins. So, Emily has gotten to attend VBS for three different churches. I was quite surprised that Timothy was able to participate in two of them as well. They’ve all used different curriculums, so the kids have really enjoyed a variety. Zachary really doesn’t know what he’s been missing. He’s enjoyed getting to hang with mom and dad while Emily and Timothy were gone, especially when that meant he got to go to Krispy Kreme’s!

The one week in June that Emily was not going to VBS, she attended a Tiger Cheer Camp at her new school. When I was enrolling her for the Fall, I noticed a flyer and just knew that was something she would love. So, I signed her up. She had a great time. They met for two hours a day for five days, and even had a pep rally on the last day. It was great.

Another new thing that Emily got to do was go to GA camp. Since we were moving and she would have been the only one her age going, we had decided not to. But, at the last second, a friend from Plainview invited her to go along with a different church in Plainview. It meant missing the last day of VBS, but Emily decided she definitely wanted to go. So, she spent a night at Plains Baptist Assembly in Floydada. She’s spent the night at other peoples’ houses before, but this was her first time at a camp. She had a wonderful time.

As in years past, I will once again be spending a week away from the family. I am heading to Kansas City, MO tomorrow for Blume, the National Acteens Convention, with the Acteens from our church in Plainview. This event takes place every 4 or 5 years, and I am just delighted that I will get to go with the girls for one last event. This year has been bittersweet as my first group of 7th graders became seniors this year. That along with learning we were leaving at the end of the school year made it a rather emotional year for me. It wasn’t always easy for me to leave on Sunday afternoons to go to the meetings, but I was always happy to be there once I got there. I have really enjoyed leading the group the last 6 years, and will really miss it. So, while I will miss the family, I am excited about this week with the girls.

Swimming lessons will take place again this year. Both Emily and Timothy will be taking lessons at the end of July at the Texas Tech Rec Center. Emily is particularly excited about this, as she went on a field trip to the Rec Center a few months ago and was quite impressed by the pool. She will be in Level 3. This will be Timothy’s first year in lessons, so he’ll be an Aquatot. Again, Zachary will be along for the ride. Such is his life.

Another new thing has been the amount of time we’ve spent at the library. We received a Frenship newspaper not long after we moved. The paper had a notice about a Summer Reading Contest called Joust Read that would be starting the next week. I learned that the Wolfforth City Library was located about 10 minutes from the house, so the kids and I headed out there the next week and signed Emily up for the contest. We got there during preschool story time, so we all got to listen to stories and do craft. In between VBS and cheer camp, we’ve made it back every week for a new load of books. Emily has spent her evenings reading and, last I noticed, is winning the contest for her age group. The contest ends on August 1.

So far, we’re enjoying Lubbock and all it has an offer. It’s nice that it doesn’t have to be an all day event to go to the mall or to target.

By the way, in case you’re wondering, it has been confirmed I got the job at the Parent’s Day Out. However, instead of working with 12-17 month olds, I will be teaching the older 2’s. Zachary will not be in my class, but I will get to see him at music time and at other times during the day. Works for me.

Posted by mommyfranklin at May 7th, 2007

Our kids are no longer odd. As of today, they are all even. Emily is 6, Zachary is 2, and, today, Timothy is 4.

The birthday celebration started last Thursday. Timothy decided he wanted to have a Car themed party. He was the leader at school on Thursday, so he took some car shaped splenda cookies to school for a little party that day.

On Friday, we had a party for him at home.

Here’s the cake:

It was a beautiful spring day, so we set up the bounce house and the jump-o-lene, and got some sidewalk chalk.

After playing for a bit, we played “Change Mater’s Tire” (think “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”)

Then, it was time for cake and ice cream. Yumm!

Then Timothy opened his presents. He got some great Cars toys, spiderman toys, and some activity books.

After opening presents, it was time to bust open the pinata!! Each kid hit it four times and didn’t even dent it. So, Scott gave it two solid hits and out came the candy!

After the party, Timothy went to his first t-ball practice. He had a great day and is delighted to be four now!

Posted by mommyfranklin at May 1st, 2007

My brother and his family recently moved to a new house. While we were visiting my parents last weekend, we all went to the new house to visit for a little while. The house is very nice, but we didn’t go just to see the house. This was our first time to meet their precious 5-month old son Drake. Emily and Zachary both just ooed and awed all over him. Timothy really didn’t seem to pay much attention to him.

Well, this morning at the breakfast table we somehow got to talking about Drake. Timothy has a theory about where Drake comes from. Here is our conversation:
Do you remember meeting your cousin, Drake?
Yes, LD and Nicole have a new house and Drake was there so they kept him too.

Hmmmmm….. I sure hope we don’t find any babies at our new house.

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 14th, 2007

On Tuesday, I had a meeting with our pastor about some plans the Acteens have made for this summer. While I was there, he started talking about our move to Lubbock. He is of the opinion that we should get an economical car for Scott to commute back and forth to Lubbock, and he commented about how much the church is going to miss watching our kids grow up. He complimented me on the job we are doing raising them. I have a hard time accepting compliments, especially on my parenting, so I said something along the lines that we got lucky in that the kids are generally pretty good. He said that is because our parenting style is pretty laid back. We know what’s going on with our kids, but allow them to do their own thing so long as it’s not harmful to themselves or others. He said we’re doing it right.

I’ve never heard our parenting style described that way before, so it got me thinking. Since our conversation, I really started paying attention to what we do as parents that would be characterized as laid back.

As the kids were going to bed close to 9:30 for the third school night in a row, it occurred to me that there may be such a thing as being too laid back. So, the kids were in bed by 8:00 and asleep by 8:30 on Thursday. It’s amazing how smoothly Friday morning went as Emily was getting ready for school.

Another example that came to mind was the fact that we are home spending time together as a family most nights. Mostly this is because I have some students who come over for tutoring after school three days a week. We have dinner together every day. I don’t know how laid back that is, since it is something that I am pretty stubborn about wanting us to do. We don’t push our kids to sign up for every extra curricular activity that comes their way. In fact, we were pretty relieved this year when Emily never really pushed to do Upward cheerleading this year. She is in one activity besides church and school, and we think that is enough. She has dance class on Tuesday nights. That is the only evening she spends away from the family.

On Tuesday, this got a little complicated. I was tutoring, Emily was gone to ballet, Scott was picking his car up from the shop (or not as the case was that night), so the boys were watching a movie in our bedroom. Well, Zachary is going through the phase that we remember Timothy going through not long ago. He is fascinated by my makeup. Well, as one of my students was about to leave and another had just arrived Zachary came running out of our bedroom. It didn’t take long to discover what he had been doing. His entire face was covered with my foundation. I washed his face and went to survey the damage to the bedroom. It wasn’t pretty. Especially coupled with the fact that his diaper had runneth over. So, I got Zachary and Timothy out of our bedroom and closed the door. I changed Zachary’s clothes and returned to tutoring. Not long after, Scott got home and cleaned up the mess in our bedroom. What a guy! It’s no wonder we don’t want Emily gone much. She at least provides some supervision when we’re not right there.

Timothy is getting old enough now that he needs an out of the house activity. We are facing a decision right now about whether or not he will be playing t-ball this year. The season both here and in Lubbock overlaps with when we hope to move, but he really wants to play.

One thing we think we got right is Friday nights. Saturday is the only day that we do not have morning responsibilities, so we feel no need to force the kids to go to bed on Friday nights. Maybe it’s because we hope they will sleep in on Saturday morning (which they never do), but Friday nights are flexible. We usually don’t make any plans. It’s just a night to do whatever. Often this means the kids will watch a movie or two in Emily’s room or we’ll all just play together. When Zachary gets particularly fussy, we put him in bed and let Emily and Timothy keep doing what they were doing. Generally, they zonk out in Emily’s room during a movie.

Last night was a little different. I was grading papers for the online course I am teaching and Scott was doing something on his computer. The kids were watching Madagascar in Emily’s room. Well, about 10:30, Zachary came wandering into the living room and climbed up on the couch beside me. It wasn’t long before he was asleep. When I finished grading, I went to get a diaper and some pajamas for Zachary so I could put him in bed. On my way to the boys’ room, I peeked in on Emily’s room to see if Emily and Timothy had fallen asleep. The movie was still going, but Emily was sound asleep in her bed. Timothy was not in there. Emily was dressed fairly comfortably, so I pulled her covers up and turned off her TV before going to find Timothy.

First I checked our room. I thought maybe he’d gotten bored with the movie and decided to watch TV in our room. The TV was on the weather channel, but he wasn’t in there. I checked the bathrooms. Nope, he wasn’t there. Then I went into the boys’ room, and there he was. Sound asleep in his bed. Even on the days that he begs me to let him sleep in Emily’s room, he always ends up back in his bed at some point. It’s usually quite a production though, with him crying because he is uncomfortable on Emily’s floor or because the nightlight is too bright. I guess he just decided to skip all that and go to bed on his own. That’s our boy — choosing comfort over fun. He was still wearing jeans, so Scott put some pajama pants on him. I got Zachary’s diaper and pajama pants changed and put him bed.

It was the most unusual bedtime experience we’ve had. I fully expected to be woken up in the mddle of the night by Timothy screaming because he had soaked himself since we didn’t go through the nightly ritual of making him go to the bathroom before bed. When we finished the last package of pullups a few weeks ago, Timothy and I decided he was big enough to sleep in underwear. He’s been day trained since August, but it has taken a bit longer to get him to stay dry through the night. He’s had a couple wet nights in the last few weeks, which he informed me were my fault because I did not wake him to go to the bathroom before I went to bed, but he has consistently stayed dry for over a week now. I did get woken up around 2:30am to his screams, but it wasn’t because he was wet. It was because he wanted his sleep music to be playing. Now there’s a problem that I can deal with at 2:30 in the morning.

Scott and I never really put a lot of thought in our parenting style. We always figured we’d just hang on and enjoy the ride. And so far, it’s been the ride of our lives!

Posted by mommyfranklin at March 20th, 2007

Words cannot express how special Sunday morning was.

Now we have an important task before us — to help her faith grow.
In case you were wondering, the pastor’s secretary sent me the prayer request form that the pastor referred to during her baptism. I have it tucked away in a safe place.

Posted by mommyfranklin at February 22nd, 2007

On Sunday morning, Emily woke us up telling us that she was ready to walk the aisle. She had dreamt about it all night and was ready. So, we asked her what she was going to say to the pastor. She said she was going to tell him that she asked Jesus into her heart at a Veggietales show on December 8th and that she wanted to be baptized. We asked her if she wanted to walk the aisle alone or if she wanted us to go with her. She said she wanted to go alone, but wanted us to stand with her when the pastor announces her. She had it all figured out. So, we all got ready and were off. She practiced her speech all the way there. I wonder if she told her Sunday School teachers about it too…

Every time the pastor stood in front of the church during worship, Emily asked if it was time to walk the aisle. We reminded her that it would be time when the pastor prayed after he was done preaching. During the sermon, she kept asking me what part of the sermon outline he was on. She was ready.

Finally, the pastor was praying and the hymn of invitation, “Have Thine Own Way,” began. We again asked if she wanted us to go with her. She shook her head and moved to the aisle on the first note of the song. She walked straight to the pastor. He leaned down and picked her up. She told us later that this is what he said:
Emily, are you here to tell everyone that Jesus is in your heart and that you are getting baptized next week?
Yes, sir.
That’s great! Go back to the seat and have your mom and dad come sit with you on the front row. In a minute, we’ll have you stand up in front to let everyone know about this.
Okay.
Then, he put Emily down and she came back to get us. Timothy didn’t know what was going on, but was happy to get to come with us to the front row.

A couple other people joined the church that day, so we needed to wait a few minutes for the song to end. Then, he introduced Emily and asked that we join her. He had some trouble remembering all our names, and introduced us as “Scott Franklin, Mrs. Franklin, and Little Franklin.” He told the church about Emily’s decision, and asked that they come and greet her after the closing prayer.

Here is a video of Emily’s profession of faith that we pulled off the TV recording Tuesday night.

Emily walked out of church with her head held high. She was so happy! It didn’t even bother that she didn’t get to deliver her speech that she had practiced all morning. On the way to lunch, Timothy decided to voice his objection at the way he had been introduced. He informed us that he is NOT Little Franklin, he is Timothy Reagan Franklin!

I didn’t mind being called Mrs. Franklin. I am just so proud of my little girl making such an important decision.

1 down, 2 to go.