My MacGyver Moment

About six months ago, we switched the lock on Andrew's door so that it locks on the outside (when verbal communication fails, you resort to more direct methods).  He kept leaving his room during quiet times as well as in the middle of the night--so he left us no choice.  Or, maybe we just couldn't come up with anything better.

Either way, it proved to be a very useful solution.  Until Friday.  I had gone into Andrew's room with him for something, and while I wasn't watching, Andrew went over to his door, locked it from the outside, and then closed it--with both of us inside.  He had done that to himself before, but never while I was in the room with him.  

Ryan was already gone for the day, Chloe was in her crib asleep, and I had no phone to call for help.  I usually can use a credit card to slide in the crack to open a door, but Uno cards weren't up to the task.  I considered pulling out the pins in the hinges, but when the hinges haven't been parted in over 30 years, they weren't even considering yielding to my worthless fingernails.  So I went to work on my only other option that I could think of, which was unscrewing the doorknob.  One screw came out easily with my nail, but the other wasn't going to budge.  I felt very MacGyver-ish searching around the room looking for something that could work as a screwdriver.  I finally found a little metal tab on the back of a picture frame that I could use to turn the screw one quarter turn at a time until I finally could get a hold of it.  

It took a solid 20 minutes to finally figure it out and get it opened, and I have now learned my lesson that I need to keep a screwdriver in there so I can get out in case that happens again.  Ideally Andrew will just get to the point where he won't need it anymore...but that may be a while.

Do you know the very worst thing about wars?

That was the question that Katie posed to me on the way home from church today.  It's a tough one--having to narrow it down to the very worst thing.  There are so many bad things to choose from.  

But Katie had it figured out.

Before starting, she acknowleged that there were a lot of bad things about war, but this one was really bad.

Because, as you know, wars can last a while.  Even years.  And you know what that means.

It means a lot of birthdays that they had to celebrate away from their families.

(If only that really were one of the worst things about wars.)

Ryan's #1 Fan

I thought that would be me. But it's not.

Ryan has an official page on facebook for his book and the fact that he's an author. The best part about it is that you can be a fan of Ryan and his book (as I am).

I noticed that I was not his first or only fan, so I clicked on his page to see who had beat me to the punch. He's a guy from a high school in New York who left this gem of a comment as the first thing on Ryan's "just fans" wall:

"I felt bad that this guy had no fans."

Well, he was nice enough to get 4 or 5 of his friends to become fans as well. We're off to quite a start. The next on board have been the teenagers we go to church with, so I think that I'm the only fan out of the current 20 or so that has actually graduated from high school.

Gotta love facebook.

Get Ready For Lift

Ryan and his dad just finished writing a book, and the first copies were delivered today.  Congratulations!!  It's very cool to see it as the finished product.

Here's the link to the book on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Lift-Becoming-Positive-Force-Situation/dp/1576754448/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241541351&sr=8-1 It's destined to be a best-seller.

Tis The Season

Next to holidays, my kids' favorite time of the year is caterpillar season.  Right around this time every year, our yard explodes into a caterpillar farm. 

I spotted the first one a few days ago.  As a result, I hear the front door slam every morning at 6:45 or so after Mason and Katie rush out to hunt them before leaving for school.  

I have been historically pretty srtict on not letting them bring them in the house, but Andrew was having such a great time with them that I let him bring a couple in to play during his quiet time.  

I think they had a great time.  They got to ride on the bus.

Heck, they even got to drive the bus.
They went for a spin around the room.
And even got to take a ride on the "ferris wheel."
I'm sure they were the envy of all the other caterpillars. Or at least they would have been had Andrew not lost them before we were able to return them to the wild.

Luckily there are plenty more.  But none will be lucky enough to hang out with Andrew during quiet time again.  Eventually we'll get our kids a real pet.  Maybe.  I keep thinking about it, and quickly get overwhelmed at the idea.  At least for the next couple of weeks, they have an unlimited number of pets just outside their door.