Sufficient is the Day

Rental House Walk Thru

2012-01-03T12:34:00.000-08:00

Thrift Store Fashionista

2011-12-31T23:31:00.001-08:00

Doesn't she look adorable?

Happy Birthday L!

2011-12-31T23:30:00.000-08:00

A week after his birthday, Loofa is already working on his list for next year. At least he can write it himself. J was trying to tell him that it is not worth it to write it now since his likes will have changed in a year, but he can't be dissuaded.

I have to confess that I almost spaced getting birthday presents this year, I was so wrapped up in getting ready for Christmas. Thankfully, Loofa's list was long enough for about 10 children's wishes so it wasn't hard to find stuff he'd like and quickly. The green machine was a big hit, except for the fact that Loofa appears to be taking after the short side of the family. Hopefully he will be big enough for it this summer. Till then, Brother B has been enjoying using it. So much so, that he has decided to save up his money for his own green machine.

The outfit is for Taekwon do. The boys have been taking it for about a month.

Loofa chose Chuck E Cheese for his bday party. He loves his best friend too.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-31T23:11:00.000-08:00

We went straight from getting settled in the new home to the very busy Christmas season. For all it's craziness it was definitely filled with some priceless gems.

Doesn't get much better than preschool performances.

The boys had varying degrees of excitement about their performance. I will say, it was very refreshing to experience Christmas at a school that could care less about being politically correct.

The annual Nelson White Elephant party is always a blast. J definitely shines.

Fefe was a sheep in our ward Nativity play this year. My friend did an amazing job on the costumes!

Santa is telling Fefe to be careful, she is very close to being on the naughty list.

Loofa had a very long list to tell Santa.

In order from left to right: Ephant, Loofa, Fefe, and Brother B.

Christmas morning was a success!

Boredom Does Crazy Things

2011-11-30T18:09:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, I hate bangs. What can I say?

Next Gen Cat Cage

2011-11-27T20:40:00.000-08:00

We are all moved in and having a great time. The kids haven't even cried themselves to sleep.

I did a lot of research to find a good cage for Rush. This seemed like the best solution.

He hasn't been too happy, but at least I know he isn't going to run away until he gets used to the new place. I put Glen in there for a few minutes to keep Rush company, but he started shivering so bad I had to bring him in. Glen has been pretty happy inside, but he is definitely dying to go out. I had to put him in the tent again with Rush last night because he was squawking so much. This morning we discovered both of them out of the tent. He figured out how to move the zippers and escape. I'll have to tie them closed next time.

I'll post pictures of the rental later so you can picture where we are living :)

Mouse-pocalypse

2011-11-22T20:17:00.001-08:00

One of my cats, not sure which one, has killed 5 mice in the last 5 days. That's right, that's one mouse per day. I'm sure the mice are shivering in fear. I just can't believe how many it has been. They used to kill maybe 3 or 4 a year. Maybe it is a final swan song before we move. Let this be a warning to the mice living around our rental, your life span has just been shortened significantly. Well, you'll have a two week reprieve while we keep the cats inside to reset their GPS.

Fefe's Portrait

2011-11-16T19:44:00.001-08:00

Where We Are At

2011-11-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

I keep hoping that I can post this when all the jumping through of hoops is done with. I think we might get there today. This house sale is pretty much guaranteed to go through, but it has been a major headache. The inspection happened fairly quickly because the buyers agent had to go out of town for a week. They initially asked for:

1. roof replacement

2. GFI circuits to be repaired/replaced

3. dry rot in front door jamb replaced

4. window in front replaced

5. handrail on interior stairs

6. attic discoloration tested

7. install two CO2 detectors

8. find out why furnace had low airflow and repair

Negotiating on these repairs took a good 10 days. We ended up giving them everything except a new roof. I hate this buyers market. For the roof, we got a 3-5 year certification to satisfy lending. Most of the repairs were fairly easy. The furnace was pretty dang frustrating though. A friend in our ward hypothesized that something was blocking the airflow in the return duct. I poked my head in to look and found two blocks of wood pretty much completely blocking the flow. Some idiot had left those two spacers in there when they built the house! I just always assumed we had a crappy furnace. It kept the house warm enough, but imagine how much cheaper our electric bill could have been all these years. J had to tear off the dry wall, open up the duct, knock out the spacers and then put up a new sheet of dry wall.

Once all the negotiating on the repairs was done we had to get the appraisal. Because this is a VA loan they had to order it through the VA. It took 5 days to get the appraiser out and then we had to wait another 5 days for the report. The VA appraiser has the power to require repairs if he thinks something isn't safe, etc. I think this has turned out to be the most frustrating requirement. Our deck is built at a height that code does NOT require a handrail. Apparently the lender can still require one if they deem it unsafe. We can't even fight that if we want this sale to go through. The appraiser did tell us the rail doesn't have to be to code though, just some posts and a couple boards across. Funny and ironic, huh? Today, we are hoping to get the buyers to agree to pay for half of it. Once they do, we hit the homestretch of just waiting for the bank to get the closing papers drawn up. I cannot wait for this process to be over. I have had to do so much work, make a million phone calls and just sit here on tenterhooks waiting for things to be resolved.

We hope to start moving into the rental house beginning of next week. We'll probably move all the big stuff on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Our official closing date is the 28th, although it could be pushed back a couple days depending on what happens today.

School Portraits

2011-11-14T10:29:00.001-08:00

Here are the kids pictures for this year. They are full size so you just need to click on them and then do save as.

10 Years and Still Counting

2011-11-14T10:23:00.001-08:00

Brother B is old enough to babysit! Oh yea, he had a birthday too. Brother B made me a nice list to choose from this year for his birthday. Thank goodness, I hate to think too hard about presents.

We somehow managed to squeeze all the festivities into the day. Our traditional happy meal for birthday lunch was fun. I had three different lunch schedules to accommodate. Thankfully the other three have birthdays on non-school days. Not sure how we managed to luck out on that.

I tried to avoid melting candles in the hot monkey bread this year. Didn't happen.

Target practice for when we need to fend for ourselves. Too bad the gun doesn't simulate a recoil.

Howl O Ween

2011-11-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

We had an Xmen theme this year, mostly. Fefe decided a couple weeks before Halloween that she wanted to be Rapunzel (one of a million). We'll see if she can resist the siren call of princesses next year. She didn't believe us when we told her she was Tigger last year. She was certain she was a princess (she was half the time so she was partly right).

Ephant was Rogue

Rapunzel, or Tangled

Wolverine

Cyclops

I was pretty proud of myself on the job I did cobbling the kids costumes together. It can be so pricey to buy the ready made costumes. Except for Fefe's it probably cost me just $15 for the other kids. Thanks Thrift City! I was particularly happy with Brother B's biker jacket. I found that just a few days before Halloween. We were trying to find an alternative and I spied that on a front rack and did a little jig for joy. It really made the outfit. That and the uni glasses off of ebay. We dyed both Brother B's and Loofa's hair dark. It is permanent, so they'll be this way for awhile. Loofa looks so different, Brother B, not so much.

Trunk or Treat at the new stake center was awesome. There was enough room to park every car along the sidewalk so there were no safety concerns. Afterwards we went trick or treating in the neighborhood where we plan to build our house. I think the kids got a pretty good haul. Fefe managed to eat her's up in a few days. Loofa's lasted about a week and Ephant and Brother B are still working on theirs. Self restraint. I, myself, am having to go on a diet because of all the readily available sweets. Poor J is on a health imposed diet because of the the terrible reflux he has had the last couple of weeks.

Massive Update

2011-10-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

We're still trying to sell our house, but we are keeping plenty busy with the kid's activities. The boys have decided they love their new elementary school. Loofa has a bit of a crush on his teacher. It's pretty cute to hear him talk about her. He's decided he loves school because of her.

Ephant has started algebra. It is a challenge, but the rest of her classes are plenty easy. We've decided to quit violin this year. She has been playing it so many years without making much progress. She'll probably pick it back up in middle school or high school.

Fefe taking the fashion world by storm, each and every day.

At our yearly campout, Uncle S discovered one of his poles didn't fit quite right.

I'm going to miss this.

Brother B has been goalie for his team quite a bit. This actually turns out to be quite boring because his team is so good that defense hardly has to do anything.

A brother B soccer team sandwich (he's on the bottom).

One of the many open house displays I arranged for our new stake center.

Fefe's first preschool field trip. These firestation field trips are starting to feel like old hat.

A look of pure delight.

The class.

Loofa is loving soccer this year.

Last Saturday they played a team of amazons. Loofa ran as fast as his little legs could.

She's learning how to pose.

Confusion

2011-09-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

Fefe just asked when she was going to be pregnant with me again. This follows her asking a few days ago when she would be old enough to date.

Who's Right?

2011-09-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

I'm so torn about this story. The rational/libertarian side of me says that they should be allowed to do what they want, as long as they aren't actively harming the children. My heart breaks though for the poor kids that suffer from easily treatable medical conditions. It is definitely a slope, but how far down we should go, I don't know.

I'm reminded of the issues senior citizens and their caregivers deal with. I can't imagine wanting to live with the quality of life some seniors have. I'd hope that someone caring for me would be able to take away all medications except those that would continue to make life comfortable. I have no interest in extending my life in bad health. The problem is that it is not easy to take away medications. The state will often intervene and force the caregiver to continue the medication. Do they have that right? I don't think they should. The two stories are somewhat similar and since it is a slope and not a clearly defined boundary for quality of life it is hard to know where to draw the line.

I personally would say that the biggest factor is age. Children should be afforded all the care they can receive. Once you are an adult you can decide whether or not to treat your UTI. Of course, that then raises the question of what caregivers should be allowed to do for seniors with the mentality of a child. Which is why, EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE AN ADVANCED DIRECTIVE!

There's my soap box for the day.

One Last Thing

2011-09-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

I really wanted a new bedspread before we put our house on the market, but between vacations and everything else, I didn't have time till now to finish it. This time I looked through various pictures online to get an idea of styles I liked. I had orginally wanted a blue themed quilt, but wasn't happy with any of the blue flannels. It's not perfect, but it is good enough! We'd used our last quilt for 12 years so it was definitely time for an upgrade. Hopefully this one will last just as long, it was alot of work!

I've really enjoyed piecing quilts lately instead of just tying a couple sheets together. Next one will be for Fefe. When I can motivate myself again :) Now I just need to catchup and clean the house. I've been trying to clean it every Friday so it is ready for the weekend. J is out of town this weekend so it should be fun. Two soccer games, a baptism, subbing in primary, Loofa has a talk in Primary and Ephant is having a sleepover tomorrow night. That's what prozac is for, right?

Growing Up

2011-09-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

Fefe started preschool this year so I've had a couple hours to myself Mon, Wed, Fri. It's a pretty short amount of time, but it sure feels weird. Fefe is absolutely in love with preschool. On Monday she told me I didn't have to walk her to the door, that she could go in by herself. My little girl is growing up. I don't let her go without a kiss and a hug though. It's interesting to see the enthusiasm with which she approaches things. I'm sure some of it comes from being the youngest, but alot of it is her personality too. Loofa has never had this kind of enthusiasm.

Fefe started dance this year too and is absolutely in love with it. She'd be in heaven if she could go everyday. Our school pickup route goes past the dance studio and her preschool and every time we go past she shouts out, "There's my dance class!" and "There's my preschool!".

Loofa and Brother B aren't nearly as excited for school, but they are resigned to it. Brother B is pretty disappointed that his two best friends from Gales Creek aren't at Dilley. I feel bad for him being shuffled around to so many schools. At least next year he'll be at the upper elementary. Once you hit those grades there is only one school to go to in the district.

Ephant was almost as enthusiastic for school to start as Fefe, mostly to see her friends again. She ended up with a pretty awesome teacher this year. She still wants to teach them art and social studies even though the administration is pushing math/literacy so heavily. It is not fair that my child should be punished for another child's failure to read.

Twisted

2011-09-12T09:29:00.000-07:00

Brother B had a tooth pulled a couple of weeks ago. He had been in pain for a couple months on and off. I finally took him to the dentist. We thought for sure it was just a cavity, but it turned out he had a very misshaped tooth. The roots were twisted in such a way that an abscess could form. Doc cleaned it out and told us if it started hurting again it would have to be pulled. It didn't take too long for that to happen, there was just too big of a hole so the abscess had a nice roomy mansion to live in. It was such a crazy looking tooth that our dentist kept it so he could take pictures of it. Along with twisted roots it also has a couple extra roots. Crazy. I told Brother B he probably has a twisted brain too. The hope is that the molar next to it can move over to take this one's spot and then the wisdom tooth can be the replacement for that one.

In which the kids get run over

2011-09-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

Took these pictures almost two years ago, but I stumbled on them going through old pictures and decided to finally create the gif:

http://gifninja.com/animated-gifs/263283/kids-get-run-over

Obviously I need to use a tripod next time.

Here's the Listing!

2011-08-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2813-22nd-Pl_Forest-Grove_OR_97116_M23865-77040

This Day is Such a Special One

2011-08-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

We pulled a fast one on Fefe this week and delayed her birthday by a day. Thursday was just too crazy. She has barely any concept of time so it was easy enough to move it. I just had to tell everyone to not say Happy Birthday to her on Thursday. Of course, that didn't stop her from begging me to make her cake every day for a week.

Fefe is so easy to shop for at this age. She's get excited at just about anything, but I knew she would love new clothes and jammers so we gave her a few of those. She fell in love with Strawberry shortcake on Netflix so Ephant convinced me to get her a couple SS stuff.

I decided to use my new fondant skills and attempt a decorated cake. She had seen a princess cake at Walmart that she really wanted. I bought some princess cake decor from Michaels and went with a pretty simple round. What's funny is that I'm not a huge fan of regular frosting, but I quite like homemade fondant. I put some whipping cream in the middle layer for some added yumminess. I definitely should not start a cake making business though. I do not have the steadiest hand in the world as is apparent in the writing on the cake.

Thankfully she isn't quite so crazy about her birthday as Loofa. Now that it is over she hasn't started bugging me about the next one yet. That Loofa boy sure takes anticipation to a whole new level.

2011 Dance Recital

2011-08-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

I'm about 2 months behind, but here is Ephant's Dance recital. She did two classes this year, Tap and Hip Hop. She wasn't super enchanted with tap, mostly because she was the oldest by far.

Fefe Funny

2011-08-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

Fefe was standing on the new dishwasher door. When I yelled at her, she said "Why, is it made of glass and did Jesus make it?". I don't know what she is learning in church, but Jesus gets thrown into a lot of conversations.

Still Here

2011-08-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

In case you think we've disappeared, I though I'd write a quick note. Summer is going by way too fast! Most of you know that we have been in the process of designing a home and hopefully building it some day. Last month we met with a construction loan broker and ever since we have been working hard. A week ago I decided it was time to really start getting the house ready. I spent about 3 days stuffing as much stuff as I could into a 10x10 storage room. I'd love to put even more in there, but ran out of space. It's not bad though. I managed to keep the most important stuff towards the front at least. It could be about a year before we have access to everything in there. We'll hopefully list the house in the next week or two. Our plan is to have the new home done by next summer. If we are able to sell this house before then we'll just live in a rental. J is not excited about that part, but we both decided we'd feel better getting the house on the market sooner rather than later.

Since getting all the stuff in storage we've been working on quite the repair list. J has some trim and baseboards he needs to finish up. We have to put new closet doors in the kids rooms. Plus all the touch up paint, etc, etc, etc. We've taken good care of this house though and put plenty of love into it. I can't imagine anyone walking in and not loving it. Okay, maybe I can, but I will miss it.

The kids have reached the point that they are ready to move. We've been talking about it long enough. They are mostly excited to get into a better neighborhood with more playmates to choose from.

Once we get the house ready to list, I'll take some pics and put them up.

Scaredy Cat

2011-06-09T18:41:00.001-07:00

We had Dish Network installed last week. While I was working on the computer, the tech was installing the receiver. I realized I hadn't seen Fefe for awhile and this is what I found:

Fefe wanted to be with me, but she was too nervous to be around the installer. So, she went in the garage and just kept an eye on us through the cat door. Funny thing is that the lights were off in the garage too. Silly girl.

Last Day of School, Yippee?

2011-06-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

It was a very sad/happy day today. I love it when the kids get out of school, but I've found myself on the verge of tears all day because of Gales Creek closing. The board votes Monday so we'll find out then for sure. I feel so bad for Brother B's teacher. He was truly great with B and it is so rare to find a male teacher in elementary schools these days. Sadly, he is a victim of the stupid seniority rules of the teacher's union. I remember when the kids first started, one of my friends described the school as a real gem. She was so right. It is too bad every school can't be this small and friendly.

Loofa's kindergarten graduation.

Picture Addendum

2011-05-29T17:04:00.001-07:00

I was browsing through a professional photographer's website the other day and realized I really have a lot to learn when it comes to processing photos. I really should devote more time to it, but Lightroom does simplify it quite a bit. Check out this before and after:

I think I'm improving :) I'd love to take a lightroom class, but it costs $230! Not sure I can justify that with how little I actually use my camera.

2011 Family Pictures

2011-05-22T22:45:00.001-07:00

After months of leaving my photography equipment up, we finally did family pictures this evening. Enjoy!

Way too many vampire shows lately.

Muscle men.

Behold!

Loofa is funny and Ephant is about to get grumpy.

Pinewood Derby

2011-05-22T22:37:00.001-07:00

Brother B made some strides this year and managed to finish in the middle of the pack. That made him a bit happier than last time.

The Alarm Clock!

He receive the award for Official Pace Car (get it?)

Ephant's aforementioned science fair (for which she received an A!)

Yes, I know, we've got to do something about those bangs.

We Love Our School

2011-05-18T21:24:00.001-07:00

Most of you have probably heard that our superintendent wants to close the boy's elementary school next year. Out of a 7.5 million dollar budget gap it will save them 380,000. It's tough what they are trying to do, but Gales Creek is such an excellent school that it seems a shame to do so. Parents are still fighting it pretty hard and the final nail isn't in the coffin yet. The good news is that they will let us attend the other good school in our district next year if GC isn't open. Brother B is very sad. I had initially told them I would homeschool next year instead of sending them back to Fern Hill. Brother B really liked the sounds of that. I had to tell him tough luck since Dilley is an option. He hates having to make new friends all over again, but at least he'll have friends there from GC. He adjusted so quickly to GC anyways, I have a feeling he'll adjust just as fast at Dilley. Loofa pretty much doesn't care. One week he hates school, the next week he says he loves it.

Ephant just finished her first science fair project. I'll put pictures of it up once I get them. I feel like I'm back in school with how many projects I'm having to help on. One of the other cuts for next year is the strings program. I'm going to have to get Ephant private lessons as a result. In some ways I'm glad the district is being forced to do with less. I just wish they were a little wiser with their cuts. Some of their priorities are fairly skewed.

Random picture from my last girl's night out:

Krispy Kreme is still the yummiest.

Killer Cat

2011-05-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

Make sure your sound is turned up and the room is quiet.

Guitar Hero

2011-05-18T21:07:00.001-07:00

Loofa is finally old enough to play guitar hero! It is his current obsession, along with referring to himself in the third person. When he first started out he just used his thumb to hit the keys. He got pretty good at it. He's been working on using all his fingers lately, but I took this video of him mostly using his thumb. He gets pretty intense. Most mornings he wakes up, gets dressed, eats breakfast and brushes his teeth super fast so he can have time to play before school.

The Gray Tooth is Gone!

2011-05-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

As some of you might remember from 3 years ago, Loofa decided to kill a tooth. He slammed it again this year in February and a month ago. Some hidden part of his subconscious must really hate that tooth.

This morning we were driving to school when he mentioned a bump on his gum. As soon as he told me where it was I knew it was the dreaded abscess we had been warned about. Luckily it didn't look inflamed and it wasn't really bothering him. I scheduled an appt for him this afternoon with the dentist.

Apparently the gunk had been there all this time, but since his permanent teeth were pushing down it was pushing the gunk out. Doc gave us an option of just waiting and keeping an eye on it or pulling the tooth now. I told him it was up to Loofa. Loofa wanted it out! Mostly for the tooth fairy money. It was a simple process, numb the gums and then twist the tooth out with pliers. Both kids scored from the prize closet and now the teeth fairy has to remember, again, to visit tonight. Hopefully Loofa won't abuse the permanent tooth when it comes in.

The tooth fairy has been very busy in this house. Loofa lost his first tooth a few weeks ago. Not to be outdone, both Brother B and Ephant lost one around the same time. Thankfully Fefe is too young to be losing teeth. Is it bad that the teeth fairy sometimes stops by in the middle of the day when the kids are at school?

All My Children

2011-05-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

21 Years Later

2011-04-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

I remember the first time I heard about Laser vision correction. J and I were newly married and attending church just down the street from our apartment. During Relief Society I was talking to another sister and found out she had just gotten Lasik recently. That was about 12 years ago. I remember thinking at the time, someday, someday.... Since then both my parents and two siblings have gotten Lasik with great results. I let them be the guinea pigs.

I got my first pair of glasses when I was in 6th grade (except for a brief flirtation in 3rd grade). When I was 16 I switched over to rgp lenses and managed to stick with those the next 17 years. They weren't perfect, but my eyes were too dry for soft toric lenses. My eyes were pretty bad, I had astigmatism and a pretty high prescription. 3 years ago we switched to a high deductible plan with an HSA for our insurance. I started thinking that if we didn't have too many medical emergencies maybe someday we could save up enough to pay for Lasik. Well, one pregnancy, several croups and a broken arm later I started wondering if it would ever happen. J finally convinced me the beginning of this year to just go ahead and get it done. We could always put more in the HSA and have it tax free at least. One and a half months into the process we found out Loofa needed his tonsils out. I didn't think we would have enough in the HSA for both UNTIL I figured out we could do a prior year contribution to our HSA. Anyways, enough of the financial crap, IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!

My surgery date was yesterday, April 7th. Wednesday night I was freaking out, but refusing to admit it to myself; to the point I was physically shaking. Sadly I had no more xanax.

We woke up bright and early on the 7th to drop the kids off and get to Vancouver by 9:40am. The whole process was simple and streamlined. Before the surgery they gave me a valium and vicodin. That was nice. When they actually put me under the lasers I had a brief moment of panic, but they are quite experienced and just kept talking to me through the whole thing. I think the actual surgery took no more than 5-10 minutes. It was all laser, intralase, so they never touched my eye with a knife. It blew me away when I stood up and could see so clearly. J drove us home and then I slept for four hours thanks to the v drugs and a couple of tylenol pm.

Right now I have a lovely halo around lights and my vision is slightly over-corrected. They do that so that as it heals it will settle into the perfect correction, hopefully. I can't read very well because it made me farsighted temporarily, but I bought some reading glasses that will hopefully help. That stuff should all be better in about 3 months or at least mostly better. It is strange to wake up in the morning and not have to put on glasses or contacts.

I feel truly blessed to enjoy this miracle and I really do believe it was a miracle. I really appreciated the prayer Dr. Will said right before the surgery, I thank god for medical advances such as this. We truly live in a miraculous time.

Surgery Day

2011-02-25T08:28:00.000-08:00

The kids had a snow day yesterday which was a relief. It was nice to not have to deal with that schedule on top of everything else. They probably could have done just a 2 hour late arrival, but whatever. Loofa, Fefe and I headed to the hospital at 1pm. The roads were nice and clear so we arrived early for our 2pm check in. We didn't have to wait too long in the waiting room before they took us back. The bed had this awesome tv. It swung out on an arm so you could position it wherever you were sitting. Fefe and Loofa curled up on the bed and watched spongebob for the first little bit.

We had about and hour and a half in that room while we waited for the surgery. Thankfully J came partway through. At one point we asked Loofa if he was nervous and he said "what does nervous mean?". Once we explained that to him he said "No" with a very indignant look on his face. I guess we were questioning his honor.

20 minutes before surgery they gave him a medication to calm him. We got some pretty hilarious video of his loopiness. J kept asking him math questions to test his reasoning power. I did get some good cuddles out him while he was under the influence.

The actual surgery only took about 1/2 hour. We weren't allowed to go back right way, not until he had woken up. I guess he was tired, because it took an hour for him to wake up. He was pretty happy to see us. As soon as they rolled the bed in he climbed up and gave me a big hug. He did great with his popsicle and didn't feel sick from the anesthesia. We were able to go home about 20 minutes later.

Loofa didn't have too much pain, but he did wake up alot last night. He claims he doesn't remember doing so though. I felt like I slept only 2 hours even though I went to bed at 10pm. He's been pretty chipper today, even ate some mac and cheese for lunch. He keeps trying to convince me to let him eat a morning bun, but he tried a piece this morning and it hurt. Other than the mac and cheese he's had alot of sugar drinks and popsicles. The doctors weren't exaggerating when they said he'd have bad breath too. Whew, it is nasty. Can't wait for that to go away.

Times

2011-02-22T16:19:00.000-08:00

Loofa's surgery is scheduled for 2pm on Thursday! Later in the day when I thought it would be, but it should be easier to deal with the other kids in school at that time. Loofa is disappointed that he still has to go to school that day. He thought for sure he would get out of it. Of course, he still might if it snows like they are thinking.

Good news is that I "think" I might have fixed my iphone, at least mostly. We'll have to see if it can hold the cellular connection over the next couple weeks. It has fooled me before. I ordered a $10 dock assembly part off of ebay. It was my last ditch effort. So far so good. The only frustrating thing is that in the process of opening and closing my phone I think I killed the proximity sensor that shuts off the screen when it is at your ear. That is easy enough to work around though. I'm starting to feel like a mechanic. Fix one thing just to break another. Maybe I can repair that too someday when I'm feeling bored. That or just deal with it till I can upgrade :)

Schools, Tonsils and Caves

2011-02-13T21:14:00.000-08:00

The boys have adapted extremely well to their new school. Loofa is much more social and seems to actually like most of the kids he is with. Brother B enjoys that fact that the whole class isn't constantly getting in trouble. His teacher is even teaching him algebra already since Brother B gets bored during math. Hopefully they won't close the school down in an effort to deal with next year's budget gap. It is very frustrating watching how they approach the whole problem.

For those of you wondering why Loofa needs his tonsils out, just take a look at this picture:

He hasn't had any tonsillitis, they are just inflamed for some reason. We can't wait to get them out!

The kids created this structure. Initially she was surrounded on all 4 sides, but I removed one side so she could breath.

Loofa's latest swimming class. He's really improved. I was hoping he'd move up to level III after this one, but not yet. I haven't been quite as on top of lessons with him as I was with the other two.

My big accomplishment of the week was making homemade rootbeer for the first time ever! I was so nervous, but it turned out, or at least everyone said they liked it. They swear they weren't lying either.

I have another appointment with the orthopedist tomorrow. My knee has been bothering me more again and my bursitis is still here a year later. I'm going to see a different one this time, I'm hoping to find one that specializes in my leg malalignment.

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's tomorrow. We love you!

Do I Love My IPhone Too Much?

2011-02-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, my sweet little 6 year old dropped my iphone into the toilet a month or so ago. Since then it has mostly worked, but I've struggled with reception issues. Everything else works great, but after a day to a week it would start dropping bars. Each time this happened I would open it up again and leave the logic board disconnected from the battery. I don't know why, but this would fix it, albeit temporarily. Yesterday I took it apart again, but it didn't work this time. I spent half this day researching to see if anyone had any bright ideas. I give up though and it hurts. This phone really has become my right arm. I never get lost, I can find McDonalds at the drop of a hat and I can get my email anytime, anywhere. That being said, it somewhat disturbs me how much it bothers me that I can't use it anymore. Have I become too dependent on it? I definitely play solitaire too much. If I really wanted to I could send it into a repair shop and see what they could do. I don't think I will though. I think this could be good for me, to go without for awhile and remind myself what life was like before the Iphone. I do have a cheap little nokia so you can still call me. I can also essentially still use the phone as an ipod touch. Might end up selling it on ebay as such.

The one question I'm pondering is, do I keep my unlimited data plan or do I cancel it and be forced to take the limited plan when/if I get another iphone?

I know, wah wah, but I am crying inside.

Tongues and Talking

2011-01-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

Some more baby Q for your enjoyment. Notice the hilarious tongue action.

PS It is better quality on youtube with the HD setting.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-13T10:54:00.000-08:00

I don't have any pictures from Christmas, amazingly. We had a fabulous time regardless. It was very relaxing and the kids all enjoyed their gifts this year. We made a very conscious effort to get toys we knew would be enjoyed and didn't just stock up on gifts to fill the queue. Both Brother B and Loofa got their first airsoft guns. I did have to return the original ones since they turned out to be crap. I'm excited for them to learn gun safety with something a little less dangerous. Fefe got the Fisher Price doll house. It takes up a lot of space, but is much enjoyed. Ephant got a stereo/alarm clock for her ipod. J bought me a black pea coat. He was nervous to pick it out on his own, but he did a great job. I feel so stylish at church now. I'm tempted to wear it everywhere. It's really soft wool too, not scratchy at all.

Christmas dinner at Aunt J's was great. Not too many kids there so it was pretty low key. The kids enjoyed trying out James' new kinect. We might have to get that at some point. Maybe next Christmas... Our present from Corey Grandparents was really fun too. They bought us an HD Flip camcorder so now we have an ultraportable camcorder. I'm sure it'll get tons of use. Morgan Grandparents treated us to a Christmas movie (Tron) and Christmas Bowling. I'm so out of practice! It was a tad embarrassing. Definitely need to go bowling more. The kids loved it though. Loofa was excited to put all his Wii bowling into real use. Ephant and Brother B enjoyed learning to bowl with just their own two hands. Fefe just liked to cheer everyone on and blow her hair in the hand dryer.

You can visit my youtube channel later to see our Christmas Interviews. My dad had a tradition of interviewing us each Christmas to talk about our year and we finally implemented it this year. It is pretty long, so definitely not for the faint of heart.

A Schmattering

2011-01-13T09:51:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of December, our friends from church invited us to stay with them at their timeshare near Bend, Oregon. It was loads of fun, mostly because they're our kind of people! On Saturday we drove down to Bend to watch the Bend Christmas Parade. The kids kept refusing to move around so their feet got pretty cold about halfway through. Loofa was reduced to tears and too stubborn to do anything about it. It was pretty dang cold. Some evangelical church had a table with hot cocoa and a pitch. We welcomed the hot cocoa at least.

This was my favorite part of the parade:

Some random pics from December:

The kids just can't resist bothering sleeping parents.

Yet another choice outfit. All thanks to Ephant's dance classes.

You need to look at this pic up close to truly appreciate it.

This video is a little long, but I couldn't bear to trim any of it.

Let the Countdown Begin Again

2011-01-13T09:34:00.000-08:00

My desire to blog is definitely starting to wane. I'm going to force myself though because this is about it as far as journaling goes and I know some family members actually like to see updates.

So, for your viewing/reading pleasure, what follows is the tale of a boy who has waited for his birthday, so long... ONE WHOLE YEAR!

Loofa turned six so he was allowed to have his first birthday party. I gave him the choice of going to a party place and just inviting 2 friends or staying home and inviting six. He chose to stay at home. Surprised me because I didn't know he had six friends. He invited 3 friends from school and 3 from church. None of the friends from school showed up.

We didn't have much of a theme to the party, mostly due to my own laziness. He wanted it to be a Wii party so after the scheduled stuff he just played wii with his friends. We had a craft, piñata, a game and a treat. Pretty simple, my kind of party.

Two days later was the family party. I broke down and bought him yet another scooter. He's not allowed to take this one to the park, so maybe if we're lucky it won't be stolen anytime soon. I also decorated the heck out of it with my cricut. Should make it easily recognizable from far away. Plus I used outdoor vinyl so it won't be easy to remove. Loofa also got another Wii game, Super Mario Galaxy II. Probably his favorite present since he's been dying for it since it was released. He's definitely put plenty of time into it.

He's already counting down to his next birthday. I keep waiting for him to grow out of this, but it seems here to stay. The boy loves his birthday.

When Wild Animals Attack

2010-12-22T21:08:00.001-08:00

We've had another couple strays hanging around our house again. I finally decided to take one of them to the shelter. He's more tame than the feral ones I took in last time so I thought it would be a piece of cake. He lets us pet him and even pick him up although he is a tad skittish. So I picked him up, took him in the house and petted him for a few minutes. As soon as I tried to stick him in the cage, he freaked! I tried harder, but then he bit my arm and scratched me up good.

It hurt like the dickens! I must admit I let out one choice swear word. I took a shower right afterwards to disinfect. I wasn't sure if I needed antibiotics so I called the nurse to see what she thought. Turns out she was totally clueless. She said it was up to me. I called my cousin, who is a PA and she said she always prescribes antibiotics. I did some research and the internet doctor said 80% of cat puncture wounds get infected. So, I set myself an appt that afternoon. My doctor cleaned it and gave me a prescription for doxycycline. It continued to hurt pretty bad for the next two days. I could barely use my arm the first day. I finally devised a sling the next day since it hurt more just letting it hang there.

The doxycycline was a pain. I couldn't drink milk 2 hours before or after and it was twice a day dosing. That's 8 hours a day that I couldn't drink milk. It about killed me. 10 days of torture. I rejoiced when I finished.

I borrowed a trap from a lady here in town, but the cat was very wily and never triggered the pressure plate. We did catch some other cats, including Rush, but they learned eventually too how to not trigger it. I found another trap online that is supposed to work better for cats that I might buy.

Sunday, Brother B discovered a big old wound on Glen's leg. Poor kitty had been bit too. At its stage of development he must have had that abscess for awhile. I took him into the vet Monday afternoon. They cleaned it out and now he gets an antibiotic twice a day for 10 days too. I have to squeeze neosporin right into the hole too. It's pretty gross. I'm making him stay inside till I'm able to catch that cat. He's not super happy about it, but I feel better having him inside. I bought one of those automatic litter boxes too. It's pretty cool. It's nice that I can keep it in my bathroom and not have it stink.

Birthoween

2010-11-20T23:13:00.000-08:00

I declare copyright on that title, no one else can use it.

Halloween began with a trunk or treat at the church. It was a hectic day after two soccer games and two award parties, but we made it. Brother B and Loofa were skeletons. We bought the face paint last minute, but it really made the costume. J is quite the artist. Loofa didn't want any on his face though. Ephant wanted to be a pigmy, but her costume didn't come together quite as well as we hoped. Fefe was a princess at trunk or treat, but when we went trick or treating the next night we put her in the Tigger costume. Ordinarily she loves being a princess, but for some reason she didn't care for this dress and she LOVED the Tigger costume. In fact she kept wearing it over and over for the next several days. Money well spent.

A bit blurry, but this is the only picture I have of them all together.

The master at work.

The whiskers really make the costume.

He's really working it.

The loot for his birthday.

Brother B told me a few days before his birthday he wasn't as excited as he used to be in years past. It was pretty cute that he recognized that. It didn't stop him from noticing each and every toy advertisement on television. He gave me quite the detailed list to pick from. To be honest, I was grateful. There is nothing I hate worse than trying to figure out the perfect present. I think we were mostly successful. He's played the most with his nerf swords and he wears his robe around before bed every night and in the morning when he gets up. I really should have taken a pic of him in it. It is truly masterpiece theater quality.

I'm starting to notice a trend with how much monkey bread I'm making for birthdays.

We sure love our Brother B. He's such a sweet, polite boy and we couldn't ask for a better kid. Now if I could just get him to eat his fruits and veggies.

Goooaal!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-11-20T22:31:00.000-08:00

We had a great soccer season this fall. It was Brother B's third year and Loofa's first year. Both of them were amazing and essential to their teams (as we found out after they missed two games due to our vacation). Brother B was very good at focusing his attention and going after the ball. Loofa was very aggressive, whereas most of the other kids on his team seemed too intimidated to really get up close. I think the soccer camps I had him take the last couple of summers really helped. Most of all, they both had fun.

I took this video with my iphone so not the best quality. That is him making the goal at the end. I tried to take the audio out of this one, but if I messed up and it comes through I apologize for my yelling. It was very exciting.

Again, not the best quality. Brother B's soccer award this year was a giant cookie. Nice.

Share the Love in Philly

2010-11-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

We met my sister, Marv, at the Fairfield Inn by the airport. They didn't have a hot tub, but the pool was almost as warm. They had hot cocoa too! The kids enjoyed having their cousins around again.

The next day was Sunday, but we decided to spent it worshiping our founding fathers at Independence Hall.

Killing time playing the DS and hugging sisters.

A random cute baby boy who happens to be my nephew.

The Liberty Bell. Felt like a line at Disneyland trying to get a pic.

Marv left with her family after a late lunch. (I had to eat a salad, I couldn't stand one more burger at this point.) We were sad to say goodbye to everyone.

Too much girlie love.

We started walking up to the Poe house after goodbye. Halfway there we turned around to get our car. It wasn't that crowded for parking and the walk there was a little ghettoish. We didn't end up making it there afterall, we got sidetracked into the Benjamin Franklin museum. Fefe had a nice nap in her stroller (as she did most days).

One of the exhibits at the Franklin House let you dial a historical figure to hear what they had to say about Benjamin Franklin. The kids were entranced by the rotary dials some of them had.

After days and days of fast food, we decided enough was enough and went to Denny's for dinner. Food had never tasted so good. I love Denny's. The kids appreciated it too.

A bowl of blood (aka raspberry syrup)

Our flight the next day wasn't supposed to leave until 6pm so we had some time to kill. We found the Franklin Institute. It looked fun and with my Happy Hollow membership we had reciprocity and we got in free. The kids had put up with a lot of history and museums so they deserved a little fun.

This machine measured how much blood was in your body by weight.

Ephant has really enjoyed how many references she's seen about the Franklin Institute, including the 39 Clues. We are really hoping that the kids will enjoy history so much more for being able to picture the locations and have a personal connection to it.

Dropping off our rental car went really smooth. So smooth in fact that we had 2 1/2 hours to sit in the airport and wait. J and I were exhausted, but we found a play place to entertain the kids while we sat and vegged. That flight was on time, but our connecting flight in Denver was almost an hour late. Fefe slept most of the flight. Ephant slept a bit. Brother B didn't sleep great, but he put up with it. Loofa was so distraught towards the end because he was so tired and couldn't sleep. He was just sobbing. I felt so bad for him. Our flight got in about midnight and we got home around 1am.

We were very happy to get home safe and sound with everything intact (and no dead cats).

New York, New York

2010-11-13T19:35:00.000-08:00

I've had this desire to see New York for years. I've seen almost every other place in this country, but never the northeast. I just wanted to be able to picture what the place was like.

Our hotel was in Jersey City conveniently located right next to PATH train to NY. We were starving so we walked over to the mall for dinner, also conveniently located next to the hotel. We had our one and only celebrity siting there. After dinner, J noticed a man getting a lot of attention and recognized him as a Joe Jackson.

After dinner we took the kids into the pool/hot tub at the hotel. I wish we had remembered Loofa's arm floaties. Fefe had to learn she wasn't invincible. In the past she has pretty much always had some kind of flotation device. While we were sitting in the hottub, she insisted on jumping and running around without me holding her. I decided there was only one way for her to learn so I just let her go for it. She predictably jumped in and I fished her out. She seemed a little wiser after that. I need to get her into swimming lessons.

We woke up early so we would have sufficient time to navigate the subway system. We had 11am tickets for the statue of liberty. They only allow 240 people up to the crown each day. I had bought our tickets several months in advance. It was fun feeling like we had all access passes. We were able to pass everyone in the will call line. Of course there was the old security screening process. J stayed down on the pedestal with Loofa and Fefe because they were too small to climb to the crown. Those stairs were intense. It was a spiral staircase that just went up and up.

Inside the crown.

A very windy pedestal.

That's a big foot.

The things kids come up with.

We jumped back on the ferry right when we got down and ate our lunch there. Our next stop was the Museum of National History. One of my favorite book series, starting with Relic is mostly based in that museum. The kids were intrigued by the Night at the Museum aspect. We got in pretty cheaply. They had a suggested price, but apparently you could make your own offer. I told them I'd pay $10/adult and $4/kid, meaning $36. I thought that was a steal compared to the $70 they suggested. Later I realized she misunderstood me and charged us $14 total. Nice!

We didn't get a whole ton of pics inside because the lighting was atrocious.

The fabled jackelope. Oh wait, maybe not.

Watch out for the horns.

Never thought I'd get a chance to see the Star of India. Beautiful.

Dum dum.

The kids were tired and hungry by the time we finished the museum. We had one more stop before dinner, Times Square! That was hilarious. We arrived after some slight troubles figuring out which direction was north. All those tall buildings make it impossible to see the sun. When we got there I thought we were facing the famous ball drop billboard, but realized after taking our first picture that it was the wrong one. Oops. So we turned around and took another. By that point, the kids grumpiness was on overdrive.

Our final stop for the night was Gray's Papaya, another dream of mine. When I was pregnant with Fefe and feeling so morning sick I was watching a show on Food Network about the 10 most famous hot dog places in the country. It actually looked appetizing to me so it made a big impression, particularly Gray's Papaya.

While we were waiting for our food, a homeless guy came in and started begging for money. The staff behind the counter started yelling at him to leave. He came over to us and asked us. I told him no, but he wouldn't leave. He moved over to J and started on him. Then he started giving the kids fist bumps. When he got to Ephant he grabbed her hand and started to stroking. At that point I yelled at him and told him to stop and leave. He was completely unintelligible and wouldn't budge. The staff finally dragged him out. Ephant was somewhat freaked out. Boy was the food good though. They had a mango drink that was even better than the mango lassis I've had before. On our way back to the subway we saw an authentic New York protest march against the police, escorted by the police. Ironic, huh? NYPD, KKK!

Our second night in the hotel was fabulous. I stayed up late to read. Big mistake. We forgot to put a pullup on Fefe and when I climbed into bed it was sopping. We stripped everything off and managed to get comfortable. Fefe decided to wake up sobbing every hour or so after that. I stayed up till 3:30am to wash her blankie since she peed on that too. I was hoping when it was done she would calm down, but no such luck. I wish we had had ibuprofen.

We had no set schedule the next morning so we could sleep in a little. Our first destination was pizza. I had gotten a recommendation for a place in the Bronx. We took a subway from Grand Central to ride up to the Bronx. It turned into the ride from (*&%. J tried to convince me to turn around after 1 hour, but I was determined to eat at this pizza place. When we got there there was no place to sit. We were exhausted and decided to go all the way back to New York to find a place we could sit down and eat. So, what started at 11:30am ended at 3:30pm in a very subpar pizza place.

On our way back to the subway we walked by the empire state building. I had considered going up, but decided nay after seeing how much it cost just to go up. Ridiculous. I had had my fill of expenses at that point.

We took our final subway ride back to New Jersey and got into our car to drive down to Philadelphia. It cost $4 just to drive over one bridge. Bleh. The cost alone was making me homesick, but we still had a couple more days to spend in Philly.

A Sidetrip Through Pennsylvania

2010-11-13T19:15:00.000-08:00

Thursday morning we headed up to New York City. On the way, J wanted to see the place his family lived for a year in Pennsylvania. It wasn't exactly on the way, but close enough for it not to be a big deal. Driving there did turn out to be a bit of an expensive proposition with all the tolls we had to pay. Talk about nickel and diming. There was no where to eat along the way either. I've never seen such a dearth of fast food restaurants. We stopped one place to get gas and just bought the kids some drinks and pretzels. The lady at the checkout was wondering how we could afford to have 4 kids. I understand how she feels with how much everything cost out there.

We managed to find our destination easily (thanks again to my iphone). J's dad went to Lehigh University for a year so the whole family came with and lived in the student family housing (all 8 of them). And you thought your housing situation was bad! Can you believe the name of the road?

J took the kids for a tromp through the woods while I took Fefe to find a bathroom. He really enjoyed his trip through memory lane.

Pennsylvania was gorgeous, particularly between Bethlehem and New York. Very green, rolling hills. I love how green it is out here, but it would be nice to have more deciduous trees.

Washington DC

2010-11-08T10:19:00.001-08:00

We spent Monday- Wednesday exploring DC and surrounding environs. At first we were just going to ride the subway down, but I couldn't stand the idea of not having our car. It's freedom after all.

I had tickets for us to take a tour of the Capitol building at 11am. Even though Silver Spring is only 10 miles from DC it took us almost an hour to drive down there. Finding parking was a little difficult too, especially since we didn't know the area. Thank heavens for my iphone. It saved us with it's map/gps feature so many times. It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the capitol. I was a little stressed that we would be late. We did miss our tour time, but they just stuck us with the next tour group so it worked out. I'll have to say I got so tired of all the security stations we had to go through on our trip. I understand why they have it, but it sure made me wish for the good old days. The kids were so grumpy during the tour, especially Fefe and Loofa. We figured out why when they perked up after eating lunch :)

In the Rotunda

Brother B's name sake.

They weren't actually grumpy in this picture, we just told them to make funny faces. Well, maybe Fefe was.

This was a fun water fountain right behind the Capitol

The air and space museum was next on the docket after the Capitol. We went through it pretty quickly (after spending our life savings at the McDonald's there).

We walked down to the American History museum next. It was pretty cool and we probably could have spent alot more time there. I particularly enjoyed the section on Abraham Lincoln. I wish we had had time to visit the Ford theater. I loved the display of the flag they had there too, but they didn't allow any pictures even without flash. Stupid museums.

We had about 10 minutes to spend in the Art Gallery. They were so rude too when it was closing time. They practically treated us like terrorists trying to make sure we got out of there on the dot. I wish we could have spent more time there.

We did get a picture of one Jacob's favorite Vermeer.

J told us about squirrels being called Juicys. There were certainly plenty of them. We enjoyed yelling out Juicy each time we saw one. This one park we walked through was just teeming with them.

Our second day we had tickets to the Washington Monument. I was excited since it was a place we had missed when I had been to DC as a kid.

The day started out pretty cloudy and cool, but it didn't rain and the sun came out eventually.

The kids really enjoyed having their cousins with us this day. The reflecting pond was one of their favorite spots.

Another little girl there decided she wanted to be Fefe's friend and kept trying to hold her hand. Fefe didn't care much for it, but Ephant decided she was cute.

I sure do love Abraham Lincoln. What a great man. All you people that keep trying denigrate and tarnish him, knock it off!

Peace, Obama.

JFK's tomb. Big deal. Really don't understand the fascination.

Arlington National Cemetery was our last stop of the day. Uncle D had to leave part way through so cousin A stayed with us. J took Fefe down too before he could come up to Robert E Lee's house. I was surprised how much the kids enjoyed walking through the home. All the furniture was gone though because they were refurbishing. That house sure has an amazing view of DC. Can't imagine what that property value would be.

On our way to the tomb of the unknown soldier we saw a horse drawn wagon taking a coffin up for burial. Sure was sad, but it was nice to see the decorum with which it was treated. We kept seeing all these grave markers with stones piled on them. Our initial theory was that it showed how many people had visited. I was close, it was a Jewish symbol of respect that people would put up each time they visited.

Wednesday was dedicated to Mount Vernon. It was about an hour drive away. It was the only rainy day we dealt with, but it was pretty minor. We were lucky to get in line for the house tour right before a ginormous school group. The first room in Mount Vernon was truly amazing. J was eying all the plaster molding wondering how he could do something like that in our house. Loofa knew George Washington as the President with fluffy hair since he had a made a picture of him before with cotton balls for hair. So George Washington had fluffy hair and Abraham Lincoln had a tall hat. My iphone fell out of my pocket in the theater. Thankfully someone turned it in AND I noticed it was missing before we got back home.

Back to the East

2010-11-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

On Friday, October 15th, 2010 we woke up at the early hour of 3:30am to begin our adventure. Our flight to Baltimore left at 6am. Best flight I've been on in a long time and that was simply because I had no babies! It was a long one, but the kids did great. Fefe kept saying "3-2-1 blast off!" while waiting to take off. All the adults on the plane loved her. I kept hearing, oh, she reminds me of my daughter or my granddaughter. It was a great adventure for the kids since they'd either never flown before or were too young to remember it.

We arrived into Baltimore at 4:30pm. It took me awhile to pick up the rental car. While I was gone J had a standing on one leg contest with the kids and Brigham beat him. J kept complaining how sore he was the next couple days.

Our rental car was atrocious. It certainly cemented why I will never own a Caravan. When we got back J told me to go easy on the accelator or I'd peel out of there. Even with that in mind I still took off too fast. Gotta love Odyssey's and their engines. The Caravan did get us from here to there even if it did cost a pretty penny.

We finally arrived at Aunt Marv's at about 6:30. Her kids came dashing out the door and were so excited. Out of all our cousins, her's are the closest in age to ours so it is always fun to spend time with them.

We decided to take Saturday easy to recover from all the traveling. Uncle D took us to a park, but the play structures were all closed off for renovation. It was still fun to walk around, at least the kids enjoyed it. They probably would have been happy anywhere we took them.

These were growing on trees in the park. Weird.

All the cousins (-1)

I found a farm about an hours drive away that had cider doughnuts so we drove down there in the afternoon. The doughnuts were disappointing, but I did find some peach butter and apple butter jam there. It looked like a pretty good little farm store.

When we got back we had some delicious French dip that aunt Marv had made and relaxed the rest of the time.

Sunday was another relaxing day. Must have been so relaxing because I can't even remember what we did besides go to church. Fefe was worrying me a little because she was having a somewhat croupy cough. Luckily it never turned into anything.

Buddy the Foster Dog

2010-11-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

The end of September we discovered a little dog hanging around our backyard. He loved the kids, but seemed a little scared of me. We decided to catch him so I made up a temporary leash out of a high chair strap and caribiner clip. I was pretty proud of that contraption. We went and knocked on a few doors to see if anyone was missing a dog, but didn't have any luck. The kids were loving playing with him. My neighbors had a spare kennel in their garage so we stuck him in that overnight with a little food.

I posted his info the next morning and got him scanned at the vet to see if he had a chip. Luckily he did, but that turned into a dead end. What I thought would be just an overnighter turned into 3 days. On the second day I sent an email out to the ward to see if anyone wanted to take him with the possibility that someone would claim him eventually. I was amazed how many people were interested.

He was a very good dog. A little jumpy, but hardly ever barked. He did turn out to be coated in fleas. Yuck. I think he was well trained, but probably abandoned. No one ever ended up claiming him and he is now happily living with another family. One lady did drive all the way out here from East Portland because she was missing her chihuahua mix, but it wasn't her dog. She was pretty broken up because that dog was like a kid to her I did like the dog quite a bit. After the initial night he decided he loved me and kept trying to break into the house to find me. The kids were really wanting to keep him, but I just didn't think Glen would appreciate that. We didn't see him the whole time we were fostering the dog. Luckily the kids still get to see him here and there and he seems to remember us.

Just Some News

2010-11-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

After I made my bed one morning I came in and saw Fefe had tucked one of her polly pockets in nice and snug. She sure loves those dolls.

Our cold summer turned into a very nice fall - or Indian summer.

It was nice to play in dry leaves for once.

Fefe loves her little creepy crawlies. I don't think they love her though.

I'd been considering giving Fefe bangs for awhile. She inherited J's high forehead so I thought there was a good possibility they would look decent on her. Bangs look terrible on me so I usually avoid them. It has been so nice to not have to put her hair up every morning. I think she looks pretty cute. Ephant decided she wanted some at the same time. I was nervous about how they'd look on her, but with her big eyes it balances them out.

Surprise Visits

2010-11-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

The end of September we had a somewhat unexpected visit from J's parents. It was nice to have visitors and no babies on my part. They had a break from taking care of J's grandparents so they came up for Q's baby blessing and to check out J's dad's old mission haunts up in Canada.

J really enjoyed music time with his family. I've really disappointed him in not being interested in this so he looks forwards to these opportunities.

Baby Q was pretty cute, but I must say she's even cuter now that she's grinning up a storm. I'll have to take some more pics soon to put up.

School, Potties and More

2010-09-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

The last Sunday in August, for some odd reason, I thought it'd be fun to try potty training Fefe again. Crazy, I know. We had about 5 so so days with a few accidents, mostly of the #2 variety. She did a little better when I pulled out the potty training reward chart, but she was still refusing to poop in the potty. She had a major aversion to it. Her pediatrician told me to just put a pullup or diaper on her when she needed to and she would learn eventually. I just could not accept that! I have to give Ephant credit. She told me to pull out the training potty and try that. I had been too lazy before, but I needed something new to try. That did the trick! She's been doing great ever since. It sure is weird to have no more kids in diapers. She still wears a pull up at night, but I don't think that'll last long.

School started on Sept 8 for Ephant and Brother B.

Brother B really enjoys the casual preppy look. Not sure where he came up with the idea. I haven't shown him any teen shows from the 80's lately.

This was Ephant's first year at the upper elementary (5th and 6th grade). She was soooo excited. She's loving her new class. We're a little concerned though so far from what she is saying that she is not being challenged again. We had high hopes since she is in a "TAG" classroom now, but it sounds like they just backfilled it with kids that don't even speak english, etc. I'm going to have to have a long talk with her teacher. The last two years she had really just skated by. That sort of thing makes college a rude awakening. She needs to be challenged now.

This morning she started band and orchestra. She is going to play both violin and flute. It's the only year she can do both. Next year she'll have to just get flute lessons from her Aunt (if she can keep it up). Talk about over achiever. She's taking two dance classes this year, piano lessons and the school stuff too. I'm going to have to put my foot down at some point.

Loofa didn't start until Sept 15th. He is doing awesome with school. The first day I walked him in and we checked out the gym where the kids were playing ball before school starts. It was a madhouse in there. I took him right out and went to his class because I thought it would be too intimidating for him. When we got to the classroom he told me he wanted to play in the gym next time. I guess I was wrong. He didn't cling at all when I dropped him off. I miss my little guy in the morning. Shopping is easier though :)

A couple weeks ago I saw a recipe for flubber on a recipe site I follow (Our Best Bites). I've been meaning to make it for years and I've had borax for a long time. So, we went to Walmart and bought some glue. Loofa and Fefe played with it straight the whole first day of school. Of all the toys I've ever bought/made for the kids this has had the most longevity. Since Walmart had the glue for only 25 cents I went and bought a ton. We'v got flubber coming out of our ears now.

Why toddlers should not be allowed to pick their own outfits.

Brother B still spends alot of his time petting kitties.

Loofa is only allowed to play Wii for an hour a day so he spends most of his time talking Daddy or Mommy into playing.

Birthdays Finally Mean Something

2010-08-31T17:13:00.000-07:00

Fefe turned 3 last Wednesday. We had been telling her for a couple months that her birthday was going to be next so she had been looking forward to it. I was lazy and didn't even get her presents until the day before. It was pretty easy at least. I had Ephant take her around Toys R Us while I picked things out. She'd call me on the phone if there was any particular item that Fefe seemed interested in. I knew already that I wanted to get her a baby doll for the main present so that part was somewhat easy.

The other kids were so excited to wish her happy birthday in the morning. They woke up and had to find her right away. Fefe chose princess attire for the day.

Zhu Zhu Pets are actually pretty cool.

Had to take the baby doll and stroller for a test drive.

For some reason she decided to sprint to the finish.

Grandma M was very sweet and made her a small "d" (blankie) out of the scrap of fabric she had left from the original. Fefe calls it little D and her regular one is now big D. It made life easy this morning when I had to wash her D.

This is the face she made when I told her to smile.

The next morning she came into bed to cuddle with me and told me to say Happy Birthday to her. I had to break the news that it was no longer her birthday.

Just a random pic wearing daddy's pants (she calls it grandpa pants)

Guess and Win

2010-08-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

$15 gift card to Target for the first person to guess what this is.

Friends

2010-08-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

Luke asked how many friends we have when I was getting stuff out of the RS closet on Sunday. I said I really couldn't count. He said "I know how many we have, 3". I said I think we have more than that. He said "I think Dad threw the rest of them away". At this point I realized he was talking about The Friend magazine.

Ba-Bye

2010-08-24T22:05:00.002-07:00

Fefe got her cast off yesterday! She had her splint for 1 week and the cast for 2 1/2 weeks so 3 1/2 weeks total. She's a fast healer. She was supposed to get a short arm cast yesterday, but they thought it looked good enough to just go with a brace for a couple weeks. She doesn't have to wear it all the time, just when running around during the day. We were both pretty happy with that news. I'm so scared to touch her arm since it is not fully healed, but she is just fine with it. I gave her a nice celebration bath last night.

Attention

2010-08-24T22:05:00.001-07:00

See below the high adventure for two new posts. They ended up below because my drafts were started before I put up the high adventure notes.

High Adventure

2010-08-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

Fifty Miler Report Out

Monday
• Chaffing
• When I ask for Alec’s water bottles to fill up he has already done it
• EFC – Especially for Kids
• Sami coins the word “Sameurism” when he tries to say “Sami-ism” and unwittingly combines Sami with Aneurism – a word is born.
• With his fleet-of-foot hiking and elvish good looks Tyler earns the nickname Legolas.
• Bro. Morgan’s knee gives out with 5 miles left and has to peg-leg it into camp earning him the nickname Gimpli to Tyler’s Legolas
• When we finally drag into our destination, pole creek is dry.
• We had just enough water to make our Mountainhouse for dinner and collapse into bed.
• Everyone found humility

Tuesday
• Hiked down to Soap Creek then back up to Alder creek
• Alec earned the nickname “first pack” by consistently being the last one to get his pack on after a break.
• Tyler says Monday was officially worse than Runkle creek hike
• Bro. Schneider tries to subdue Sami with a half-nelson, full-nelson, and finally has to resort to a Tony Nelson
• Built our first fire and Legolas burnt his finger
• Bathed and did laundry in the freezing cold runoff of a glacier – figured out why washing machines have water settings for hot, warm, cold, but not “freaking cold”
• Josh took off his socks and revealed a war zone of blisters
• We discovered that no one brought mole skin except Gimpli even though we bought extra mole skin on the way to the Sisters

Wednesday
• Hiked back to South Mathiew Lake and created base camp
• Things Bro. Schneider and Sami burned on a rock with a magnifying glass
o m&m
o Gummy worm
o Peanut m&m
• Hiked up to North Mathiew Lake and got eaten alive by one million mosquitos
• Bro. Morgan and Bro. Schneider argue about progression between kingdoms
• Alec burns a smiley face into a stump that looks suspiciously like a Klansman

Thursday
• Bro. Morgan woke up and counted 10 mosquito bites on just his right elbow
• Hiked to Collier Cone
• Drank the coldest and best tasting water ever from Minnie Scott Spring.
• Boys remain calm at the first sight of teenage girls in a week.
• Everyone but Gimpli hikes to the hip of Collier Cone.
• Only Legolas and Johndalf make the full ascent to the rim of the cone.
• While waiting for the climbers
o Josh and Bro. Morgan have a rock throwing contest at the base of Collier Cone. Josh hits the tablet twice and Bro. Morgan knocks a rock off of another rock.
o Alec builds rock tower but becomes frustrated and throws it.
o Sami nearly falls down the hill of razor sharp volcanic rock but gets a picture of himself on the edge of destruction
• At sunset we all hiked to the top of the peak next to camp and watched the sun go down. Looked for a green flash, but it turned out Bro. Schneider’s dad was full of it.

Friday
• Hiked the Lava Camp Lake loop.
• Legolas’ bumblebee staff attracts and actual bumble bee which follows him for 7 miles
• Bro. Schneider turns to Bro. Morgan and says “if only we were cannibals, just think of the meals we could have had”
• Everyone takes a bath in South Mathiew Lake
o Bro. Schneider is teaching everyone about how you only need to use a few drops of soap when Sami asks “Is this too much?” We turn to see Sami scrubbing his hair with a full afro of suds like he is in a shampoo commercial
• First thunderstorm to actually turn our direction dumps some water and lightning on us while we huddle by some rocks. Sami fails to bring his poncho.

Saturday
• Wake up early and hike out.
• Everyone pigs out at Carl’s Jr.
• Kodak has a hard time remembering how to behave in public

Things we hiked over/through
• Volcanic dust
• Old growth forest
• Glacier
• Rock jungle
• Lava Flow
• Flat meadow covered in wild flowers
• Barren wastelands
• Elephant graveyard

When I spend time on campouts I often think about what kinds of experiences my son Brother B will have in scouting. On this camp I couldn’t help but wonder if he’ll end up as good as these boys. Will he turn out this tough, this considerate, this capable? I hope so.

We Love Most Animals

2010-08-15T00:28:00.002-07:00

We've had quite the rollercoaster with domesticated animals the last month. Ephant and Loofa are terrified of dogs in a fairly irrational way. Reassuring them that your dog is friendly does not help. At our pioneer day picnic the kids were introduced to my sister's latest dog. Keljsie is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. She's pretty old. They rescued her from a breeder that didn't treat her very well. She is the perfect dog. She doesn't bark, jump or slobber. She's about as sweet a thing as you can get. I'm not a dog person, but I could imagine myself owning a dog like her. Ephant fell in love with her. It really opened up a portal for her to feel more comfortable with dogs. I might have to call her a therapy dog.

Brother B fell in love with their kitten, Beckham. Since we got back from vacation he has suddenly decided he loves our cats. He spends most of the day outside petting them and following them around. I had wondered if any of the kids would ever show interest in the cats.

The cat whisperer.

The sad/happy news is that I was finally able to catch the two strays eating our food and take them to the shelter. They were feral so I'm almost certain they were put to sleep (the sad part). I was really worried that I was going to regret the decision to take them to the shelter, but after praying about it I felt okay.

Mount St Helens

2010-08-15T00:28:00.001-07:00

A week after getting back from Utah we went on another adventure up to Mt St Helens with my friend Jenn and her kids. For some reason we really love to visit that volcano. Sadly the majority of my pictures have disappeared. I must have accidentally deleted them somehow. So enjoy the following, but cry for how much more it could have been.

Cute little chimpmunks

All the kids.

Crazy caterpillars that the kids loved.

Ephant wanted a pic with just her.

One day after getting her purple cast.

Loofa has mutated and wants to eat Brother B's brains.

This is the first time we've stopped at the Weyerhauser visitor center. It turned out to be pretty cool. The museum itself was interesting and there was an awesome playground outside.

The Finale

2010-08-15T00:06:00.000-07:00

We spent a couple days in Bountiful. J's parents were awesome to watch the kids the whole time we were in the hospital. Their day was probably just as exhausting :) Thursday I slept in a bit, but I didn't sleep well that night so I was still pretty tired. Fefe is not the easiest child to sleep with especially when her arm is broken. She slept pretty well, she just cried out a couple times.

J's parents took us to the Clark Planetarium. We checked out the exhibits for a short time and then went and saw an Imax show. It was about the oceans. I was a little disappointed in it because there was not enough variety of fish. I think a 1/3 of it was spent on cuddle fish. Plus the usual global warming spiels. Trying to make me feel bad about seals that look cute underwater, but would just as soon bite your face off.

After the planetarium we introduced J's parents to the delights of riding Trax to get to Temple Square. Grandma had given the kids a whole load of pennies to throw in the reflecting pool. I was pretty nervous about Fefe falling in and getting her splint wet. It was a hot day so we didn't last too long. I was heartily tired of sweating by this point in our trip. We stopped by Arctic Circle on the way back so the kids could get some ice cream cones. Fefe fell asleep so I stayed in the car with her while everyone went inside. It was an opportune time for me to schedule her cast appt back in Oregon. She had to wear the splint for one week while the swelling went down and then get it casted.

That evening we watched the Princess and the Frog while Grandma put a new backing on Fefe's blanket and did a general tuneup. Fefe had a substitute piece of fabric to cuddle with that matched her blankie so she didn't get upset while it was being worked on. That child is way too attached. The kids had a really good time hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. I sure like J's parents too.

Friday morning we loaded up for the last time to head home. I had initially planned on stopping halfway, but was anxious to get home. I had a good book to listen to and plenty of energy. The kids were disappointed because they were hoping to swim in another hotel pool, but I told them too bad. We made really good time and got home about 8:30 that night. I was glad to see the cats survived another long trip and that the house hadn't burned down. I was particularly grateful to sleep in my own bed again. All in all it turned out to be a really good trip. We took it easy, but still did enough to keep the kids entertained. Family is so important and I want my kids to feel like they have good relationships with all their close relatives.

The Bones They Are A-breaking

2010-08-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

I swear there are tons of people breaking their limbs around me lately. A few days before I had been talking to my brother about when he broke his arm. I had to take him to the hospital since my parents were out of town so it made a bit of an impression on me. I mentioned to him that I wondered when one of my kids would break something or if they ever will.

So, I was sitting in my grandparents front room having a nice chat. The kids were playing in the back yard when Brother B and Loofa came dashing in with very panicked looks on their faces saying "I think Fefe broke her arm!". I jumped up and dashed to the back just as Fefe was coming in sobbing. There was no mistaking the fact that her arm was broken since it was at a definite angle. My grandma told me to go to LDS hospital since they have a less crowded ER. I left the other kids with them. We almost forgot Fefe's blankie. Thank heavens I went back for it or that would have been an even longer day. I was so grateful for my iphone so I could look up driving directions. I called J's parents and had them come pick up the kids so I could go straight to Bountiful when we were done. Fefe wasn't crying too hard, but she kept saying over and over "I need a bandaid". It was truly pitiful.

This is the best picture I have of it broken. I wish I had a better one.

I was a tad in shock, but once we got settled in a room I was doing better. Fefe fell asleep on my while we were waiting for x-rays. She kept her blankie over her arm because it made her happier. They gave her a bandaid since she kept asking for one.

The xrays showed both bones were broken, but the radius was offset so it would have to be set. The orthopedist wasn't comfortable doing that so they sent us up to Primary Children's hospital after the x-rays. We spent about an hour and a half at LDS. They let us drive to Primary. I'm so glad they didn't insist on an ambulance.

We got back to a room pretty fast at Primary. That was when the long wait began. We waited about 5 hours for the pediatric orthos to get out of surgery. Fefe got an iv and some morphine during that time. She was really upset about the iv. I think it bothered her more than her arm. We were both pretty hungry and tired. I hadn't eaten anything all day. I thought I would get lunch at least, but I didn't want to eat in front of Fefe. I knew she would need to have an empty stomach for the sedation. We spent some time reading books, watching cartoon network and playing the iphone. Fefe kept asking to leave and I kept telling her we had to get her arm fixed. Towards the end she said "Where's my Ephant, I need my Ephant". The magic finally started happening at 7pm. They moved us to a bigger room because they had a big old flouroscope to make sure they set the arm right while she was sedated. She really fought the sedation. It was actually kind of funny. She kept refusing to lay down and then suddenly, boom, she was out. It was a very short acting sedative so they had to time it just right. As soon as she was out, they set it, checked it, put on a splint and sling, and then they were done. She was so out of it. If she hadn't been breathing I would have thought she was dead.

To leave we had to wait for her to wake up and eat something without puking. By this point if one more person asked me how it happened I was going to bite their head off. I know why they do it, but I got so tired of saying "I don't know." Fefe was a little disgruntled when she woke up and really wanted her Popsicle. The nurse was nice and brought me some cheese and crackers too. It was a good thing because I was seeing stars at that point and I don't think I could have driven.

We finally made it out at 7:40. I promised Fefe a cheeseburger so we stopped at Mcd's on the way up to Bountiful. The kids were really happy to see us. When we got there, there was an accident at the top of their street so we walked up to spectate. I got to see the jaws of life for the first time ever. The person didn't seem hurt too bad. Fefe was doing really well with her arm and didn't complain about it hurting. We were both exhausted.

I didn't find out till later how it happened. My grandparents have a little swing in their backyard. It hangs from a metal pipe that is about as tall as me sticking out from the garage wall. Brother B had Fefe on his shoulders while she was holding on to it. She let go and tumbled forward. The doc told me it is the most common fracture in kids (a buckle fracture) because it is the result of trying to catch themselves when falling. Her cousin got one around the same time and a boy in our ward got one about a week later. See what I mean about an epidemic?

They match pretty well!

Deseret

2010-08-14T23:24:00.002-07:00

Sandy was refreshing to be at because there was plenty of space for the kids to run around and we were back to normal shopping venues.

The kids discovered this mask so they all had to pose for pictures.

Friday, my dad and I went on an extensive shopping trip to get supplies for the Pioneer Day picnic on Saturday. It was fun to have some bonding time with him. After naps he took us to the aquarium in Sandy. It is small (and probably a bit overpriced for what they have), but they had all the important stuff. Ephant really loved the seahorses. Fefe dashed from place to place. I had quite the time keeping track of her. In the course of following her around we lost Ephant. She was pretty upset about that. We spent the majority of our time at the stingrays. Loofa's arm was a little short and Fefe just enjoyed dipping her hand in the water. Ephant and Brother B managed to touch a few. They aren't quite as social as the ones at Sea World, but I think that is because you could feed the SW ones.

Saturday was the big pioneer day celebration. Okay, maybe it wasn't that big, but it was bigger than it usually it for us since we don't really celebrate it in Oregon. I spent alot of my morning making a home made potato salad. I really can't stand store brought potato salad so I offered to make some. Everyone showed up around 4pm, my aunt and uncle, their kids and my grandma. After the BBQ my sister took us on a hike up to a little waterfall. It was a pretty easy hike, but I probably shouldn't have worn flip flops.

One of the many McMansions on the Sandy hills. Ephant had to have a pic of this one.

When we got back Uncle J and Cousin B put on a small fireworks show for us. Fefe wasn't all that thrilled this time. She kept wanting to go inside. I'd tell her to go inside, but then she'd come right back out because she didn't want to be alone.

Church was at 9am on Sunday. I sure love that time. Right now we have 2pm church and I can't wait to be done with that. Fefe really liked the nursery. There were only 3 other kids in there and the nursery leaders were awesome. I had to laugh at the combined lesson. It was focused on how great women are and we got the usual claptrap about how women are worth $500,000 a year. Did any of these people take a math class?

I had offered to make Sunday dinner so I made some roast. I was pretty disappointed in the chuck roast I got from Costco. It was super fatty. I think we were only able to use about a third of it. If it was my Costco I probably would have taken the time to complain. The rolls I made didn't rise either (I ended up making cinnamon rolls from the dough the next day). Luckily I had some Bisquick so I made some biscuits really fast. I guess it could have been worse, but I hate it when you work on a meal all day and it turns out subpar.

Apartment 308

Monday was Utah Valley Day. After another lovely morning of sleeping in we headed down. Our first stop was J and I's Wymount apartment we lived in when Ephant was born. I wanted to get a picture of us in front of it. Next we dropped by the creamery to get J his BYU ranch dressing. It really is worth it. Then we headed to the BYU bookstore to get everyone new t-shirts. I always get nostalgic when I go there. That was my favorite place to work.

We hung out down at Aunt J's house for just a few minutes and then drove over to the Provo CLAS ropes course. My mom had bought some tickets for a 2 hour session from Groupon. It was awesome! During that time we were all able to go on a zipline, climb a rock wall and go canoeing for 20 minutes. Aunt J's friend watched Fefe for us. She had a pretty good time. She turned into a total social butterfly last month. She is always going up to people and saying, "Hi, my name is Fefe." and then trying to talk their ears off. It doesn't matter if they are children or adults. When I dropped her off to be babysat she just took off and I had to grab her to even get a kiss. I'm glad she is so outgoing, but I do have to keep a close eye on her. During the climbing wall portion Loofa started questioning us about the canoeing. He had never heard of them before so he was trying to figure out what it meant that we were going canoeing. Finally he exclaimed "The boat comes with a river!".

I was surprised how well Loofa did climbing the 50 foot pole.

Ephant looked pretty nervous once she got up, but enjoyed it.

Brother B did it all with his usual stoicism.

That harness and helmet really does something for me, huh?

Loofa did pretty good climbing up, but he had no idea how to get down.

We didn't do much on Tuesday except go to the Mayan restaurant in the evening. I thought the kids would be old enough to really enjoy the atmosphere, which they did. We were able to see two cliff diving shows while there and meet the performers towards the end. They started walking around and I told Fefe to go give them a hug. She didn't hesitate and walked right up to them. I wish I had it on video. They thought she was pretty cute. The only downside was the food was absolutely disgusting and I don't say that lightly. I can make better cheese enchiladas than that. I still need to write them a letter. It was not cheap either. At least Aunt A got a nice shot with some cute boys for her birthday.

Here's Fefe with the crew gathered around to hear her babble.

Aunt A's birthday present

I can't remember if it was Tuesday or Wednesday that Fefe had her infamous deer encounter outside. Most of you probably saw it on facebook, but I wanted to put it down here too. I let her into the backyard to eat her gogurt and then went into the bathroom. While in there I heard her start crying and yelling "I need my mom!" and "Open the door!" I hurried as fast as I could and went to open the door. As soon as I did she cried "The moose is coming to get me, I'm scared!". There was a deer standing about 5 feet away from her. So I sat down with her while she finished her gogurt. The deer didn't seem too scared of us, but eventually it went away.

Wednesday we loaded up once more to visit J's inlaws in Bountiful. On the way we stopped by Granite bakery first to get some cinnamon knots. Can't have a trip to Utah without those hip fatteners. Second we stopped by my grandparents for a quick visit. This is where the infamous arm breaking occurred. Next post...

Cabins and Dead Squirrels

2010-08-14T23:16:00.000-07:00

It took about 4 hours to get to the family cabin. I was ready to relax and the kids were ready to have fun. Aunt A was awesome with the kids and played with them way more than I did. We didn't do a whole ton while up there. It was fairly cool, the whole West seems to be having a much cooler summer.

We spent some time playing in the river. Brother B was working really hard at skipping rocks. Ephant got pretty upset about a leach she got on her leg. She was frantically trying to brush it off until Aunt A came and pulled it off. We'll see if she ever gets in that river again.

My parents always bring one of their cats, Nova, up to the cabin with them. She turns into a mighty huntress up there. She killed two squirrels while we were there. The squirrels were always squawking up in the trees at her. One time I was sitting in the hanging chair on the porch, soaking in the outdoors when I heard this particularly frantic squirrel. I wasn't surprised when Nova showed up with it dead.

Some kids pulled this squirrel out of the river. I found it a nice sunny spot under a bush to dry off. It was totally in shock so I had no problem picking it up.

Aunt A also drove the kids around on the ATV a couple of times. She got Fefe into the mode of calling it the beast. It was pretty hilarious to hear her say she wanted to ride the beast.

Tuesday we drove through Yellowstone and saw all the usual hot spots. I drove a little farther than usual because I've been wanting to take the kids out to Yellowstone Lake for a couple years. It was pretty cool and the kids didn't care much for the gravelly sand, but it was beautiful and the waves were fun.

Listen closely to Loofa, he's the best part of this video.

Wednesday we did a very short trip up to Mount Sawtelle. It was freezing up there! I usually expect some wind, but it was bitterly cold. There were even spots where the snow hadn't melted. We stayed up there long enough to get one picture and then we jumped back into the van. I'm not sure if it was worth the thick coating of dust we got on the van during the drive.

Thursday morning we loaded back up and headed down to Utah. Aunt A hitched a ride with us and kept us entertained with her saucy humor. We only had one major setback. About a mile from the cabin we came to a standstill for some road construction. After sitting there for 1/2 hour I peeked around the semi we were behind and noticed that everyone in front of him had already moved. Boy was I mad. As we drove past we didn't even see anyone in the cab. I hope he had a good reason and wasn't just taking a nap. We had to wait another 1/2 hour once we got around him. That made our trip down to Utah an extra hour long. Bleh. At least that was the most annoying part of any of the drives.

Let's Begin

2010-08-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

I decided to be adventurous and go on a 2 week visit to Idaho and Utah without J. Since he had to use a week of his vacation for high adventure he didn't have enough vacation days and I really wanted to see family this summer.

Ephant hardly slept the night before because she was going to miss her daddy so much. I knew it was going to set her off, but we stopped by J's work for last minute kisses on the way out of town. She was fine after that though and didn't cry about it till we got home and she saw the note he left for her on her bed.

So, we headed off to Utah first on July 16th. My cousin was getting married in the Twin Falls temple that weekend so that was our first destination. Aunt J found a pretty awesome hotel. It had the best hotel pool I've seen in awhile. We spent the majority of our free time there. Fefe and Loofa were real daredevils. Luckily Fefe preferred the hot tub so I was able to enjoy that.

I wish we could use floats like this at our pool.

Saturday morning I woke up at 8:30, got ready and rushed over to the temple. It was only a few minutes away, nevertheless I was surprised to see everyone else's cars still in the parking lot. When I got to the temple the men at the front desk told me that they had moved the wedding to Boise later in the day because the bride's brother wouldn't get into town till later. I was wondering why no one told me. Apparently they had knocked on our door a couple of times. Little did they know that my kids don't wake up at the crack of dawn so we were still sleeping. I had to steel myself for the 2 hour drive up to Boise and the 2 1/2 hour drive back after the reception that evening. I feel like I was blessed with so much more driving endurance than I usually have. It also helped having audio books to listen too. On the way I listed to The Overton Window and heading back I listened to The Help.

The sealing itself was lovely. It is always nice to see how happy the couples are at weddings. The reception was down in the middle of nowhere, but the house it was at was beautiful and it was a nice setting right next to the Snake river. Of course I had to keep a close eye on my water loving child. Fefe was pretty fascinated by the river so we had to keep yelling at her to get back. We took a back road to get back to the freeway down to Twin Falls. I really cut it close with the gas tank. I forget to calculate how fast it will go with the car topper on. Speaking of which, I sure love that thing. It is nice to not have to scrimp with packing and actually have room in the van while traveling. We made it back to Twin Falls around 9:30 that night and the kids had a quick dip in the pool.

The next morning we slept in a bit and then heading off to Island Park.

Ephant snapped this in ID. I love sunsets in the deseret.

Summer Plays

2010-08-14T23:00:00.000-07:00

I really need to pace myself, but since it has been a couple months prepare yourself. I'll hopefully get caught up over the next couple of days.

Ephant really enjoyed her 2 week theater class. It is definitely right up her alley. I just included a couple of clips, it is about 5 minutes in length, so I only expect Grandparents and very loving aunts and uncles to watch it. It probably won't make sense, you just need to admire how cute Ephant is. :)

The Latest and Greatest

2010-07-02T15:33:00.001-07:00

I don't have a ton of pictures to share, but we've had a fair amount going on.

Loofa had his week of summer soccer already. Thankfully it wasn't rainy that week. This summer has been so much wetter than usual. Loofa enjoyed his soccer again even with his typical complaining. He'll be doing the regular fall season this year for the first time. The park we were at had a spray park (new this year) and some pretty cool play structures. Now that Ephant is old enough to watch the kids at home I usually leave her while taking kids to activities, but she is still enough of a kid that she wanted to go to soccer everyday and play. I kind of wish she hadn't so I could leaver Feefers at home. That child is quite the momma's girl.

Fefe had an aborted potty training event. Between peeing on my iphone and refusing to poop on the potty, it just wasn't happening. I'll probably wait a couple months till school starts and try again. She mostly had it down, but she is so STUBBORN. At one point, I was forcing her to stay on the potty to poop and in the midst of her tears she kept saying "I'm freaking out!" You really have to hear her say it in her little chipmunk voice to truly appreciate it. No I get to deal with her telling me every time she pees her diaper. Silly girl.

Ephant is in the middle of her first theater class. It is a two week long class. They are making up their own play and at the end of the session we'll get to watch it. She is truly enjoying the experience. I'm sure we'll video her play for everyone to see later.

Brother B hasn't done much, but he is really looking forward to cub scout day camp. That boy will really make his Grandpa C proud with how much he is enjoying Scouts.

Both J and I had our birthday's the last week or so. We got J a deep fryer and J got me a computer chair. We haven't tested out the deep fryer yet, but we are very excited to have fresh french fries and scones. One of these days I'm going to attempt deep fried snickers and twinkies. I'll have to get my cholesterol checked soon and in a year to see what affect it has had :) I just updated my recipe book. You can download it here. The computer chair has been awesome. I had no idea I could be this comfortable while sitting at the computer.

We are finally out of our warranty period on the Odyssey. Boy does that hurt. I took the van in last week to get the air conditioning fixed (the front blower had gone out). That cost $350 to repair, just to replace some relay pack. The front brakes had to be replaced at another $350 and the tires were worn down. I'm never getting Michelin tires again. Les Schwab's tires cost the same, but they gave us an 80,000 tread warranty. Thank heavens because the Michelins lasted only 35,000 miles. The tires cost another $700. I'm not sure how much of an inheritance the kids are going to get.

Speaking of spending money. We finally got a NEW couch. Not a hand me down or a Goodwill find. The kids destroyed Grandma Morgan"s couch (okay, maybe my elephant behind played a role in that too) and J had had enough of the cushions not fitting properly anymore. We checked out a few furniture stores and Costco too and ended up with a leather reclining couch from Costco. It has been so nice. I was grateful once again for the hitch on the back of my van so we only had to rent a trailer to haul it home. I'm hoping they'll get the loveseat back in stock soon so we can get that as well.

Hip Hop Till You Drop

2010-06-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

We've finally found the perfect match for Ephant's dance skills. She was always so so about ballet, but she loves hip hop. She's pretty good at it too. It's great to see I can produce a child with skills I don't have. This is from her dress rehearsal last night. The actual performance is tonight. You might see her cousin S in some of the video, but I mostly focused on Ephant.

One Big Family

2010-06-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

Aunt J's youngest son just left on his mission to Sweden. The weekend of his farewell she had all her kids and grandkids so we decided to do a massive photoshoot. Luckily the pictures turned out great. This picture was a composite of probably 5 pictures. Thank heavens for photoshop and lightroom.

Loofa's Big Week

2010-06-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

Loofa graduated from preschool last month. I love these graduations mostly because it is fun to see how your child will react in front of a large crowd. There weren't really any laugh out loud moments like with Ephant and Brother B, but it was still fun.

Who can guess what Loofa is holding in this picture?

Funny Girl

2010-06-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

This is how I discovered Fefe one day:

Another day:

She really loves playing outside. One of her favorite things to do is find potato bugs.

Tie Dye Muslin Backdrop Tutorial

2010-05-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

1. Save up several milk jugs (the number depends on how many colors you plan to use).

2. Purchase muslin (I dyed a couple very large pieces - about 10x20). Joanns is a good place to get this, especially with a 40% off coupon.

3. Sew edges of muslin - make a rod pocket at top if desired.

4. Boil water.

5. Shake the Rit dye well. Pour dye into milk jugs. A general amount is about 1/2 of a container of the Rit liquid dye (I do not recommend the powdered dye). It does take some experimentation to figure out how much you need to make it as dark or as light as you want.

6. Pour boiling water in the milk jugs. I used a large measuring cup. The jugs were in the sink while I poured to avoid messes since the water didn't go in all that easy.

7. While the jugs cool for a minute, lay your muslin flat on some grass. Soak it thoroughly. Scrunch it to about 1/3 it's size using grasping motions with your hand.

8. Shake the jug(s) over the muslin to coat it. You will need to wear oven mitts while doing this as the jugs will still be quite hot. Be careful, you will most likely get dye on yourself and the mitts.

9. Pull the muslin flat and shake dye over any bare spots. Other websites suggest putting it in a spray bottle to fill the gaps.

The red is before the first washing the and the gray is ready for it's second dyeing.

10. If you like how it looks, let it dry outside before washing. Washing will cause the color to bleed. I like this effect so I put it in the washer immediately. Use the rinse cycle with cold water. Once it is done put it in the dryer. I usually dye it a second time for a darker look.

11. Soak the grass afterwards to rinse out the dye, it will kill the grass otherwise.

I can't say I'm super happy with how this gray turned out. I'd like the blue I put in to stand out more, but it's at least a nice basic gray.

I was really worried how this red/brown was going. It is not at all what I was planning, but I like it nonetheless. My next project will be a true brown which I might actually achieved based on what I figured out in the tips below.

A few tips I've learned:

The rit brown dyes all tend towards a red tint. I discovered this the hard way. To combat this, add green to the brown. Rit's website has "recipes" to achieve the colors you want. It really does take some trial and error. You could probably try and be precise, but I didn't feel like wasting time on that. Hence my backdrops will probably always turn out not quite the way I planned, but ciest la vie.

Some people suggest adding salt to the rinse cycle to fix the dye. I've also read somewhere suggested soaking it in a tub of water with vinegar. This is definitely still a learning process, but it is so nice to have something beyond the standard black and white.

Horning's Hideout

2010-05-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

After the groundbreaking ceremony we decided the day was too beautiful to waste. My friend has told me about a great place to catch salamanders. So, we packed up a lunch and headed out. The lake was positively teaming with salamanders. We spent about 2 1/2 hours there and the kids probably could have stayed the rest of the day.

Loofa's hands are covered in fish guts in this pic. The adults were having a hard time removing the hook and Loofa didn't mind getting his hands dirty. Yuck.

There are a couple play structures there. The first time Loofa slid down he launched and did quite the roll. I wish I had that on video. You can see the potential for it in this video though when J catches him.

Finally, A Stake Center

2010-05-17T17:41:00.000-07:00

Our stake was created 3 years ago and we finally had the groundbreaking ceremony for the new stake center this past Saturday. It was pretty exciting. I hope we live here for the rest of our lives so it was fun to think about being here at the beginning.

*Explanation for the non-members: Yes, for the non-mormons reading my blog I did spell stake right. Our church is divided into units. The local congregations are divided into wards and then those wards are grouped into a stake. A few wards will meet in the stake center and the other wards will meet in our current building. We have stake meetings twice a year so it will be nice to have a building all our own to finally meet in.

All I wanted..

2010-05-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

...for Mother's Day was a family picture. Out of 107 pictures we had 2 somewhat use-able ones. I was in quite the bad mood the rest of the day, partially since my older children were half the problem. I got over it though and now I'm glad we have updated pictures.

Once again, this one with all of us was a composite of 3 pictures.

Another Good Use

2010-05-17T17:34:00.000-07:00

Fefe came up with this idea all on her own.

First Haircut

2010-05-17T17:31:00.001-07:00

We finally chopped Fefe's hair a couple weeks ago. Most of you probably saw my post on Facebook. She did quite well. It really helped that she could watch a carton on the tv behind her through the mirror. She's pretty cute, but I miss her long hair. Ephant had layers cut during the same visit. I was surprised how much she loves them.

The End, We Thought

2010-04-23T23:03:00.000-07:00

New kitchen counter tops was supposed to be the last big project, but now they are in, J has decided the cabinets just won't do. So instead of replacing them, we'll just paint them. I'm sure enjoying my new counter tops though. I can't tell you how tired I was of dealing with grout every time I wiped them down.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Before:

After:

Whoever owned our home before must have really loved blue. The house was blue, the carpets were blue and the counter tops were blue. No more! Blue is my favorite color, but I'm not obsessed like that.

The Nitty Gritty

2010-04-23T22:26:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile since I've shared what the kids have been up to just in general, so here is your update.

Ephant is getting very excited to go to the upper elementary next year. For those that don't know, we have a really weird system in our school district. Elementary is K-4, Upper Elementary is 5-6, Middle School is 7-8 and High school is 9-12. So Ephant is ready to move on. We went on a tour of the school the other night and she could barely contain her excitement. She's especially excited for band and orchestra. She's planning to do both violin and flute. She started telling me all the instruments she wants to learn and told me I was going to have to get her private lessons since she won't be able to learn them all in school. I was trying to explain to her that she is going to have to specialize at some point because she (and I) will run out of time for all of that. Next year she also wants to take two dance classes. Can I say "overachiever". I'm glad she is so motivated though.

She has also been having tons of fun with her friend down the street. We drive her home from school and then she and Ephant run around the neighborhood for a few hours. The weather has been gorgeous lately so that has really helped.

Brother B keeps plugging along. For all his social reservations he seems to be quite popular at school. I think the kids all like the strong silent type. The girls in particular seem to like him. He's going to be quite the ladies man. He is very sweet. He's always helping out Fefe. I think she is the only one he is willing to get kisses from at this point. He's currently still taking gymnastics. I keep asking him if he wants to take other sports, but he's nowhere near as motivated as Ephant. He really likes to dabble. It's fine with me though. I did make him start taking piano lessons. He didn't want to at first, but I've been surprised how much he has actually been enjoying them. It helps that he has a very sweet teacher. Brother B is also doing very well academically. He just finished up testing for TAG and I can't imagine he won't pass. He has a fabulous teacher this year and I'll be sad when he moves up next year.

The thing I love best about Brother B right now is how much he loves talking to his mom. He really enjoys going places with just me and telling me about everything going on in his life. A few years ago I wondered if he would always be so hard to talk to, but he is really starting to open up and I love it.

Loofa continues to be our sweet little troublemaker. The child has a persistence streak like you would not believe when he really wants something. For all that though I still love him to pieces. He doesn't care for the all the smooches I still like to give him. I've had to stop kissing him when I drop him off at preschool now because of what a ruckus he would make. He loves his playdates with his friend A from church. Every Monday A comes to our house and Wednesdays Loofa goes to his house. It is a nice break for A's mom and I. I wish they could go to the same school next year. Of course, it might be good that they are not. Loofa is still very much into video games although he has gotten a bit better since we banned him from them a month ago for 2 weeks. The nice weather has certainly helped too. I'm glad I don't have to force the kids to go play outside, that they just naturally want to be out there. He and Brother B are great friends. The particularly love swinging or climbing trees together.

Fefe is in just the cutest stage right now. Her talking is so good and she is as sweet and polite as can be. She's a little social butterfly too. She already enjoys playing with other kids. I don't remember the other three really caring about playing with other kids this early. I guess that is what comes from being the youngest. I've probably mentioned before too that she is my first to really enjoy playing with figurines like Polly pockets and Barbie. I used to wonder what was wrong with my other kids that they didn't like toys like that, it is nice to have a normal one :) Fefe can't get enough of playing outside, especially on the swing. We have to make sure the back gates are always closed because she is constantly running into the backyard to play on the swings. She's been pretty sick with a high fever the last couples of days so I got a nice cuddle with her yesterday. It is fun to watch her grow, but sad to see my baby getting so big. Sometime soon we're going to take her in and get her her first real haircut. She's got a little bit of Farrah Fawcett going on some days.

We had a trip out to the Tulip Festival last Saturday. The pictures really turned out so so because it was so sunny. The flowers were beautiful. I wish bulbs lasted longer than they do. At least my roses are going to start blooming soon.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

2010-04-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

It's been 8 years, and the lovely blue carpet is finally gone from our home. We replaced the last of it yesterday in our bedroom. We chose a light color for the first time. Hopefully it'll be safe in our room. It took some getting used to, I've never had such a light color in a room before, but I'm really liking it now.

The best part of it all is what I found while taking the box springs downstairs. I heard some clinking as I walked down the stairs and Loofa said "What's this?". My wedding ring had fallen out of the box spring. What's funny is that I had wondered if I would find the ring while taking all the furniture out. Don't ask me how it got in there in the first place. I was getting tired of the cheap ring I was wearing and was about to break down and get another ring so this was just in time. (One of our many lost cat collars fell out as well)

Lemon Meringue Cookies

2010-03-31T21:16:00.000-07:00

Good thing these are a pain to make, otherwise I'd be a lot fatter.

J calls them egg cookies since they look like raw eggs.

Lemon Meringue Cookies

Cookie:

2/3 c. butter

1 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 unbeaten egg

2 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Meringue:

3 egg whites

3/4 c. sugar

2 tsp. lemon juice

Lemon Filling:

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. lemon juice

1 tsp. lemon rind (optional)

3 slightly beaten egg yolks

3 tbsp. butter

Cookie Dough:

Cream butter; gradually add brown sugar and cream well. Add vanilla and egg and beat well. Sift together flour, soda and salt and add gradually to creamed mixture; mix well. Chill for about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare lemon filling, then meringue. Shape chilled dough into balls, using a level tsp. for each. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and flatten with greased and floured glass bottom. Place a rounded tsp. of meringue on each cookie. Form a hollow in each with a tsp. dipped into cold water. Bake at 300 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until meringue is cream colored. Remove from baking sheets and cool. Fill hollow in top of each with 1/2 tsp Lemon filling.

Meringue:

Beat egg whites until slight mounds form. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition. Continue eating until meringue stands in stiff, glassy peaks. Blend in lemon juice and beat.

Lemon Filling:

Put all Lemon Filling ingredients but butter in a saucepan and heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; add butter. Cool thoroughly.

He Said, She Said

2010-03-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

He calls it Wolverine, I call it White Trash...

The Princess Report

2010-03-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Heaven help us, she discovered Barbies and high heels yesterday.

My New Stress Ball

2010-03-26T16:59:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, February 21st to be exact, I was sitting in church and noticed that my knee felt bruised. I figured I must have just been a clutz again. Later that night, while changing, I looked at my knee and was shocked at how swollen it was. I iced it several times a day for a couple days, but since we had our Great Wolf trip that week I didn't worry about seeing the doctor. My knee was super hot to the touch and even wearing pants the first couple days really hurt. Luckily the cool water at Great Wolf must have been helpful because it was significantly better after our trip. It continued to shrink for a few days, but since then it has stayed about the size of a ping pong ball. Right now it only hurts when I kneel on it. It is sickly fun to squish it. It does feel just like I'm kneeling on a stress ball. I almost went to the doctor, but between being tired of doctor's visits and saving up for Lasik I've decided to give it some more time. I'm pretty sure it is something called prepatellar bursitis. I have no idea what caused it in the first place besides the fact my knee is cursed.

I'm not sure how well this picture shows it, but you can see a bit of a bulge on my knee cap. I imagine if it goes on for too long I'll probably have to go get it drained.

Laughter

2010-03-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

Last night as I was working on the computer I heard a lot of thunking above my head. I figured Loofa was probably up there stumbling around, trying to find the bathroom. When it went on for a few minutes I finally decided to go up there and see what was going on. He was in bed when I opened the door, but he was making this strange noise. I couldn't tell if he was laughing or crying. I was pretty sure it was laughter, but it took me a few minutes to be certain. I marched him into the bathroom, since sleepwalking in the past has been a sure indicator of that need. He continued to laugh through the bathroom visit. When he finished he immediately headed downstairs (with a few chuckles thrown in) as if he had somewhere to be. He climbed up on the couch next to Jacob, curled up and fell right back asleep. I wish I knew what he was dreaming.

I'm Dancing Mom!

2010-03-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

Last week, Loofa asked to watch Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. While he was waiting for the good part to start Fefe had a great time. When Willie came out she exlaimed "Look mom, it's a princess!" When she started dancing I whipped out my handy dandy iphone and captured this footage. Make sure have your volume turned up.

Pretty in Pink

2010-03-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

Backdrops

2010-03-21T21:39:00.000-07:00

I bought some bulletin board paper from Michael's to test out as backgrounds. It turned out to be too shiny, but it gave me some more ideas. When I have a stretch of good weather I'm planning to dye my own backdrop. I have a website that shows how to do it and it doesn't look too bad. We'll see how it turns out. I'm excited to try out something more than the white and black I've been doing previously.

There were a lot of bunny ears in these pictures.

I figured out how to get Loofa to smile in a non-goofy way. Just tease him and try to snap a shot quickly.

Ephant's best friend.

A Fun Filled Birthday Week

2010-03-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

As previously mentioned, Ephant had her 10th birthday party on the 13th. Today was her birthday and since it is Sunday we had to spread some of the birthday tradition out. Last night we took her to Red Robin for her birthday burger. I've never seen someone enjoy being sung to at Red Robin as much as her. She loved it! I wish I had video of her while they were singing.

She's reached a transitional age where toys really aren't very appropriate anymore. It was a bit of a shift to try and figure out what to get her for her birthday. She finally has a camera, although not the highest megapixels, it should keep her happy for awhile.

Now Ephant is finally old enough to babysit. Yay!

Distraction

2010-03-21T20:50:00.001-07:00

In order to distract myself from the crushing blow to democracy and all we hold dear I'd thought I'd update my blog.

It's been awhile, but here are some highlights:

The third week of February we took off to The Great Wolf Lodge again. We had an even more fabulous trip this time around. Loofa was old enough to really enjoy himself. We still had to keep an eye on him, but not a death grip as with Fefe. He was big enough to ride every slide except the Howling Tornado. Thankfully, the kids enjoyed the hot tub as much as we do. Uncle S and Aunt C joined as well in order to double our fun. Sadly, Aunt C lost her wedding ring on the last day. Let this be a warning to all sis-in-laws, I now officially declare this a curse. Better super glue your rings to your fingers. Ephant and Brother B were able to run around and do whatever they wanted, we both enjoyed that freedom. They also became Master Magi's after completing the Magi Quest Adventures. Loofa can't wait till the next time we go so he can do it too. We only had one major problem while we were there. Fefe woke up at 1am the last night coughing, crying and barely able to breath. The poor kid had croup. I took her outside and walked her around for a few minutes. Once she calmed down her breathing got well enough to sleep. We put her in bed with us. It was a pretty restless night though because we were so worried about her. I was able to get her into the doctor as soon as we got back to get some steroids. We all slept pretty deep that night.

Fefe was very excited to wear a swim suit, she just forgot to put on the right one.

In February I also took Ephant and Brother B to see Percy Jackson. Ephant is utterly obsessed with that book. She sure learned alot of Greek mythology. I'm glad she enjoys reading. I did like those books, the movie wasn't all that great in comparison.

The beginning of March was pretty heavy duty stress for me. The first Wednesday the kids had their school concert. It would have been fine if I hadn't had to play single parent that night, but I almost lost it. It was one of those nights where I just had to shut myself in my room and ignore everyone. This was all because of how stressed out I was about the Relief Society Birthday dinner the following night. I had to make pulled pork for the dinner in a roaster. I usually do it in a crockpot so I was nervous it wouldn't turn out. My worst fears came true the next morning when I realized that pork that was supposed to be cooking all night was not cooking! The roaster I had borrowed was broken. So I called Aunt J really fast and arranged to get her other roaster. Luckily this one worked, but I had lost 12 hours of slow cooking time. I ended up having to really crank it up towards the end and it barely finished in time. So much for slow cooked. It still tasted delicious and I got plenty of compliments. We had a talent night theme and it was pretty cool to see what everyone brought. I bought a bunch of birthday balloons from the Dollar Store for decor. Fefe thought they were great.

Fefe's favorite show: Wubbzy

Three days later I had to teach in Relief Society. Thankfully I was blessed with a low stress level on that one. I think my body had reached it's absolute quota of what stress it could handle at that point. My best friend even surprised me and showed up for my lesson.

The craziness was not fully done with the completion of my lesson. Ephant had her 10th birthday party on the 13th. This required some planning and a lot of shopping. I had told her she could invite as many friends as she wanted. Word of advice, do not do that! It wasn't terrible, but it was definitely more of a crowd than I'm really comfortable with. She had a great time though and really enjoyed being the center of attention.

We had a wonderful visit with my Uncle and Aunt from Georgia about a week ago. They were out here for work so they dropped by for dinner and a chat. We don't get to see them too often so it was great to talk. We sure miss them.

Thankfully this last week was quite a bit slower. We have spring break this week and have quite a bit planned to do, including a trip up to Mt. St. Helens.

How Superman should have ended

2010-03-06T16:59:00.001-08:00

How Terminator should have ended

2010-03-06T16:51:00.000-08:00

Master Bathroom Makeover

2010-02-21T11:12:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of documenting my recent home projects, here are some pictures of the master bathroom. This was my sabbatical project, but like all projects, it spilled over by a few months and I am just now putting on the finishing touches. I ripped out the linoleum and put in tile, rebuilt the cabinet to be 4 inches taller, put in a new vanity counter top, replaced the vanity mirrors with one big mirror, added some beadboard, and swapped out the lights and faucet. I don't have any pictures where I hadn't already redone the window trim, but here are some (mostly) before pictures:

I managed to save my circular saw blade when cutting the backer board by flipping it around the wrong directly like everyone said to do online, but I'm pretty sure I'll get lung cancer from the experience. My jig saw blade could not be salvaged after a very short cut.

Building the cabinet was surprisingly painful. I always forget how much planning goes into having it turn out to fit when you get done. I invested in a Kreg pocket hole jig so I could screw together the face plate and that turned out pretty well. I have never invested in a set of big pipe clamps, so that was my only other alternative for getting the face glued together.

This was my first time tiling anything of consequence. Apart from sore knees and sore back, and being really boring, it was not bad.

The beadboard actually went up over a period measured in years, but I synced up the completion of the beadboard with this remodel. Here are some pictures of the finished product. Actually, I shouldn't say it is finished, but at least the stuff I started got finished.

If you zoom in you may be able to see the custom baseboard carve-out for the toilet hose. It is junk like that which pushed out schedule. I noticed that the baseboard was going to collide with the hose right as I was installing that baseboard. Ugh.

This stupid jut comes to a "point" with two crazy angles. Fitting all these was a nightmare.

That crazy dip in the baseboard you'll notice in the next picture in because I forgot how tall the baseboards were and if I left it the full height as it ran into the cabinet that wall-side door would not open.

Pampered Chef

2010-02-20T13:14:00.001-08:00

I just hosted my first Pampered Chef party. If you want to buy stuff, go to this website and place your orders. The orders will close this Friday (26th).

Wainscoting the Stairs

2010-02-19T22:04:00.000-08:00

I took the week off between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Before that all my effort had been going into the stupid master bathroom which I started remodelling on my sabbatical, but I finally got it finished (mostly), which meant I was freed up to do a wainscoting project as I've been wanting to do for a long time. I was going to do the back room, but then I got the bright idea of wainscoting the stairs. Before I could count the cost, I was in knee deep. So, here are some pictures of it.

Funny Faces

2010-02-11T18:00:00.000-08:00

Fefe has really turned into quite the performer lately. I've been meaning to get video of the faces she's made up. This was not her best, you should have seen her Sunday, but it's still pretty good.

Violin Concert

2010-02-11T17:19:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to rendering the footage from Ephant's concert back in January.