Confetti

Lemons, flowers and CTR rings

2012-01-15T21:33:00.004-07:00

Zurich has always taken good care of the things that are important to him. He is a saver. He got a few sheets of stickers for his birthday and they still hang on his board. He amazed us by how well he took care of his Mack truck that was meant for a 6 year old but we gave it to him when he was 2. He usually knows pretty well where the things he cares most about are.

A few Sundays ago he was given a CTR ring. Gary commented that he is amazed that it is still with us, especially since Zurich often wears it.

Olea had come home early from school sick and she and Giddy were napping. To keep the house quiet for them Zurich and Nev and I went out to get the mail and check on our lemon tree. I had good little lemon pickers and we discovered a bunch of flowers we haven't seen yet on the property. Zurich
thought that he had lost his ring outside. While we were looking he said some silly things, "We just need to look for something shiny." "I think it is in the lemon," or "I saw it in the tree." Literally meaning in the trunk of the tree. He also insisted on digging up a bunch of rocks in the driveway looking for it. That surprised Gary when he had a bumpier than usual drive down the lane that evening.

I later determined by looking at pictures we had taken outside that he didn't have his ring on while outside at all. This eased his mind and we later found it on the couch, he went and put it in his treasure box with his pirate necklace which you can see in the picture (a Gianni Versace chain he found in the garage, we cleaned it up and everything because my guess is that it was a dog collar.).

I juiced the lemons and made Lemonade using a recipe I found on Pinterest. They said Juice 6 lemons.... Our lemons are extra juicy, I will modify the recipe in the future, because it was way too much lemon. (Not for me, but for the rest of the family).

I love sweet time with these two.

An olive branch

2012-01-07T14:36:00.005-07:00

I titled this post carefully and hopefully it makes sense. I'm going to talk about something personal and very close to my heart and hope those who read it will appreciate it for what it is and see why it is important to me to share these thoughts. I could share a lot of thoughts, but I am trying to keep this succinct.

Thanks to Wikipedia I have this definition to help me show you the connection I am trying to make.

An Olive Branch: is usually a symbol of peace or victory and was historically worn by brides.

This thought comes from an experience I had while attending college. I was at BYU in a class called Clothing the Family. It sounded like a useful class that would cover budgeting and smart practices and skills to, well, clothe the family.

The class was an utter disappointment.

One day the class had gone to complete poo when a married girl in the class commented on how her husband just wasn't living up to his potential and the "professor" carried on with it. I am not for man bashing. I don't mind joking around about the differences in the genders but serious bashing is right out for me, (I'm gonna get mean here) especially coming from a dim witted, wobbly stiletto heeled, died platinum blonde girl and a justifying debited, needy, older woman who really should know better.

Listening to my tuition money coin in and tinkle around in these empty headed women I couldn't take it any more, and as I sorted through what they were whining about I wondered what was different? Why didn't I have disappointments in my husband that I was just bursting to share with this group of tawdry women? Was it because I was still a newlywed and still had my blinders on? That couldn't be it, some of these girls were more freshly married than I was.

So what was it?

I think sometimes, we women get some pretty big ideas about what marriage and men are like and what our role will be like with them. I know there was plenty I had wrong. But ultimately I think a big problem is we tend to think of our future spouse in a checklist form for so long that when we are married we still think of marriage and our spouse in this checklist form instead of human form, you know, like WE are.

But I had one thing right, the man I married and the fact that I married my man for who he was: imperfect, anal, sometimes irreverent...

I bet most women had that same thing right when they married their spouse. Somewhere we loose perspective though. We've got flaws, sins, weaknesses addictions: I'm talking chocolate, exercise and lack there of, self demeaning practices, weak self worth, sense of entitlement, feminist ideas, laziness, unrealistic expectations... whatever, anything that is out of moderation, anything that hinders our ability to love others, anything that puts us above others, that supersedes our ability to love and forgive:

To get over ourselves.

To marry him for who he IS, every day.

Somewhere, I think we forget why we married them. Even just for a moment, and if we let that moment grow, we have a problem. It's our problem. My heart started beating really fast and my thoughts clarified.

"If you marry someone

for their POTENTIAL

you will be consistently disappointed.

If you marry them for who they ARE

you will be pleasantly surprised."

Class was over for me that day.

But I've come back to this thought often in my life. I am certainly not a perfect woman or wife. I struggle, have setbacks and disappointments, I let my husband down, I waste time, forget stuff and just avoid things that need doing because they are unpleasant, I have different forms of addictions. We all do. Think about it, you've got some "bad habits" just like me. I could go on, but think about it, I'm not perfect. So why should my husband be?

You are not perfect. So why should your husband be?

He shouldn't.

I am gonna go out a limb here and vocalize some thoughts I keep having. This idea applies to many aspects of marriage but I am going to touch on just one now.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we expect our men to be seriously moral.

This is awesome.

I think it is right.

However, we also live in a world where this is extremely uncommon. Many women in marriages just accept that their husband does things (strip joint, web sites etc) that in the LDS church we seriously frown upon. We don't accept it. However, as a local church leader shared in a Young Women's lesson, the temptations are always there, people are always cajoling our men to take a peek, it's not so bad, it's still funny, it pops up uninvited, etc.

Any woman or man who thinks that pornography isn't a problem in their home to some extent is just plain fooling themselves. I don't care how great you all are. I'm not saying that everyone needs counseling or anything like that, I am just saying it is a temptation, like any other temptation, it's real and it's something that you can't just ignore and hope it isn't a problem or won't be a problem. You'll face it somewhere, your husband, brother, friends, son etc. It's something you have to actively fight against. If you don't, it's sure to rear it's ugly head. I see it all around me, and have for years in various forms and casualties.

It's downright crappy. But it's truth and the flesh is weak... It's that temporal body we are so blessed to have and so blessed to try to learn to over come.

So what to do?

Support our men in their struggles. I don't mean pat them on the back and say, "That's cool, I don't mind, it doesn't hurt me." That would be a lie. That's one of those big ones, you know, the Ten Commandments. So don't lie.

If you are a woman, it hurts. No matter what level it exists in. But we have to help them, it's the whole "for better or for worse" thing that we commit to do when we married them. It's their sin, but we can't let it become ours, (it becomes our sin when we let it tear our marriage, family and relationships apart, when we ignore Christ's atonement and it's role in our healing, forgiveness and their recovery) we have to help them daily fight it. It's not the man's fight alone. There have been lots of awesome talks about fighting it in General Conference. Here's a search. They often talk to the men about it, but it's real for women too. So I'm saying my two bits about it to women. Because we have a role in helping our men fight it.

I have been blessed in my marriage because I have a husband who is serious about fighting the temptation. We have found a system of checks that works for us. I don't babysit his browser or anything like that it was a plan he came up with and it works. It's active. It's always active.

In the words of a very wise woman who knows, and whom I love dearly: If he's there, in the marriage and he wants to work on it, you've got something to work with. That's so much better than not having a marriage at all.

I mean be willing to forgive, be active in their recovery, be active in their success. Always be active in your fight against the Destroyer.

Remember you married a person, not a check list, not a perfect ideal.

Extend an Olive Branch: Strive for Peace, Strive for Victory in your marriage.

It's hard, but nothing is as hard as walking in this world alone.

p.s pictures are completely my own (except the olive branch which was found through Google and I can't find the origin). If you would like to share please do so by linking back.

Clamor

2011-12-28T19:54:00.001-07:00

Tonight after dinner which was it's own stress with preparing 3 different meals, two children whining, one throwing up (because she ignored the repeated call for lunch and ate FunDip instead) and wanting to tell me all about it, the other banging his sippy cup, screeching at me, and throwing food on the floor and Mr. relating a troublesome conversation from work... I finally gave up and took the whining, dead-tired almost 3 year old up to her room for cuddles, hoping she would give up and fall asleep. No luck, she wanted the lights on (and can reach the switch). So after a while I went down to get a book to read and saw the kitchen still a mess and everyone else relaxing or making another mess. I sighed and went back up stairs as Nev was whining for me again. Later the eldest is sent to bed because she is too sick to clean out the dishwasher but not too sick to wrestle with her brother. So Gary and I gather up the kids sleeping bags to roll and stuff them away and 3 of the kids follow us. Nev has brought a basket full of her polly pocket type dolls, accessories, and furniture. Giddy baby is chewing on something and wants to nurse. Zurich wants cuddles.

Gary and I try to roll up the bags but Giddy is rubbing against me like a cat and clawing at me and pulling my hair and climbing on me. Nev insists that I look at how she has arranged the contents of her basket on her dad's night stand. Zurich is just puppy dog eyes in the background whimpering every so often and Gary is heaving and hoing trying to suppress the sleeping bag enough for me to keep the extra material out of the way and zip is the storage bag's zipper. Giddy is hampering my ability to move and see and Nev is making my ears ring while Z pulls on my heart strings because he's been waiting all day. Eventually both sleeping bags are zippered shut.
That's 10 minutes, maybe.

I'm nursing the baby and Nev is wandering up and down the halls. And I still have to move laundry and clean up dinner, etc.

This is the life I chose.
I am going to choose it again as I put the baby to bed, find Nev still awake, and head downstairs to spend the next two hours on chores, because I am lucky.
I have a joy that most people don't even know they are missing or that most who do have it don't know that it is a joy.
I have a family.
I have children.
I have a husband who provides for us in many ways. He lives toward a higher moral standard than most men in the world and he's imperfect at it enough to love imperfect me.

And because Gary will most likely help me with the kitchen and laundry tonight.

Coretta

Sent from my iPod touch

baseball hat

2011-12-15T18:09:00.004-07:00

My husband isn't a fan of baseball, but he sure likes the hats.

The first glimpse my kids got of their dad, he was wearing a baseball hat.
#1
#2
#3
#4
So it's no surprise that they associate a baseball cap with dad.

After washing Gideon off after a meal I found a baseball cap that someone had left on the bathroom shelf. I put it on Giddy while he was looking in the mirror. He said, "Hi, Dad." Yup, you must be dad if you are wearing a baseball cap.

Being Rich

2011-12-03T22:34:00.005-07:00

I always tell Gary, "when we are rich..." I want such and such. Some of those items have been pretty silly like a Lava Lamp. We must be rich, because I have one. ;)
Some are just pie in the sky... okay that makes them silly too.
Anyway: The other day I had a brain child. I've had four real children so a brain child shouldn't be too far of a stretch.

Gary was outside teaching Zurich how to ride his bike with no training wheels. Awesome. View.

Nev had just gotten run over by Olea (who was riding her bike). I took Nev inside cleaned off her knee and affixed plain brown, but super huge band-aid and had her fetch a basket.

Of course the scene of me and Nev gathering mystery objects in the grass was intriguing so eventually I had all my little helpers there adding to the basket.
Coming so close to the ground and seeing, because we were looking, Olea commented, "We are rich in acorns."
We are. Super. Rich. in Acorns.

So there. I am now super rich.

I could get the squirrels to do whatever I wanted...

We gathered lots of acorns and a few pine needles too for good measure.

Sometimes Gary is really good at taking pictures, sometimes he even lets it focus. Sometimes not so much. :)

Then some wading in the pool.

A few days later...
some awful hot glue and a ring of foam core board...
and an awesome hot glue burn...

When we are super rich: I will still make my own wreaths and I'll still have a lava lamp.

Gratitude turkeys

2011-11-15T19:30:00.001-07:00

For the last few years we have used this basic body pattern to make Gratitude Turkeys. I had a bunch already cut out this time around from when I got them ready for an activity days' activity. This worked out very nicely since it was a bit of a spontaneous desire. I started making one with Zurich, then Oma (German for grandma-my mother) and Olea, then Gary and Nev. Opa had already turned in for the night.

My mom said when asked about legs that her Turkey was sitting on them, thinking she'd get out of the legs business, so I cut her some and arranged them in a yoga pose. We got a good laugh out of my solution to Mom's comment. Zurich is grateful for things like blood and hugs. Olea wanted her legs like Oma's, but I'm not cool with copying so I cut her something different but silly too. Gary said that male pattern baldness is a problem even in turkeys. Nev kept putting glue on the front of hers. I HAD to add Surgery Monkey to my list just to get a reaction out of Gary. You can read into SM as any comfort items. :)

Always fun, quite simple, and a nice gratitude reminder. We will tape them up in the entry tomorrow.

Rocking

2011-11-15T08:44:00.001-07:00

He fell asleep
I'm still rocking
His big head on
My arm going numb
Soft breath flutters with
Cherub fists involuntarily clasping
Occasional sucking
I adore

He's too big too fast
But he's my
Baby
So I hang on
Rocking and watching his face
Soft in sleep
Alive in spirit

And want to do nothing else
But hold this soul
While I can
While he'll let me
While he's still perfect

Shooting Star

2011-10-11T22:09:00.000-06:00

I've have four kids. The oldest is over seven years old. That means I have had experience with kids putting things in their mouths for at least 7 years.
But today was a first.

I had to call 911 for it.
We had picked up the front room this morning and had been playing elsewhere most of the day. Early this evening I put out age appropriate toys for Giddy to play with so I could go through mail, deposit a check (remote deposit) and put away dishes etc. I could hear a tv on upstairs and Zurich telling Olea to shut it off so she could do her homework and come play pirate with him so I glanced over at Giddy to check his current state of happy and he was making his way to the library bag and smiled up at me. By now Zurich was yelling and I knew someone would throw a wounding blow soon. Upstairs I intervened and reminded Olea that the rule was no tv till after homework and certainly no tv during homework.

I headed back downstairs and heard Giddy gagging. I rushed to him to find him in the same place as I'd left him, which is interesting because he drags himself around now. I did a finger swipe of his mouth and didn't feel anything. I could tell something was wrong as I picked him up and took him to the kitchen to wipe his nose. He didn't have a runny nose before and he was still crying in an unfamiliar way. Upon wiping his nose I noticed the mucus was coming from his mouth mostly, at this point I started to get worried. I tried whopping him on the back and that didn't change anything. I swept around in his mouth again. Nothing. More crying and mucus. He still had an airway but he was obviously uncomfortable. I took him upstairs with me to get a bulb syringe... Realized that wasn't of any use and called my mother in law (who is a nurse). She walked me through technique of trying to get it to exit through pushing on his diaphragm and the whomping him on the back. When that didn't produce anything but mucus and crying she told me to calm down and call 911.
I've never dialed 911.
He still had an airway but since I had no idea what he had swallowed I didn't know for how long it would be. He coughed up more mucus and little spots of blood. When I could hear the sirens dispatch hung up with me. By then I had made my way with him to the front porch since Olea and Zurich wanted to go outside. (That's silly isn't it? That while one child is choking I have to still meet the "needs" of the others so I can concentrate on the one...) and I wanted to make sure they were out of the driveway when the ambulance came.

As I sat there with him coughing, gagging and drooling mucus and hanging over my lap on my arm because I felt that was the right position to help him the most, l just prayed. Thankfully as uncomfortable as he was he had had an airway the whole time. Just as the fire truck stopped at the top of our driveway he coughed more and out shot a glob of mucus and in that pile of that m word, was a dark object.

Prayers of thanks.

He coughed twice more whimpered and stopped crying. I cuddled him and looked down to see what it was. A metal star shaped snap clip. When the paramedics made it down the drive I was still shaking and with the relief, crying now. They looked him over blood pressure, pulse and commented on what a pleasant and big boy he was. There was some miscommunication between them and dispatch though because they had another truck and expected to transport. They were told he was blue. I remember her asking me about that and I said he's been breathing the whole time, he's got good color.

That is SO scary. I am so grateful he didn't have to be transported. Grateful that we live as close as we do to the fire station. Grateful for paramedics and firefighters, dispatch. Grateful for nurses, for mother-in laws, for prayer. And for such a pleasant little boy. We have been blessed today and our prayers answered.

After they looked Giddy over and we determined he was fine and didn't need to go to the hospital they invited the two oldest up to look in the truck, sit in it and honk the horn. Cool stuff. The best was Zurich was wearing a pirate costume and towing a light blue rolling suitcase full of toys. (Nev was asleep on the couch in the front room the whole time, that was a blessing too.) Olea was shy at first and didn't want to sit in the driver's seat but I urged her to put aside shyness and take advantage if the cool opportunity. She did.

The offending object as it landed and my happy Giddy all moved on. I do expect him to have a sore throat though.

Ode to being 29

2011-10-08T20:48:00.003-06:00

When I was about 16 I or so-ish I came across this song. Love it.
Now you must listen to it now that I am 29.

"There's no intention worthy of mention if you never try."

Thank you. That is all.

Fighters

2011-09-19T12:52:00.000-06:00

I'll always be safe with my little fire fighters.

Summer's end: The End

2011-09-01T11:35:00.009-06:00

We are now deep into school with Olea. It got kinda crazy there at the end.
But here is how we finished it out.

WEDNESDAY
Today we worked on a collaborative watercolor. Since we have very different ideas and skill levels I am glad we picked up Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzburg at the library Monday. Here is a fun read along.

Olea was very concerned with Zurich's painting style juxtaposed with hers on the same piece of paper. She totally chilled after we read the book and I took the board the water color was taped to and turned it and it started dripping all over itself thanks to Nev's awesome wash job.

What made this special to Olea was being able to use my watercolors and not their crayola washable water color. After they had had their fill of painting (well they probably could have kept going till it was all mud, but we do have to move on at some point) they got to sprinkle it with salt and place pieces of saran wrap on it. We also sprinkled some of the glitter that Nev dumped out last week that didn't get cleaned up.

Let it dry. Peel off saran wrap. Scrape off salt.

Hoping we didn't loose too much glitter. Stay Tuned....

THURSDAY

Olea has been dying to make something with the ceramic clay. I have been re-hydrating some remnants from our last build. So I gathered them around while Nev was napping and Olea made a dish and Zurich a bowl.

It's hard for me to make anything with the kids because they either want to help on mine or need help with theirs. So I was surprisingly happy with the little whale toothbrush stand. I thought for fun I would try to make a shuttle. I didn't think it would work for use but tried to make it for it anyway. Then as I was cleaning up Zurich had a desperate desire for a spaceship. So I tried to hurry and put one together on a cork we had for use as a piggy bank.

Then let them dry for two weeks up high on the cupboards.

FRIDAY
I got a very fine tipped Radiograph pen and the watercolor and gathered the kids around and asked them what they saw and then I drew in the outlines and details they described.

Here are some details of it:

I love it! I need a frame! :)

It's back!

2011-08-19T19:30:00.000-06:00

"Eek! Its back!" I exclaimed while driving home tonight. Last week I complained to Gary that they had taken it down before I got a picture of it. Gary said, "Get out your camera," and drove up to the intersection and made a u-turn and then into the rink lot so I could get a good shot on his phone. It is outside of a roller rink. I get such a great laugh out of it every time I pass. Talk about taking a biased survey. But at least they appropriately reported their survey audience.

It might be dumb, but Gary has learned over the years that though I take amusement in simple silly things, it's best to humor me in it.

Summer's end: Catch up

2011-08-17T22:04:00.007-06:00

I'm totally sure it didn't pass anyone up that I sluffed on Friday and didn't post. Whatever. :)

Here's why: at 10 am the baby was fed and down for a nap and the kids were watching a Lego movie peaceably on the DVR. I saw a nap opportunity and seized it sleeping without interruption for the next 1 hour and 45 minutes. After lunch the kids were supposed to clean their rooms so I could vacuum... That idea consumed most of the day... And then the power went out and they were too distracted with panic that they didn't clean. Power was out for 4 hours and since I was busy cleaning up stuff and the AC wasn't going 79+ degrees in a humid stuffy house was getting down right miserable. I ended up re-upholstering a chair that I had taken apart to clean by coleman lantern light. By then Gary was home and the power was on so we had glorious leftovers at 8:30 pm.
I took a nap! It was awesome! Moving on...

MONDAY
Today we took an outing. We piled a lot of stuff in one trip and the kids did very well it probably helped that they got to participate in a lot of it. Bread store where Olea timed me. Then we visited the Sculpture that is on the way to the library. Nev always points at it and screeches something unintelligible as we drive by. I have always wanted to go look and see if it had any artist credits. So we did that today. It is funky weird and the kids had a great time using words like triangle crotch and round butt to describe what they saw. Olea, who said it was stupid when I said we were going to get out and look at it, really took advantage of her verbal freedom while describing what was different or interesting about the sculpture.

It's name is FLAMP.
Then library, no pictures, I am spread too thin trying to help with books without a shelf being emptied.

Then post office (the big one this time) where they got to help work one of the postage machines.

Those are Nev and Zurich helping work the touch screen, Olea's photography story telling is lacking on these ones. Then Zurich hung on the lever with all his weight and Olea picked Nev up to put the letters in the drop box.

While there we were subject to an embarrassing display between a child and his parents. I mean loud and uncomfortable. The parents were way over reacting and in their attempt to keep their kid in line, made quite the display themselves. When we got in the van Olea made some observations: we had four kids they just had 1, there were three adults to the one child, and we were being pretty good, and daddy wasn't here with us, they were really loud and scary. Olea said, "I am glad that when we make sad choices in a big place like that that you talk to us quiet and if we are bad you just take us away and not be mean and noisy." (I am feeling happy about this observation.) So we got to talk about being good kids and parents so we don't embarrass ourselves or our families. Then we stopped off at a doctors office to get a refund... Which we won't be going to again, it's been a horrible hassle and they still owe me $. Then to the bank.

The kids had some money that they needed to put in the bank. Olea helped me fill out the deposit slips.

And they got to each give their money to the teller. We ended up with almost all the tellers at our attention because they were oohing and ahhing over my adorable babies, their names and their pretty eyes. One said, "she's a beautiful baby!" to my dressed in blue Giddy. The other teller corrected her, "it's a boy." "are you sure? She's so beautiful!" One asked if Nev and Zurich were twins. We get that fairly often here with them. "they all yours?!" and "you've got your hands full!" were other comments. After getting our transactions squared away the kids picked out a sucker and sat peaceably in the lounge chairs waiting for me. What a pleasure it is to have good kids. For the record they are kids, running around screeching and whatnot but they kept it all within tolerances.

Since the kids think it's great (because we rarely do it) and because they had coupons from the reading program we went to McDonalds for happy meals.

I feel awesome. We survived, the kids were so good and Giddy smiled through it all but when we got home he sure was hungry and tired.

TUESDAY
We cleaned the house so we could have some friends over for pool play and dinner. No pictures. The End.

Summer's end: Floral Pens

2011-08-11T21:06:00.004-06:00

Tuesday night while shopping with Olea she saw a pot of flower pens and said she liked them and wanted to make some so we picked up a roll of floral tape.

I already had everything else I figured we needed. So today I invited everyone out to do our outside jobs so we could do our project. Olea chose to ignore me. I figured I would let the consequences speak for themselves. As I directed the two younger kids I had to repeat myself several times, And so I figured I would open up the opportunity for Olea to listen and added some clarifying paths, "Get your shoes so we can do our jobs and then do our project." "Ok, lets hurry with our jobs so we can make flower pens." etc.

We went out back and picked up the pot from the Mother's day plant that I managed to kill (every year) and filled a barrel with leaves and then went inside.

We washed out the pot. I let the kids pick out flowers from my stash from our old house where they had hung in bunches like so: (top left of the picture of the epic battle between Olea and Zurich) I'm just not feeling it in this house, so we are going to re-purpose them.

Zurich liked the black ones and wanted them "big and tall." Nev had a hard time deciding. We wrapped the flower and pen together with the floral tape. They each did two... and had to make sure the pens still worked after being decorated.

Then Zurich poured a bag of dry beans into the pot and they arranged their flowers.

And helped decide where to put our pretty pot.

Olea never joined us. I was genuinely disappointed because this was the project she wanted to do and much more her skill level than theirs.

When I tried to talk to her and invite her to do her jobs so she could make some she plugged her ears, screamed and put herself in time out. :( Hopefully tomorrow she will get to make a pen.

There is one problem with this project. I now know how I want to decorate my kitchen... but I am so not in a position to do it. And we found an outlet under the island tonight. That could be quite useful.

Summer's end: read-a-thon

2011-08-10T22:13:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, included in our shopping trip was a trip to the library. Olea got her very own library card. She has been asking for one since we moved. Super exciting stuff. I tried to direct her to books that she could read easier and faster to get her excitement back up. She is known to boast about being able to read chapter books but I have yet to see her actually finish one that she picks out.

Yesterday we also purchased more candy than one should ever have available in their home at any given time ever.

Today I had the kids get their pillows and blankets and pick a sucker. Olea and I took turns reading books to the younger ones. I was proud of her, she does read well. She also likes to pan the book for all the audience to see the pictures. Zurich and Nev kept trading suckers.

We read through a pretty good stack of books. Calling it a read-a-thon also upped the coolness.

Summer's end: Trip

2011-08-09T22:16:00.001-06:00

Today was another bad Tuesday. The kids were constantly going at each other and I couldn't figure out anything to get them to chill out. Jobs weren't done. And repetitive interruption of my jobs meant they didn't get done either. I was very frustrated to say the least.
We were going to go to the library, and go pick out candy for the candy jars we unpacked and well... We'll save that for when we do it.

We needed an intervention. I called Gary at work and he told the kids to go gather sticks. Zurich went out for ten minutes but came in when Olea went out. She was so worried about trying to get him to do his job she wasn't doing hers. So I assigned him an inside job to keep them separated.

Then the incessant doorbell ringing started.... And ditching....
I was not my best mother today.

An experience last week opened up some of the things Olea is feeling. It can pretty much be summed up in two things: 1) the move has been hard, 2) she misses the way things were when she was three. That is the way she says: I wish Mommy liked me, had time for me, I wish there weren't other babies.

Apparently, I need to figure out her love language.

There are things I can't and won't change. For instance her siblings will not become orphans. So to make things better for my baby girl I'm doing the best I can to help us both enjoy where we are, to enjoy each other, improve our relationship, be grateful for what there is, what we have, where we are. I don't know what to do. I have no idea. But I'm trying, and that's got to be worth something. That is the major reason I started this summer's end project. Tonight with the spirit of trying, especially after a worthless day, I told Gary that Olea and I would go do the shopping after he got home.

I didn't take a picture. I was too busy back tracking and re-directing. So when we got back and Gary asked me if I had a good time, I was honest. "I hope she did, I hope it meant something to her, because I am exhausted."

I realized something though, I don't know if I remember the last time just her and I did something, just boring old stuff, together, with no one else. We need to.

I need to keep searching. Parenting is the hardest, most cryptic job ever.

Summer's end: Baking

2011-08-08T19:44:00.003-06:00

Today was math/ baking.
I've had a hankering for peanut butter cookies. The last time I made them we didn't have any crisco. (Canola oil is not the right substitute.) We had crisco this time... But no eggs or milk. We had dried eggs and powdered milk. It's not quite the same and I didnt have time to go to the store....But there are a number of baking problems I have had since moving: I don't know where to get the yeast I am used to, I have no idea how to adjust for proofing and flour usage due to elevation and humidity changes, my ovens cook hot and uneven. But even with all that, today was a baking project.

The kids love to help in the kitchen. I suppose you could say that I am not that confident or talented in the kitchen. I cook from scratch, I cook from cans or boxes, whatever fits the day and the need. I do not love it. It is not a hobby. It is a necessary task. So it is hard for me to let the kids help because that always draws a project out and I'm just trying to get the job over with.

However, Olea has been very impressed with a friend of hers who can bake stuff all by herself. So feeding off of her interest I had her read the recipe and gather the ingredients and the appropriate measuring utensils. She mixed up the dry egg and got things ready I helped keep her focused as I made dinner. We were to have the missionaries over tonight.

When everything was gathered we called Nev and Zurich down to help. They each took turns measuring and putting in the ingredients. As I have mentioned before, gathering all the ingredients is a big help and a major stress reducer.
They love to scream when the mixer is on.
I do not love it.
But I can't stop them so I let them have at it.
They had a good time and the mess was minimal. Success!
The cookies were pretty good too. But I need to make them again when I have all the right ingredients... And milk.

(As a side note, dinner managed to turn out pretty delicious too. But now that I have been in the kitchen for pretty much the last 7-8 hours, I'm done.)

Son, you will be great.

2011-08-07T20:46:00.001-06:00

I just asked Zurich what he wanted to do when he grew up. The conversation follows.

Work. -z
What do you want to do at work? -c
Do something great. -z
What does daddy do when he goes to work? -c
Sometimes he works and works so much. -z (Amen, son)
What are you going to do when you work? -c
I want to get motorcycles! Oh! And a race car! Oh! That would be so cool. I want to drive a race car. And go really fast. I dont want to push the slow button it will make me too slow. I want to be the best race car driver ever in the whole world. I want to get dad a race car, Nev and Olea and Giddy and you too Mom. I will put fast gas in it so it will be so noisy so people will say, 'oh my gosh, that is so fast a race car!'

Now he's all fired up and can't sleep. Even if my little guy doesn't still want to race cars when he grows up I am certain he will be great and do something great.

Summer's end: Bleach T-Shirts

2011-08-05T17:39:00.004-06:00

Today's project took a lot of prep work but the results were flipping awesome!

Olea was the photographer for most of the pictures, not that you'll notice a difference but.... :)

Yesterday I had the kids pick a design from the Disney Cricut cartridges I have. (thanks Mom) Then I cut some out on vinyl and some on card-stock. There were reasons for the different materials but I won't go into it just yet.

I put some scrap board in each of the shirts to create stiffness and prevent bleed through.

Zurich's design was just the regular base (Cricut people, you know what I am talking about right?) so I got out my scalpel and started connecting cuts and adding more. That took a fair amount of time. Then I transferred the vinyl to the T-shirt, which would have been easier with transfer paper, but alas, I have none.

I used card stock on the words for Olea's shirt just to try it. Cut it, use spray adhesive and place it. I thought this would be the best method for the back of Zurich's shirt since he had floating letters. I was right. Much easier. I put the whole thing down to spray it with adhesive (all pieces like a puzzle) and then transferred it to the back of his shirt and peeled away the parts I didn't want. Last night I laid out all the shirts with their stencils on them.

Today I put 50/50 bleach and water in a spray bottle. Put out some scrap paper on the lawn and got out some gloves (again, thanks Mom). I brought their shirts out and them after a quick discussion on how dangerous bleach is and the importance of being obedient so this could be fun.

I helped the kids spray their shirts and ooh and ahhh. Did one side blotted it with a paper towel and then flipped it over and bleached the designs on the back. I might have been a little too cautious about over bleaching. I thought it would continue to process so I didn't want to leave it on to long and we let them dry in the sun a bit and then threw them in the washing machine. I washed it without soap and then a quick wash with soap and dryer it. The kids were pretty psyched about them.

Knowing what I do now I might have sprayed it a few more times for the kids designs. But honestly I like the distinct lines but subtle contrast. I'd totally wear one. I'm a tad jealous. I got the kids' shirts at the dollar store a few months ago and they only had smalls. When Gary got home he was totally impressed with them.

Summer's end: Journal-ish

2011-08-04T19:08:00.001-06:00

When I started this I said I wanted the kids to journal every week. All things need flexibility in my home. With that idea we played with stamps today. The kids love stamps and ink pads, they are always to hard or too many hands and it is a rather stressful event for me. However, it wasn't so bad today. Though when Olea couldn't finish at the same times as everyone else and I HAD to leave the room to attend to the baby and the phone and lunch.... Nev dumped the entire bottle of embossing glitter. I was able to salvage most of it.

I let them each pick a neon piece of paper and then stamp, color or sticker their papers. These were to be their journal cover pages. The end results are nothing fancy to look at but the kids had fun and that, my friends, is the beginning and end point of all this. Nev mostly used stamps and two sheets of stickers sometimes layering the stickers. Zurich used stamps and black colored pencils. Olea was all about the curly letter, floral stamps and gold.

Zurich started talking about the fun things we have done so I wrote down on the back of his paper the things he said. I asked him about the activities he didn't mention so he has little journal entries on the back side of his paper.

Olea was very interested in the glitter gold ink pad I have. She also liked the glitter I wasn't able to hurry and dump back in the jar and tried to glue it onto her page. Her paper doesn't even have her name on it which was the only directive (besides don't smush the ink pad so hard) I gave them.

When they were done, we put them in plastic sleeves in a binder.

We did a bunch of side projects today too. Olea typed letters to some of her cousins and friends. And off and on I prepped for tomorrow's project with off and on help.

The kids were so excited to get letters in the mail today. They LOVED the stickers. It's funny to see their different techniques to get the envelope open. Zurich: letter opener
Olea: carefully so as not to damage the sticker seal
Nev: obliterate the envelope somehow leaving the contents intact

Summer's End: Oobleck

2011-08-03T22:43:00.000-06:00

I had played with today's science experiment at some point in my childhood and thought it would be a simple and fun activity with the kids. When I went to look up the recipie for it last week I saw this Dr. Suess book mentioned: Bartholomew and the Oobleck
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0394800753/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/179-2081073-9932865
I don't know that I have ever read this one and Olea loves the Dr. So I figured it was necessary to add some literature to today's science. Our local library had two very old but intact copies. I snagged one while I was there last.

Jobs had to be done first today... I'm mean like that.
Then we mixed up the oobleck.
http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryhowtoguide/ht/oobleck.htm
Lucky me I had just enough corn starch...

I let the kids each choose their color. Nev was napping but due to wake soon so when Olea picked pink and Zurich picked blue it was perfect. We did have to let it rest in the fridge for a bit while we read the story, that helped it firm up a bit to the right consistency.

They played a bit and then Nev woke up so we poured some pink and blue oobleck into a bowl for Nev. She did not dive in to the dirty as quickly as the others. She poked at it with a finger tentatively, she giggled over it but didn't dive in till I gave her a spoon. Now that I think of it, I never told her not to eat it and she never tried. Surprising. Olea liked the idea of mixing colors more so she started stealing spoonfuls from Zurich's bowl. She suddenly desperately wanted purple oobleck. The kids really enjoyed it and Olea suddenly remembered that she had read the book and played with green oobleck at "my old school." (She sounds like DA from the Magic School Bus).

Summer's End: Epic Dental Fail

2011-08-02T21:02:00.001-06:00

I had plans today. Good plans. Due to a number of things last night I didn't get to sleep till 3am and so consequently Gary, who planned to work from home today, got up and took care of the kids this morning while simultaneously trying to work till I woke up at 11. After lunch and feeding the baby it was time to go to the dentist.... At 2:45 I was ready to hand the kids off to Gary whose appointments would be complete and have my visit and be home in an hour or so. However, when I got there Gary still hadn't even been seen. So here we are with our circus of four children in a very boring waiting room.... NOTHING to do at all (they got bored of the toys in the diaper bag very quickly) and then to sit around waiting for the dentist and then sent back to the waiting room for hours to wait for the hygienist. Gary and I kept trading kids back and forth. When Gary finally saw the hygienist he said, "oh you got kids." Gary explained that he wouldn't have them if ...

Gary left at about 4 with all the kids. They had been really good all considered but Gary got a glimpse into my world and felt like a circus freak.
I was still waiting.
I knew they were running well behind as Gary wasn't called back till an hour and a half after his scheduled appointment. So I was trying not to get pissy and impatient. But after running out of Tatting thread and my ipod battery dying I had little patience left. Knowing full well that Gary was likely going crazy at home with the chillins. "My appointment was over two hours ago, is there any chance of being seen today?"
"oh he called you back. He had your chart." "When?"
"About 45 minutes ago, we figured you went home with the rest of your family."
... What?! You just figured, you didn't come into the waiting room to find out, or call a phone number that I spent my beloved time filling out on the chart? Or raise your voice or try again or anything, you just figured.
Brilliant.
"I was here the whole time, I haven't gone anywhere. Does he have a soft voice or something? I was waiting, I was listening." I heard everyone else be called back.
So he took me after his "5:30" apt. I got home at 7 pm to a very hungry baby, frazzled husband making dinner and bored/hyper children.

But my teeth feel awesome.

So today what did we do? All of my cool plans aside;
Spin on the dental chairs for fun.

Summer's end: Diamante

2011-08-01T18:17:00.012-06:00

Today Olea had a friend over for a few hours and to keep Zurich and Nev away from them we made more Monsters at Zurich's request. I burned myself worse than I ever have with a hot glue gun today. Let's put that down in the record books... After Olea's friend left Olea wanted to make another one too. (She got to) But that wasn't today's project. By this time Nev had enjoyed her puppet and put herself down for a nap. I figured that was probably best for today's project.

Writing poetry.

I chose a format: Diamante poem

I had the kids play with Cooties to keep their wiggles busy and then I asked the kids some questions. First I asked them what they wanted their poem to be about. What change they wanted to happen in their poem and then I asked them to describe different things to me. I used their responses to fill in the blanks so to speak. We did Zurich's first because I thought his would be hardest... Not so. He answered the questions I asked and Olea kept over thinking it. It worked out though, and Zurich's disclaimer is that his sister poisoned his mind that his tree poem should have fairies in it.

Here is a little sound blip from my questioning in our poem creation. They had to say the word in direct response to a question about their poem for it to be used. I did rearrange some of the words to help the flow, but they are the kid's work. Listening to them I wonder how I last through the day.... :)
Here is a sound bite from the creation of Olea's poem:

http://blip.tv/file/get/CorettiConfetti-FoundPoetry237.m4a

and Zurich's: http://blip.tv/file/get/CorettiConfetti-FoundPoetry237.m4a

After their poems were written I let each of them type up as much of it as they wanted and then I finished typing the rest for them.

I read Zurich his poem and he picked a font and a color and then using google images he picked some pictures to go around his poem. I was impressed as he sat on my lap humming and hawing over the right images as he was very focused on the subject of his poem. Olea too had very definite ideas of the images and the way she wanted it to look.

When they each were satisfied we printed their poems out to hang on their magnet boards in their rooms after showing them to Daddy, of course.

The kids wanted to share all the monster puppets they have made.

A stumbling block...

2011-07-31T22:59:00.000-06:00

It's hard getting to church on time. I am sure there are lots of super people out there that this isn't an issue for (because when ever I get to church there are plenty of people already in their seats), but it is for me. It seems no matter what I do, how early I wake up or what I prepare the night before there is always something that prevents us from getting there on time, even though we are shooting for 15 minutes early.

Today, we were set, things were good, we were set to go... And then we get to the top of the driveway and there is this across the road... Our only out on our dead end street.

That's a pretty big stumbling block.

The trees here are huge. The branch here was about 1.5 feet in diameter. The branches delicately opened our mailbox and were all around it but it was generally unscathed. It was apparently a county tree but on our across the street neighbor's property. Our neighbor could tell we needed out as we were all fancy ready for church so she offered us a route through her property that went through to the next street. We were late. But we were there. :)

When we got home from church I was all excited because the road was clear, but then not because the county had dumped all the tree toppings on our property. (that's a nice way of saying, "all the huge leafy branches")

Thing is I knew at 5am this morning that a tree was down. It is a sound and shake that I have learned since moving here 4 months ago... but we couldn't see it in the dark of night and when Gary circled the house this morning and didn't see a tree down on the property we figured it was a neighbor's and not and issue to us.

Silly rabbit, trix are for kids.

Summer's End: Monsters

2011-07-29T17:44:00.002-06:00

We had some fleece squares that were fringed and supposed to be for a blanket for Giddy. However, we haven't gotten around to it and he certainly doesn't NEED a blanket and they were just the right size for today's plan. Plus the colors were awesome. I sewed some funky glove reminiscent shapes. The sewing is stellar due to Zurich sitting on my lap and Nev changing the dials and various fingers headed for the needles.

I heated up the hot glue gun in a distant land and dumped out the wiggle eyes and let the kids decide what they wanted.

Zurich wanted a mustache and sharp teeth. So I started cutting their requests from felt. I hot glued the accessories on. Olea got the sharpies out and drew some clothes and a nose on hers. Nev rearranged lots of eyes and laughed a lot over the strip of eyes. Then she stole Olea's lips so I cut her a pair.

I read them a monster book we had picked up at the library: "Leonardo the Terrible Monster" by Mo Williams

They had a great time giggling over my reading of his big attempt to scare the Tuna Salad out of someone. They wanted to lay in wait to scare their Dad but by the time he got around to coming home we had moved on to dinner and getting ready for pictures.

( and for those who noticed that Nev is wearing the same clothes as yesterday, for what it is worth she has worn five different outfits between those pictures and these today...)

Summer's end: Magnetic Poetry

2011-07-28T21:31:00.000-06:00

Apparently I am some pretty fierce competition for Gary's attention... For Olea.

So this morning she was saying everything to get under my skin. Things that were rude, critical, and disrespectful. Gary delivered a hefty chore load for the day.

"Whiiiiii?" the whine began.

She went out to rake without issue... But some hours later she still was out there and not done. Her and Zurich were mostly playing. Here's a secret: as much raking as there is, it needs to be done but the major goal is to get the kids outside. So the fact that they were playing isn't a bad thing. It just would have been better if they finished their job first then played. Either way, it was time for lunch and about to start raining, so I went out to let them know and Olea hurried to finish filling the last barrel.

The funny thing is we all have the same problem that Olea does. We procrastinate jobs that we don't like. Or draw the misery out for hours... Which she did with her next jobs.

Eventually I was tired of waiting and so I took the younger kids to the laundry room for their beating. Just kidding. The laundry room has the most metal and we needed a large metal space to play Magnetic Poetry. For the younger kids we used the letter set that has pictures of the beginning sounds of a letter on one side and the letter on the other side. Olea came in to see what she was missing out on, and then expedited her efforts to finish her job. Nev enjoyed naming the pictures and Zurich would try to guess the letter the picture started with. Olea then joined us and she worked with the word magnets.

I got the sets while I was in high school and realized I haven't brought them out for a very long time.

How it's Made

2011-07-27T20:24:00.001-06:00

How it's Made (http://science.discovery.com/tv/how-its-made/)
is one of the kids' favorite shows, it's cool, we all like it. If you don't know what it is, seriously, go watch an episode. It is fascinating and mesmerizing. I mean seriously, who hasn't wondered how a shovel is made, or why the old fashioned chewing gum is pink?

There is one drawback...
VERY long explanations from my kids on anything from what a conveyer belt is to why she wants to be covered up at night.

While driving home one day I heard Olea and Zurich talking in the back seat. Olea was telling Zurich something and he was interjecting with his ideas about robot arms (there was an episode on such a thing). Olea was trying to get him to be quiet so she could hear herself and finally she gets around to saying that "it goes from one conveyer belt to another WITHOUT a robot arm." Stupidly, I pipe up, "Do you know what a conveyer belt is?"

For the next 7 minutes I am lectured by my 7 year old on what a conveyer belt is and the many ways it can be used. If I had wanted to interject, I couldn't have; I don't think she even stopped to breathe.

I hear them often playing, "how it's made" and I delight in it because the cogs are turning.

So the other day on the way back from the library I should not have been surprised to hear Zurich shout at me from the back of the van, "Hey, Mom, look! It's How it's Made guys!" But I was, and I still think him clever.

And it makes me laugh as I reminisce that 4 years ago when we moved to our first house my oldest, who was 3 at the time, used the word "builders" the same way Zurich uses "how it's made guys." They use it like "builders" was used in the movie City of Ember. Like an unknown entity, but also an unstoppable force.

Summer's end: Milk Jug

2011-07-27T15:37:00.002-06:00

Today we were going to have family pictures but it just got rescheduled so I guess it's okay that I let the kids play with sharpies again.

Olea's cousin sent her some post mail a bit ago and included in it was a craft idea that can be found here: http://alphamom.com/family-fun/crafts/milk-jug-decorative-window-crafts/

Ours are much less fancy than the ones shown there. But fun none-the-less.

Today was a repurposed, reuse day. It also falls under craft.

So today after breakfast I rinsed out our empty milk jug and set it to dry. I had been saving a few but they went out with the recycling on Monday. But it was fine because one ended up being plenty for us.

Zurich asked for hot chocolate while I was feeding the baby and had been asking about every 5 minutes so I entertained that desire first.
Why not? right?

As described in the link we cut, colored, punched and I decided to make mobiles with them too. We had 3 empty macrame hooks on the porch and everything. I used the metal rings I bought a long time ago for tatting (and haven't gotten around to). The kids picked their string color (once again, tatting stash). They colored their shapes and I punched holes and tied it all together.

The mobiles are fun and kinda make some fun noise in the breeze on the porch.

The three of them strung on the porch.

And the extra ones as window ornaments.

Summer's end: Post office

2011-07-26T13:08:00.001-06:00

Today as planned we went to the library. The kids got to pick the books they earned for summer reading some movies and books.

Then we went to the post office to mail their post cards. The kids were so excited to be able to go in with me and they got a special treat. The postal worker could tell this was the kids' project and so she tried to find stamps that they could put on their post cards but no luck. So she invited them behind the counter which was fascinating in and of itself, but then she let them run their post cards through the postage meter. COOL! Zurich called it a "mail robot." They each got a turn to do a couple.

I never explained my plan to the kids but this morning Olea asked, "So what fun thing are we going to do today?" and rather than answering, "I don't know," or "we'll see," I had a good answer for her. And then she asked, "and what job are we going to do together?" Okay, I can go with that, "Your bathroom really needs cleaned."
She was still excited about the job after we got home, fed the baby and had lunch. The bathroom is done, except for Olea's self imposed finishing touches. I hope to get her help to clean up the kitchen after dinner since we are having YW at our house.

Summer's end: Postcards

2011-07-25T20:41:00.002-06:00

So how did today go?

We got olea's room generally picked up and since I had helped her do that she was in a much more helpful mood and swept the floor etc and i had the kitchen table cleaned off. By 2pm I put Nev down for a nap and got out the post cards and sharpies. Trying to keep Zurich from drawing on the address area was a bit of stress. But we had a good time. We used some pre-made post cards and then zurich drew some giraffes on 5.5x4.5 rectangles of heavy card stock.

His giraffes looked like upper female anatomy, and he did it generally the same every time. Zurich had drawn one on our "untellaga" newsprint under paper and it was perfect size so when Gary got home I held it up to corresponding anatomy and told him Zurich had drawn it. His eyes got big and his mouth dropped open. I laughed and explained that contrary to what it looked like, it was a sweet unassuming giraffe.

Nev didn't stay down for her nap and so she joined us in coloring.I was too busy capping pens and stopping sharpie colored arguments while holding Giddy to get a picture of her. But some of her cousins will be privileged to receive an artistic rendition from her.... And some will get offensive giraffes.

Olea wrote notes on some and just colored on others. Zurich dictated some notes for his postcards. Nev named her works of art and I was impressed with her color recognition since we played her version of Chinese checkers two weeks ago. Apparently she learned more than just white.

Tomorrow we will go to the post office to buy stamps and mail their post cards and they will all get to come in to do this rather than sitting in the car with the AC running while I run in to our sweet post office. It's little and hotter than the van. Then we will go to the library.

Mail

2011-07-25T15:38:00.000-06:00

Today was a good mail day.

The end of summer...

2011-07-25T14:59:00.000-06:00

This morning all energetic and annoyed with the fact that the kids were watching tv I had an idea.

I thought maybe if I planned to do something engaging each day with the kids that fell into one of 6 categories that we might have more harmony and keep our brains active. These areas came to mind: craft, color, math/science, reading, writing, physical. I figure it's cool if they overlap. Some items that came to mind: rainbow cake, clocks, oral story telling, poetry writing, goo, number games, sets, puzzles, Lino printing, toothpick structures.

We generally do projects but it's stressful because they are thrown together in the heap of things. Or I get to spend time with one child but not another. Having a nursing baby takes a lot of time and it seems like when any task is completed its time to feed again and the kids are found still wanting. They need time with me too. So I wanted to set a precedence an expectation, an excitement, something to look forward to, a reason .... to get dressed (Olea has a problem with this recently).

I have ages 7, 3.5 and 2 (Giddy will be left out...) so I need to pick activities that can engage all of them for a while, and be modified in the process for each child's skill level.

Here is the goal: do one organized (premeditated the night before) activity each weekday, it can take as little as 15 mins to 2 hours. But it's me and the kids doing something fun and creative together. Take a picture. Have the kids journal once a week about what they like, what are grateful for. For Nev, this will be scribbling in a notebook and that is fine. Zurich I hope will draw pictures.

I'm no dummy though. I'm starting simple and moving forward flexible. Today we will write postcards to some of their cousins. How much does a post card cost these days? 29 cents. It falls under writing.

The idea is more for my sanity and simplification. Call it lame, or wonder why this has to be a goal, or judge me, or whatever. I don't care. I'm posting it so I have it written down. So I have something to commit to. Because maybe just maybe the kids will have a drive to get up and help out more often if we are engaged in something together more often.

Circus

2011-07-22T09:54:00.002-06:00

Let's call last week the kid's vacation. I mean seriously, they got to stay in a hotel, be in the car for over two hours (demonstrates that it was far away), go to an aquarium, send a vacation postcard,

get a souvenir, ride a trolley, check out a view, go on a tour, eat at restaurants, meet up with a fun person, play at the beach, watch some sunsets, stay up past their bedtime,

go to a circus, eat cotton candy, etc.

At the circus we had pretty good seats.

It was so fun to watch Nev's face as she saw bizarre acts for the first time.

It was a pretty good circus. The ribbon acrobat was neat to Nev and she stopped watching to try her own poses on the floor in front of us. She soaked up the audiences reaction to the performer as her own. As gross as it was we couldn't get her to stop and as floors go it wasn't horrid. It made me laugh though.

Zurich after seeing some grotesque backbends by a young male acrobat dressed like a hobo posing on a coat rack who also did the splits tried to do the splits himself. The baby flexibility has clearly left him. He also told me, "he is a mailman." I don't get the connection.

Aside from the fact that the kids wanted to take in some of the extra activities that were supremely overpriced and the budget had already been spent on concessions it was a good evening. I am really hoping to find some decently priced pony rides for Zurich in the near future.

We stopped off at a grocery store to get some of these on the way home.

Way better than cotton candy.

Nascar Race

2011-07-21T11:48:00.003-06:00

One of the worst things about living somewhere and then moving is having regret about not taking in what was great about where you lived. For instance, in 2010 I finally went to Yellowstone. (Which apparently I never blogged about... ) I had lived in the near vicinity all my life and had never been. I am so glad we created the opportunity to go before we moved south east.

So now that we are here I have this desire to make sure we take in the opportunities about the area we now live as much as we feasibly can. So we won't say years down the road that we just never got around to it. Gary had heard that some Nascar races were going on and given Zurich's excitement over Cars and racing, we thought it would be fun to take Zurich to a race. We were surprised with a bonus and I got home one day and Gary had purchased tickets. I admit I was very nervous about taking everyone to it... I had wild imaginative episodes of how unpleasant and unmanageable it would be. The kids were very excited and kept singing, "We're going to a cars race."

I am happy to report that it really went very well.

We parked in Free parking and took a school bus shuttle to the track. The bus ride was VERY exciting. It was crazy. The kids kept saying,"This is a race car bus." It was a bumpy and g-force packed bus ride. :)

Our seats were in front of the beginning of the pits. This was a great spot to be for having kids. We got lucky and no one sat in the row directly in front of us which provided a better view for the kids.

Zurich was very excited and kept giving me this great cheese face and looking for Lightning McQueen. :)

Pre-race line up

Hard not to be emotional when the forces unfurl a huge flag like that for the national anthem.

It was the Sprint something or other... sorry race fans. It was 160 lap race. And at about 56 laps Zurich was bored. So thanks to the Subway car having breakdowns and pitting over and over with fires right in front of us that helped keep Zurich's interest up. He just needed some explanation of what he was looking at and some understanding of what was going on. And so I kept him close to me so I could re-direct his attention at appropriate intervals.

Nev, laid down ready, when she saw Gary get diapers out to change Giddy. We didn't change Nev there though.

Check out them eyes. yum.

Olea is easily influenced by a crowd. The cars were going fast, and people were excited, that was enough for her. :)

When the race was down to the last few laps there kept being crashes. The last one was right in front of us. It's crazy scary how fast they are going and how fast things change. Because of all that there ended up being 170 laps.

There was a fireworks show after so we got our 4th of July Pyro fix from that.

After Gary took Zurich to the bathroom and took a while coming back so Nev entertained herself on the now empty seats.

It was noisy. That is an understatement.

But it was a good experience that now we can say we have done. But getting the kids to bed at 2am is not something I need to repeat any time soon.

Mini Vacation

2011-07-15T11:01:00.005-06:00

My brother was in the general Florida area for a journalisim confrence and Gary was scheduled to be working in the same area earlier this week. So I got all crazy and decided the kids and I would drive down separately and enjoy Gary's hotel with him and go play while he was at work. That evening after arriving we picked up Uncle and went to the beach.

The next day we rode a trolley, went to the pier, an aquarium and a down town tour. Then met up with Gary and Cim to go to the beach and eat dinner. 4 kids by myself, I'm just not used to handling them all to myself in public yet. And sadly they weren't on their best behavior... It was crazy at times, okay most of the time.

We were in a restaurant that had a bunch of ceramic hand painted items in baskets and bins all over. Right at kid height. I couldn't get Zurich to listen to me and he kept touching them. While we were waiting for a table a stand of them crashed to the ground... The ceramic tile floor. I just covered my face and took deep breaths. We were blessed. The top bin that spilled out and made all the clatter was just a bunch of key chains, which were unharmed. Zurich was holding a painted ceramic thermometer, the bottom bin had them in it. The restaurant host that was leading us in put the stand back together and said, "we're okay, Ma'am." I have my suspicions that particular stand was not locked in right. But either way it was not the place for us which I more fully realized when I saw the tables were just as big a land mine for my bouncy, obedience impaired little boy. I hauled my four lethal weapons out and we ate somewhere else.

As we were getting ready to leave the pier Nev decided she was ready for her nap and just dropped right where she was and laid down, right in the middle of the walkway. I tried to encourage her to come on her own the old fashioned way, by just saying good bye and walking away. I was carting Giddy on my chest the diaper bag and the bag of souveniers.... Didn't much want to carry a child who could walk. Zurich started crying and freaking out because Nevy wasn't coming. In fact she just looked at us and rolled over so she couldn't see us. So I went back and told her that if she would at least put out her hand that I would carry her. We just barely made it on the trolley.

2 am reflections

2011-07-05T00:34:00.000-06:00

Here I am again, awake at 2 am for no good reason listening to the sounds of sleep and night... Which for the record isn't all that quiet.

But tonight, unlike last night, I am grateful and optimistic. Last night I was irritated and pessimistic. I tried to calm my mind last night by thinking of things I was grateful for. It didn't go so well, whenever I came up with something I would find myself digressing into the negative.

Finally I gave up and took a quarter of a melatonin. As it was kicking in I flipped over to see a head silhouetted against the window which was lit by the light of the moon. Startled as I was I didn't have enough umph left in me to send the child back to bed and I let him crawl in next to me and listen to him tell me how he was afraid of the dark (this is new) and he had a bad dream about an alien with glowy green eyes that wanted to shake him and take him away. I soothed him and as we both drifted off to sleep a thought struck me as my husband, in sleep, reached out to hold my hand.

I have it.

It's amazing how stuck we can get in the negative energy, how hard it is to shake. Life is hard, if you don't think so, you aren't living it. But it's not bad. Sometimes we just need that little boy, who is closer to heaven, who needs us, or that touch that reminds us. Sometimes all we need is some good old fashioned hard work.

Today I had a happier start to my day but also a thought that my sister had shared with me from the night before. "Why is it so easy to be pessimistic? Because it is SO easy."

We set things up for a morphed ward party: which was more work than you'd think. And Hot and bug bitey and I wasn't even out there the whole time. But we also got some other work done that needed doing and that is so therapeutic to me. I love having little check marks ticking away in my brain's list. Some of the most pleasing things to me today were: the ward party turned out well all considered. The kids played in the back yard by choice, they seem to just need a little distraction and fuel to their imaginations. We got our porch swing hung up and Gary and I got to swing out there for a bit and enjoy the noisy night and a little reflection. I also used a frame from the house and some matting from a previous framing project to frame the ink drawing I did for valentine's day and hang it up in our bedroom. I am liking the house more as I get things put together.

It is starting to feel like home.

Thomas Clock

2011-06-24T13:02:00.005-06:00

Zurich was helping me un-pack stuff earlier this week and saw this clock. (Which was never hung in my house but kept for the works for projects such as follows).

He said, "I want a Thomas clock, Mom."
"Ok son."
He wanted Thomas, not James, I checked a few times.
So I painted the red part blue. It would have been smoother and easier with spray paint, but I don't have any so I used the acrylic paint I had. Two coats.

This face all ready existed on the internet, just waiting for me.
Found here, super cute costume idea.

So I printed it out to the right size and poked a hole for the clock works. Lined up the face and stuck it on.

Re-assemblage of the clock. Make sure when you do so that you line up the hands straight up at 12. So as to have the clock tell appropriate time when setting it. (You guessed it, I skipped this step and hand to take it apart to fix it.)
Simple enough. I thought about adding a little more detail stuff, but he was just happy as can be at it the way it was, so I figured I would leave well enough alone.

Three of his favorite things, clocks, Thomas and Cars. Life is pretty good.

When you are two...

2011-06-24T12:50:00.001-06:00

Nothing is quite as disgusting to you as it should be. In May while we were prepping the pool, cleaning it out and repairing things, Nev found this a great place to play. She is such a water baby. She often changes into her swim suit in hopes that we will go out.

Now that we have the pool running, she loves it and has to be very carefully watched.

Seven Years

2011-06-23T13:06:00.012-06:00

Olea is Seven
It happened just like that.
Newborn

1 year

2 years

3 years

4 years

5 years

6 years

7 years

For Olea's Seventh birthday, I removed the gum that had been in her hair for about two days (I was only informed of that being the reason she hadn't brushed her hair for a few days, the night before). She lost a tooth earlier in the day, her front tooth. So with her hair un-brushed, wet, and oily (for gum removal), and a missing tooth we celebrated. This real life folks. At least my real life and hers.

We had, at her request, cheese cake that had been decorated by her dad. After pulling out the candles Nev wanted to lick one off like the other kids were doing, later Gary found her candle half eaten on top of the ice cream bucket.

She opened her presents and seemed in good spirits.

Nev on the other hand could not understand why the princess dolls and lip gloss were not for her, this was devastating to her.

It was a rough day. I felt bad, I'd had a bad day too, but it ended with presents and cheese cake... that's good isn't it? While she was talking to Gary and I right before bed we started laughing at all of it. She burst into tears. After feeding the baby I went in to say good night to her and I was informed that this was her worst birthday ever. I wanted to say, welcome to growing up... but I told her to just think about the good things of the day, and not all the stuff that was sad. I helped her discover some good things and laid with her for a while.

Sit ups

2011-06-16T23:08:00.001-06:00

He can't roll over any father than his side, but he can do crunches. :)

we're going on an aligator hunt

2011-06-16T00:25:00.004-06:00

What?! you didn't see any? We sure did!

It's a Party!

2011-06-15T22:47:00.016-06:00

I've been threatening it for years.
This year I figured it was time to get serious.

Earlier in the day I was trying to get the kids to clean up one of their messes and said, "I try to do something fun for you guys, but I need your help to get things cleaned up so we have space to do it." Olea commented, "It's not fun, it's CRAZY."
"It is crazy, but it will be fun too."

We needed to celebrate.
So I delegated the picking up of the party favors to Gary on his way home Friday night. I had dried a bunch of bananas the day before.

I made a cake and arranged and frosted it to look like a bunch of bananas. I am no cake artist, but I was pretty proud of this project.

After dinner we got started making party hats. We had unpacked a bunch of studio boxes and I found a German craft book that showed how to make party hats. Not like it is super complex but it was laid out in pictures and there is something super cool about seeing something in a book and then being able to make it. And due to time and resource constraints: making it your own.

During this time the missionaries came by and Gary answered the door, they asked what we were doing.
Gary said, "We're having a birthday party." "For who?" they asked.
Why Surgery Monkey of course!

The kids and I made hats while Gary and the missionaries looked through his mission pictures and stuff. Olea made hats for the missionaries. They had to be back in their apartment by a certain time so they missed cake and ice cream with us, but humored me with this picture.

(This will probably be one of the crazy things they write to their families about.)

Of course I can't yet find the spool of elastic appropriate for hat string. Zurich did complain that he needed a string but handled it well when I explained I couldn't find it. So we had some hat mayhem as they kept falling off.

We sang happy birthday and had cake and root beer floats.

I love that Gary put the candle on backwards for the pictures, but right ways for the stuffed Monkey. Gary had set the party favors out on the table and the kids kept asking who they were for. Our response (repeatedly), "It's Surgery Monkey's birthday."
Zurich was so cute saying, "Happy Birthday Surgery Monkey," while he enjoyed his cake and ice cream.

After Finishing up with the sweets, I explained that while it was Surgery Monkey's Birthday, he couldn't play with his hula hoops because he is just a stuffed monkey so they each would get one. This was very favorable to them.

The Hula hoops were inspiration from Olea who had asked for one after playing at friend's with one. She was pretty good right from the start.

Nev needed some help.

Without notice

2011-06-03T22:04:00.002-06:00

Last night we bought Zurich new shoes. None of his hand me downs fit him any more. Tonight as he rolled his body witheringly against the side of his bed whining, "I just don't know how to sleep." I saw him and realized he's so big all of a sudden. I had figured a few weeks back that he was having a growth spurt because he was eating so much and hungry all the time. But still tonight, I was shocked by it's visual manifestation. My mom asked today if I felt like he was growing up with out my noticing it. She said she sorta felt that way about her first boy. I told her that she had shared that thought with me shortly before I had Nev as a precautionary tale.

It's a sad thought to me.

I have tried to keep up with the kids journals and be aware and appreciative of the experiences they have and bring to me. But life is so much clutter sometimes. I guess I feel like all my kids have grown up without me noticing. Just because I turn around and notice something like tonight, that he is taller, older, just like that.

My Olea turns 7 here in a short while. I'm getting old (relatively speaking) I know I am still a spring chick, but thirty used to be "adult" to me, old. And this year I turn 29. I am so grateful for the experiences I have had these years since getting married (because that's when I started to grow older) but it is still shocking to realize that so much time has passed so quickly.

And as I look at my "little" boy who is in so many ways a "big" boy, curled up asleep with his blanket snuggled underneath him on his floor because he "Just [didn't] know how to sleep," well, I get a little emotional.

My Baby Float

2011-06-02T14:54:00.000-06:00

Gift Bag

2011-05-27T15:09:00.002-06:00

Olea got a gift bag from her teacher yesterday and was looking through it on the drive home. She was chatting away in the far back seat of the van and suddenly she is quiet for a few seconds and then says pretty loudly, "Well, that's dumb!"
"What?"
"This whole box of crayons are brown!"

Kick the Can

2011-05-26T22:16:00.003-06:00

Video of my Nevy with a new way to have fun. When I discovered what she was doing I literally ran for the camera, I didn't want to miss getting a video of this, I thought it was so funny and she's got some moves with it.

After this and I went and found the kids' balls so she could kick around a real ball, all that did was start a fight between her and Zurich... the can was better.

Ya, I know the house is messy, wanna pay for a maid? ya, me neither.

So, my kid is better than yours...

2011-05-26T20:29:00.007-06:00

Essentially when any parent brags about their kid, that's what we are saying, let's be honest...
not because we really think our kid is better, but because our kid brings us so much joy more so than someone elses kid, doing the same stuff would do. It's kinda a pride moment.

So here's a story about a little girl I am proud of.

So, it might not be hard to pass the first Grade, most of the time. But it seems like a pretty big deal here. :) Today was Olea's "end of year celebration" at school. She was one of three kids that doesn't have to go to summer school. So it is not a "graduation." And end of year reading was supposed to be level 16-18 and she's a 24.
YAY!
We had a rough start to reading so this is thrilling for me.

So here are some pics from her "end of year celebration" ... I am once again thinking of the interchange between Bob and Helen on Incredibles...

Olea holds Nevy Olea and Ms. Tello, the reading mastery teacher. Olea just loves her.

Cast introductions, Olea curtsied instead of bowing. How cute is that?

(While snacking afterward, a lady told me, "Four? Oh that's enough, you gotta stop."
..........
didn't ask for her opinion. Gary was like, "Don't be offended: you agree with her." He's right and I'm not offended, but seriously, that's not her call to make. I should probably get used to it though.)

After it was over I checked her out and we went to a friend's for a pool party. Good stuff. It's nice to be able to get to know some people outside of church setting. Gary got home from his trip just a few minutes before us and had a bouquet for Olea. He felt bad he missed her special day. She was so thrilled with the flowers, and the princess balloon that came with them. She was so excited that it was all hers. She was sweet though and said she'd share a flower or two with me. (I didn't take her up on it.)

Mischief is...

2011-05-26T00:43:00.000-06:00

These two: Zurich and Nevy

on the top of the pile of boxes in the spare room... that was dangerous

at the bottom of the stack of boxes in the spare room...

running off the wrong direction while waiting for Olea's bus

decorating the baby's saucer with an entire sheet of stickers

helping Daddy with yard work by loosing his gloves

Apple on a serving fork anyone?

This is just cute, Nev in her Jammies from Michelle. (Tshirts from the place she worked) The long sleeves on it are so funny and she handles them well.

Nevy really likes to shred paper lately I find this all to often

Having fits while I am stuck feeding the baby

but they are pretty dang cute:

Secret loves

2011-05-23T10:37:00.005-06:00

I recently commented on Facebook that

I secretly really like the postal system.

Now that the secret is out I'd like to elaborate.

Back in the days of my childhood I patronized our local library quite often.

I was one of those lucky kids who had a library card. Who participated in Summer Reading Programs and even took some of the kids I baby sat to the Library.

I also really love public libraries.

Summers were spent with a sunny walk to the library for some new literature and a nearby convenience store called Island Market for candy. I'd take the loot home and put out the picnic blanket on the lawn, or climb up in the apple tree and read and snack away... ya, I know we're not supposed to eat and read.... Ladies, you are also not supposed to take books in the bubble bath, but I know you do. ;)

One book I remember was about mail. (You are welcome to send me a copy of this book.) called the Jolly Postman. This book incorporates famous fairy tales as well in a humorous way. But it wasn't your regular old book. No, it was awesome! It was like you were a nosy (and criminal) postman who read all the mail. As I remember it there were envelopes of all types on the pages and letters that were folded up tucked inside. Postcards too. The book had all sorts of cool die cutting.

I also really like stuffing envelopes.

One summer I had a job working with my sister at Embroidery.com and they needed someone to send out coupon mailers to the customers. It was the dreaded job that no one seemed to want to do, so when I was presented with the job, I was T-H-R-L-L-E-D. Stickers, folding, hand addressing, stuffing envelopes, seriously, what isn't fun about that?

The very idea of mail is magical, you put a piece of paper in an envelope.

Add a special sticker

and a little bit of spit

and a wave of the magic red flag off it goes

and can make it to wherever you addressed it faster

than you could get there on your own.

Those envelopes hold cards, love, gifts, sentiments, gum, dollar bills, stickers, drawings, pictures, pretty things and all manner of written word. When you find something addressed to you in that box you feel all sorts of special. Hey, add parcel post and the excitement is quadrupled!

So why do I love the postal system? Because it is magical.

Batman

2011-05-21T20:35:00.005-06:00

Tonight we attended a dinner and silent auction to raise money for the young women in our ward to attend Girl's camp.

Gary found this:

And said he was buying it for Zurich but we know the truth!

as a side note, Nev ate her dinner on his shirt...

I donated some Tatties and bid on a few items too, some pretties and services.

Afterward we took the kids to a cute little candy shop so they could pick out a treat for taking a nap this afternoon. I saw these, and was nostalgic and a little shocked.

I didn't think they could sell these anymore. I did not, of course, direct the kids' attention to them but pointed them out to Gary.

The kids of course got those ridiculously large lollipops that will sit on the counter for the next week till the kids forget about them enough that I can throw the sticky remains away. Gary and I had agreed before hand that we wouldn't let them get a candy that would sit on the counter for the next week... for some reason that went out the window when we went in the door of the shop.
Lesson learned... maybe.

my budding photographers...

2011-05-16T22:19:00.006-06:00

So tonight I was looking through the camera pictures... and lo and behold....
Zurich and Nev had had more than one photo session all on their own-sies!
Not surprising.
At all.
Here is some of their awesome talented work:

The first line is awesome, because it shows how Nev gets up on the counter.
The rest of it proves that Zurich is a little liar when he says Nevy was the one playing with the camera when I find it with finger prints on it, or the memory card in it backwards.
Well, some of the time... Nev just hasn't figured out how to turn it on AND take a picture.
Yet.

I just put the one of Nev's Bed head as my desktop.

Nice. That will freak Gary out.

I think this post is the fault of what's his face "Special Agent Oso," for teaching my kid to take a picture with "MOM's CAMERA" nice one. Too bad, Zurich didn't learn the tip about keeping his finger out of the lens.

A little Determination

2011-05-07T21:36:00.007-06:00

Recently Zurich and Nev have taken to sneaking off and playing in the garage.

...and yes, I drew on some shirts for my little girl since she often refuses to wear them in real life and I love and protect her.

So a few days ago I flipped the door knobs around because one side was a lever and one was a bulb. Nev can't get the bulbs open yet. Of course Zurich still can but it slowed them down a bit. I was going to put on a safety knob cover but couldn't find one yet. There was one on the front door already.

Thursday I had to pick Olea up from the bus stop and Gary was working at home. Zurich wanted to come with me and I was stressed about him coming because he couldn't find his shoes and then Nev would want to come and I couldn't get her to keep clothes on. And if I wasnt there waiting when the bus happened to stop then I would have to go to the school to pick her up. Gary said to just go. I said, "But Zurich will follow me." Gary encouraged me again to "just go."

After picking Olea up we headed home. As soon as we could see our street I also saw two unwelcome sights in the middle of the road: Nev, in only a pull up and no shoes of course and her enabling big brother who had found some shoes.

As we got closer I noticed the garage door wide open and my concern was confirmed. Gary was not with them and completely oblivious to their escape.

How did he do it? A little Zurich determination is all it takes. First he found his shoes, then he opened the house garage door, then he retrieved a stool, when that wasn't tall enough he emptied and flipped over one of the recycling buckets. Stool to bucket and he could reach the garage door button. Their escape route was clear.

This road is pretty dangerous some people really barrel down it, and there are the heavy fern trucks going all the time. I feel blessed the road was so clear for them at this time.

So when I got home I multiplied my efforts to find the safety knob. So for now they are safe...

from that...

The mail receptacle

2011-05-04T00:40:00.005-06:00

I should have gotten a picture of the box in it's sad tipped over and over grown shape, but I didn't.

Last week for FHE we painted and personalized our mailbox. It was Olea's idea (from UP) and we thought it was a good way to make our family mark on the place. Gary used our old porch swing frame (that the movers made us take apart) to make a new mailbox stand. Some bleach and a scrub brush on my part. And then some trusty acrylic paint and the little people in our family. We had the kids white wash the stand after we put their hand prints on the box. Giddy we had to use a foot because we couldn't get him to uncurl his fingers.... thinking that might have been a good idea for Zurich too since we had to re-do his over seven times, and only one of those times it was because he smeared his with a paint brush...

Ya, I know I did a crappy job on the Name part, it was free handed with a lot of distraction.

Now accepting parcel post as well. :)

A little Opposition

2011-04-22T22:33:00.000-06:00

Today every little annoyance is supersized. I have a lot I could complain about (because I am in my own shoes after all), but instead I'm going to ask a question. Why do we have days like this? I know I'm not the only one who has them.

Is it because I am just choosing to see everything in a negative light? Or is it just because the balance of opposition is tipping dramatically today? Or am I just completely ungrateful?

I'd like to think that I am not ungrateful. So, moving along...

2 Nephi 2:11

I believe heavily in opposition. It's why there is male and female. Opposition isn't just about Good vs. Bad. It's about progress and balance. Opposition is kinetic energy. Opposition creates new ideas, joy and change. Opposition creates life. Think of that.

2 Nephi 2:14

That it might be for your profit and learning...

So what am I learning from a day like today? Am I learning to complain? Or am I learning to change my thinking? Am I learning to problem solve, organize, create, share?

On a day like today, I am glad I sat down to reflect. Because in all the chaos that has ensued in a very short period of time, it is important to note: I am still very blessed

and so are you.

It's only because of opposition that I am even aware of that.

2Nephi 2:22-26

And while I am fairly certain that the scales of opposition are severely off balance to the negative side today, that also means that there is a day out there that I will or have already experienced that is totally off balance on the positive side. so with that in mind, I look forward to the balanced days.

Join the Give Away

2011-04-20T10:43:00.003-06:00

Hey friends, readers, humanoids...

I am having a birthday celebration for Tatties!

Head on over to Corettadeesign.com and Leave a comment on the post to enter.

Win them for your Little Pretty, a baby shower gift or an embellishment.

Blessings

2011-04-19T22:30:00.000-06:00

My mother sent me this picture a few weeks ago.

It doesn't seem like much. It's not a super flattering picture of me or a demonstration of what a good house keeper I am or, what nice things I have... it's about how blessed I am.

Unpacking, whatever, Let's go to the beach!

2011-04-17T21:32:00.008-06:00

We've been in Florida for two weeks. Unpacking is going very slow and it's been a point of frustration for me... and I am sure the kids. So Saturday after having a impromptu yard sale (because of all the stuff left in the house by the previous owner) by default in getting the stuff out of the garage to show to the auction man... and then having people stop thinking we were having a yard sale. We ended up selling a few pieces since the auction man said he'd give us 200 for the lot. We made more than that from our impromptu sales in two hours that morning. And then decided to make good on our promise to the kids and spend the rest of the day at the beach.

The first time we went was after we bought the car, so we got there at Dusk...
Zurich was super whiney at first but got to enjoy it at the end... As for Olea, for the record, it's not that I don't take pictures, it's that she never looks or comes when I call or stays still long enough for me to get a decent picture. Nev loved it.

So we had to go in the day time...The kids loved it. Obviously. Nev loves to follow us out into deeper water so she has to be watched but she does have a healthy respect for it. I didn't get a picture but she often would lay in the shallow water on her stomach facing the beach and let the waves crash around her. Gideon handled it very well. Olea is a little too brave in the water and Zurich liked to chase the birds and kick around in the water and play in the sand.

We stayed till dusk. It was so beautiful.

Cleanliness

2011-04-11T21:36:00.004-06:00

We moved across the country. It's still unreal. The last few months have been so insane. Add having a baby in the middle of it all and you can imagine how worn thin I am... just figuratively. I am still plenty fleshy. No worries.

I will get to all the adventures of the cross country move... later. When I have time.

This is why I don't have time:

In order to move in, I have to clean everything first. I mean when the closet racks look like this:

and they should look like this:

And a side by side just for fun...er something

well.... lets not forget I have 4 kids. One that is a newborn. So it's not like I do anything other than feed and clean up food all day.

That's how it feels anyway. But somehow there is some progress being made, SLOWLY. There still are way more boxes than not. I have so many bruises from box corners...

Poop, Blood and Chocolate

2011-03-26T19:25:00.001-06:00

Today while driving from Twin Falls to Smithfield

I noted that I had poop, blood and chocolate on my clothing. At first this was a negative thought, then I realized: poop means that I have a healthy little boy, blood means my little girl was protected from the glass lamp she pulled over on herself (she only ended up with a cut on her toe). Chocolate means I have a mother in law who relates to me and who loves me.

It's a pretty good day.

Gideon's blessing

2011-03-25T21:33:00.001-06:00

We blessed Gideon last Sunday.
I finished his overalls and Gary's mom and I put them on... I did the pattern right, I swear I did, it was sized to fit 0-6 months... I didn't get a picture of them, because I was so distraught with the outcome. Gideon is a big boy. The overalls were WAY too small, we were stretching them to the limits just to get them on him as it was. Gerry said it wasn't a big deal they could be added on to, it could be fixed. But it took me too long to do it already... So bless Gerry she picked up the crochet hook and yarn and eased my mind.

If you look at the pic, you can see where the original bib was and how much she added around the sides and created a new bib and straps. She's a life saver. So then I sewed on his birth shamrock. My sister crocheted the booties for him, they were a bit small by the time we blessed him too, but we made it work. :)

It can be surprising at times how big he is... esp in comparison:
Crew, Preston and Gideon
born
Jan 31, Jan 5, and Feb 5

Gideon is the youngest but by far the biggest.

My sister made them their matching hats.

Belly Button Fun

2011-03-20T00:57:00.000-06:00

Gary is to blame. :)

grapefruit=love

2011-02-22T16:22:00.005-07:00

Who peels their grapefruit? Anyone who is serious about eating it without sugar, I'll venture to say. And it is so delicious! However, it is a LOT of work.

Well, I have shared my love for Key lime juice, now, I also really love grapefruit, especially while pregnant with my last child, Gideon. As it happens I had a craving for the two together.

Back when I was on bed rest my mom peeled an entire bag of grapefruit from Costco and put it in Tupperware in the fridge for me, so I could have it when ever the craving struck me.

This is love folks.

While I do really like grapefruit...

I'm talking about my mom and her love for me. There are so many ways that we can show our love, real love, not that sentiment that is only expressed on contrived holidays such as Valentine's Day. My mom chose to share it, not only by watching my kids with my dad and taking care of all the meals and clean-up while I was on bed rest and Gary was in FL on his last trip, but also by standing at the sink for who knows how long peeling me a bunch of grapefruit.

Gary's Valentines

2011-02-18T18:05:00.009-07:00

At Gary's work this year they did an old fashioned Valentine exchange. I got pretty excited about it. Gary had the idea to use the picture from our fun last year.

Of course I had to change it up a little.

What are you talking about? That stands for Valentines Day.

What is a valentine without something sweet?

We had some Jelly Bellys and I had seen this nifty little thing to make your own "bags" and so I set to work. Only, I didn't twist them.
Decorating some paper with stamps

double sided taping the edges and crimping them shut

into neat little packages

Then I stapled the packages to the Valentine Card and sweet....

And Olea and I decorated a Kleenex box for him.
Gary commented, "you are having way too much fun with this." I was, I really was!
He was a good sport. :)

He handed them out at work and everything... and got some good laughs out of people. A group of CS guys that got moved to a different building put up his Valentine where all the truckers could see it. "Who's that guy?" they kept asking.

I'm so glad he indulged me.

Validation

2011-02-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

Warning: this post contains no pictures. Get over it. It has some links to pictures though. :)

There are lots of things we do in life. Some of them, or most of them go unnoticed and lots of those unnoticed things are the things that keep life running. That's okay.

There are also lots of loosing battles we choose to fight... or at least play at. I'm sure you can think of plenty of them in your own life in hobbies, parenting, life, etc.

My Tatties, is probably one of those, I likely will never make enough money to have a viable business out of it. That's okay. I do it because I think it is a good idea, because I like to do it and because I believe in the quality and value of what I do. The other day my Dad had somethings to say about the business end of it, how it was probably a loosing battle, because of the time and love I invest in it. While monetarily that may be true, it isn't true for the validation and the joy I get out of doing it. Sometimes, someone really gets it and loves them at least half as much as I do, and for that it is worth it. Also being able to do something and create something is a thrill, that I think we all need to experience that on whatever level of creativity we entertain. I love to be able to teach people to tat. Or to share with them the things that I am able to create. I sell them because I do have to recoup some cost and because lots of people have encouraged me to do so. I love the challenge of creating a new pattern and now have quite a few that I can call my own.

At different stages of my life different avenues of creativity, or the ability to use my skills have presented themselves and I have enjoyed the opportunities. Aside from tatting I love to edit photos, design, create wedding announcements, sew, draw, paint, knit , crochet, ceramics, re-purpose/ renew and learn more about all these options and have the opportunities to share my skills or exercise them.

We all do something that internally brings us joy. But it doesn't hurt to have outside validation. I never took on a job that implemented my Bachelor's Degree in the formal sense. So when I get an opportunity to do a graphic design job, it is a thrill for me. It is a form of validation that most people get when they are hired to do a job in their field.

I chose to be a mom first and so my validation in this way comes in small doses. A freelance job here, a Tattie sale there, a well received gift... That's fine. I enjoy what I chose.

The Birthday Party

2011-02-11T09:58:00.006-07:00

Before Gideon was born Zurich and I were talking about his birth. Zurich had some funny things to say. One conversation went like so:

Zurich was cuddling on the couch with me this morning rubbing my belly. We were talking about the baby. Zurich said "When baby is born they cut the pooh."
"They cut the umbilical cord; it's not pooh, I guess it looks like it though."-c
"And then they stir and stir the pooh." -z
"No, there is no pooh!"-c
"Baby brother has no bum!?"-z
Well, that's jumping to conclusions don't you think!?

In the beginning of January Zurich asked me when his baby brother will be here.
I told him that it wasn't his birthday yet.
Then he asked me if we could have cake on "baby broder's birfday"
That made perfect sense to me. And thanks to his Uncle Cim it was arranged nicely so when the kids came the next day to visit us in the hospital we had some football themed cupcakes to have a party with. We did just have a birthday after all!

Thanks Uncle Cim. Zurich really liked the cupcakes and the neato toys on them too. :)

Two Birthdays!

2011-02-08T18:19:00.021-07:00

Last Friday was Gary's 31st birthday. He thought it would be awesome to have the baby on his birthday. I had told a friend that the 4th or the 10th was when I expected the little boy to come, just due to my history of having babies 5 days early... so depending if we went off the due date or the latest ultrasound due date is where the 4th or 10th came from.

Friday I woke up with a plan since I knew I was going to have the baby soon there were a few things I wanted done, such as making bread and making dinner for Gary so he wouldn't have to cook on his birthday. So when he called at 5:30 and was slow leaving work and still had some shopping to do I was bummed. I had also been on my feet for the majority of the day and all though the bread and the dinner was made, when he suggested picking up Papa Johns on the way home I didn't protest. Saurkraut Soup is always better the next day anyway.

So knowing we had more time I got a bit more adventurous with the kids and took them down to the studio to let them make cards for Gary. In the process I broke my C plate for my Cuttlebug, trying to hurry things along before Nev started ripping all the hearts in half. Zurich was very excited for the "cake" part of the birthday and kept talking about the "ghost cake" as he made his card.

We brought up the cards and set the table. I had finally found the photos I had printed out for Gary's new wallet and included them. Once again, I was giving him an IOU card. I owed him skiing for his birthday.

About 6:30 my water leaked, but I wasn't having any contractions that were consistent or concerning so I kept that information to myself and figured we'd go ahead with the birthday celebrations. Gary got home and we ate and then he and the kids played together while we waited for his parents to arrive. I sat back and watched and kept a quiet eye on the contractions.

When Gary's parents arrived I warned his Mom, "I'm pretty sure we're having the baby this weekend."
We ate Gary's carrot cake... Zurich wasn't as excited about that kind of cake, for the record.

About halfway through my cake I leaned over to Gary and said, "After this we better go to the hospital."
"What?"
"I had a water leak."
"Really?"
"Ya pretty sure."
"You're serious? When?"
"A while ago, like 6:30 or something."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"It wasn't relevant at the time. I wasn't having contractions and I was hungry."

As we gathered stuff up he kept saying, "You bad kid. Why didn't you tell me?"

After he read his card I said, "I did get you something but it isn't here yet speaking of Gideon and what I had ordered from Amazon." Ya, I can be cryptic like that.

We headed to the hospital and Gary, knowing that I would want it later took this pic.

Can I tell you how happy I was to see that little ph strip turn blue? We were checked into a room at midnight. I told Gary to take a nap, I'd let him know when I needed him.

However, contractions weren't doing much even though they had fully ruptured my membranes... so we started oxytocin at 2 am. I took notes of the evening up to that point on my ipod touch and then finished tatting a wreath (after having to untat, because I wasn't paying enough attention during an uncomfortable contraction).

At 2:30 I transitioned to the ball, and contractions started to hurt.

During transition I picked up my tatting again in between contractions. I had a goal to finish a Lucky Shamrock for Gideon before he was born. I did it too. :) Yup kid, you can tell them that your mom was tatting while you were being birthed... er something.

At 3:10 I was ready to have the baby. However, Gideon had a pretty large cranium and even larger shoulders so it took some work and a little time. So Gary didn't get to share his birthday, but pretty darn close!

He is the biggest baby so far. Just out doing his big brother by 1 oz, and 1 inch. Their heads both measured 37 cm. Happy Birthday Gary!

Our midwife was awesome. I love the midwives at the New Beginnings Clinic in Orem.

Gideon after his first bath.

Hospital mug shot

Gideon with his Lucky Shamrock

Gideon was ten days early and measured large for his gestational age and had low blood sugar, which was monitored but by the time we left the hospital it was all good.

Olea skis

2011-01-29T22:50:00.004-07:00

Olea loves to ski. She loves to ski with her dad. We put her on skis for the first time when she was about 3 and a half. Since we discovered Alta's Ski free after three, she really looks forward to Saturday ski trips with her dad. She has progressed SO much in the past few years. I don't ski, I don't love it, but I love that they love it, that they have something to share.

She really wanted to go on some un-groomed runs today and did really well. Gary was so proud of her. At one point while they were going through powder a couple of young guys on the lift above them yelled down, "Hey, man, your daughter rocks!" Can you just imagine how Gary was beaming with pride?

Olea is really looking forward to going for a whole day and is working very hard to earn it. It makes me a little sad to think we will be moving away from skiing opportunities here shortly, so I really want the two of them to take full advantage of the opportunity they have here. Tonight I told Gary that we need to make sure when we come back and visit family we make sure they get a few good ski days in every winter. Can you see him complain about that? nope.

So for your viewing pleasure: a video of Olea's skiing today.

You are so Dreamy

2011-01-25T17:50:00.011-07:00

Gary went with me yesterday to the Midwife. At one point, she commented, "oh he's a comedian!" Most people don't get to see this side of Gary, or I should say certain people don't get to see that side.

I'm going out on a limb here sharing this... especially since I rarely comment on this here blog about Gary and my relationship. There are a few reasons for this... which I won't go into at the moment, needless to say, I like him a lot, obviously I love him, that should go without saying. He makes me laugh all the time. I seriously chose right when I chose him. Life is soooo good.

Anyway, here is one of the funnies that the midwife was privy to.

The midwife was showing us the orientation of the baby and having Gary feel it on my belly, later she was checking me, and she jokingly asked him if he wanted to feel the baby's head. He said, "No, I'll take care of that when we get home." It might be one of those 'you had to be there' things, but I'm glad you weren't.

Later he confessed he was a little scared and thought she was serious. Maybe she was.

Gary is the kind of person who is not afraid to make fun of himself. I have a few classic pictures of this that make me laugh EVERY TIME I look at them.

For your viewing pleasure (because I ran across them tonight and had a good laugh while trying to make a hard back up of the last two or three years of photos):

Some of them have some pretty great stories or explanations, but I am just going to keep those to myself for now and enjoy my own giggles.
Oh! And lets not forget this!

Little surprises

2011-01-24T13:14:00.003-07:00

So after cleaning up breakfast I rounded the corner of the stairs to find Miss Nev, sitting like so... (lucky me I had the camera in hand to bring it upstairs with me cause this was a jem).

She's a nude-ster. Thankfully, I still have my sense of humor. There ain't no pants, panties, pull-ups or diaper on her. Oh, this lil gal is so adept at undressing herself. Mind the shoes however, those are necessary.

The Adventures of Bedrest

2011-01-18T22:30:00.010-07:00

I have been on bedrest for 3 weeks now. It's been an interesting thing since I have three children. I've had lots of help, but still there are some days that things just don't work out and somethings that only Mom can do. There have been lots of adventures... call it what you will, things that happen just because I'm not active or whatever.

What follows is a picture collection and maybe some explanation of some of things that have transpired as I have sat back, strike that, laid there and watched.

Zurich and Nev play in the jungle next to my bed.

This time they were taking a "nap in their jungle bed."

The other night as I laid on the couch Zurich started jumping off the other couch... I had the camera and let him have his fun. Olea joined in too. Nev did, but she's not ambitious enough to jump but placed the pillow and then slid down it.

While Olea and I worked on homework, Zurich and Nev drew in and ripped up our brand new set of phone books

While Gary worked at home next to me in bed, Zurich was awfully quiet... when Gary went to check on him I heard the comment, "oh, Zurich, this is the real stuff..." and I started looking up on the internet how to get fingernail polish out of carpet. For the record, in our case alcohol worked best. I didn't get a picture of the carpet because that is one of the things I jumped out of bed to help Gary with. But here is the little boy who tried to paint his FEET with his sister's blue nail polish. For what he was trying to accomplish it is a miracle that there was as little on the carpet as there was. Blessed.

Nev and Zurich are "goin' to school, Mom, Love you bye!"

May I have this Dance?

There have been lots of:

Dragon fights

Rock concerts

Monster truck Rallys

and lots of giggles....here is one:

and she goes back for more.

Follow the Instructions

2011-01-11T14:35:00.006-07:00

For Christmas the kids each got a mini set of Lincoln Logs in their stockings (or rather boots, since we embrace that aspect of my German heritage). A few days after Christmas my husband and I realized that our children didn't understand the concept and workings of Lincoln Logs.

For FHE while I laid on the couch re-stacking Nev's Lincoln Logs to keep her from destroying the lesson in process, Gary attempted to teach the older two the importance of following directions and instructions etc. using the Lincoln Logs as an object lesson.

He's always so creative that way. The kids really enjoyed it and quite frankly it made a lot of sense and has been a concept they remember even after the fun. I realized this when Olea and I were talking about being obedient almost a week later and she commented it was like following the instructions, and commandments that Heavenly Father has given us, so we can be happy.
I'll count that one as a successful FHE.

What's your flavor baby?

2011-01-05T22:40:00.011-07:00

Every pregnancy is different.
Surprise, surprise
Here is something fun I have experienced with my pregnancies:
Each child's resulting personality can be connected, attributed, compared with what I craved most often while pregnant with them.

I'll return to that here in a minute, first let me show you what Gary got for me last time he was in Florida.

Ya folks, I ain't baking with it. It sits in my fridge and I take a swig of it as needed like a stowaway bottle of whiskey.

So what child is what? If you don't know them personally go ahead and try to figure out the food/ personality connection on your own. It may not make any sense to anyone but me. It's not a scientifically tested theory after all. :)

Olea: tortilla chips and salsa

Zurich: peanut butter and honey sandwiches

Genève: tomato sandwiches

And this baby boy: key lime juice

....hmmm what does that mean for his personality?

Who knows really? I'm just trying to make the little bottle I have last till Gary (hopefully) brings home another one from his next trip.

Family Ceramics

2011-01-03T22:56:00.008-07:00

Back in the day... like in November. :)
I bought some clay
for FHE I tried to teach some basic hand-build techniques

Nev tried to eat the clay.

some of the work from that evening
Then we let it dry for 2 weeks.
Bone Dry clay before fire:

My hand build is sore out of practice, plus I was trying to teach and keep the younger ones from eating the clay and what not.

Fire, we also added a small cup my mom threw at a local art on the lawn thing.
Glaze

Glazed pieces with some large plates that I did the clear coat on (which is pink)
Then Olea helped me Food grade Clear Glaze the pieces

Fire one last time.... oooh lala

Most of the pieces have a found a purpose
Olea's is a q-tip holder in her bathroom
Zurich's is a snack cup

My cup sits next to the kitchen sink for water.
Gary's two dishes hold Tatties downstairs and my keys on the bar.
My lil pink dish holds Tatties upstairs.

Make your own snow globes

2010-12-27T14:04:00.008-07:00

Olea brought home a snow globe from her last day of school before the break. I, of course, figured that it could and should be accomplished by our family. Esp with two weeks of vacation. I obtained appropriate bottles via facebook shout out and Freecycle. I did a lil internet research about it.

And then for FHE we set to work sculpting our figurines out of sculpy clay. Bless Gary for helping the two younger ones do theirs, Zurich asked for a Reindeer spaceship, I wouldn't have known where to start! Nev quit trying to destroy what I was working on when Gary helped her make a Christmas tree.

We cooked the sculptures and went to bed. This picture is minus two sculptures.

The next evening we put them in their globes.

I had a lot of frustration with mine from the beginning to the end but it ended up working out fine. They were worth it, it was a lot of fun and the kids love them.

Olea also made one for her cousins that were coming the next day.

It turned out cute but after a little bit the tree ended up coming unattached from the base, so it was a floaty tree. I think it was because it was rushed a bit where the other ones weren't. It was still fun and appreciated at least. :) All the other ones we made are holding up great.

Letters from Santa

2010-12-27T13:42:00.005-07:00

After being put on bed rest I got an idea from a friend, and since all I was supposed to do was lay around in bed, I had time to do it, thanks to a laptop. :)

I took the opportunity to edit the letters found on this site and tailor them a bit more to my kids and our situation and the things they had accomplished this year. I also made an envelope file with postmark and return signature etc and put them on a border I had from microsoft clip art. I knew that Olea would really be the only one who would appreciate/understand it, but to add to the effect did one for each child. It made for a fun trip to the mailbox.
And Olea was very excited about it.

Getting the mail, Olea realizes what the return address on the envelope says.

Kids opening and reading their letters.
It was fun, adding to the pre-Christmas Eve excitement and reminded the kids what one thing they asked Santa for.

Chase Bank mailings

2010-12-15T00:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Chase:
You bug me. I get at least 2 mailings from you in a week. Today I got 4. REALLY?! In one DAY!? I got Two last Saturday and expect to get at least two more before this week is out. You could fill a land fill with all the junk mail I get from you. And for the record, it might not be so annoying if you put fake credit cards in them so I could fil up Nev's little play wallet, but you are cheap and you don't. You just keep sending me crap. Thankfully I have recycling. But seriously stop sending me so much junk mail! How do I make you stop?

Vivid Dreamer

2010-12-13T23:47:00.005-07:00

Last night I was up three times after going to bed
Once to clean up puke, Olea coughed so hard she threw up.
Twice to listen to Nev whimper a bit and settle back down
and Thrice to Zurich who had had another dream that I had to talk him through. If I don't he'll keep going and going and wake up his sister, which means I am in for a rougher night...

This happens at least once a week with him. He has very vivid dreams that cause him stress and he usually cries or screams till I go in and calm him down. In order to that the method varies on the dream. Some nights I am amazed at my skills. :)

I have had previous training with these kinds of dreamers... two of my siblings gave me plenty of scares when we shared a room.

Last night I popped out of bed and dashed down the hall to hear him crying, "I want to cut my project." which he kept screaming over and over so after some inquisition he finally clarified, "I need to cut my homework project." so I said to him, "Ok, here are the scissors you cut yours and Olea will do hers." Apparently, I hit the nail on the head and he was quiet and smiling. I asked, "Are you happy now?"
"Yes."
"Ok, good night."

I am starting to realize most of his dreams are about fights with his sisters. Which is funny when it's between him and Nevy, since she is well 20 months and he is three and he'll have dreams about wanting her to play with him and she won't or him wanting her to give him the toy phone and she won't.

It's kinda funny that I have to solve imaginary fights, after solving real ones all day. kinda.

Skiing with kids

2010-12-13T23:10:00.005-07:00

Gary took the kids skiing weekend before last. It was Zurich's first real go at it and it sounds like he did great till he got snow between his gloves and coat... then he just wanted Mommy.
Which is why I encouraged Gary to take him. The kid needs some toughening up. Zurich was psyched to go though and so I am so glad Gary was up for it. Last minute Gary called a friend with a little guy who is about 4 to go with them. I think that helped keep things positive. :)

I don't ski, it scares me, I have tried it a few times though for the record. Thing is I don't want my kids to have my same fears, I want them to be able to try things and have the opportunities to do awesome things that are just between them and their dad. Olea has really enjoyed this about skiing and I think it was a little hard for her to accept having her little brother along. However, she is good enough now that she can ski on her own and only needs help with the lift, which Gary figured out with his ingenuity how to get them both taken care of on the lifts at the same time.
After Zurich got snow on his wrists Gary gave him his gauntlet gloves. Why don't they make only those for kids? Why they make any other kind of glove for a kid doesn't make sense to me.

Olea's face looks so smooshed in this picture, Gary confirmed it was, they needed to adjust her goggles. :)

I, of course stayed home with my pregnant self and my little Nevy and was grateful for Gary's new work phone that has a camera on it so he could take pictures.

Knitting again

2010-12-10T17:31:00.001-07:00

It's a seasonal thing for me. I like it, but I don't knit as often as I tat.
This year I finished Zurich's hat by putting on Pompoms and ear flaps and made Nevy a new hat.
Aren't they just adorable...

The hats are too I think.

REpurpose junk mail

2010-12-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

You know those fake cardboard credit cards you get in the mail? 18 month olds LOVE them. I know this because every 18 month old I have had LOVES to pilfer through my wallet and purse. So keep those fake cards, and fill an old wallet (or one from the Dollar store) and let the child go to town.

It's fabulous motor skill work, taking the cards in and out and can keep the kids occupied for quite a while and since to them it looks important and real they think they are being sneaky while playing with it.

When I put one together for my first child I didn't have any saved up from the junk mail so I just used some old matte board I had and cut them down to the right size and drew words and pictures on them. Olea is now 6 and I unwisely threw them away a month ago... while getting ready to move, and I am going to have to gather again since Nev is in need of more cards for her play wallet.

Print out a wallet size picture of your family or the child too. I use whatever fits basically, old library cards, info cards, business cards. It adds variety and interest.

Nev's favorite thing to do is sneak around my side of the bed and go through my purse or my tatting bag.... So this has saved me having to reorganize my purse OVER AND OVER!

Another reason to Tat (as if I needed one)

2010-12-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

Last year I started a doily out of Christmas variegated thread to use under a nativity set I made. I never finished the doily. I was making it up as I went along... It probably would have worked, but at some point, a child who shall remain un-blamed/ un-named smeared the thing with pink chap-stick. I was frustrated and threw it in a laundry bag to wash it... but washed it with a bunch of towels. Fuzzies stuck to it.

I thought it was a bigger deal than it was and I almost threw it out. But was just starting to get use out of my pottery kiln and thought it might be good as a stencil or something. As it worked out the fuzzies weren't a big deal. I ironed the doily and picked off the fuzzies and when I glazed a set of serving plates I used it as a glaze stencil.

Then I clear glazed it and fired it. The worst part about ceramics is waiting for the kiln to cool off enough to open it and touch the finished pieces. Maybe this is just me and my lack of patience or excitement to see finished pieces.

I did a set of three serving plates using the tatting as a stencil. My idea was Christmas serving plates that weren't red and green so they could be pretty and useful all year round.

The blue tatting reminds me of snowflakes on the white plates.
I am thrilled with them and look forward to using tatting in raw clay.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T15:20:00.003-07:00

At home
small
sweet
delicious

and I didn't have to do much of anything except clear the table and take care of leftovers with Kendra's help.
I love husbands (Mine and Kendra's, I don't have more than one, just for the record) who can cook....

Kendra and I knitted while the kids wandered up and down stairs between the guys watching football and entertaining themselves, reading, playing their own game of football and the like

Pie, a movie, lounging, playing etc.
Kendra and I are about 29 weeks.

Giving Thanks part 3/3

2010-11-24T19:04:00.009-07:00

This is part 3 of three parts. Part one can be found here and Part Two Here. Numbers correspond to calendar dates.

18: I am thankful for great friends. It's a rare find to enjoy an entire family as much as the person they are attached to.

19: Not getting a ticket...er make that two. This also includes being thankful that there are law enforcement officers out there that have a brain and aren't all just ego. Every major road in the town was under construction, intersections were messed up and I was LOST and so was my GPS by that point. Gary was trying to navigate, it was dark etc. etc. At a very strange intersection apparently I took the wrong turn lane $85, and after that on an unknown road was going 35, apparently it was 25 but there weren't any signs... another $85 fine. Can I just say how seriously it would have killed my mood for the next month if I had gotten those tickets?! Zurich had been driving me to the point of wacko all day and so when I picked up Gary at 3:30 and the other two kids screaming at seeing their Daddy woke up Zurich, who had just screamed himself to sleep... well I burst into tears. It had been one of those days, and even after Gary drove a good portion of the way my nerves were still not capable of handling a strange drive even for a half an hour.

20: Fun shopping. As a general rule I hate shopping. Today though, it was just Gary and I and we stopped off at a store to get something for our nephew's b-day and found the store was going out of business so things were all marked down. As we wandered around the store we decided to do some Christmas shopping for the kids since we kept seeing things that were on their wish lists. It was a major success and fast. We left with most everything checked off and Gary commented like a giddy child as we drove off with our garbage bag of loot, "That was fun!" I do have to agree.

21: Family lounge time. It's my favorite thing to do with family. Sit around and chat, bellies full, my hands busy and time to just relax and enjoy a good chat.

22: Being a mother. It's the hardest thing I have ever done... and continue to do, but I love it. I've experienced loss of my own to hopefully not take for granted the 3 blessings I have so far.
Even with stuff like this: (this is a negative side of mother hood... don't watch if you aren't prepared)

Because I get to experience stuff like this:

23: Gary's ability to work from home.

24: My talents. I am able to enjoy and accomplish a lot of things because of the talents I have been blessed with.

In case you were wondering:

2010-11-18T22:53:00.001-07:00

There is a God.

Giving Thanks 2/3

2010-11-17T13:26:00.003-07:00

This is part 2 of three parts. Part one can be found here. Numbers correspond to calendar dates.

11: Today and all other days I am grateful for Veterans and their families. They go through so much and most of us (I do include myself in this, because I don't understand it first hand) are completely oblivious to the sacrifices they make for all the freedoms we enjoy.

12: The kiss fest between Nev, Zurich and I this morning. We were chilling after dropping Olea off at school and Nev leans in to give Zurich a kiss, then it was kisses all around for everyone. Nev's kiss face:

13: A chance to relax. I spent most of the day laying down while Gary and the kids winterized and organized the garage. Gary reminded me, it's time to slow down and remember, I'm pregnant and just can't do everything I usually do. So grateful for a husband who helps me keep it all in perspective.

14: A clean kitchen, by little effort of my own, because it is one thing to be told to relax and another thing for someone to make it possible. I had a meeting tonight and when I came home late to a sparkling kitchen (thanks to Gary) I got a bit emotional, then went upstairs to find him in the middle of the last three batches of laundry all folded.

15: Free Stuff: Zurich's Cold Stone Birthday coupon provided a treat for the kids, a motivation for Zurich to be good at the chiropractor. This can also include today's lunch compliments of Arby's receipt survey, which gave me a free beef n' cheddar sandwich for lunch and the rhodium plating on my wedding set... though technically we paid for the warranty, I think I have made enough use of it by now that the plating is free. :)

16: Laughter. It's often the best choice when trying to decide how to cope or react and it feels so good. I have plenty of opportunities for it it my life, as demonstrated yesterday with the Amish bread and the two youngest.

17: This little boy.

The other day, after I dropped Olea off at school we sat on the couch and chatted, well, I sat and he and his sister wiggle wormed around me for about a half an hour talking about the baby in my belly, what who's names were. For the record: Zurich knows his first, middle and last name in the right order but usually refers to himself as BoBo Fetters. The baby in my belly's name according to Zurich is "Baby Brother" and he's not sure what my name is other than Mommy, but he knows Dad's, Olea's and Genève's first names. The boy can physically push me out of bed and really likes to drink and quickly downs whatever is put in his sippy cup. He loves trains and all other boyish things (cars, helicopters, airplanes, superheros etc). He really likes to paint. He looks like my side of the family. He is repetitive and stubborn. I absolutely fell in love with him when he was about a year old. He likes to talk, watch TV and "cuddle wit you Mommy." He often tells me something is scary. When he is really scared by something he says, "I want to hide" and finds a place to hide.

Amish Friendship Bread: keeping friends

2010-11-16T12:31:00.009-07:00

I really like Amish Friendship bread and so does my family, however, I have a hard time sending work to other people's houses in the name of friendship every 10 days....
So since I am super slow at math, I enlisted my husband's help to modify things a bit to make only one start instead of 4.

The original recipe I got follows but with the changes for 1 start in parenthesis. These directions assume you got a start from someone else. If you didn't you can find starts online.

Today when I made it Nev and Zurich wanted to help again so I pre-measured everything and let them dump it in. In the picture here, I used pistachio pudding and had the kids add some extra green food coloring for fun. So if it's not that appetizing... sorry. :) Oh, and so far we like Lemon pudding the best.

I label my bag like so:

Amish Friendship Bread 325°F for 1 hour

(Directions for 1 start)

____ do Nothing
____ Mush the bag
____ Mush the bag
____ Mush the bag
____ add 1c flour, 1c sugar, 1c milk & Mush
____ Mush the bag
____ Mush the bag
____ Mush the bag
____ Mush the bag
____ Bake following instructions below

Pour entire contents of the bag into a large non-metal bowl: Add

1 ½ c (3/8 c) flour
1 ½ c (3/8 c) sugar
1 ½ c (3/8 c) milk
Then mix well

Measure out 4 (1) separate batters of 1 cup each into a 1 gallon size ziplock bags. Keep 1 starter for yourself and give the others to friends with a copy of this recipe. Be sure to let them know what step you are on. (2.5c solution to start baking)

Preheat oven to 325°

In a different bowl
3 eggs
1c oil
1c sugar
½ c milk
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
2 c flour
1 large box of pudding any flavor.
Combine and mix

Grease 2 large bread pans or a large bar pan. In a separate bowl mix ½ c sugar, 1 ½ tsp cinnamon. Dust the pans with the mixture. Pour the batter into pans evenly. Sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture over the mix in the pans. Bake for 1 hour. Let cool until bread separates from the pans evenly. Serve warm or cold.

Amish Friendship Bread: 1 start modificationAnd

And while I was paying bills:

Laugh-- I know I did.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E

2010-11-12T12:27:00.007-07:00

...and it is often the hardest thing to give to our kids. Lately, I have had a goal to take more time creatively with the kids, not necessarily in craft, but in doing things that need to be done and making it a positive experience together. Rather than sending them away or telling them no all the time.
Here are a few of the experiences that I call success:

Zurich wanted to help me make bread the other day, bread is a bit more fickle than some baking so it always gets me stressed to have the kids underfoot when I put it together. There have been many experiences in the past during baking or while it is cooling where the kids have had their hands in it... off the top of my head:
a child pushed down the perfectly risen loaves right before they were to be put in the oven
a child filled a hole they had dug out of a cooling loaf and eaten with blue play dough
a child took a bite out of a mini loaf that I had intended for giving away
a child added extra of an ingredient and I couldn't tell which one at the time.... it was salt
a child opened the oven while baking and we ended up with very flat dense bread
a child and accomplice desecrated a cooling loaf with a fork
the adventures continue...

I can't think it is making a good memory for either of us when I get so irritated with their "help". So this time I pre-measured most everything and put it in separate containers. Lifted Zuich and Nev onto the counter and let them dump the things in as I handed to them. This created A LOT of dishes, but did reduce the stress and we had a good time. It's worth it and the bread turned out.

Gary needed to change the tires on the car the other day since he commutes quite a way to work he didn't want to be caught in a snow storm with out snow tires on. He invited all the kids out to the garage with him to do the job. Later we were talking about how he let Zurich help with the lift and screwing the bolts on etc. Gary commented that at one point he realized how the whole job could have been done in 15 mins but they were out there for over an hour, because he took the time to let them help. And they loved it.

I needed to get some projects done in the studio that had been taking up space and had been avoiding it because Zurich often wants to sit on me and that just doesn't work when I need to use hot glue. So I glued his wooden train hitch (that had broken off in play) and the next day had him bring it down to the studio to paint while I worked with hot glue. He was happy with the time together doing separate projects and kept commenting about how he liked to paint his train, and what a good painter he was. He asked questions and told me about painting the buffers and how nice it looked and what it would look like with the rest of the train.

Olea was star student this week and needed to fill out a poster and I needed to get some computer work done so I pulled my laptop down stairs to the kitchen table. We worked on our projects side by side chatting about different things and at one point she said to me, "Thanks Mom, I like chatting with you." ohhh heart melting, and it made it totally worth working on a tiny screen compared to the 24 inches I am used do when doing such a computer project.

Olea got home from school and wanted to run off to the TV, but I had her come paint nails with me instead. When a friend came knocking at the door, she said to them, "I can't play right now, I am doing a special thing with my Mom, but maybe I can play after."

Normally, I would have hurried on home after going to the Chiro to get home in time for Olea but this time I thought we had some time and Zurich had not thrown a 20 minute screaming fit at the Chiro so I took him to "The big tree park" at the mall and let him and Nev play around for a good hour (I had brought my tatting along for my own entertainment) and after a stop in at See's of course (the little stinker got another pre-made, while Nev was happy with the chocolate coins) we headed home.

I am trying to rethink things and relax a little and just let my kids enjoy, and let myself enjoy them more. Some days I experience more success than others (Yesterday, Gary sent me upstairs because I snapped at Zurich after being hit by the ram rod for the 3rd time). Which I am laughing about now, but after a headache all day I wasn't in such a great mood at the time.

Giving Thanks Part 1/3

2010-11-11T13:10:00.003-07:00

I think bandwagon or not, this is a good thing to do and to think about as we gear up for the holidays. I chose to not do mine one day at a time because I knew that things I was grateful for that day would share more info than I wanted that particular day, for instance, it's fine with me if you all know that Gary was gone for a week, because he is home now, and I wanted to give some flesh to some of the things I listed.
So here are days 1-10:

1: So thankful for my Marriage. I picked the right guy at the right time and we've worked to keep it right over the years. I am under no delusion that it's "happily ever after" unless we both make it so. I married a guy who understands that and works every day to keep our relationship alive and kicking. There can be no apathy in marriage.

2: I am grateful for Skype and the internet so I could talk and see Gary while he is away.

3: I am grateful for family. My dad came today to help ease the pain and suffering while Gary is gone, the kids really enjoyed him and time outside and I was able to get some shopping done kid free. Other family members have also called to check up on me. In our separation from family we realize just how much we need and appreciate them. It helps us laugh when there is stress and let offenses slide when no offense is intended. It's family relationships that add value and joy to our lives. Each person adds a unique touch and talent.

4: I am grateful for time to put my aching feet up and tat. Finally! (now to not fall asleep, which I also need... hmm)

5: Today I am so grateful it is Friday night! So giddy it is ridiculous! Gary has been gone for work since Sunday afternoon and he comes home just after midnight.

6: Thankful for good company and fun things to do. Attended our ward's Super Saturday today.

Made Nev the cute little leggings and some clips she still can't wear, of course I had to add a little tatting to them, because I had the pieces lying around. :)

7: Grateful for a husband who lovingly helps me see my limits and forced me to take a rest instead of trying to push through and for sharing this talk with me for justification: Dieter F. Uchtdorf : Of Things that Matter Most

8: I am so grateful for chiropractics. I can function today! After the pain I was in yesterday I was not looking forward to the week ahead at all, but after a good adjustment, I am ready for life as a pregnant mother of three again.

9: I am grateful for quiet, low stress, easy days, because today has not been one of them!

10: I am grateful for a spouse who understands me and knows how to talk me though a creative funk, so I can get going on a project.

I Know, Dear, I feel the same way.

2010-11-03T22:18:00.004-06:00

My Buttons Mom?

2010-11-01T00:20:00.004-06:00

I started this bracelet a while ago at my mother in law's. We'd got shrinky dinks to try and see how it fared on her Cricut. (for the record you have to do a deep cut like 5 times). We decided the punches and Cuttlebug worked better. And you can run it through the cuttlebug embossing folders to get patterns to color in, which is what I did with the flowers. I had some pieces that I hadn't shrunken yet and so when the kids and I did our shrinky-dink buttons I threw mine in too.

I finally assembled the bracelet and matching earrings that day too. I think I'd had the elements lying around for about oh maybe since April. That's life folks, that's life.
If you have a hankering to try something like this... color both sides of the shrinkydinks... I forgot on some of my pieces... and with a twisty bracelet like this, you gotta have all sides covered, which is why I had to do more pieces.

When I wear this set Zurich will unfailingly ask, "These my buttons Mom?" or "Where are my buttons Mom?" I need to do something special with the kid's buttons. They obviously made a lasting impression on the little ones.

My two princesses

2010-10-29T16:17:00.005-06:00

Olea and Genève
and for historical purposes:

Olea 2005 Halloween (16 months) Genève 2010 Halloween (18 months)

I made the dress for Olea, didn't use a pattern, it worked anyway.

I was glad it could get some use again. It was hard to get off Nev, she didn't want it off... and she fits it much tighter than Olea did.

These two girls are so different in every way and what an interesting life it makes. They are both so precious to me and I learn so much from and because of them both.