Bringing It Home

Wildflower

2011-06-17T21:48:00.004-04:00

This week, Snapshots Around the World has the theme Wildflower. I had to submit a picture of my favorite wild flower.

This is my oldest daughter, Lillee :) She has a unique spelling to her name because her paternal grandfather's middle name is Lee. We opted to incorporate his name into Lillee. This also matched her older brother's name for same number of letters in their first name and having a double letter in the middle (I like numbers and patterns...my geek side shines brightly!).

Underfoot

2011-06-06T18:51:00.004-04:00

This week, Snapshots Around the World has the theme Underfoot. I thought this picture fit perfectly!

I did not take this photo, it is from our photo shoot with Emily.

Time for an update

2011-05-16T21:20:00.008-04:00

Life has been busy...I know, your life has been busy, too! I try to check in on other bogs and often feel that I should update my own, but then someone needs me to get them food or clean up a mess or teach them math or just yell at them so they'll stop arguing with a sibling :)

I have wanted to update my photos....we had a fun photo shoot recently and I'm so excited about all the great pictures that came from it! I know there are lots of pictures in the post, I just couldn't decide which were my favorites :) Enjoy!

Christmas tree pod

2010-12-16T22:42:00.003-05:00

The night we decorated our tree, Lillee found a little gift under the tree as she was placing baby Jesus on a limb. I found her discovery the next morning when I was vacuuming pine needles from the carpet. It was this odd little pod. It had a texture similar to a wasp nest, but was shiny in places, not dull like a wasp nest. I thought it may be sap that had leaked from the tree because one end almost looked as if it has been oozing out of something. It was attached to a branch, not the trunk of the tree and felt very light, and I assumed hollow as I shook it and heard nothing.

We decided to cut into it to see what we might find. I expected a worm, an insect, an egg of some sort. Instead, there were layers of the outer material and no room for a worm, insect or egg....so I thought. I squeezed it a bit and yellow fluid began to seep from the layers. Then I saw black specks coming through the yellow fluid.

After further examination with a flashlight, we found the layers were actually divided into cells....fascinating!

We searched for an hour on the internet, using very descriptive terms but came up empty handed. Within 5 minutes of posting on one of my homeschooling boards, someone told me it sounded like a mantid egg sac. Sure enough, it was a mantid egg sac!

I love discovery, research and answers! Science is such fun and I hope my kids will continue to enjoy and have a love of exploration and the desire to find answers without fear.

Chase's first time playing in the snow

2010-12-16T22:28:00.004-05:00

We had our first snow this year and Chase is finally old enough to bundle up and head out, especially since it was only 1-2 inches of snow.

Chase all bundled up! He's trying to warm his freezing hands because he won't keep mittens on.

We've not taken down the Halloween witch...she's pretty cute and the girls like her. So we topped her with a santa hat and now we can keep her up longer!

The kids were cleaning sidewalks at our neighbors' houses as their daily service.

Isabel tossing a snowball at the camera. Unfortunately, the snow was very powdery and the kids were disappointed that it would not stick together.

Not sure what to make of it all...he kept batting hsi eyelashes to get the snowflakes off.

A true angel...love ya Belly!

Decorating the Christmas tree

2010-12-16T21:51:00.007-05:00

Chase didn't undecorate the Christmas tree, like he did last year. It was a lot of fun! We put out the decorations, made sure they all had hooks and were ready to go before letting Chase at them.

He carried these same 3 Christmas balls for awhile.

And did not want to put them down! Surely his little fingers could hold more...

Connor is growing up so fast! Al and Chase left to run an errand and I was goign to start the tree decorating with the kids while Chase was gone. Connor refused to decorate the tree without Chase. He insisted that Chase be part of it all and the girls joined the chorus! I was so proud of them.

Chase got the honors of topping the tree this year...it took awhile.

And finally (with the help of grandma and daddy) he did it....applause please!

Temple and Visitor Center at Christmas time

2010-12-16T21:35:00.005-05:00

We were blessed with an opportunity to go to the temple to see the Festival of Lights with some friends, this year. Connor was our photographer for the event.

There is a creche display that is fascinating! There are creche from all over the world that are on loan for this event each year.

I liked this one because Connor caught his reflection in the mirror from the display.

The outdoor, life-size nativity. BRRRRRRR

Beautiful Christmas trees inside the visitor center.

Connor captured a great picture of the Christus.

Most of the outdoor pictures looked like this. It was very cold and hard to have a steady hand.

Connor's final picture for the night was simply gorgeous!

Connor's 1st hat for the homeless

2010-12-16T21:23:00.003-05:00

In my previous post about our December Daily 5 school work I had mentioned that Connor and Lillee have to put in 20-30 minutes knitting a hat for the homeless. Connor finished his first hat last week.

Lillee's 6th Birthday

2010-12-16T20:56:00.002-05:00

Lillee is 6, AMAZING! She is a beautiful child, not just on the outside, but she's truly beautiful on the inside. She is so loving, is intensely in tune with the Spirit and loves everyone she has ever met. She often reminds me of what we should be doing to be more Christ-like. She has her moments and drives me nuts but I love her so much and can't imagine my life without her. She is a true blessing from God.

On her 3rd birthday, I started a tradition....baking a special birthday cake. It has been fun and challenging each year to offe a special cake to each child, but we all look forward to it. After Chase's birthday this year I asked Lillee what she wanted for her cake (their birthdays are only 7 days apart). She started off by saying, "Hmmmm, I don't think I should ask that because you can't do it, Mommy." Boy, was I determined to do whatever it was she wanted! She told me she wanted an elephant cake. I thought, "Easy Peasy!"

So here is her elephant cake...not so easy peasy. This cake took all day to create, but it was sooo worth it (see the video at the end of this post).

This is no small cake! It was actually 3 cakes.

The ears were made of chocolate, piped onto wax paper and then smoothed out and shoved in the side of the elephant head.

Chase had to have a bite, too :)

best gift of the birthday...Grandma got her a Monchichi and I don't know if Lillee has put it down in the last week :) Happy birthday Beanie!!!!

Deer Class

2010-12-16T20:07:00.008-05:00

This post is not for those who can't handle blood, guts and such.... Turn away, now!

The day after Chase's birthday Al, Connor, Grampy, Brother Affeltranger and I participated in a deer processing and usage class. I had been wanting to take this class for over a year, but I got very sick last fall and did not get well until January. So when fall came around this year, I contacted John Fishback, the biggest 10 year old you'll ever meet (I know it is hard to believe there is a bigger 10 year old than Al but he does exist!), set up the class and off we went for a day or skinning, deboning and wrapping venison.

This was a LONG day, we arrived at 10:00 a.m. after a 1 hour drive and didn't leave until 5:00 p.m. Connor was in little boy heaven! He made all sorts of fun crafts and I think John had a great time showing Connor all of his cool stuff. Connor made a bone knife, tomahawk, bow with several arrows and a quiver, shield, belt to hang it all on and a blow dart gun with darts.

We had 4 deer to process - 3 white tail deer and 1 sika deer.

This was our first of the button bucks.

This was a ball joint with the tendon running through it. We tried to tie in some science for the day since we're studying animals this entire year. We read all about deer before arriving.

The crowning event for Connor was taking off the deer head, with a hacksaw, and then using the same saw to remove the antlers.

This is John Fishback :) He and Al were having fun looking at one another through the trachea...science, right?

Connor helped with some of the processing, here he is helping to skin one of the white tail.

This is Brother Affeltranger having a grand ole time.

This class filled our freezer with yummy venison that we've been enjoying nearly every night!

Chase's 2nd Birthday

2010-12-16T19:22:00.006-05:00

Chase is now 2! Here are some pictures from the happy celebration, including the birthday cake.

When your birthday is close to Christmas, you don't get birthday paper/bags, it is always Christmas stuff in our house. This was a gift from Connor. He cleaned out his men drawer and put them all into a bag for Chase. There were Star Wars figures, Rescue heroes, army guys...all sorts of men! Chase was very excited, but I think Connor was even more excited to be able to give a gift to Chase.

Some favorite gifts included a very loud imaginext dragon and wooden train engine.

Chase has been fascinated with choo choos lately so he got his very own train cake on a Rice Krispies track.

He was pretty excited! i don't think he ate any cake, but he loved picking off the m&m's

All the kids helped me decorate it.

Chase is certainly a handful, but he's also sooo much fun to have around. When he's happy, he's really happy and when he's not happy, he's unbearable!

Its the most wonderful time of the year

2010-12-03T08:18:00.003-05:00

I love Christmas! I love the weather, I love the season and celebration, I love the feeling of Christmas...it is all WONDERFUL! I wanted to take some time to document some of our Christmas traditions and some new ones we're starting this year.

We do daily service during December. We make a list of people we want to serve and then each day we choose someone from our list and think about what we can do for them...it's not very formal, but it gives us something to work from each day and keep in the spirit of giving.

We knit hats for the homeless - The Original Pancake House in Rockville collects handmade scarves, gloves, hats, etc to give to the needy on Christmas morning. They serve Christmas breakfast to 400-500 people and on their way out the door they give them these handmade items to keep them warm. We use the Knifty Knitter so even Lillee can make hats on her own.

We stop all "school work" for the month of December. During the school year, my kids work from individual charts that we call their "Daily 5" From a list of 9 or 10 options they choose 5 to do each day. Examples of a daily 5 may be 20 minutes of literature reading, 20 minutes of math, 15 minutes of creative writing. This allows the kids the opportunity to choose what they are in the mood for rather than me forcing a schedule on them.

In December I make them a December Daily 5 that has no school work, but all Christmas focused options. For example, (1) 20 minutes knitting hats for the homeless, (2) 20 minutes building our Lego nativity (we are making a large Lego nativity this year - last year we made small, individual Lincoln Log nativities, but I wanted a larger family project this year), (3) prepare a daily service for someone outside of our home (we work from our service list mentioned above and since I have 2 kids in school we serve 2 people/families every day!), (4) personal enrichment (they have to spend 20 minutes doing something to help themselves grow in a positive direction - this could be exercise, quality reading, learning a new skill, the list is endless) and (5) Christmas music (20 minutes of practicing a Christmas song on the piano, singing or signing - the church website has some of the Children's songbook in ASL signing videos).

We also started the month off by sending presents to Jesus. We buy a dozen helium filled balloons (next year we'll do 18 so each of us can send 3 gifts...I love the symbolism and wish I had thought of it sooner!) and write our gifts to Jesus on slips of paper (we used these cute slips this year), laminate each one, punch a hole in them and tie them to the balloons.

I took pictures of our "gifts" to remind the kids (and us parents) throughout the year what we promised to do for Jesus.

We then go outside and release the balloons and the kids have a great time watching them float away.

The day after we released the balloons this year, the first thing Connor said when he woke up was, "Mommy, do you think our balloons have made it to Heaven yet?" How precious is that?

Our scripture advent will begin 12 days before Christmas.

We still have the Lego advent calendar, which isn't Christ-centered, but is fun for a family that loves Legos.

We seem to change a little bit at a time, but we're slowly getting on the path to a more Christ-centered Christmas.

Farewell to an Amazing Man

2010-10-11T08:50:00.002-04:00

My friend, Stan, for whom I told you about a few months ago has passed on to be with his Heavenly Father. You may read about it on the Magic Quilt site.
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Stan and Lila have been such an inspiration to me in the 7 years I've known them. They have the most beautiful relationship and are truly best friends. My heart goes out to Lila as I know this is such a difficult time for her, but I am once again inspired by her strength, love and dedication to her husband. When she had hoped that Stan would slow down, stop working and just care for himself, she continued to support him as he went to work each day because that was what Stan wanted to do.

I've had met many inspirational couples through the church I attend, but Stan and Lila are the two people I that hope Al and I can become most like.

I am about to leave for Stan's funeral...my heart is heavy, but as my husband and I just reinforced a lesson on Forever Families with our children, my heart is also full of joy with the knowledge we have of temple work and the opportunity we have to bind ourselves together here on earth so that we might be together again in heaven.

The Magic Quilt

2010-07-31T21:01:00.003-04:00

I wanted to share this awesome project with all who read my blog.

I can't explain the magic quilt any better than having you visit these links and reading about it yourself. If you're interested in participating in the next magic quilt project, please contact me or join the sisterhood of the magic quilt.

For anyone who knows Stan Tolman, he is the first recipient of the magic quilt and you can read all about it here.

And here is the post of Stan receiving the magic quilt.

Random favorite pictures I haven't posted

2010-06-22T20:56:00.007-04:00

This is a hodge podge of pictures I've been meaning to post

On June 19th, Lillee was in her first wedding as a flower girl. Unfortunately, the flower baskets did not arrive so Lillee walked down the aisle without scattering flowers, but she was very cute :) The other flower girl had to be carried down by her father.

Lillee had such a great time at the wedding and she thoroughly enjoyed the dancing! Here is Lillee dancing with the bride, Debbie.

and dancing without our friend Camilla

and dancing with our friend Jayson

And then there was the cake!!!

And I'm sure, by the look on Grampy's face, that he's teasing her about her cake...probably something along the lines of, "You can't eat ALL of that by yourself, can you?"

Lillee watching the bride and groom dance and wanting to be dancing

So they indulged her and invited the ring bearer to join in.

Lillee and I with her special rose that she carried around for 2 days.

Lillee and Debbie

These are the girls that Lillee had over for her Girl Party a couple weeks ago. This group of girls are so cute together. They're all in Sunday school together (CTR 5) and they have such a good time but church class is structured for learning and there is no play time. So I felt the girls needed some play time. They came over for snow cones, cupcakes, playtime and bracelet making.

Just a cute Chase picture.

Another cute Chase picture.

And another cute Chase picture.

My cute kids with awesome blue eyes.

A favorite one of Lillee.

I made Al a father's day tie from this picture of all the kids.

A bee visit

2010-06-18T08:27:00.004-04:00

I visited the bees yesterday and they're doing so well! The hive body has 10 frames in it---5 from the original nuc and 5 empty, foundationless frames that I put in. I'm being a bit of a beekeeping rebel and not using foundation in my frames and the girls are doing very well with them. Here are some photos of their progress in the last 2 weeks.

These 1st three photos are all the same frame. You can see that the bees have almost completely drawn the comb to the inside edge of the frame. What you have here are cells for the queen to lay eggs and then all those worker bees are feeding the eggs with honey (carbs) and pollen (protein). The capped cells have brood in them that are in the later stages of development, the open cells may have an egg or larva or be empty. They can also contain honey for feeding the brood and workers.

An overhead shot into the hive.

Here is a picture of some wavy comb, but you can see that it still fits within the frame. Because these frames do not have foundation, the bees have nothing to guide their comb building other than them being bees and knowing what they're doing instinctively.

A different view of the wavy comb.

And yet a different view of the wavy comb. you can see they're attaching it to the sides toward the top. Being attached will help stabilize the comb during extraction (although this frames won't be used for honey extraction, they're for brood rearing.

Another frame drawn out by the bees in the last 2 weeks.

Another frame of drawn comb, not as far along as the others, but getting there.

A shot from the top of the hive. The dark frames are the ones that came with the nuc. The lighter frames are the empty frames I originally added to the hive. In the three weeks that the bees have been in the hive they've drawn out 4 of the 5 empty frames and raised a buch of new bees.

During my visit, I took out the empty frame on the far left of the above picture and moved it to the center, where the bees like to work. I also removed two of the drawn frames in the middle and placed them in another hive body that sits on top of this hive body in hopes that the bees will finish drawing the three empty frames in the lower hive body and move up to the 8 empty frames in the next hive body.

Fun, fun, fun!!!

Lillee's Wedding

2010-06-15T19:41:00.005-04:00

I would have never thought that I would hear my 5 year old planning every detail of her wedding, but it has happened!

Lillee has been asked to be a flower girl this coming Saturday and as it gets closer and we fuss over her dress, her hair clip, how her hair will be put up, her shoes, etc then she's getting excited about all the hoopla. So tonight she announces, "I want Grandma Ros, Grandma (Jane), Mamaw and Mommy to be flower girls at my wedding." Can you picture it?!?!

So that's where the planning began and I had to furiously take notes because I did not want to miss a word of this future soiree. Lillee was so animated, talking non-stop (this is nothing new for Lillee), and planning every single little detail! She was seriously excited and completely serious about it all.

The flower girls (the above mentioned ladies) will make crowns, they can be all different colors and we'll draw them with pencils or paints and cut them (I love that this is how my daughter thinks of crowns). And then Lillee said she would tell all of us to buy pretty shoes and pretty socks (because G'ma Jane just bought her pretty sandals and socks for her flower girl dress). And our dresses would be brown, Lillee's newest favorite color, with smiley faces all over them.

Lillee really hopes G'ma Ros doesn't have to work that day. G'ma Jane promised Lillee that G'ma Ros would not be working that day LOL For those of you who do not G'ma Ros, that is Jane's mother. I won't reveal her age, but I will say...she is Jane's mother, you can figure out the math, generally.

Then Lillee continues her planning...."When I get big, I'll buy a sewing machine and I'll sew big, giant roses to go on your (the flower girls') heads and all of your head will be covered, except your eyes and mouth. And I'll make the fabric go all the way to your feet so your legs are together like the stem and your arms will be leaves, sticking out like this (she says as she throws her arms out to the side). Your face will be all yellow, except your eyes and mouth, and your head can be any color you want."

I couldn't write any more without bursting out in laughter and Lillee does not take well to being laughed at. So I told her what a wonderful idea it all was and she needed to get to bed. I know she's in there right now with a million plans running through her mind and she can't wait til morning to jumped from her bed to tell me all her plans. She's already scheduled for us to start making crowns in the morning :)

I love her! For all she drives me crazy, she is an amazing girl, such a nurturer, such a mother, so intune to the Spirit. I can't wait to see her grown, married with children, and planning every detail of everyone's lives. She's my Mini Me.

Drive-by Blog Posting

2010-06-11T20:01:00.006-04:00

I'm out of time, yet again. But I know if I don't share what I have, I won't remember to do it later. So here is the quick and dirty version:

We avoided another visit to the ER, but barely. I broke my toe last Friday night. I was walking along and somehow kicked the corner of the sofa...wanna see?

Connor is folding a basket of towels for me and as he spread a towel on the table, he asked Chase is he wanted to help. This is Chase's way of offering a helping hand. This is typical in everything he does!

We had a lovely afternoon flying kites. The kids were exhausted! This is our local sledding hill, you've probably seen it before while covered in snow.

Lillee is going to be our scientist, or more specifically our entomologist. She loves all things bugs, worms, creepy and crawly. Here, Lillee has a lightning bugs (aka Firefly). She caught it the night before and put it in her bug specimen jar. In the morning, she wanted to let it go, but the lid flopped down on his rear section and mushed his light. She bandaged him with scotch tape. It took my a good 5 minutes to try to gently unwind the tape so as to not damage the poor guy any further.

Today, I saw on a local message board that a guy we know had some bees in his shed and he wanted to know how to get rid of them without poisoning them. So I called him up and offered my beekeeping knowledge :) I headed over to diagnose the situation. When I arrived, I found the bees had burrowed into a piece of fiberglass insulation. Long story short, bumble bees make a hive in the ground, not like honey bees, and they substituted the fiberglass in place of dirt. I was able to get them all out of his shed and I felt like the hero beekeeper! Here is a picture of their hive.

These two boys have the most amazing bond. Connor was sleeping on the sofa one morning and when Chase saw him, he ran across the room, threw his head upon Connor's back and gave him the biggest hug saying, "Nonnor, Nonnor, Nonnor!" Connor is so patient and sweet to Chase, it's just wonderful to see my boys love one another so much.

My 4 kiddos! Aren't they adorable :) Lillee (5), Chase (18 months), Isabel (4), Connor (7)

For those of you who have seen our pictures over the years...do you remember the picture of Connor on the floor with the eggs? here's Chase's version, with grapes :)

We're been super busy, but we're all well and enjoying life! We started our summer reading scripture challenge and the kids are encouraged to read some church history as we're planning our trip to Palmyra and Pageant next month! A busy summer ahead, full of exciting adventures and lots of time with family. Fencing class ends next week and swimming classes start the next week. Violin and piano are continuing sporadically through the summer as we're around. Lillee will be a flower girl in a wedding next weekend and the list just continues. We may need to take some time off in August to have a break from our summer!

There's nothing finer than fresh picked berries

2010-06-03T14:55:00.003-04:00

I love this time of year...well, except for the heat and the humidity, I could do without those. But I could never do without the wonderful berries that start coming in this time of year. We made our first trip this year to our favorite orchard for some strawberry picking. The kids love it, strawberries are a favorite in our family and Chase is no exception, he could eat them all the time.

Chase went picking with us last year but was too small to come out of the sling. This year he had a blast!

He was fascinated with the irrigation system and the hay.

Connor didn't want me to get a picture of his strawberry juice covered mouth.

Lillee, Connor & Isabel were great pickers...Isabel was the most productive. Connor and Lillee ate most of what they picked.

We did not leave with many strawberries, I couldn't keep the kids out of them. This is not a picture of them putting strawberries in, they're removing them!

This is what happens on the way home, after a morning of hard work in the field.

What's another trip to the ER anyway

2010-05-31T12:15:00.003-04:00

It's a holiday weekend and we had not been to the ER yet this week so why not make another visit to complete our 3 week streak.

We went for a family bike ride last night when Isabel took a spill on her bike right in front of my bike. If her fall wasn't bad enough then I added insult to injury by running over her arm while she was sprawled on the pavement.

She screamed and cried for a good 30 minutes until we were off the trail and in the car....and then she screamed some more. The only time she wasn't screaming was when Al started a movie in the car for her....then she just moaned and whimpered. So as you may have guessed, we headed to the ER. We're working on thier frequent visitor promotion---More visits, less stitches.

After having x-rays we discovered her arm was not broken. WAHOOO!!!! She is badly bruised and extremely sore and the whimpering continues. I knew there was a problem when she wouldn't bend her arm to put her thumb in her mouth (Isabel is a SERIOUS thumb sucker). She can't move it to get dressed, open doors, lift herself onto a chair...it's very sad. Especially when she says every 5 minutes, "Too bad mommy rolled over my arm. Too bad we didn't stay home instead of riding bikes." She's not meaning to make me feel guilty but man, I do feel bad!

I'm waiting for Social Services to give us a call, I'm sure we've triggered someone's interest with all our ER visits.

Phew...Moses Maze. Check

2010-05-24T06:39:00.004-04:00

I'm glad to have last week DONE! Saturday was a fun and exciting day, but exhausting.

We were up and out early Saturday morning to get down to the church to set up the Moses Maze. Our quarterly primary activity theme was "Scripture Heroes" and I chose Moses. We used The Idea Door as inspiration for the event and then each member of the primary presidency took a hero and created an activity. My maze was fairly complicated to set up so I arrived early to find the building was locked and the basketball players who are normally there every Saturday morning were not there this Saturday morning. While the kids and I waited outside the building a couple of teenagers came by and started playing tag with my kids. They seemed really nice and I was happy to have the kids occupied while I made some last minute notes for Moses (my father-in-law agreed to throw on some robes, carry a staff and say, "Let my people go").

When the doors were finally open, I started grabbing bags and heading inside the gym to set up. Those teenagers didn't hesitate for a second, they grabbed bags and started carrying to. I began directing my family how to be helpful and those teenagers jumped right in, too. The girl was age 16 and named Kayla and her brother was 13 and even though he told me his name, I completely forgot it in the chaos. They are from Richmond and their parents were next door at the temple and the kids didn't have anything to do for 4 hours so they were happy to have a church building to go into.

I started setting up by taping our burning bush to the wall, Connor and Lillee helped me paint it. At the burning bush, Moses is told to remove his shoes for he is standing on holy ground so all the kids take off their shoes and then were commanded to go to Pharaoh. I set up the table where Pharaoh was to rest for the day (he was a picture on an easel). After we visit with Pharaoh, we walk a few feet to begin the hall of plagues, Moses says, "Bring forth hail" and Kayla who is hiding behind a movable board, standing on a chair, with a bucket of mini marshmallows starts tossing them at the kids. After recovering from being pelted with marshmallows, Moses calls for the locusts which are really gummy bears that have been sandwiched between saran wrap on the floor (Kayla put this together! I handed her a roll of saran wrap and a huge bag of gummy bears and she made it happen). The kids walked across the locusts feeling them squish under their toes.

We move on to a table where Moses turned water to blood (food coloring, of course). Then we moved onto the plague of darkness. I meant to make blindfolds, but ran out of time so I took a large piece of fleece from my fabric bucket and a pair of scissors with me to the church. I handed these to Kayla and she made blindfolds...she was amazing! I didn't have to explain, make a sample blindfold....nothing! She took the tools and made it happen. Once the kids were blindfolded, they held onto a rope and Moses led them through a maze.

We went back to Pharaoh where he told us (the Israelites) to get out, he'd had enough. So the happy Israelites headed out of Egypt right into the Red Sea (a king sized blue bed sheet that Kayla and I held onto, rippling it to simulate water while Moses spoke). I split the kids into Israelites and Egyptians and lifted the sheet for the Israelites to go through. Once the Egyptians came through we pulled the sheet (water) down on them.

I asked the Israelites if they were now a happy people since they were free and the Egyptians who were following them were gone. Of course, they were not happy...they were starving in the wilderness. So I made manna bread (sprouted wheat bread) and broke it into small pieces for the kids to try. I was surprised at how many kids actually liked it...it is just sprouted wheat, nothing else! No salt, sugar, honey, nothing!

After having their manna bread I asked if they had everything they needed to survive the wilderness. Well, we needed one more thing. Moses slipped off behind the overflow curtain, a.k.a. Mt. Sinai, and came back with the ten commandments. I was impressed with my cardboard ten commandments. I painted in multiple layers to get a marbled rock effect and then painted the commandments using Hebrew (well, my Hebrew wasn't great and it was hard to do with a paint brush, but the one Jewish man that happened to be on hand at the Mormon church on a Saturday morning said it was passable Hebrew and if I took them to a synagogue no one would have a problem translating them....I felt accomplished).

After the Israelites had a way to feed themselves and law to guide them then Moses sent them to the land of milk and honey....a table with vanilla ice cream (milk) and Honeycombs cereal (honey). While munching their milk and honey, we played Name That Plague. My amazing friend, Kathy, had all the plagues in jars from her days of teaching seminary.

By the time we reached the land of milk and honey, Kayla had all the ice cream scooped for the kids. by the time they had finished eating she had the hail cleaned up and ready to throw again. She dumped the bloody water and had fresh food coloring ready to go, she stacked all the blindfolds and the rope for the darkness, had the sheet folded and ready to be water again and the ice cream bucket back in the freezer. She was amazing!

I wasn't sure how I was going to do all of these things by myself, but I had yet another opportunity to see how Heavenly father always provides. Kayla was an angel sent to me this day! She was self-motivated, happy to help and a pleasure to be around. I kept telling her how wonderful she was and how grateful I was and she would smile and shrug it off as nothing, but it was HUGE. I could not have made it through one group of kids without her, much less 5 groups of kids (yes, we repeated the maze 5 times!!!). You see, Kayla and her brother weren't suppose to be there. Their parents had arranged for their older brother to pick them up and keep them for the day but plans fell through at the last minute so they got up at 6am on Saturday morning to drive 2 hours to Washington DC so their parents could go to the temple. And since they had gotten up so early, they threw on jeans and t-shirts and Kayla was not comfortable going to the temple visitor's center for the day in jeans and a t-shirt so they roamed around until they found the church building and stumbled onto my family stranded outside as I was thinking, "This is not a good start to the day." I was so wrong...it was a truly awesome day!

I'll tell you about my bee adventure on Saturday in the next post.

Sailing on the Sultana

2010-05-21T22:53:00.004-04:00

This is the Sultana, an almost exact replica of a British schooner that patrolled the North American coast just prior to the American Revolution. We sailed on her today. The weather was perfect for sailing! It was hot on the pavement, but once we were on the water there was a cool breeze. We were never hot, nor cold....it was truly perfect!

This is Captain Tonya giving the kids a life jacket demonstration. Connor is the little guy in the middle with the big hat.

Eager kids, looking forward to helping out.

This is Captain Tonya preparing the main sail to be hoisted.

This is a working ship so they put the able-bodied workers to work.

The kids brought up the main sail.

This is the top sail, the kids set all the sails on the schooner.

This is below deck. The crew (4 women and 2 men) actually live on the boat, in these quarters except in winter. They work with one another all day then spend their nights together. I spoke with one of them about living and working together and she said that they don't know anyone when they go in to a port so they even hang out together when they're on land and off duty. In this picture you can see some of the games and medical equipment used during the time of the boat's operation.

Connor was a willing participant. He was a crew member of the Sultana, working for the British King as a tax collector. He got a cut on board, the medic would wrap his hand and hope for no infection. Unfortunately, infection set in and now Connor's hand must be amputated. Here we see the tourniquet used to reduce blood flow and the saw for getting through the bone. you can see Connor's excitement :)

The kids were able to steer the boat using the tiller, under Captain Tonya's supervision, of course!

They learned some navigational skills, including reading charts.

This is a lead for measuring depth of water.

Yep, you just toss it over the side and let it sink. Pull it in and measure between the weighted end and the dry part of the rope. See that little swivel gun beside Connor? They fired one of those, too. No pictures though because the sound was so loud we had to cover our ears.

What a fun day we had on the water in Annapolis. Sultana sails from several ports in the area and you learn about the ecosystem of each area. I can see us taking several Sultana trips in the coming years.

I have 2 seconds, want to see my girls???

2010-05-20T20:04:00.004-04:00

Life is CRAZY!!!!

I have so many things happening all at once and I'm trying to keep my head above water, this week.

We found out that my bees were finally coming so I was trying to do some last minute preparations and mental get myself ready for them.

We're babysitting a guinea pig for some friends who are out of the country, just one more thing to add to our own personal zoo. While cleaning the guinea pig's cage on Wednesday, Chase fell down the stairs and split his head open. Al freaked out, I told him to calm down and then I took the baby upstairs so I could see the damage. Then I freaked out. Not like Al though...I started hearing a buzzing noise in my ears and my vision was getting dim...I had to call Jane to hold onto Chase so I didn't pass out.

Al had just gotten out of the shower so and I was still in my robe so we both rushed around getting dressed because we knew he was going to need stitches. In the meantime, while Chase was sitting on the counter and Jane was holding him, he stops crying, looks around, sees an apple and starts eating it. The bleeding has stopped and he's hanging out, wondering what all the fuss is about.

I was afraid to put him in his carseat since the split was on the back of his head. I didn't want it to open up from movement. So I strapped him in the front seat with me. We made it two blocks and there were 2 sheriff cars. Al pulled over to announce we needed to get to the hospital quick, hoping the sheriff would give us an escort. Instead the sheriff said he couldn't let us go, we needed to sit and wait for an ambulance. WHAT!?!?! Al was not happy hearing that. but we waited...law enforcement was telling us he wouldn't let us go and we do try to live life by the rules.

Ambulance arrived, they strapped Chase into a car seat, put me across the ambulance from him and off we went. But not fast, nor with lights and sirens. We stopped at all the stop lights, just like everyone else. The ambulance attendant apologized that we were held up because of the sheriff insisting we needed an ambulance. He pointed out that there was nothing he could do to help Chase while he was being transported. Oh well, such is life.

Long story short, he got 6 staples in his head, he's perfectly normal, had no clue they're there and fell on his head twice this morning. I think we'll have many ER trips with this kid. Actually, we had the same ER Dr & nurse we had last week. He actually asked if I wanted to go ahead and make my appointment for next week since we had been there on 2 consecutive Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. Please pray with us that next Wednesday our only Dr appt will be to remove the staples!

On top of that, Al is slammed at work (Hallelujah!!!!), Friday we have art class at 10:00 a.m. in Laurel, then Connor and I are off to sail for 3 hours (a 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour....) in Annapolis before driving all the way back to Rockville and then shower and get ready for a graduation party at 8:00 p.m. Early Saturday morning, I have to be down at the church building to set up for a primary activity. And did I mention I had to get my bees while all of this is going on?

Needless to say, we cancelled piano again this week and Lillee hasn't picked up her violin ONCE all week.

So here are 2 pictures of my girls...all 5000 of them. They're currently housed in the small box on top of the hive (called a nucleus or nuc for short). This is how I picked them up from the apiary I purchased them from. The nuc contains a queen, 4-5 frames of drawn comb and a lot of worker bees (and hopefully some brood).

I place the nuc on top of my empty hive, open it up and allow the girls to orient themselves to their new area (find nectar and water sources). In a day or two, I'll go back to remove the frames from the nuc, put the frames into the hive and then the bees will follow the queen into the hive (they can smell her).

More to come, stay tuned!

My hive is beside an established hive at my friend Amy's house. The bottom 2 pictures are of Amy's bees. The picture of a honey frame is exciting! This is Amy's first honey frame. The cells with white caps are honey that will age for a couple more months and then it will be ready for extraction. The other picture is a glimpse inside her hive. These pictures were taken by Connor. He took a sting to the face (I didn't have a suit for him) but he was brave and ready to head back into the hive! I was proud of him for wanting to go back after being stung in a sensitive place. He wants me to make him a bee suit, first :)

A month? A whole month?

2010-05-16T14:44:00.008-04:00

I'm failing in my blogging duties. I'm sure I've said that before.

Have you been wondering what we've been up to? Well, here are a few of the things that have been going on.

Remember our new landscaping logs and my currant bush with a few raspberries in the background?

Here are the raspberries in May with a new trellis.

And here is the champagne currant bush.

Remember my straberry plants? Here's a tiny little flower on one in April

and here is what they look like now:

We had a week of rain and Connor entertained himself with some Lego building. Here is a kitchen he created.

See the details? The faucet over the sink, the hot and cold water tap, even a soap dispenser!

The kids have spent a LOT of time on this. It is so nice to have the kids in the backyard, entertained and not running up and down our busy street. The neighborhood kids come over so I never have to worry where my kids are :)

I caught Connor studying the periodic table late one night. He should have been getting ready for bed, but he was amazed with this new chart.

We spent a few hours at the Celtic Festival in Frederick. The kids had a great time. We saw caber tossing, Irish dancing, bagpipe bands and Lillee even joined one of the dance groups for a traditional dance.

There has been a lot of skateboarding going on. We had visited the skate park a couple of times btu Connor was a little intimidated by the big boys. So Al built this ramp so Connor could practice a bit at home and hopefully be more comfortable at the skate park.

It worked. Here's Connor at the skate park. and Chase like to slide down the half pipes for entertainment.

Then Al decided he needed a skateboard, too. He continues to build equipment for he and Connor to practice on...Al is a little intimidated by the big boys at the skate park, too. OK, I won't joke at his expense. Al has actually been doing really well at getting back into skating for being such an old man (he turned 33 today, I'm cracking on him again). He aches and has trouble getting his body going in the mornings, but he's having a great time with Connor. Al comes home from work, puts on his skate shoes and heads out to skate with Connor until 9:00 or so. Connor got a new board and upgraded to glow-in-the-dark grip tape because it was yellow (his favorite color) and because they spend most nights skating in the dark. They are doing some major boy bonding while skating with one another so I can't complain :)

Life is good...we're staying busy and trying to stay above water :)

Chase had another asthma flare-up this past week that landed him in the hospital for 24 hours. We're battling his asthma with lots of medications and hoping to avoid these flare-ups in the future.

I've lost 38lbs since January and I feel so good. I still have a lot to go, but I'm happy with what I've lost thus far. I do hate all the shopping that goes with weight loss, though. I find I'm constantly cleaning out my closet because things are too big. And for someone who doesn't like to go shopping, buying new pants every month or so is a pain. But I'll try not to complain too much :)

I have a new calling as Primary Secretary and I'm enjoying it. I like knowing what the kids are learning in primary so we can reinforce it at home. And it is definitely helping to build my gospel foundation. I do find myself singing the strangest songs when I wake up on Monday morning, though :)

I forgot to mention, I cut Isabel's hair. And then she cut it:

If I part it just right and put a hair bow in it you can't tell.

Our Newest Addition

2010-04-21T09:01:00.003-04:00

No, we're not having another baby....but this one sure felt like it took forever to birth, like a baby :)

We spent 4 days putting together this backyard monster, but it was worth it. the kids are loving it! We've not completed all the landscaping around it, but you can get the idea from the picture.

Here are some other outdoor projects I've been working on. We added a border around the house so I can plant there and hopefully keep the kids and dog out

We added another boarder by the raspberries and currant bush. Added in some bird feeders and generally cleaned up the area.

I added 2 blueberry bushes, in a protected area so the lawn guys don't mow them down this year.

And here are some strawberries that I planted in a tub. I also have one of those topsy turvy strawberry planters with 30 plants in it.

I also added two rose bushes but forgot to get a picture of those. Now if I could just get the garden area tilled then I can start planting there!

Easter 2010

2010-04-04T20:41:00.002-04:00

Lillee (5 yrs old) was outside playing with the neighborhood kids when a spontaneous egg hunt began. Since she was in a dress and didn't have her basket she had nowhere to put eggs.

Where do you think she put them?
Made a pouch out of her dress?

NOPE

She stuffed them in her panties. When I saw her, she was lifting her dress to her navel showing the 10 year old neighbor boy what she had done. I drug her in quickly, scolded her and made her change clothes. Her response was, "But mommy, I was just showing him where my eggs were." I told my husband, one day I'll laugh at that line...but right now, that's not happening.

March in brief

2010-03-21T13:18:00.003-04:00

So much is going on and I've been overwhelmed (probably my most overused phrase) which is why I haven't posted in almost a month. So here is an idea of some of things we've done:

* I started a beekeeper class in February with Ron, my father-in-law

* Connor has been flying through his school work, eagerly completing his daily workload and then some. I think we'll wrap up our semester by mid-April (with the except of our ASL (American Sign Language) classes that will continue through the first week of May).

* The weather has been awesome the past two weeks so we've spent a lot of time outside, cleaning up from the snow, cleaning up from a puppy visitor we had, taking down our broken trampoline, the list goes on and on.

* Planning our garden---deciding what to plant and where to plant it then ordering our seeds and plants.

* A visit to my parents, which included our first trip to Brushy Mountain, a beekeeping supplier.

* At our beekeeping class we learned to assemble a hive by hands-on construction. After constructing a hive, they raffled it off and we won!!! I knew then, the bees were calling to me.

* After winning the hive, I became obsessed with getting bees. I visited Brushy Mountain, I made a bee jacket and a veil myself(!!!) and found a home for the hive (Jane, my mother-in-law is highly opposed to having bees so our yard is out of the question). My dear friend, Amy, also a beekeeper, started her hive last year and invited us to place out hive at her home. We went to help Amy work her hive yesterday and it was so awesome! I was filled with excitement all day and felt so at-home with the bees flying all around me.

* I started exercising again, my honey made a place for me to do TaeBo in the shed (I've not been able to exercise since last September when I developed asthma). I've found that I feel so much better after exercising, but I spend the remainder of the day wheezing.

* Chase has had another asthma flare up. Saturday morning we were at the park having a grand time, then naptime came. I put him down for his nap, left for a baby shower and when I came back he was on the nebulizer and Al felt we needed to go to the ER. It hit so quick, it was kind of scary. Thank God for our dear friend, Dr John who verbally walked me through Chase's care so we did not have to go to the hospital, again.

I have lots on the horizon, especially with my bees arriving in a couple of weeks, planting and tending the garden and wrapping up our semester. Hopefully I can snag a few minutes to write down a few highlights, but if you don't hear from us, we're enjoying the sun and digging in the soil :)

Mommy, today was a really good day.

2010-02-27T20:42:00.002-05:00

That's what Lillee told me before she went to bed, tonight. She was referring to the fact that her day started with a mommy-Lillee outting to the bakery, the library and then Bizarre Bazaar. Then when we arrived home, she was thrilled to find out her cousin Max was over. She played with Max all afternoon until her other cousins Alice, Hannah and Emma arrived (well, Henry was here too but she doesn't care much for older boys, yet). She played, and played and played! Shared her Halloween candy (yes, she still has a bag of Halloween candy at the end of February) and played some more.

After everyone left we started into a furious frenzy of trying to get everyone bathed and church clothes laid out as we have to leave by 8:00am for church on Sundays. After getting clean, putting on her most comfortable pajamas and then brushing her hair, Grandma was waiting to read a book! This is when she announced, "Mommy, today was a really good day."

We have had a really awesome weekend! Our cousins have been visiting and all the kids have gotten along well and played so nice. We were excited for a chance to see the cousins, but we were really coming together to wish Uncle Andy, a farewell before he heads off next Sunday. In one week, Andy leaves for Louisianna for 3 months of training before he then heads off to Afghanistan for 7 months to train Afghans in the medical field. So this is it for 10 months.

We pray Andy and his family are blessed with comfort through the love of Heavenly Father in the coming months. Koryn is about to show us all what a strong woman she is...God bless her! I have the utmost respect for military service men and women and their spouses. And I am extremely grateful for their service to our country and as humanitarians around the world.

8 years and counting

2010-02-21T21:53:00.002-05:00

On February 22, 2002 (2/22/02), Al and I were married in the front room of the house we currently live in. We were wearing blue jeans and only had a few attendants (Al's family, sitting on the sofa). Nothing fancy, as you can tell. I think there is only one picture in existence of the event...a little 4X6 that hangs in my bedroom and every time I look at it I think, "I'd like to be that size, again."

In 8 years, we've had some interesting adventures, but none compare to the 4 children we've had. I wonder what the next 8 years will bring.., our children will be 15, 13, 12 and 9. WHOA!!! Maybe I don't want to wonder about that just yet.

Happy Anniversary, honey.

Our Valentine's Day

2010-02-17T16:05:00.005-05:00

We had such a nice Valentine, this year.

I stopped off at the fabric store a few days before V Day and snagged V Day prints on sale for 75% off. I knew Connor wouldn't be interested in pink hearts so I also snagged some fleece at 65% off. I made pillolws for the girls...some nice comfy memory foam pillows. And Connor got a pair of Transformer fleece pajama pants. Al bought flowers for everyone, roses for me and yellow daffodils for the kids.

We made V Day cookies on Saturday so the kids took treats to their church teachers along with the extra daffodils and some corny monkey Valentine Cards.

After church, we had a nice nap time followed by games and a family activity planned by Lillee. She was so cute directing everyone. It went something like this, "Isabel, you'll do the song. Daddy, you'll do the scripture. Mommy, you'll do the talk. I'll do the prayer. And Connor, you'll do the silly dance. Then I'll hide all the prizes and we'll all go together to find them."

Lillee took stuffed animals and other trinkets from her room and hid them, then directed us where to find them. It was a really fun evening and I love that when our kids think of fun family activities that it includes prayer, talks and scriptures :)

This guy made me smile

2010-02-17T13:40:00.006-05:00

You'll have to click on the picture to see the stickers up close, but I'll tell you what they say starting in the upper left corner and coming down (like making the letter U).

1. Well at least the war on the middle class is going well
2. Work harder, Democrats want to spend your money
3. So how's that hopey changey thing working for you?
4. OOPS!
5. Conservative IN EXILE
6. Peace had a chance
7. O BUMMER
8. Bend Over, Here comes change

The capital O's on the bummer stickers are all the signature Obama O

Snowmageddon, Snowpocalyse or Blizzard of 2010

2010-02-16T20:42:00.005-05:00

This is Connor sitting ABOVE the deck on a mound of snow.

And he made a 'snow chair' in the center of the yard.

Isabel couldn't even walk in the stuff. She crawled to the trampoline (you can see the snow is nearly to the top of the trampoline frame. She crawled right back and she's crawling onto the back deck...the snow eventually mounded over the top of the deck by about 1.5 feet.

Call it what you want, but I call it frustrating. It was enjoyable at times, but an inconvenience for 2 weeks and the inconveniece will continue for weeks to come. Over 40 inches of the white stuff from 2 storms just a few days apart.

This is the blanket of snow that leveled the backyard.

Here is a rail and if you look close in the background, you can see the snow is about to overtake the fence in the yard.

Our BBQ grill and it's new domed cover.

What a fun filled 2 weeks we've had

2010-02-16T19:49:00.005-05:00

AAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

I'm done with snow :) We've been hit with over 40 inches of snow in two back-to-back storms and the state has no money to deal with the huge mounds of white stuff.

This is a measurement after the first storm.

We have enjoyed drinking lots of hot chocolate. Actually, I think Isabel gets all geared up to go play in the snow just so she can have hot chocolate when she comes back in because she never stays for more than 5 minutes.

Speaking of Isabel, she turned 4 years old last week and we had a great party! I stayed up late to make her Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake.

The next morning, when she hopped into bed with us, Al said, "Let's go have cake and ice cream." And he wasn't kidding. We had cake and ice cream at 7:30am

and were opening presents before 8:00am. She received some great gifts and had a fun day.

Isabel saw a cute little fabric dollhouse in a magazine and said she wanted on like it with little bunnies (just like the picture). I sewed this cute little house but wasn't able to find bunnies to live inside but thought she would still enjoy it. She's not played with it once. She wanted the bunnies and the stuffed bed and chair that was pictured in the magazine. maybe one day she'll appreciate it...when she's 30 and has her own kids to please :)

She got a new baby doll and baby bed from Grandma. This doll sucks her bottle and binky and closes her eyes and and breathes deeply when she goes to sleep.

Strawberry Shortcake was the star of the day. She received a doll, movie and 2 books all Strawberry Shortcake.

She's also been saying and doing some really funny things:

Grandma Jane has been organizing all of her hundreds, maybe thousands, of photographs. So one day, Isabel went downstairs where the sorting has been happening and said, "Where are those books with the pictures of the human beings in them?"

One afternoon, I asked the girls to clean their bedroom. After a bit of time, the girls appeared in the kitchen to announce the bedroom was clean and ready for inspection. Lillee continued to share that she cleaned the room almost completely by herself. When I questioned Isabel as to why she did not help clean the room, she spouted back, "I wanted to see how good Lillee could do by herself."

One morning at breakfast, we were having a little family chat...nothing serious, just talking. Isabel is something difficult to understand as she's lazy in her speech. On occasion, Al and I will tease her a bit to make her aware of her mispronunciations. This particular morning, I had mentioned that Connor made Isabel's cake all by himself and that he really enjoys commenting on the food I cook, with very descriptive language. Isabel wanted to chime in that she was a good cook, too. Al picked up on this and started teasing her about being a 'dood took'. Well the teasing continued in a slew of other funny word combinations. She corrected him over and over, "No, I'm a dood took!" She finally gave up, slapped her forehead and shook her head. It was hilarious!

I took her for her 4 year old check-up today and she was wonderful! Of course, I bribed her with a milkshake and chicken nuggets from McDonald's. Normally, she would scream when the Dr approaches her, but the bribery really worked! Dr. Pedriera told me how sweet and kind Isabel is and said, "Isabel, you're my favorite patient" and that made her feel so good. He always tells me what a good mom I am, that's why we really go to see Dr Pedriera :)

Mommy's special pill

2010-01-30T21:55:00.005-05:00

I take many pills each day, albeit a bit less now that my asthma has gone away. I take several pills each day for blood pressure, one for my sinuses when they're acting up and a couple vitamins to make me feel a bit more rounded at the end of the day. The best pill of all is one I don't actually take myself. It's Connor's pill.

For a few years now, Al has been trying to convince me that we should take Connor to a psychiatrist to have him evaluated for ADHD. I've been reluctant, especially since I teach Connor and his attention issues haven't bothered me. However, just before Thanksgiving, we started having some behavioral issues from Connor. We took away all his typical rewards---Nintendo DS, Wii, reading in bed, listening to CDs in bed, the privilege of staying up later than the girls, etc. After several weeks of having lost his privileges, we realized he didn't seem to care. He had no motivation to do anything. He no longer wanted to play piano, which he once loved doing. He became very emotional, we were always yelling at him, sending him to his room or threatening him to try to get any positive response

I broke down, I told my husband it was time. Fortunately, my husband knows a great doctor. Al, who has ADD, has been seeing Dr. Brody since he was a kid. And when Al's mother was being tormented by Al's behavior as a child and teenager, she started seeing Brody, too. So Brody has now seen 3 generations of Al's family :)

Brody was happy to schedule an appointment with Connor. He has a large TV on the wall and plays video games with his young clients. Within one Wii session (about 30 minutes), Brody walked out to say, "Yup, ADHD. We should start him on some meds." Voila! That's it, it was that simple?

Brody suggested the same meds that Al takes for his ADD, Vyvanse. Can I tell you how special this little pill is? Miracles are encased in this little capsule!!! Now it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, right away.

After leaving Brody's office, the guys went to the pharmacy and then home to see what happens when the pill is consumed. This part proved to be quite tricky. Connor was willing to try the pill, but when he couldn't swallow it, he panicked. Then Al and I panicked. We all yelled, screamed, argued and cried. After 45 minutes of promises, bribes and threats, it ended with Al having to hold Connor down while I forced it into him. It was not pretty, but it worked.

Within 2 hours, we noticed Connor couldn't stop reading. He had picked up a ThinkGeek catalogue and was reading it from cover-to-cover. When I realized what was happening (read: the medicine was working), I decided to test it a bit. I asked Connor to play piano, this really challenging piece he's been working on for months and typically gets so frustrated with that he can't make it through 2-3 measures without wanting to give up. He moaned when the piano teacher assigned it for another week. This time, when he tried to play it, he didn't get frustrated. He took his time, played each measure while actually reading the music (he once loved playing from memory because it took too much effort to look up and find his place on the sheet music). He persevered through the entire piece, no complaints, no quitting. I was so amazed that I asked him to play it again and he did. Willingly!

As he finished the piece, he turned to Al and I and said, "Thank you mommy and daddy for taking me to that Dr and getting this medicine. Thank you for everything." I was nearly in tears while he was playing the piano so I was ready to burst when he said this.

For 2 years I've been telling myself that Connor didn't need meds because I was OK with him and since I was the one spending so much time with him that it was OK. My husband finally clued me in by telling me, "The meds aren't for you, they're for him." I understand, now. And I was grateful for a husband who understood Connor's symptoms, his frustrations and his need to have some control over his actions. If it weren't for Al having experienced the same frustrations as a child, poor Connor would still be a sad little boy who on occasion wished himself dead (that was a hard one for me to swallow...my 6 year old thought things would be better if he weren't alive).

Connor recognized the change in himself with the very first dose of his medication. He promised that he would take it willingly the next day because he was so happy with the results. And he did! And he's gotten better at swallowing it every day and Al and I haven't had to threaten him or yell at him since.

His improved behavior has changed the dynamics of our entire house! The girls are behaving better and the yelling has really calmed down. We had 3 hours of school yesterday! 3 hours, straight! That is a first. He did 7 pages of math (fractions) and never complained...he actually offered to do the 7th page when he had finished the 6th page.

When we were visiting my parents this past weekend, Connor was a bit bored. So he started cleaning. First he closed himself in their bedroom and started cleaning and rearranging the room, lined up the shoes, straightened all the decorative pillows on the bed and so on. Then he came to the living room where he lined all the shoes up by size, smallest to largest, then noticed things were dusty, grabbed a cloth and very systematically began dusting the furniture in the room.

The magic that this little pill creates has changed our lives! The only negative thing about this pill is Al's gloating. Thanks, Al, for being patient with me and for not rubbing it in more than once or twice a day.

I love, I love my....

2010-01-30T20:03:00.004-05:00

I made up this simple little song that I would sing to Lillee when she was a baby:

I love, I love my Lillee Bean, my Lillee Bean, my Lillee, Lillee, Lillee Bean.

When Bel was born 14 months later, the lyrics changed slightly from Lillee Bean to Belly Bear. Bel loves to hear me sing this, even at alomst 4 years old. Over the last 4 years, any time I start singing this, Isabel curls up in my arms, sucks her thumb and listens. As soon as I'm finished with the short song, Isabel chimes up, "Adin, Adin!" (translation, "Again, Again!")

Another thing I always want to remember about Bel is how much she loves to snuggle. Every night and during nap time when I put her to bed she asks, "Mommy, will you put my blanket on me."

"Yes, Bel" then I cover her and walk to the door where I turn around to tell the girls a last goodnight and switch the light off. At this point Isabel always says, "I'll come snuggle with you in the morning. In the middle!"

And she never forgets. She actually becomes quite mad if I'm up before her because that means she can't snuggle. She and Lillee also race to our room in the morning to see who can get the middle spot first. This often means our day starts with crying and fighting. So the girls are sent from the room and told to come back when they've stopped crying and arguing.

Fun times! These are the things my blog was meant for :)

Amish Friendship Bread

2010-01-18T20:54:00.006-05:00

Photo courtesy of Allrecipes.com

Doesn't this loaf look beautiful and delicious? Well it is! And the real beauty is you share it with your friends.

That is, if you have friends. I've discovered that I don't actually have friends, well at least not Amish friends who appreciate a good loaf of bread or two or twenty. Nor do I have non-Amish friends who are grateful that I want to share something so delicious with them.

10 days ago, a good friend asked if I would like an Amish friendship bread starter. I chuckled at first, remembering my mother receiving one of these in a mason jar when I was a kid. The reason I chuckled was the memory of a slew of cursing that occurred with each feeding, separating and sharing time. I had been wanting a bread starter (sourdough, not a sweet bread like this) but figured this would be a way to get my feet wet and back into bread baking, regularly.

I accepted the offer of the starter. I spent ten days mushing the bag, feeding it and lovingly baking two gorgeous loaves of bread, but not before I separated out 4 servings of starter to share with my friends...well, the people I thought were friends.

I posted on Facebook to see if anyone wanted a starter---I figured this was a good way to ask for volunteers without sending a direct email to people or worse, calling them! I sent one starter with my mother-in-law who was going to visit a friend that she only sees once a year. It just happened that they were heading to a church fundraiser at a local restaurant and would see lots of people they knew. My mother-in-law gave it to her friend with the caveat, "I don't care if you take it over there and throw it in the trash, but you have to take it." So abrupt over friendship bread, where's the friendliness surrounding this sacred starter?

I saw the first hit to my Facebook plea, I was hopeful as I opened the email. Nope, no response to the bread...she wanted to know what soup I would be bringing to soup and swap.

Second response, WAHOOO!!! It was about the bread, YIPEEE!!!

It read, "Haha. I just saw your mother-in-law trying to get rid of some at Cici's. good luck to you!"

Friendship bread, my foot! You don't make friends with this stuff, you run them off as they're laughing in your face.

Well, for all you HAHA friends, I won't mention any names, there is a cure for someone who has lots of Amish Friendship Bread starter: Take Control of your Amish Friendship Bread Starter

I will be fine with my Amish friendship bread starter and my 10 step program (HA, I don't need 12!---if you don't get this joke, congratulations). I am in control and am now equipped with the tools to liberate myself from the oppressive thumb of a simple bread starter.

Happy, happy birthday Connor dear

2010-01-07T17:10:00.005-05:00

Happy days will come to you all year

If I had one wish then it would be

A happy, happy birthday to you from me

If you're LDS, you know this little tune and have probably had to sing it a few thousand times in your life. It is one of my favorites, lately. maybe because we've had so many birthdays and I'm singing it a lot :)

Well, today Connor turned 7 years old! And I did my motherly duty and made him listen to the (insert number of years here) years ago on this day story for the 6th time-I didn't recount it for him on his 1st birthday.

This was probably not his best birthday, as I was sick and feeling pretty yucky. But I still fulfilled my motherly duty of making his cake. Connor doesn't like icing so he requested a cake with no icing and the sprinkles in it (meaning Funfetti cake mix from a box). No problem! The hard part was, he requested a bullet bill cake. WHAT?!?! and I can't use icing?!?! Well, here is what I came up with and he was thoroughly pleased :)

He had a nice birthday and said, "This was a great day. It will become a memorable day for me" and then he gave me a great big hug. We did OK :)

Connor's new go-cart

He received a balloon physics kit from Mamaw & Papaw (VERY cool!), and lots of fun games and toys from grandma (including some awesome magnet blocks).

Catching up again

2010-01-01T08:19:00.005-05:00

I felt like I was back into a routine of blogging, here on my family blog and my food blog as well. Then Christmas came, which brought lots of family to our house and we were busy. Then Chase got sick.

I had slowly increased his nebulizer treatments over about 1.5 weeks and then Monday night he had a rough time. Tuesday morning we had a neb treatment at 7:30am and he was still struggling to breathe at 8:30am. I called our pediatrician and we were there by 9:30am. They gave him oral and inhaled steroids, administered another neb treatment (usually we go 4-6 hours between treatments) and still no change. Off to the ER we went.

After another neb treatment in the ER and Chase falling asleep, the Dr determined he was fine and sent us home around 2:00pm. We dropped off prescriptions, grabbed some lunch and headed back to the house. 15 minutes later, I had to give another neb. Still, he struggled to breathe.

I called our Dr and asked, "What am I looking for to determine if he should go back to the ER?" The Dr told me to give him a few hours and if he wasn't better to go back in. Within 15 minutes of being off the phone with the Dr I had determined we couldn't wait a few hours, we couldn't even wait an hour....this kid couldn't breathe. He walked around grunted, coughing and struggling to get air. So I packed us a bag, grabbed some reading material, a change of clothes and headed out the door again.

5:00pm we're back at the hospital where we were met by the same people we had seen a few hours before so they knew this was serious and did not make us wait for anything. They took us right in and started more neb treatments. After a series of nebs about 1-1.5 hours apart they realized he wasn't getting better and it was time to admit him.

We finally had a room by 10:00pm. When we made it upstairs I chuckled as they led us into the exact room we were in a year early when Chase was hospitalized with RSV. We settled in and was hoping to calm Chase down. Fat chance! This kid was hopped up on steroids and albuterol and was finally in a space that he could move rather than having to sit on my lap for 5 hours in the ER. He was bouncing off the walls! Andy and Koryn came out to give Chase a blessing and he would not sit still...it was like hitting a moving target.

I did get him to sleep by midnight and the respiratory staff came in every 2 hours to administer a neb. I was so grateful that someone else was giving him nebs because I needed a break. It felt so self-indulgent to have someone else do that for Chase because I felt that I should be doing it, but I was just exhausted.

The long and short of it, Chase did better as the steroids kicked in and we were able to stretch his nebs out over a longer period of time and made it home around 5:00pm the next day.

I love this picture. I have one of Al holding Connor, as a newborn, in a NICU rocker just like this.

This is a hospital crib/jail cell. There is a nice handmade quilt in the corner that was donated by Project Linus and we were able to take it home.

This is Chase getting into EVERYTHING! Here he is under the sink-we couldn't keep him from climbing in and out, in and out, and in and out!

Here is Chase on day #2. There was a nice little playroom across the hall from our room. He enjoyed being here.

I hope this New Year begins with a healthier family!

How does one forget...

2009-12-26T23:10:00.005-05:00

such significant details from such a wonderful Christmas? Somehow, in my Christmas recount, I missed some details.

#1 Christmas morning, after presents were opened and while we were working on our Lincoln Log nativities, my visiting teaching companion dropped by with a bag full of warm scones that she had just made. They were wonderful!!! Imagine, soft warm pillows of pastry filled with dried cherries, orange zest and white chocolate chips. YES!!! they were delicious. Did I mention my friend is a trained pastry chef :)

#2 Connor stayed up for a few minutes after the girls went to be on Christmas eve. All he wanted to do was turn off all the overhead lights and read by the light of the Christmas tree. It was very cool to see him lounging on the glider with his book just reading away. Our camera kept using the flash since it was so dark so this picture does not really show the scene we saw.

#3 Al was helping the girls put batteries into their new My Little Pony remote control bikes when he posed for a fun picture taken by his sister, Emily. Normally, Al would say something like, "And this better not find its way onto your blog!" But he didn't say that this time so I think that means he won't mind it being here. SHHHHHHH Don't laugh too loud or he might hear you and ask (read: demand) I take it down.

#4 Here is a picture of the general Christmas chaos that happens each year when the gift opening begins. I was trying to hold Chase, because he obviously couldn't be on the floor in all this mess, help the girls get their presents into their gift bag and get through all the crazy packaging they put on toys these days. Chaos, I tell you!

For Mamaw and Papaw

2009-12-26T10:37:00.003-05:00

This is mostly for my parents as we weren't able to be with them for Christmas.

Isaberl and her princess castle

Lillee and her new Barbie Rapunzel and Three Musketeer Prince (we think his name is Louis).

Connor opening his new remote control helicopter...he was so excited!

Chase and his new ball popper....this was actually a hit for everyone.

Thanks for the fun presents, Mamaw & Papaw. You chose well!

Christmas eve in front of the tree

2009-12-26T08:52:00.004-05:00

Last year we had a new baby and I remember being so sick and tired on Christmas eve and grateful that the house was finally quiet after all the family activity. We dressed the kids for bed and snagged a quick picture in front of the tree. We were so pleased seeing all 4 kids together in such a nice picture (you can see that picture here).

Here is our picture from this year:

Excuse the demonic eyes until I can figure out how to fix them (I have a new laptop and I don't have all my normal software loaded).

A Really Awesome Christmas

2009-12-25T19:23:00.007-05:00

We had such a nice Christmas this year. Even being in the lean years we were blessed with gifts that were just right for the kids and for our budget!

Here are some of the highlights:

Connor was the first one up, which NEVER happens. He was up at 5:30am, which NEVER, EVER happens. First thing he did was organize all the presents into piles by name. He was ready to begin and no one was out of bed yet.

Lillee had gotten sick at midnight on Christmas Eve. She ended up in the shower in the middle of the night and this was the result of going to bed with wet hair.

She was pleased with all she received.

Isabel received a castle which transforms its decorations from casual comfy to fancy dinner with the switch of a button. The rug flips up and becomes a table set with a fine feast. So as the girls were pretend playing on Christmas morning, Isabel was explaining that this table is where we say our prayers. Both girls knelt, bowed heads and Lillee said a prayer. Al and I were so happy to hear the girls praying as part of their play!

Isabel was overjoyed with everything she received. She had been asking for a big girl bike and was beyond happy when she got it. The only sad part was she was not able to go out and ride due to the weather. She tried to ride around the house, but that proved difficult with so many people around.

At one point when we had 12 kids and 9 adults in the house, everyone broke out in laughter---I can't even remember what we were laughing about---but Connor chimed in, "And the crowd goes wild." He then grinned and waited for someone to mention his funny comment.

After presents were open and the kids had played for awhile they were bored. So I pulled out the Lincoln Logs and the wooden train boxes and we made nativity scenes. They turned out soooo cute! I was really proud of the kids. After so much discussion about Jesus' birth, I was pleased to see how much detail the kids remembered.

Mine is on the left, Lillee is in the middle, and Connor on the right. Lillee added a Christmas tree and star that she colored and cut out. Connor used Lincoln logs to make his star (on top of the chimney) and 3 lincoln logs inside to represent Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.

Here is the inside of Lillee's, there is a baby Jesus that she drew and a train person as Mary.

Then we waited for the cousins to arrive...and waited...and waited. The kids felt like they were waiting a lifetime when in fact it was only about 1.5 hours.

Lillee was beside herself with happiness as her favorite people were all at her house. She loves playing with Max and Alice and to have both playing with her at the same time was perfect.

Even with a houseful of people, we had an enjoyable Christmas; all the kids got along, no one's new toy was broken, no permanent stains on anything and the food was good (thanks Emily)!

Isabel must have told me 100 times throughout the day that she loved me...that's how I really knew that it was a really awesome Christmas.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

2009-12-24T13:03:00.005-05:00

It's the best time of the year
I don't know if there'll be snow
But have a cup of cheer...
...Oh by golly
Have a holly
Jolly Christmas
This year!

We've enjoyed baking and serving on these days leading up to Christmas and even though we missed a couple days of giving (like on Lillee's birthday) there were days we delivered to 4 families in a night. Our list is impressive---well to us it is impressive---and we're glad to have had the opportunity to serve others and have our list to remind us of all our good works.

We have also focused a lot on the birth of Jesus and the importance of the reason for the season. We've spent weeks reading and rereading Luke 2, talking about the nativity and what it must have really been like for Mary, Joseph, Jesus and all who became aware of his birth...to see an angel and hear be told not to fear but rejoice in the birth of the babe who can save us all from our sins. We've given much this month, but we have received so much more. Our home has been blessed, our hearts have been filled and we've had angels watching over us.

Our stockings are hung, we are waiting for Al's brother and family to arrive, I'm baking my last batch of cookies, we have a Christmas party to attend tonight then the kids go to bed for Santa to make his big appearance! Oh, before Santa arrives we still have to wrap our presents, we've not wrapped anything! This should be a fun and frantic remainder of a day. Fortunately, Chase and Bel are sleeping as I type!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Let it snow-well, on second thought...

2009-12-20T08:59:00.004-05:00

I think we've had enough! It snowed, and it snowed and it snowed---we hit 20 inches, officially. Which is a lot of snow for this area of the country. We had fun playing in it, we couldn't keep up with the shoveling at the speed it was coming down. Even though we spent hours clearing on Saturday, we still have a lot to shovel today.

This is the most snow I've ever seen. Growing up in NC we were lucky to have a few inches at a time. When Connor was a baby we had a 17 inch snowstorm but this one was a bit bigger.

Here are some pictures of our winter wonderland:

We're dog sitting for a Norwegian Elkhound puppy...this is his kind of weather!

The snow drifts were over 3 feet high. This is the side of our house and you can't distinguish any depth difference from the sidewalk to the fence.

Our street and front porch.

Here is my van across the street from our house. It's a good thing Al left the wiperblades up so we could find it.

Boogie Woogie Chase

2009-12-14T11:16:00.007-05:00

Here was a little fun time for the boys on a Sunday afternoon. Chase adores Connor and loves when Connor plays with him. I must say, Connor is an awesome big brother and truly enjoys being with Chase, too.

Making Music with Friends

2009-12-14T11:04:00.004-05:00

Connor and I had a chance to go to a fun concert at the Kennedy Center called Making Music with Friends. This particular concert was with a string quartet so we learned a lot about the violin, viola and cello, listened to some fun classical music, helped compose a musical piece and even had a chance to play the instruments.

Connor found he really likes the cello.

Christmas decorating

2009-12-14T10:45:00.008-05:00

We decided to get a Christmas tree on Lillee's birthday and after the birthday festivities we started decorating the Christmas tree. You can compare how the kids have grown by looking at my blog post about decorating the tree from last year

Lillee adds the first ornament, an angel.

Connor and Lillee worked hard on decorating the tree. Isabel enjoyed that Lillee was not playing with Strawberry Shortcake and decided it would be more fun to play with the new toy than to decorate the tree.

Isabel did come over to put the star on, though.

We had to give both girls a chance to put the star on so Bel went first then we took it off and repeated with Lillee.

Even Chase jumped in there....

Wait, he's not decorating that tree he's undecorating it!

These are the ornaments that Chase captured and scattered across the floor.

After we finished decorating Chase started undecorating, again.

And after the older kids went to bed, Chase raided the tree again and decided he was ready for bed. If you look close, there is a gingerbread boy at his foot and a candy cane in his hand. What a sweet way to fall asleep :)

Lillee's Birthday Pictures

2009-12-14T10:29:00.005-05:00

Sorry it's taken me 4 days to get the pictures unloaded then uploaded. But here they are for your enjoyment!

This is cake #2. Cake #1 was from scratch using a recipe I'd used before, but for some reason it didn't work out this time. So Al charged off to the store and came back with funfetti cake and icing and sparkly pink sprinkles. He even baked the cake :)

Everyone enjoying the funfetti cake.

Connor and Isabel did a good job staying back and letting Lillee open her presents but you can see the intense interest they had in her opening them.

Grandma got her lots of activity, coloring and reading books. She kept shuffling them to the side to get at the next one.

I made this hat for Lillee, it turned out pretty cute.

This was the scene for the next 3 days; the kids really liked the Strawberry Shortcake Berry Cafe. There was a lot of whining from Isabel in the beginning, she wanted to play but Lillee just wanted to explore it herself.

Have you ever...

2009-12-13T06:57:00.004-05:00

taken a 6 year old boy to The Nutcracker? Let me make a suggestion.

DON'T!

Jane took 5 of her grand kids and I to see The Nutcracker at a local theatre. Now keep in mind, this is not the New York City Ballet by any means...far, far, FAR from it. The adult male performers were well into their senior years with the exception of one man who had a young family so probably in his 30's.

The first Act wasn't so bad, it went quick, the kids were still fresh and after the 1st act there was a 20 minute intermission so we were able to go to the foyer to get snacks. This entertained the kids enough to get us into the 2nd act. However, by the end of the 2nd act, Connor was disappointed to learn that the entire show was ballet...the entire show! He was miserable. We did not go out for the 2nd intermission so for 20 minutes we listened to Connor moan and groan about how much he hated ballet, how miserable he was. 20 minutes, I tell you! Not one second short of 20 minutes!

At the end of the 3rd act I suggested that we had one more intermission and one more act and was he ready for more ballet. He screwed up his faced, then raised his eyes and screamed, "WHAT?" We all got a good chuckle at Connor's expense and exited the theatre with him in a somewhat better mood.

Isabel did a good job sitting still and enjoying the show. She would get excited and call from her seat, "Look, look!" Lillee loved it and being a normal 5 year old girl, talked through the entire thing.

The day was pretty hectic as Al was suppose to watch the baby so I could go with the 3 older kids but he had a call to work. Which was a blessing as work has been slow this time of year so he had to take it. But that left me with less than 24 hours to find a babysitter on Saturday afternoon. As a last resort, Jane offered Ron the option to take my ticket or watch the baby and he responded, "That's an easy decision, I'll watch the baby." HA! I think Ron and Connor have similar feelings about ballet.

Happy Birthday, Beanie!

2009-12-10T20:40:00.002-05:00

Lillee bean turned 5 today, WOW! That was a hard oen for me...well, not hard, but interesting. Yet another reminder that the days are passing faster and I'm getting older.

Lillee had a great birthday, she was patient all day as she waited for me to bake and decorate her cake and for Grandma and Grampy to get home to open presents. She was awesome! I love 5 year olds....this was a great age for Connor, as well.

I do have some great pictures but haven't uploaded them yet. I'll post them as soon as I can.

We decided it was a good day to put up a Christmas tree, too. It was a very busy night at our house, but lots of fun!

Why is it....

2009-12-09T13:03:00.003-05:00

that a child can find a pair of safety scissors and find a way to cut their hair with the dullest blades around, but when you're a parent wanting to cut your child's hair you can't find a pair of scissors that will do the job?

Isabel recently butchered her hair with safety scissors and this picture doesn't show it so well, but she has some really short patches there on the left.

Yesterday I tried cutting Chase's hair with a large pair of the sharpest scissors we own and I couldn't get them to cut his super-fine, soft locks. Eventually I gave him a decent cut that could still use some shaping, but he would not sit still any longer and I've not felt the need to try again. He looks older now.

Here are some pictures of Chase and Connor

Happy birthday, Chase!

2009-12-03T16:14:00.003-05:00

Today our baby is one year old...man, that was a fast year! We did not actually celebrate today, we celebrated with my parents last weekend. The kids enjoyed a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party and here are some of the pictures from our big little guy.
(I don't know why this is underlined and I can't figure out how to undo it)

Service with a smile, Part II

2009-12-02T08:06:00.009-05:00

(OK our cookies weren't this cute, but I needed a visual!)

Our 1st day of service went well. We actually delivered sugar cookies to two people!

Connor was actually listening in sacrament a few weeks ago when one of the young men gave a talk. I don't know what struck Connor, but since that talk he's been very impressed with the boy. Connor sort of follows him around at church. Fortunately, the kid is really nice and tolerates the adoration well. When I asked Connor who he wanted to do a service for his first response was, "Anthony." So we packaged up some cookies and drove out to Anthony's house to deliver them.

Connor was so stinkin' cute! In complete Tigger style, he bounced to the front door with cookies and a handmade card and rang the doorbell. I could see his face beaming from excitement. Anthony answered the door and Connor presented his gift. He chatted with Anthony for a minute and then said goodbye. He nearly ran into the bushes when he bolted back to the car with the biggest grin!

I think Connor gets it! He felt the true joy in doing something nice for someone else without having a reason for doing. Our scripture study last night was about the Good Samaritan and how we should be good to our neighbors, even when we feel busy or feel we have nothing to offer.

Today we're baking cinnamon rolls!

Service with a smile

2009-12-01T13:25:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to teach the kids about service. Especially serving one another in our own home to try to cut back on some of the arguing. I feel like I spend the entire day stopping arguments, yelling for them to stop bickering and just getting frustrated and arguing myself. Everyone being sick for so long hasn't helped...I have less patience and understanding when I'm not feeling well and tired all the time. So anyway, we decided that December would be a month of service.

We have a warm fuzzy jar that the kids try to fill each day. This is to get them thinking of ways to help and be kind to others. They did great job the first couple of weeks. Then my sister-in-law and her family moved in for 2 weeks and her 1 year old loved to eat the warm fuzzies so we put them away, then we were out of town for Thanksgiving and we've just had a hard time getting back on track. So basically, each kid has a certain color of warm fuzzy and when you they do something nice (share a toy, say 'yes' instead of 'no' to a sibling's request, let the dog out, play with the baby, put away laundry) then they can put a warm fuzzy in the jar. At the end of the day if the jar is full then they get to do something they all can agree on (so far, they've requested to go to 7-11 to get candy nearly every night). We tally the daily warm fuzzies and whoever has the most at the end of the week gets a special prize (one week it was a really cool Lego flat bed truck and trailer).

Another thing we're doing is a service for someone outside of our house each day. Today was our planning day. We made a list of people we want to do things for and some special little decorations to add to a plate of cookies or a loaf of bread. We had to have this preparation day because I can usually only handle one project a day. So if we make a loaf of bread then there is no cutesie decoration going with it, just plain bread. We cut Christmas shapes out of felt and added jewels and furry stuff to dress them up a bit.

Today we're going to make sugar cookies for a person on our list.

Life in Portrait

2009-11-12T19:53:00.007-05:00

We took a field trip to The National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday for a homeschool event. The day started out rushed, of course. I had to get everyone up, fed, dressed, then go to the grocery before I could pack lunch before we could get on the metro at 9:30am. When I returned from the grocery the kids were playing outside, enjoying the fall leaves and cool weather.

Around 9:30 when we were scheduled to leave, Lillee informed me her tummy hurt. I thought it was about snack time and she was just hungry or needed to go potty. So I sent her to the restroom, grabbed our snacks and lunch and headed out the door for the metro. Her tummy did not get to feeling better. Once we were on the metro she was moaning, rolling around and looking quite pale.

We had to hop off the train and wait for the next train to come along just to give her tummy a little break. She was such a trooper. We arrived at the portrait gallery, had our picnic lunch and waited for the doors to open. Lillee was still feeling bad. She did enjoy seeing some other kids waiting to get in and being Lillee, decided to go over and make friends with some older girls. When the girls' mother wanted to take a picture of them Lillee wouldn't move out of the shot. She just sat there with a long face and tried to blend into the group. 5 years from now they'll look at their picture and wonder, "Who was that young girl?"

We saw some fascinating portraits, sculptures, daguerreotypes and even the Preamble of the US Constitution in license plate short hand. We were able to make corn husk dolls thanks to the homeschooling event the gallery was hosting and self-guide ourselves through parts that were interesting to 3, 4 and 6 year old children. Since we're studying the Presidents of the US this semester, this was a great place to see the presidents of the past and even read a bit of their history.

We also found it fascinating that in the exhibit Faces of the Frontier: Photographic Portraits from the American West, 1845-1924 there was a wall labeled Discord and on this wall was a daguerreotype of Brigham Young. And in the center aisle of hallway there was a large poster of Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young's 19th wife, and her role in speaking out against polygamy and Mormonism. It is always interesting seeing an outsiders view of being Mormon.

By the time we finished our corn husk dolls, Lillee was certain she had had it. I carried her out of the gallery, back to the metro where she eventually fell asleep on the ride home. As soon as we came out of the tunnels I was on the phone to the pediatrician trying to secure an appointment. They had only one left for the day and we took it!

She fell asleep in the car on the way to the Pediatrician and I carried her again and held her all through the appointment. If you don't know my Lillee that well then these statements mean nothing. At the age of 4, she is fiercely independent - at 18 months she stopped napping, completely...I think she was afraid she would miss out on something if she slept.

The Dr checked her ear, which she had been complaining about, and sure enough there was an infection. He performed a flu test which fortunately came back negative. They gave her a popsicle when she felt nauseated and that seemed to perk her up a bit, which was the liveliest she had been all day. We left with a prescription for an antibiotic and headed off to McDonald's to get her some chicken nuggets and a Sprite, the only food she had requested all day. She never ate a bite of her nuggets before she fell asleep in the car, again.

We did survive the evening, was able to get her fever down and some medicine in her. She headed off to bed feeling much better and woke again in the morning as if nothing had happened.

This might be the first fall I've not enjoyed, well there was last fall when I was on bed rest...that stunk, too. It is my favorite time of year...and I've missed it, again. Winter better be really good to make up for this crumby couple of months.

Where we've been

2009-11-03T13:59:00.002-05:00

It's been 7 weeks since I last blogged. You may be wondering what have we been doing in the past 7 weeks. We've been sleep deprived, hacking, coughing, sneezing, with runny noses and bad moods for 7 weeks.

The baby and I got sick on September 13th and we've not been well since. I keep thinking I'm getting better then I get something else or it comes back around and I get another turn with it. I went to the Dr yesterday and he's put me on an inhaler (never used one of those before), another round of antibiotics, Claritin and more BP meds. I don't think I've ever turned in 4 prescriptions at the pharmacy at one time.

Hopefully we're on the road to recovery....just in time to get another bug.

Here is Chase's newest accomplishment

so much to do, so little time to blog

2009-09-17T20:34:00.004-04:00

Well the summer flew by! We've been back to school for 2 months and have been traveling for most of September. We visited my parents in NC to help them pack up their house as they're moving. When we returned to MD, my dear, sweet husband and mother-in-law watched the older 3 kids while the baby and I flew to Chicago to spend 5 days with the Trents (friends who use to live in MD).

I'll try to give a quick note to things of interest:

Connor has learned to play piano using both hands, at the same time!

I've barely cooked the entire summer...we've eaten McDonald's WAY too much (I didn't say this was a list of good things to note, just things of note)

Lillee and Isabel have started gymnastics

Connor and Lillee start art classes in the morning. Lillee can't stop talkign about it. Art is her true passion!
I put together the coolest Lego group for Connor, called Archimedes' Workshop. We, of course, build with Legos but we also discuss history, math and science as we study who Archimedes was and what he accomplished.

The kids had a fun class at the nature center on turtles

Chess Group was cancelled for lack of participation (I'm secretly happy about this as our schedule this semester is NUTSO, but I'm sad because Connor was really lookinng forward to it)

Connor has memorized his multiplication facts 0-5!! He's not 100% on recall all the time, but pretty close....now we have to review addition and subtraction, again LOL

Chase is racing to be my earliest walker, he's letting go when standing and cruising all over the place.

I've decided I want to learn Spanish. I took two semester in college and know a bit of vocabulary and remember some conjugation, but I cannot speak it or understand it when heard.

I splurged on a gadget...those things I always make fun of Al for having to have. I needed to get a new cell phone so I decided to find one with a good camera in as I'm always wanting to take pictures while I'm out, but I never have enough pocket space for phone, camera, snacks, wipes, etc. So I found a nice camera that just happens to be a phone! I've had so much fun with it.

My raspberry bushes are fruiting like crazy and I'm loving it! A friend of ours gave us figs so I made yummy raspberry and fig jam.

We have tomatoes coming out our ears! So I've been trying to get creative with tomatoes. I made a delicious roasted tomato soup, you can find the recipe here.

We grew a 12ft sunflower!

I'm sure there is so much more that I'm not hitting on, but my memory seems to have faded with age and the more kid I have :>)

Thanks to my awesome husband for allowing me to stay home with my kids and funds to have such a great time with them....oh and that 5 days away from home with just the baby, well that was really cool! And how you make life fun, all the time!

The picture below was taken in a hotel room....we were driving home from my parents when the baby decided he didn't want to ride any more so he screamed and screamed and screamed. It was raining and I had not slept the night before so we decided to stop for the night. We found a hotel room and tried to find enough space for everyone to sleep. That evening was so difficult. The kids had pent up energy from being in the car all day, but with it raining outside and the room being so small there was nowhere to burn off that energy. Al and I were tired and just wanted to rest but the kids were having none of it. Everyone was hungry and we had no idea where to find food. It was a grumpy night all around.

The next morning, we were trying to get ready to get back on the road so there was a bit of hustle and bustle. But once our things were out of the room, Al gathered the blankets and covers and made a fort of the entire room. They played a game under the covers and had a grand ole time before climbing back into the van to hit the road.

I love that man!

The ant and the grasshopper

2009-08-28T21:54:00.003-04:00

THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER (not Aesop's version)

This one is a little different... Two Different Versions! Two Different Morals!

OLD VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY:Be careful how you vote in 2010.

School has begun

2009-08-19T11:01:00.005-04:00

In July, we began our second year of school and I'm learning so much! Now, if I could just get the kids doing the same :) I have some interesting challenges this year. Well, let me rephrase that....I have one challenge, Lillee. She introduces a whole bunch of challenges.

1. I am teaching 2 children instead of one.

2. Lillee learns differently than Connor.

3. Lillee's so enthusiastic and demands opportunities to learn.

4. Lillee thrives on anything artsy.

The dynamics of teaching 2 children really ramps up home schooling. And Isabel has even been asking to do school...WOW!!! I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. Fortunately, the baby has worked in a nap pattern that fits with schooling. We get up, have breakfast, do our chores and grooming, play and read books then the baby takes a nap. Then I can get the older kids started on school work. Isabel mostly just wants to play outside, which is perfect! However, Lillee needs a lot of assistance (and attention) so I have to get Connor started on an individual activity to work with Lillee. Then when I'm working with Connor I have to have patience to answer Lillee's 20 calls for help or to look at her work so she can receive praise.

I have one really big prayer for this school year, "God, grant me with patience!!!!" Well, I pray for that everyday. I'm sure he's answering my prayers and I can't imagine how bad I'd be without his daily support but could I get just a little bit more, please?

Lillee learns much differently than Connor so I am trying to figure out how to teach her when she's completely independent....well, she comes off as independent when she's swatting your hand away saying, "Mommy, I can do it." And within a few seconds you hear, "Mommy, how do you do it again?" OK, the prayer again.....GOD! Please grant me some patience.

Lillee does not miss an opportunity to learn. She loves to point out what Connor is learning and when does she get a turn. She's wanting to learn multiplication facts as Connor is doing his flashcards. I don't want to discourage her, but I need her to stop shouting out random numbers and confusing Connor. God love her....and maybe He will bestow a boat-load of patience upon me.

Lillee is VERY artsy. She loves art, she loves painting, coloring, drawing, play-doh, anything creative. I am exactly opposite. I have work at being creative and crafty. Lillee could spend all day coloring and painting and I NEVER think to do those things. Connor does not have the focus nor the talent to color, paint, etc. He still won't color anything, he scribbles a little color on the page and calls it done. Lillee colors each strand of hair, each detail has a color chosen for a special reason. Art is a passion for her! I love it, she's talented and enthusiastic about it. However, I do not know how to help her with technique and developing her talent. This time I have to ask God for wisdom of how to help her develop her specialty.

Aside from all that, we have a jam packed semester ahead of us. The girls are starting gymnastics, Connor has a chess club and I have put together a class called Archimedes' Workshop using Legos. 2-3 times a month we'll host a class at our house where I'll teach some history on Archimedes, his inventions and mathematical findings as well as some simple machines and Lego building. We also have some fun star gazer and turtle workshops at our local nature center and a couple of classes at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore.

Connor just finished an environmental education camp at Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge and had such a great time! His favorite game was called camouflage. Each kid would hide in tall grass and pretend to be a mouse camouflaging itself from the eagle. If they were found, they had to leave the field and became eagle poop :^D Connor's super cute camp director made a very nice digital scrapbook for the parents.

This should be a fun an exciting semester! I'm grateful to my Heavenly father for His guidance and support as we take on this adventure for a second year. I have days that I think, "Maybe the kids wouldn't be so bad off in public school." Then I remember Heavenly Father called me to do this for my children and I need to put all I can into their education even if it does take up every waking minute of my day. What a wonderful opportunity I've been given, I honestly pray that each day I will be reminded of this and enjoy this time I have with my children. And I would not begrudge any prayers you want ed to make on my behalf :)

I don't say enough about Isabel

2009-08-05T20:33:00.004-04:00

Maybe it's because she's 3...you do know what I mean by 3, right? She went from being the sweetest most easy-going child to fits of crying over the slightest thing in less than a year! For example, the other day I said, "Isabel, go potty please." Her response was to throw herself on the floor and wail loudly while sucking her thumb and emphatically stating, "But I'm not tired!!!" She thought I was telling her to go potty because she was going to bed. It was middle of the afternoon, after having her nap already.

As you may know, Isabel has some speech issues. They're not really issues she's just a lazy speaker and who could blame her having Lillee as an older sister...Lillee never shuts up! Isabel pronounces a lot of her words beginning with the sound of h. For example, one morning she ran into the kitchen to announce, "Its hairy, hairy, hold!" Which translate to, "Its very, very cold." Or another favorite, "The hun is up!" Which translates to, "The sun is up!" which is her announcement to get Al and I out of bed in the morning.

Lately, Isabel has developed an imaginary friend. I think Isabel is the only child of mine thus far to have an imaginary friend for more than a day or two. Isabel has had her friend for several weeks now. The imaginary friend is named no monster which translates to snow monster. I'm not sure where snow monster came from. They have, in the past, watched Scooby Doo and there was a snow monster of some sort in one of the episodes but he wasn't called exactly snow monster. Anyway, with her speech issues its quite funny to hear her talk about no monster.

We were driving the other day when Isabel decided to 'whistle' a song. Now she can't whistle so instead she attempts this very high pitched singing of sorts. Think song of the siren gone really bad! While driving to the pool one day she started whistling and I asked her to stop...I can only take so much of it. She stopped and then promptly added, "My hend no monster taught me that hong." Translated, "My friend snow monster taught me that song." I am amazed at how much her hend no monster has taught her and all the plaes he lives. He has a new home everytime we go out!

I don't mean to poke fun at her and hope that in 10 years when she reads this she'll have an awesome sense of humor and laugh at the memory. I love Bel immensely and could not imagine my life without her sweet nature and infectious smile. She brings so much happiness to our family, through laughter and her wonderful hugs!

Connor Brag

2009-07-19T15:13:00.004-04:00

I'm so proud of my oldest son that sometimes I could just burst with want of sharing his awesomeness. This week was a big week!

Earlier this week, I was taking the kids for a normal day at the pool when Jane offered to watch Chase so I could get in the water with the kids. I love when I can go to the pool without Chase...I know that's terrible for a mother to say but when he's with us I have to sit at the wading pool with the girls and Connor can roam around the smaller pools or the slide. But inevitably, the girls start begging to go to the big pool and I have to decline because I have the baby (which has become a very regular phrase around our house).

So when Chase doesn't go with us, I can take the girls to the big pool AND I was able to test Connor in the diving pool which he's been asking to try, but my response has been I have the baby. I hopped into the 7 foot of water and had Connor jump from the side of the pool into the water and then swim to the edge. He did great! So off he went to the diving board. I stood by the lifeguard, not because I was concerned but because her umbrella was shading me from the glaring rays.

As Connor climbed the ladder of the low dive board the lifeguard asked, "Is he going to be OK? Should I be ready to go in?"

I explained that I tested him and thought he'd be OK, but it wouldn't hurt for her to be ready. So she leaned forward and cocked herself for a quick dive, if necessary. Connor walked to the end of the board, well he sort of bounced like an unsure Tigger...testing the spring in the board. He bounced a little at the end of the board unsure when to jump off. Then centered himself and went for it!

In the water......waiting for him to come up......waiting.....there is his head!!! Then he started swimming as perfectly as any mother, who has just spent hundreds of dollars on swim lessons, could possibly ask for. And the lifeguard justified my feelings when she stated, "Oh, he's fine" and relaxed into her chair again.

Then they announced it was adult swim and all kids needed to be out of the pool for 15 minutes. During this time, Connor called Daddy to share the exciting news and to decide to try the high dive next....as in when the 15 minutes is up.

I spent a few minutes discussing some basic physics...if you jump from a greater height then you're going to go deeper into the water which results in swimming further to reach the surface and further to reach the side of the pool with the ladder. So when it was announced that kids could go back into the water he headed off to conquer the high dive!

He climbed all the way up........he walked out on the board........he walked back toward the ladder.....then back to the end of the board......bounced a bit.......walked back a few feet......bounced a bit more.......and then made his final walk to the end of the board.

Bounce, bounce, bounce, center.

Bounce, bounce, bounce, JUMP!

He did GREAT!!! I was so proud of him....I wanted to tell everyone, "That's my son, he's 6 and he just took his 2nd dive ever and it was off the high dive!"

The week didn't end there. Connor has been taking piano lessons for almost 5 months and this last month or so he has been working on a primary song as well as his regular piano book. Recently our primary presidency announced that kids who wanted to perform appropriate music could do so during the beginning of primary. Connor has been thinking about this for the past month as he's been practicing.

Two weeks ago Connor announced he was ready to perform and asked me to set it up for him. I made the arrangements and today was the big day. We tried not to make a big deal out of it in case Connor got nervous and wanted to back out. I reminded him he was performing today and asked him if he'd like to practice. He said, "No thanks, I want to read my book." He did eventually practice, but I was pretty excited to hear he was choosing to read :^)

At the beginning of church, Connor leaned over his chair to the family behind us and said, "Did you hear about primary today?" Of course they were confused. I explained Connor was playing the piano in primary. He was telling me what a special day it was for him. I agreed but did not want to get too excited and get his nerves worked up because he still had 1.5 hours before performance time.

So sacrament ended, primary started and Connor's name was called to play I Hope They Call Me on a Mission. He proudly marched up to the piano, sat down and my stomach was full of butterflies. I was so nervous for him! He calmly sat down and began to play....perfectly! Well, later he recounted that he had one issue....he played a 4 when he should have played a 2. There's his perfectionist father coming out in him.

He did a really great job and I had so many people come up to me and tell me so....I am such a proud momma!

Book Clubs 4 Kids

2009-07-15T08:50:00.005-04:00

My sister-in-law is hosting an online book club to encourage kids to read. I wanted to encourage Connor to work on book reviews, participating in book discussions and enjoying dialogue with his cousins in Hawaii.

We began reading the book, MVP: Magellan Voyage Project by Douglas Evans. Connor has really enjoyed it! Al and I have enjoyed the story, as well. Two nights ago, after having reading time with Connor, we sent him to bed and then Al and I read MVP to one another in bed until I couldn't stay awake any longer. Al stayed up to finish the book.

My sister-in-law also has awesome weekly prize drawings. Connor has won 2 of the prizes. One was a monogrammed backpack, like the backpack the main character in MVP has. Another was a bookmark with a timer on it for keeping up with your reading time. One week she gave away a book and CD set for learning French, because the main character was impressed by a girl he met who spoke French.

This book club has been tons of fun for our family, check it out and share it with anyone you know who would like to encourage kids to read.

Skateboarding 101

2009-07-15T08:33:00.002-04:00

So I talked to Connor about participating in a skateboarding clinic as I'm trying to get him interested in some kind of sport, other than swimming. Not that I don't want him to swim because I really do! I would just like for him to have a sport he enjoys that doesn't require me to pack up the family and a ton of gear to go and do. He has shown some interest in skating as he has watched some videos on the internet with Al of extreme skateboarding.

Connor was SUPER excited and wanted to know when he could start classes. I explained that I needed to talk it over with Daddy and discuss the expense because we would need to purchase equipment as well as pay for a class. Connor offered to purchase all his own equipment. I did not hesitate to take him up on the offer.

For those of you who don't know Al all that well, he was a dedicated skateboarder as a kid....he spent at least 10 hours a day skating. His parents built a half-pipe inside the house and it took up an entire room....just for him to skate. So Al has been waiting a long time for this day...he kept saying, "I want to get a board for me, too!" However, he refrained from purchasing a board for himself...he just borrowed Connor's :D

Here are some photos of the first lesson:

God Bless America

2009-07-04T23:38:00.005-04:00

Here it is, 11:39 PM and my kids just got to bed...does that tell you how our 4th of July went?

Let us begin at 6:00 AM when it all started. The girls woke up as usual, ready to roll full-force. We had a slow morning with no plans to do anything....avoid the crowds and stay out of traffic, that was the only game plan. Then the phone rang....

A friend of the family called to invite us all over for a BBQ in the evening and since we had no other plans, we agreed. So the rush began, now I had to think about food, when to cook since we had swim lessons at noon and how to work in a nap for Belle and the babe, just in case we decided to stay for the fireworks (this was a very slim chance). My dear, sweet mother-in-law offered to go to the grocery for me since she was headed there anyway. So I prepped some food and then got everyone fed and ready for swim lessons.

Final swim lessons for the summer complete, the girls and I stick around the pool for an extra 45 minutes while Al and Connor take in a movie (Night at the Museum I am so jealous) and then home to prepare and cut fruit for my fruit salad. Rush to get it all done and out of the door on time. We made it :)

At the BBQ, Belle got whacked on the cheek with a wooden support from a hammock, instant bruise. Lillee was run over by a scooter which resulted in road rash on her cheek, upper lip and nose. Everyone survived without much complaint. So we decided to try taking in the fireworks.

We arrived at a nice spot, set up the chairs and our kids found some other kids to play with. A large group of really nice kids with those glow-in-the-dark necklace/bracelet things. Before I knew it, all my kids had been given a bracelet to play with. I thought that was super nice, considering my kids had never met any of these other kids and were a few years younger. All the kids were using nice manners, playing gentle...just a really good situation and everyone seemed to be having fun.

The warning firework went off! We gathered our kids to the blanket and as Connor was coming over he started screaming....REALLY screaming, he was in tremendous pain and couldn't talk to us. Fortunately, a girl he was playing with came to tell us that the glowing stuff in the necklace can come out and it can hurt when it does....yup, Connor broke into his necklace and it squirted right into his eye.

There I am, sitting peacefully nursing the baby in public when I realize what has happened. I immediately put the baby down on a chair, latch up my nursing bra as discretely as possible, not really caring because my other child is in trouble. I ask for a bottle of water to flush his eye with and begin pushing him to the ground trying to restrain him so we can flush his eye. My husband restrains his lower half while I restrain and arm and begin to pour the water....Connor is SCREAMING! I mean, really SCREAMING. I'm instructing my husband to check on the baby I left in a chair...yes, a moblie and active baby. Not a smart move on my part but I guess, given the circumstances, my brain was not processing quick enough to figure out it was a bad idea.

We were very fortunate to have two friends with us that happen to be Drs. How often does that happen in an emergency? So Dr. John was helping to hold Connor's eye open while I poured and Al restrained. No good...he kept screaming. Meanwhile I hear people saying, "Should we find a Dr somewhere?" Others were really getting concerned because the screams were so loud and piercing and continuous.

I looked up to do my normal scan....Where are my kids? There's 1.....2....someone grabbed the baby....where is Lillee??? Oh boy, while attending to one child another one decided to wander off and no one saw where she went. My social butterfly had found the parents of the group she was playing with and decided to settle in their compound rather than ours. Fortunately, she came back without complaint....which is shocking for Lillee, she can argue with a wall.

For the next 10 minutes or so we listened to Connor screaming and rubbing his eye and screaming more. Al finally explained to him that we needed to get water into his eye to flush it out and he would have to open his eye while we poured water into it. Connor actually understood this. He was on the ground, on his back and held the lower lid down while Al lifted the upper lid and flushed with water. Viola!!! It worked, crying instantly resolved, Connor could open his eye and people stopped staring at us. He was such a big boy and even in extreme pain was able to step up and realize what role he needed to take in order to fix the problem....that's good stuff!

So we survived, again...WOOOHOOOO

We made it back to our car without incident and then got stuck in traffic...it took us an hour to get home from a place that would normally take about 7 minutes. Al was in a bad mood from the traffic which put me in a bad mood and Chase was pretty cranky because he just wanted to sleep.

When I got home...I was out of diapers for the baby so at 11:00PM instead of crawling into bed and going to bed after such a long day, I had to take the baby to the store to get diapers. When I got back home at 11:20PM the girls were in bed, playing with glowing necklaces and arguing with one another. And here it is 12:15AM and I'm still awake, writing, hoping to get over my frustration and listening to at least one girl still playing with her necklace and now is complaining that daddy forgot to bring her something to drink over an hour ago!!! Come on, go to sleep already.

And tomorrow is Sunday, which means between 8:00AM and 9:30AM there are 8 people who will want to take baths and showers to get ready for church. And guaranteed, Al will decide in the morning that he needs to cut his hair and shave which makes the bathroom inaccessible to anyone for about an hour.

As much fun as we had, I now wonder how we strayed from the single plan of avoiding crowds and traffic. LOL

Happy 4th of July, I hope you enjoyed the celebrations and remember the reason this day is set aside as a holiday. Thank you Thomas Jefferson for the beautifully written Declaration of Independence, our first step of freedom. And to all the service men and women who continue to take steps daily for our freedom. God has truly blessed America and thank goodness he has blessed my family, too.

The lazy days of summer

2009-06-23T21:25:00.007-04:00

So don't expect much from me this summer....

I'm happy that school is complete for our first year of homeschooling. However, we are jumping back on the school bus in July. I liked taking the month of December off and ending the school year right around the time the weather was getting nice. We spent all day every day outside enjoying the gorgeous weather. By this time next month it will be miserably hot and buggy and we won't want to be out so it is the perfect time to start school again.

Until then, I plan to spend as much time as possible lounging (yeah right! not with 4 young kids) at the pool and putting together my lesson plans for the upcoming semester.

I warned my husband....

I announced, "Honey, at least 3 days a week don't expect clean clothes, dinner nor a clean house because I'm going to be at the pool."

He didn't know what to say so I reinforced that there was a reason he would be sacrificing....so his kids could learn to swim! He replied with, "Hmmmm, how bad do I really want the kids to know how to swim?"

So far so good, we spent Monday at the pool and I provided a nice crock pot dinner ready and waiting for my honey before he left for class (I even made the rice before leaving for the pool so dinner was complete he just had to scoop and eat!). So there, I had dinner for him even though I told him not to expect it. I've found if you tell people the worst case scenario and then come through with better circumstances then they are thrilled even though the standards are still lowered :)

We skipped the pool on Tuesday and I got lots of laundry done, mopped the floors and cleaned part of the bathroom (I know it is small, but there is only so much I can do when the baby is screaming at me).

Hit the pool again for Wednesday and still managed to get home to have piano lessons, make corned beef and cabbage for dinner and welcome my honey home with a smile and open arms.

All my projects are on hold and I'm taking in the rays....see you when it rains :)

The empty nester

2009-06-23T21:10:00.006-04:00

Poor Mom! The birds are out of the nest but she's still hovering around the nest and fighting us off. It could have something to do with how mad she is with us...I knocked one of the birds out of the nest.

I know!!!

I am so ashamed.

I went to take my daily peek at the birds and as I spread the limbs of the bush I heard one topple from the nest and slowly fall through the leaves until it plunked on the ground....fortunately it was a soft landing. However we could not get him back into the nest...Mama bird was angry! She was dive bombing us at every angle.

And fortunately, it was just a day before the birds left the nest anyway...I would have been heartbroken if I had done this earlier. I don't feel too terrible as the nest was so full with 4 big baby birds that it was bound to happen, right?

Oh well, I loved them while it lasted! I can totally understand the empty-nester syndrome, now. How will I ever fill my days if I'm not constantly peeking out the window to see my little birdies?

Bird Watch

2009-06-19T06:40:00.005-04:00

6/13/2009
This was the first picture we snagged of the birds, they were only a couple of days old

6/14/2009
You can see some very small changes in just one day

6/15/2009

Their wings are still bare.

6/17/2009

In just 2 days you can see feathers coming out on the wings

6/18/2009

They look like birds! Look at the difference in the beak shape and feathers in just a few days. I'm just fascinated with these little guys. Only 5 days separates the first picture from the last....amazing!

Birdie Update

2009-06-15T20:31:00.004-04:00

Mama Bird must have been out searching for food because she was not in her nest and I was not attacked today and as soon as I parted the branches of the bush this was what I saw

Then there was a surprise.....

Look close.....

Enlarge the picture if you must......

There are 4 little beaks in that nest....4 baby birds, not 3!

They are so sweet and I'm completely fascinated with them. Every year we have a robin make a nest in one of our bushes, but this is the first year I've been able to see the baby birds.

And here is a short video of the birds crying for food (you will hear a pedestrian on the phone in spanish in the background, but if you listen closely you can hear the babes).

Camping

2009-06-14T21:54:00.009-04:00

After being gone for a week with the kids, I came home to sleep one night in my own bed and then woke Friday morning and suggested a camping trip. We spent Friday morning gathering our gear and preparing for a night of slumber in the woods with the kids.

We went to Little Bennett campground not far from our house. There was practically no one camping on Friday so it was nice and quiet, perfect for the kids to ride their bikes and not worry about cars coming by every few minutes; we may have only seen half-dozen cars the entire time we were there on Friday. I picked a spot near the play equipment to help entertain the kids and the site beside us was being inhabited by two boys, ages 6 & 7. The kids were in heaven! They enjoyed playing with the other boys so much we rarely saw them.

Three empty little chairs....no one to enjoy the fire, well except for Chase and me.

Lillee would come and go, she's a loner sometimes and prefers to find a nice mud puddle to sit in and dig in the dirt with sticks and rocks. She entertained herself jumping from this tree stump.

Or sitting quietly in the tree while snakcing on a banana.

But she found true joy when she caught a frog. She was so proud of herself and I was truly amazed at how gentle she was holding the little guy. It was instinctual for her....maybe she'll be our little scientist.

Lillee is a princess and loves pink and purple anything, wearing fru-fru dresses and having her nails polished but she's also completely at home with dirt under he nails (as you can see in this picture)....she is definitely a complex child.

But the real excitement of the whole trip was not caught in a picture....

The kids went to bed well (they were exhausted from all the play) so Al and I took advantage of the quiet time and played some cards. We did not last long, we were also exhausted so we snuggled down and tried to get comfortable...we forgot pillows. Al did not sleep well, I was cold as I went to bed with wet hair so we both tossed and turned a lot. At one point Al took the sleeping bag he was lying on and put it on me so I could warm up...what a sweetheart! I was finally sleeping well when I heard Al saying in a very concerned voice, "Amanda, wake up RIGHT NOW! Amanda, you need to wake up RIGHT NOW! AMANDA!!!!"

I pulled myself out of sleep shocked by Al's tone of voice until I saw what was causing the tone. A spider....not just any spider, this was the biggest and meanest spider I had ever seen. His legs covered about 4 inches of space and his butt was the size of the tip of my thumb (and I don't have dainty hands). His eyes were large enough that I could see a reflection of the flashlight in them.

(We think this spider is like the one in our tent, it is a variety of wolf spider)

Al had heard a noise and placed his hand against the tent to lean in a bit to listen and that was when the spider jumped onto Al's hand. FREAKED HIM OUT!!! I would have been screaming to the tops of my lungs! He stayed calm until we had to usher the spider from the tent. Every time the spider would twitch a leg Al and I would jump....that spider was UGLY. We did manage to get him outside without a heart attack from either one of us but sleep did not come easily after that adventure.

The best part of the camping trip....

OFF! has a new clip on bug repellent. No sprays, lotions or funny smells. You clip this on your waistband, turn it on and NO bugs. I was reluctant at first, but man it really worked! It was perfect for me as I was holding the baby a lot and did not want him smeared in bug stuff with DEET.

When we woke Saturday, we broke camp and headed to a nearby lake for some fishing. Connor was the only one with the patience for fishing and since I had to care for the baby I could not help out much...I was bummed as I really love fishing and miss fishing, a LOT. Al caught 3 fish with Connor before we had to give up and leave. The heat and humidity were unbearable and the girls were pretty bored.

We had an awesome time together and look forward to camping again soon....minus the really nasty spider :)

Our lovely french door

2009-06-14T21:19:00.007-04:00

This is a shot of the window in the family room where the kids and I spend most of our day. We school here, play here, dine here, watch movies here....we spend a lot of time in this dark, wood-paneled room.

It is time to replace the window and we decided to replace it with a french door instead of another window. So the following pictures are the progress of installing the french door. Al had to do all of this in less than one week while the kids and I were out of town.

A BIG hole in the side of the house!

Outside view of the BIG hole.

Ahhh, hole is now filled. And under the paneling is DRYWALL!!! No more paneling!!!

Al finished the drywall, added in a couple of new electrical outlets and a switch for outdoor lights on either side of the door.

VIOLA!!! A happy cheery room complete with crown moulding. The doors have shades built into them...between the two panes of glass are shades and the mechanisms for opening and lifting them are on the door, but no strings for the kids to get caught in or any way for the kids to break them. Look how bright the wall is now and this picture was taken at night!

Scroll back to the top of this post....see the difference....I am so thrilled with the new look!

Our baby birds

2009-06-14T21:05:00.004-04:00

3 blue catbird eggs turned into 3 teeny, tiny baby birds

They're kind of cute in an ugly sort of way

This is what happens when mama bird realizes you're reaching into the bush, she comes down from the telephone lines and dive bombs your head, scaring you senseless and causing you to ruin the shot.

The birds are one day older in this shot, you can see one opening it's eye a bit.

Here is the upset mama bird flying all about trying to make it known that she's watching you.

I now understand the phrase ruffled feathers. You can see her feathers are a bit ruffled.

Whoa!

2009-06-14T07:43:00.003-04:00

I cannot believe it has been nearly a month since I last posted on my blog. Life has been very busy!

We have been working on wrapping up school, working in the garden (and for all our efforts, I'm not seeing a lot of progress), traveling, home improvement projects, swim lessons and we even threw in a camping trip.

Unfortunately, during the construction process Al lost the spot for his computer and my laptop won't recognize the camera connection so I cannot post picture yet. But I will get to it!

Oh, we had a Robin's nest with 3 beautiful blue eggs in one of our bushes. Well, those eggs HATCHED! There are 3 teeny, tiny baby robins. The mother does this dive bomb move at oour heads whenever we part the leaves of the bush to get a peek. It is very cool and I hope to have pictures of them, soon!

Chase at 5.5 months

2009-05-21T22:58:00.005-04:00

Our baby is growing too quickly! He's such an amazing baby and a true delight to have. He sleeps so well...off to bed by 8:00 or 9:00 pm then he sleeps until 5:00 or 5:30am when I'm happy to wake to nurse him and he falls right back to sleep so I can run off to the swim center and do some water exercises for an hour, get a shower and return home in time to make breakfast for the older kids before he wakes for his breakfast. He then naps 2-3 times during the day and spends all the rest of his awake time in my arms.

He is quite spoiled. He is definitely my kid and I love it :)

So here are some pictures and a video of baby Chase, our happy guy.

sitting upright, if only for a second

and so begins the topple

Happy Chase hanging out at the park

A day at the park

2009-05-21T22:32:00.005-04:00

I know it has been a long time since I have blogged and I apologize to my family and friends who do actually follow this blog. We've really been up to a LOT.

My father came to stay with us for two weeks and we put him to work! We accomplished so much that I think I was exhausted and needed some time to recover. We cleaned the yard, pulled weeds, dug and cut tree stumps, cut branches, tilled for a garden, built a trellis for the raspberries then we moved inside and he fixed our leaking air conditioner, removed wall paper, prepared walls with drywall compound, sanded walls, painted walls and moved furniture and he worked with Al a few days, too. Thanks Dad!!! We loved having you to visit and I especially loved all the projects that we were able to tackle. I could not have gotten so much done without you.

Then the weather turned off VERY nice and we have been spending nearly all day every day outside so I've had little time for blogging until today when I got some great pictures that I just had to share.

After attending my nephew's baseball game last night, my children were inspired to play a little baseball. So we grabbed our baseball gear and hit the baseball field by 9:30am.

Lillee wanted to pitch and Connor was ready to hit it out of the park!

I could not believe this shot until I enlarged it…please, click the picture…enlarge it, can you see what I see? :)

Isabel was happy to just play on the playground, she lost interest in baseball fairly quick.

Connor has learned to shuttle himself across the monkey bars and here is a short video showing what a monkey he truly is.

Do you see how crisp and beautiful it is outside? This is why we’ve spent every day outdoors…it’s therapeutic! Well, that and we really needed to do a lot of yard work and I’ve spent a long time in the garden. I’ll post garden pics when I have some green growing. Right now it looks like beds of red clay…not very exciting for all the work I’ve put into it. And to think we get to count all of this as school work!

How close does one have to be for fame to matter?

2009-05-21T08:42:00.003-04:00

When I was in college, which seems like decades ago (well, it has been over a decade), I spent a lot of time trolling around the world wide web. The internet was just catching on and I was a bored college kid looking to fill some empty space in my life. I stumbled into a "chat room" one day and found it was kind fo fun talking to people from all over the world. I became an addict for awhile, but it lead me to some really interesting friendships.

One of those friendships was with a poet. We had wonderful late-night chats about nothing in particular, just sort of exploring words and my friend would put these simple thoughts and words together to make beautiful poems. So poignant, so simple and yet the images conjured by the words were so vivid. I thoroughly enjoyed our chats and then after college when I went home where there was no computer and few people in the county had internet access, I lost touch with my friend.

Recently, I was thinking of his poetry and looked him up...he's done a lot in the last 12-13 years since we last spoke. I emailed him and we reconnected. Of course, like any well connected person on the net, he was on facebook so we became friends.

As I'm thumbing through his facebook to see what his interests are these days I noticed a message sent to him from Michael Buble. I thought, "Surely not THE Michael Buble." There was no identifying aspects in his remarks however the facebook picture happens to be the same as a photo from the website of this famed musician.

Well, I could not resist I had to inquire...was this THE Michael Buble commenting on my friend's facebook? The response is, "Yes!!!"

I know someone who knows Michael Buble, not just knows Michael Buble but knows him well enough that Michael Buble comments on his facebook without soliciting a response! How cool is that?!?! And how close does that put me to fame?

Ok, maybe it's not a picture of me with Michael Buble like my friend Crash got with Jack Johnson, and my daughter did not get serenaded by Jack Johnson and I absolutely do not have pictures of him in his underwear like Crash has of Jack Johnson. But by golly, I have a friend whom I've never met in person and haven't spoken to in 12 years who knows Michael Buble personally and that has to count for something, right? :)

I am not serious about any of this, other than my friend does really know Michael Buble and my friend is a talented poet and writer...I just felt a need to try to be a bit funny when nothing too exciting has been going lately :)

Mud Bugs

2009-05-02T21:15:00.003-04:00

Al's been stuck on a project at work for MUCH longer than originally anticipated so my dad came to stay with us for 2 weeks to help Al at work and help me with projects around the house that Al hasn't had time for.

Boy I've kept my dad busy! We've been cleaning up the yard, pulling weeds, cutting stumps, digging stumps, making runs to the dump, stripping wall paper, fixing drywall, prepping walls for paint...and that was just in the first few days :)

We've done a lot of yard work to prepare for putting a garden in. My father dug around one stump to cut it off as low as possible and this created a trench that the kids loved digging in. Then the rain came and the trench became a moat.

While working in the yard this morning, the girls started digging in the moat and slinging shovels full of muddy water all over one another. Before I knew, they were both dangling their feet in the moat and covered in mud. I told them this was ther chance, they were already dirty so they might as well go ahead and enjoy it. Well, I think this might be one of the only times they listened to me!

Lego dress-up

2009-05-02T20:38:00.003-04:00

My parents purchased a great board game for Connor called Lego Creator. It has become quite the favorite game in our house. Connor is great at it and wins almost as much as I do. Al wins one here and there and poor Mamaw & Papaw (my parents) have not won yet but are good sports and keep trying.

One rule of the game is the most colorful person goes first. Connor always wins this as we play at night after the girls go to bed and Connor is always in his pajamas. We had not discussed playing Lego Creator since the previous night so we were surprised to find Connor moping when he came from putting on his pajamas. He had glanced over to Al and noticed Al's very colorful pajama pants. By the time I had put 2 & 2 together, Connor had already started counting the many colors in his pants. He then moved over to Al's pants to start counting his colors.

Turned out that Al was short 3 colors so Connor gets to go first, right? Nope, the race was on. Al was off to find additional colors to add to his outfit. It started with a shirt and tie and then I helped Connor find some extra colors. This went on for about 1/2 hour...it was sooo much fun!!!

Here are the results:

Paying it Forward

2009-04-29T19:33:00.002-04:00

My island friend, Anjeny, is having a Pay it Forward event on her blog. It's totally awesome...go check it out. And after that come back here and sign up to get totally cool homemade gifts from me!

The catch is that you must participate too. Before you leave your comment here, write up (or copy and paste) a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Then, come back, let me know you are going to play. Remember that only the FIRST FIVE comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantee that you will like what I make. But, I will try my best to make sure that you do.
2. It will be done this year (hopefully sooner than later).
3. You will have no clue what or when it will be.

Please be sure to leave your e-mail address too so I can get hold of you.

Lurking around every corner

2009-04-11T22:51:00.003-04:00

This week has been a week from hell! It seems that everything that could go wrong did go wrong...well, maybe not everything but it sure felt that way. Both Al & I have had miserable weeks. One thing would happen and it seemed within no time another thing was falling apart. I sort of felt like we were under attack and did not know when the next bomb would fall.

On my way home from an Easter egg hunt this afternoon, I realized we have been under attack. The Adversary was really pounding us this week, he was lurking around every corner. I realized in the hustle and bustle of all I was trying to accomplish this week that I missed the most important part of the Easter holiday....JESUS! From Palm Sunday all through Holy Week, past Good Friday and right up to Easter, I've allowed myself to be so preoccupied with my day-to-day life and events that I completely missed opportunities to teach my children about the significant events that took place during this week. Of the tremendous gift bestowed upon us from Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ.

Every exploding bomb redirected my attention and kept me from sharing these important lessons with my children....hmmmm, maybe we did such a great job for Easter last year that Satan said, "No way, she's not going to do that again!" So he sent many obstacles our way. I'm sad that I missed opportunities this week, but I'm hopeful that things are heading in the right direction and I can enjoy Easter Sunday with my family and remember how thankful I am for the atonement of Jesus Christ and the wonderful love my Heavenly Father has for me and that I also have for Him.

Actually, this reminds me of something my mother-in-law sent me: "Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning Satan says, "Oh, crap. She's up!""

Baby Chase is growing!

2009-04-05T19:22:00.002-04:00

The Toothless Wonder

2009-04-05T19:19:00.001-04:00

Connor lost his two front teeth

Lillee's Easter Dress

2009-04-05T18:20:00.007-04:00

In between conference sessions, I completed Lillee's dress!!!

And here are the girls together

Isabel stole the flower from our neighbor's yard...she got in trouble for it, but then we realized what a great prop it was :)

Makin' Babies!

2009-04-05T06:16:00.003-04:00

No, not me....although I did pull a good April Fool's joke on my mother-in-law. Last year she was in Hawaii around late April - early May which is when I found out I was pregnant with Chase. I had been working outside every day with the kids cleaning the yard and pulling weeds in hope of putting in a large garden. Then the morning sickness struck. It was crippling...all day sickness! I had emailed my mother-in-law to tell her I was pregnant, but I sort of snuck it into the email like it was nothing. She reread the email several times before it sunk in that I really was pregnant. I remember her saying, "I kept reading, waiting to see if you were going to say, "I'm joking." "

So on April 1st I emailed her again saying, "Last year at this time, I emailed you saying I couldn't work in the yard anymore because I was so sick from being pregnant. Well this year, I did not even get a chance to start. I guess the garden will have to wait one more year after one more baby."

A few hours later I received a call....it took her awhile but she figured out it was an April Fool's joke :)

But this post was not really about ME makin' babies, it's actually to help benefit someone else making babies! I hope you'll take a few minutes and go support the Wilkerson's and their adventures through IVF. http://wilkersonivffund.blogspot.com/

Giveaway!
To qualify for this giveaway, you must:
1. Comment on this post so Lyndee can visit your blog to see if you fulfilled the requirements!
2. Copy and paste this post into a post on your blog.
3. Posts and comments must be received and submitted by April 10, 2009.
If you meet these requirements, your name will be entered into a drawing for a FREE hat of your choice! You pick the style, you pick the color!Thank you to everyone for participating and for helping the Wilkerson Family!http://wilkersonivffund.blogspot.com/2009/03/giveaway.html

Good luck Wilkersons....your hats are ADORABLE!!!

Repurposing

2009-04-03T15:12:00.004-04:00

Late last summer I was looking for a dresser solution for the kids as they have lots of clothes but their dresser took up so much floor space they barely had room to play. So I was tooling around on craigslist one Friday night looking for a solution when I came across a yard sale advertisement offering 2 dressers and a toddler bed for $60! Al and I headed out early Saturday to get the dressers. They were really cute...white with soft, pastel knobs in multiple colors.

Little did I know that they were not only cheap in price, but also in construction. They quickly started falling apart under the abuse of a 3 & 4 year old. Drawers started breaking, rails were bending...it was sad. So we got rid of the first dresser, a tall 5-drawer dresser, but I snagged the knobs off of it because they were cute and I was certain I could use them on another dresser.

Then dresser #2 started falling apart. I was really upset to get rid of this one, I held onto it for nearly a month thinking we could fix it somehow. I knew we wouldn't fix it, though. So I decided to pull the face of each drawer off and use them to fix another storage problem!

The kids have so many light jackets, hoodies and bags, I figured we could make a place for them to hang things on the wall. We added 4 knobs to each drawer piece and I painted on them. Connor's isn't finished yet and we're waiting on my husband to bring a drill home to attach them to the walls. I'll add more pictures when they're on the wall, but here is what they look like

And as a bonus, I was able to tie in a lesson on recycling!!

We also pulled off some other pieces of the dresser and will be using those to glue on clothes pins and attach to their bedroom walls for hanging art work. Our refrigeratore is not big enough to hold all the coloring and painting sheets of 3 little ones :) This way it's in their room for them to enjoy and manage, instead of me deciding which ones are worth keeping on the fridge! I'll get pictures of those up soon, too. We've painted our clothes pins, we just need to get them attached to the board and on the wall.

Can a 4 year old have PMS?

2009-04-02T12:09:00.003-04:00

Lillee, my 4 year old, is quite the moody little thing. She's definitely retribution for all I did to my mother while growing up. She's so much like me, including the moodiness.

This morning, like most mornings, she climbed into bed with us for snuggles. She seemed perfectly fine. Then Al asked her to switch sides of the bed so Chase could switch sides to nurse. For some reason this set her off. She jumped off the bed in a huff, found a spot on the floor and sat there for 20 minutes, pouting. When Al and I left the room, we told her she needed to leave as well. Did she? Of course not, Lillee is not the most obedient child. She's headstrong, independent and quite verbal in her insolence. This morning, though, she stood in silence behind my bedroom door, peeking through the crack.

As I made breakfast in the kitchen, I called her from my room once again...this time more forcefully and threatening (I'm good at that). She stomped out of the room as she realized she was getting herself deeper into trouble. She seemed to be fine at this point and walked to the kitchen to get some yogurt then off to the table to eat. I was also making oatmeal so I handed her a bowl of oatmeal. I rarely receive thank you's from her and today was no different. Instead of gratitude she tells me how it's not what she wants.

"I wanted the yellow bowl!"

Normally, she would want the red bowl she got (which was why I gave it to her) but she also tends to be contrary quite often. So I explained to her she needed to eat the oatmeal in the bowl she received. Her willfulness resulted in no more complaints but silent refusal to eat the oatmeal...see the power struggle :)

After breakfast, Connor was playing with a toy or a book or something (I can't even remember what it was now). Somehow, Lillee became upset and took off to her room, wailing like she had just received the worst news. I questioned Connor, he could not even tell me what set her off...he was as dumbfounded as I was.

Once she had stopped crying she emerged from her room and sauntered back to the living room. I called her over to come sit on my lap for some hugs and cuddles. This made her feel better and calm down. I asked why she was having such a hard morning and she had no explanation.

So I decided we needed to have a musical chick flick (Beauty & the Beast), cocoa & dark chocolate kisses. She perked right up, "I'll get the movie!" she exclaimed. I grabbed the cocoa and chocolate then we snuggled on the sofa munching our chocolate and watching our musical.

Does this sound a bit like PMS to you?

Home Ec Week

2009-03-24T17:07:00.002-04:00

So I've been mentioning how we're taking the week off of school to have home ec week. I think it's important for all my kids to understand what goes into running a house, keeping it clean, organizing, etc. So this is the week for it!

I started yesterday with the bathroom and was so happy to have a sparkling clean bathroom from floor to ceiling. I scrubbed the tub and the walls and the floor and the sink and toilet...I worked up a sweat :)

This morning, Lillee came running into the living room loudly exclaiming, "Mommy, we have a new insert indistinguishable word here in the bathroom." I asked her to calm down and repeat herself. She said, "Mommy, we have a new sink in the bathroom."

I responded with, "It's not new honey, it is the same sink we've had."

Lillee replies, "No, Mommy! It is new, it is not the same one."

If your child doesn't recognize the sink once it's been cleaned, it was definitely time to clean the thing LOL I think the most shocking part was the toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap were no longer on the sink so you could actually see the knobs and such. It wasn't really that filthy!

simple directions

2009-03-20T11:39:00.005-04:00

Al has one guy who works for him that he really likes, but the guy tends to be flakey at times; usually when there is a major deadline. Al's current client is remodeling a bathroom to get ready for their son to recooperate in their home after surgery. They've been pushing hard to get this bathroom completed in a short time. Two days ago, Al found out the surgery had been pushed forward by 2 days...this means the one day he was ahead of schedule now makes him only one day behind schedule. Al isn't expected to work miracles and his client is grateful he's working so hard to accomodate their needs. So the family headed to the hospital at 5am this morning for the surgery. At 7am, Al went to pick up his worker only to discover he wasn't home and he had turned off his phone.

Al is mad!!! He asked for me to place an ad to try to find a quick replacement because he needs to complete the bathroom. So I placed an ad with some very simple instructions:

Looking to hire a helper immediaitely, if you would like to start today, let us know!

Must haves:

Speak clear English
Driver's License
Legal to work in the US
General residential remodeling experience

No resume is necessary. However, you must be able to demonstrate your work experience if you expect a call back! Please email your work experience and a phone number that you can be reached at. If the above information is provided you can expect a quick response. We're currently working 6 days a week in Germantown. Pay is based on experience and expect decent pay as we appreciate good workers. Please use this email address: info@aba........com; emails not sent to this address or not including the above information will be ignored.

Pretty straight forward, right? Obviously not to 90% of the respondents. The ad was placed under MY email address which is why I specified a different address in the body of the ad. I wanted to see who could follow directions. For those who did actually get the right email (which was about 50%), they sent things like:

"I qualify, this is my bread and butter, call me!"

"I have what you're looking for." no phone number provided, though.

Come on!!! If you're seriously looking for a job, don't you think it is worth following some simple instructions? I think out of about 20 responses at this point, I've only received 2 that actually followed instructions but unfortunately are not as qualified as the ones who can't seem to follow directions.

Sorry, I just needed to vent a bit. I get seriously bent out of shape over the stupidity of other people. I should just say a prayer for them and not let it bother me, but what a waste of my time to filter through all these emails. I am so glad I'm no longer in management, I'm not sure I have the patience for it these days.

Isabel's Dress

2009-03-18T15:09:00.003-04:00

As you may have heard, I got a sewing machine for Christmas. So for the past 2 months I've been working to teach myself to sew. My latest project was BIG. I decided to make Easter dresses for my girls. As my friend, Kristy Boggs, stated, "That's a bit ambitious." Which was sort of a nice way to say, "Whoa, what were you thinking?!?!"

Well, I just finished Isabel's dress last night and here it is!!! I'm so proud of myself :)

Amanda's got her groove back!

2009-03-18T07:55:00.004-04:00

2 months ago I took the kids and went to DC to see a train display at the Botanical Gardens. You may remember reading my rant about the trip. Well, I did it again...I planned another trip to DC with the kids. After reading my rant post you may wonder what kind of meds I've been on to consider doing this again....this time I even went by myself! But to my surprise, and I'm sure your's as well, this was the most perfect trip ever!

I had heard there would be a Pachyderm Parade on St Patrick's Day this year. The parade is a DC tradition where the elephants, horses, ring master and clowns are paraded through the streets of DC to announce that the Ringling Bros Circle has arrived to the area. And since it was St Patrick's Day they had a bagpiper and a good amount of green.

Even though I was flying solo and took 4 kids on the metro during rush hour to stand on the sidewalks of DC for an undetermined amount of time to wait for elephants with a tentative schedule, things went really well! I think I may have had the best day I've ever had with my kids. When I woke yesterday morning, my first thought was NOT, "This will be the best day ever." I actually thought, "I wonder if I can get out of this, I'd much rather be in bed. What have I done to myself, why do I continue to be so ambitious?"

Here are a few pictures of the elphants on the streets of Washington, DC.

It's hard to see but here are the elephants with front foot raised and one is waving the flag of Ireland being held in his trunk.

That's Union Station in the background

Snuggle Bug

2009-03-13T09:31:00.008-04:00

Since Lillee was a small baby she has always been an awesome snuggler. She cuddles right into you and stays perfectly still for hours. Unlike Connor and Isabel who can't sit still for more than 1-2 minutes...they can't snuggle at all!

Every morning Lillee comes to our bedroom and hops in bed on Al's side to snuggle with him...he calls her snuggle bug and she loves the pet name, it makes her feel special and different which is really important as a middle child.

Lately, Lillee has been deprived of her morning snuggles. With Al being sick for a week he did not want the kids in bed with him. Then as soon as he was well he started a new project and was leaving the house by 6:15am and the kids weren't out of bed at that time. Several mornings this week Lillee has darted off to my bedroom in hopes to find daddy still in bed. She's been really disappointed that he was already off to work and she could not have her snuggles.

Last night, I told Al he would have to sleep in on Saturday so she can get some snuggles. He sadly stated he was working Saturday too and Lillee would have to wait until Sunday. Shortly after making this statement he told me, "I'll start work around 10:00am on Saturday." After thinking of Lillee missing her snuggles he decided to adjust his schedule to work in some snuggle time with his Beanie.

I love that man!

Winter, winter go away...come back another day

2009-03-10T08:07:00.005-04:00

2 weeks ago all the kids started getting sick...croupy coughs at night, running noses during the day; just the general cold running through our home. We were headed to NC on Thursday morning and late Wednesday night Connor got out of bed and came to me so I could help him scratch a massive itch. Upon closer inspection he had a rash all over his stomach, back and arm pits. I figured our trip would be delayed by a Dr appt Thursday morning, but we were pleasantly surprised that the rash appeared to be gone by the morning. So off to NC we went.

We had a nice visit with my parents, although it was colder than we thought it was going to be. On Sunday, my brother, his wife and 2 children came to see us. Unfortunately, my brother was sick so they did not stay long as he was feeling bad and the weather was getting bad....was pretty icy.

Within an hour or two after my brother leaving Al started complaining of a sore throat. Then his stomach was upset so he headed to bed. A lot happened Sunday night. At 3am I woke to Al making unpleasant noises in the bathroom. His stomach was really topsy-turvy and he had a fever. Then we woke to 4 inches of snow on the ground. We were not able to leave NC on Monday like we had planned. Al spend the day in bed, unable to eat anything and barely keeping down small amounts of fluid.

I pushed Al to get in the car and go home on Tuesday (we had to get back home, Al had work to do, we did not have our school supplies with us, we missed piano lessons, 2 dental appts...it was time to go!). When we arrived home he fell onto the sofa and did not move all night. Wednesday morning he made an appt with his Dr but the earliest he could get was 3:30pm. We were pretty certain he had strep throat so we needed to get him started on antibiotics.

By 10:00am Al knew he could not wait until 3:30 to be seen as he had developed quite a rash and was starting to panic over feeling so bad. So he opted to go to the emergency room. Unfortunately, when you have 4 kids it's hard to find a baby sitter at the last minute, especially if you might have some contagious or potentially harmful to another floating through your house. So I dropped him off at the front door of the hospital and told him to call me when he was ready to be picked up.

It was determined Al had scarlet fever and because he has spent the past 4 days unable to eat or drink he was severely dehydrated. So they opted for IV antibiotics and fluids and some good pain meds for the all over aches and pains and seriously sore throat. The good news is Al has recovered...he's still weak, definitely not back to 100% but gaining a bit more strength every day.

When I went to pick Al up at the hospital I realized that the rash Connor had had the week before was the same rash that Al has. So Thursday morning I took all the kids to the Dr for strep tests. It's amazing but none of the kids had it. The nurse said this was a weird case because normally children ages of 3-17 get strep and scarlet fever, not adults. Al was the only one in the family to have it, though.

And we missed the snow in MD while we were in NC. The kids have been waiting all winter for a decent snow and while we were in NC the "biggest snow storm in 3 years" blew through MD and dropped 7 inches. We only had 4 inches in NC and it was gone pretty quick, but Mamaw & Papaw hit Walmart and bought boots and gloves for everyone so the kids could enjoy it for the short time it lasted.

We're just getting back on track and feeling like we're recovering from a hard 2 weeks so we'll see what comes next....spring, please get here QUICK! We're so ready for winter to be over!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

2009-02-25T19:48:00.004-05:00

Well, Lillee liked Isabel's hair, too. Or she noticed all the attention Isabel received from having her hair cut. She begged for "hair like Isabel's, but not yellow." She even woke this morning to tell us of the dream she had last night where she had hair like Isabel's.

She asked for hair like Isabel's yet again this afternoon and Al broke down. "Go get your socks and shoes on," he said. So here's the finished product, complete with painted nails.

Goldie Locks

2009-02-24T22:29:00.006-05:00

We have our very own little Goldie Locks. Her name is Isabel and she's 3 years old. She has the most gorgeous blond hair; it's silky with amazing low-lights and highlights...it's what grown women pay fortunes to achieve.

Here is Al blow drying her hair (enlarge this picture for real detail)

However, with her hair being this long, she always seems to look like the picture below, not the pictures above.

There's always food and who knows what else in her hair which makes it impossible to brush. I keep telling my husband she needs it cut and he insists she just needs more conditioner. Isabel screams anytime you come near her with a brush, but my husband refuses to allow me to cut it. It took him 4 years for him to allow me to take Lillee to get her hair trimmed. I tried trimming it at home once and he did not speak to me for 2 full days so I knew this was a serious subject for him and not worth pushing. I figure I have one more full year of begging before we'll see a change in Bel's hair.

Al took Bel out for her dental appt today and turns out the dental office had no power. So they rescheduled the appointment and went for another date....this time she didn't get her nails done, she got her hair done :) See below:

Yes folks, I nearly fell over when she walked in the door. Al never discussed this with me, he did not call me on the way home to prepare me, he just stood there staring at me as I grasped for words...none came. I literally stood there unable to speak. Not sure whether I loved it or hated it because I did not have a chance to prepare for it. I came around after a minute or so and LOVE her new do! And I really look forward to no screaming while brushing and not having to wash it constantly just to keep her from looking the part of a rag-a-muffin.

6X6X6

2009-02-23T20:47:00.003-05:00

There's this tagging event going on in my blogosphere so I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Mostly because I was curious to see what photo was in the specified spot so here are the rules:

1. go to your photo file, count the 6th file

2. find the 6th picture within the 6th file

3. describe it, then tag 6 friends

This is my Lillee Bean at 8 days old. She weighed a whopping 4.5lbs when this picture was taken. She was so tiny and slept like this all the time. She was the quietest baby...hmmmm, now she's the most talkative child, she must have been saving up LOL

I'm not very good at tagging people as I don't want others to feel they have to participate. But if you decide you want to and you wish to share your photo, leave a comment so I can go check out your 6X6X6.

Maple Festival

2009-02-21T18:58:00.004-05:00

We attended a Maple Festival today and it was very informative and tasty!

We were able to see maple trees that have been tapped with buckets hanging from them to collect the sap.

We were able to taste the sap right from the tree...it's basically water with a very slight hint of sweetness. A sugar maple tree produces sap with water content of 97% and 3% sugar. The sap from a silver maple, the type of maple tree you see lining the streets, are 0.5% sugar and 99.5% water. There is also a red maple that is 2.5% sugar but they're rarely tapped for making syrup as you would need much more sap to compensate for the 0.5% less sugar of a sugar maple tree.

We then watched as the tree sap was being boiled down to remove the water...this takes several days.

Here you can see the sap getting thicker. Ever wonder why pure maple syrup is so expensive to purchase? It takes 35 gallons of tree sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.

They were kind enough to make pancakes for sampling the maple syrup. This was the kids' favorite part, of course. The girls kept returning to the syrup table to get little cup of syrup, they weren't using the pancakes for tasting they were drinking straight from the cup. The volunteers serving the syrup finally caught on after 3 or 4 rounds and fortunately started denying them.

Bel's Big Date, Part 2

2009-02-21T09:51:00.004-05:00

Well, inquiring minds wanted to know where Al and Isabel went on the big date. I was excited when Isabel came running through the door screaming, "LOOK!, Mommy Look!" She held out her hands and showed me her manicure!

Al took her for a ice cream and to get her nails painted...how sweet was that?!?!

I'm not girly, at all...I never paint my own nails so I don't think to paint the girls' nails. How thoughtful of Daddy!