The Year Without the Christmas Classics

Every year I am saddened by my kids' lack of interest in watching the old holiday classic shows--you know, Rudolph, Frosty, The Year Without a Santa Clause, etc.  But they'll have nothing to do with them unless, of course, I force them--which I am not above doing. I have so many memories of waiting for those shows to be on t.v. back in the day and enjoying them soooo much because of the anticipation building effect they had in preparation for Christmas.  I think they were ultra-special because you could only watch them on that one night that they were on.  No re-runs.  No videotape.  No tivo.  If you missed it that was it until the next year.  Sorry, pal, you can cry all you want that you missed Rudolph, but he's gone and won't be back for 365 days.

My favorite is The Year Without a Santa Clause because I love Heat Miser and Snow Miser. They are hysterically ridiculous.  I watched it when I was sick last week.  Noah was sick with me so he watched it too.  Begrudgingly.  Apparently it needs a car chase or two to catch Noah's interest.  Here they are for your holiday enjoyment.  Tonight I'm hanging out with Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys.  And you can be sure my children will be there too! 

Jingle Bells and O (little) Christmas Tree

Rachel and Noah had their Christmas concert last night.  You can never have enough of "Good King Wenceslas" or "Jingle Bells."   Well, that's not really true.  You can when your child practices them daily for two months leading up to a concert.  At the concert they were allowed to wear a Santa hat, but of course, Rachel had to "march to her own drummer" (get it? drummer--band--aren't I so incredibly clever?) and wear the antlers.

Rachel, since she plays the flute, is in the front row.  

Noah and one of his best friends, Sergio.  Sergio smiles so nicely whenever I take a picture of the two of them and Noah required 4 do-overs and a few threats before he actually had a real smile in this one.  There's just something about him and cameras and I'm hoping it is a something that he will be outgrowing at some point.

Up close with the antlers.

Noah, since he plays trombone is in the back row.  Last concert I didn't get a single picture of him playing as a result.  This one I had to go stand on the side of the auditorium to try to get a shot.

Then today Tommy and I went to Rachel's class to see the trees that she and her classmates all made.  The room looked really cool with all of the trees lit up.  It was a really cool craft using wire hangers and garland and a string of mini lights.  

Rachel likes all things craft so this was right up her alley.  She's been planning for weeks what she would put on her tree.  I'm certain that she will continue to add things to it all the way up through Christmas.  

And, BIG NEWS!  We found out this morning that Rachel won the contest for designing the yearbook cover at school!  She did a great design, which I unfortunately didn't think to take a picture of before she turned it in, that included a honeycomb pattern on the back and a really cool hornet that she drew freehand (that's their mascot).  We are so excited for her to have the whole school get to have a piece of her artwork for the rest of their lives...or as long as they own their yearbook!

WNBA future?

Katya started playing on the basketball team at school.  She may have found her calling!  She is currently 5'7" and is all legs and arms.  She is quite adept at rebounding--at times she just reaches over everyone and grabs the ball they are all reaching for!!  And it's not easy for her opponents to shoot around those extended reach arms!  They come in real handy when I need help getting something off of a high shelf at the store too!  So far their team is 2-0 and she is having a great time learning the game and using her height to its full advantage.   

 

Game over

Just in case you were wondering what happens when you drop your bluetooth in the parking lot at work and a semi truck drives over it.  Semi truck: 1  Bluetooth: 0

Like Mother, Like Son...and daughter

I forgot to post this from my birthday last month.  We have a tradition that was started way back when Emily was 2 or 3, that I put up a sign and balloons and streamers in the birthday child's bedroom so it is there when they wake up.  There is also a sign on the back of their chair at the kitchen table along with some balloons and streamers.  

On my birthday I woke up to this:

Noah made it.  H couldn't find any balloons so he made them!  The one on the left is actually 3-D!  So cute!!  I was very blessed by this.  Also, on the sign, I put squiggly lines (i.e. streamers) and confetti dots as well as the age they are turning all over the paper.  On mine, Noah very sweetly omitted the number and put question marks instead!  

The other ultra cute thing that day was Rachel's card.  She doesn't give a typical 10 year old card.  She has a way of turning a phrase that makes me laugh out loud.

All in all they made it a great birthday!

The house that Sam and Noah built

Sam and Noah have been building a "house" in the backyard for a little over a year. It was a father/son bonding project that was inspired by Noah.  He just wanted to build something! God bless Sam, he invested the money and time into the project and he and Noah have something to be proud of.  

The last few steps are to finish the inside, starting with painting.  Katya and Rachel helped. Happy siblings painting Noah's casita:

 

Noah had decided he wanted to do a "splatter" look in the casita.  That's when the real fun began.  I only saw the aftermath.  I heard something about something "was an accident and then Noah..."  And that was all she wrote.  

I think Sam's left eye started to twitch upon discovering their mayhem.  I actually thought it was funny.  I'm guessing they'll be talking about this for years based on the amount of laughter post splattering.  "Remember the time we painted Noah's house...and each other?!"  Surprisingly there was only a little bit of paint that was hard to remove from their bodies, and they actually did get some on the walls of the casita.  So, it was successful all around.  Except for poor Sam's eye twitch.

Can you say 70's?

This is a family picture I found today.  I am so lovin' my dad's suit! Not to mention my brother's glasses.  I, of course, was looking adorable in my snazzy high collared dress that matched my sister's. If I appear to be hiding behind my mother--it's because I was.  I was deathly afraid of men and the photographer, being a man, fell into the category of things to be deathly afraid of.

Little Sammy

I was scanning some old photos into the computer today and I couldn't resist sharing how cute my hubby was as a youngin'!

how adorable is that??

that's him on the left in the cool cutoffs

more cool cutoffs!

high school baseball star

Asyou can see sports were a huge part of his growing up years!

Simba for dinner anyone?

The other night I was bringing our meat in from cooking it on the grill and Katya said to me, "Is that lion?"  Huh?   I said, "You've been here 4 1/2 years.  Have I ever served you meat and said, 'Dig in, it's yummy lion!'?"  

She replied, "Well, it said lion on the package."

It was pork loin chops.  Apparently she skipped right over the part that said pork and didn't make sure she was reading the second word correctly.

Next week, we'll be having a yummy roast zebra.

Happy Belated Birthday Noah!

I forgot to post on Noah's birthday.  He turned 12 on Oct. 23.  He is now taller than me and continuing to grow every night it seems.  For his birthday "party" he wanted to go have a fun day with his two best friends, Ryan and Sergio.  Last year there were several events that got in the way of him getting to celebrate with his friends (me going to a funeral--which is a good excuse, and him fracturing his growth plate--another reasonable excuse to my way of thinking), so I had to work up from a deficit of a year's worth of complaints whining reminders that he never got to do something for his 11th birthday.  In order to avoid another year of "reminders," I determined to do my best to make it a good one.

The boys all had a half day on Noah's birthday because of parent/teacher conferences, so we started our day o' fun at Joe's Farm Grill for Noah's free lunch and our not at all free lunch.  It's nice when the restaurants your kids like are good ones as opposed to having to choke down McDonald's!  Then we raced over to catch a movie at San Tan mall.  We went to see Eagle Eye.  While we enjoyed the story, I was dismayed as I sat there with 3 young boys to hear a great deal of profanity throughout the movie-including the mother of all profanities.  I told them all that I would spank them and put soap in their mouths if they ever said those words--regardless of whether or not I was their mother!  Unfortunately, I had gotten my movie review prior to deciding upon that movie from a certain teenager in the house who had also seen the movie and neglected to mention--and didn't even notice!--the language.  She is now restricted to Disney princess movies for the rest of her time here in our home.  Anyhoo, I digress.  If you were thinking of seeing that movie, be forewarned.  

After the movie we had an hour to kill, so we went to the dollar store.  It was an easy way for them to get party favors!!  The boys got some really great quality toys that I'm sure will last a long time and I picked up a few things too just 'cause it's a fun store and I was thinking ahead to Christmas stockings!!   How's that for multitasking?? 

Then we were off to play laser tag--well, them, not me.  There's a picture for you:  me running around playing laser tag--right, it would be more like me sitting in a corner shooting whatever came near me!  2 hours of laser tag and several arcade games later, we were taking Sergio home to Queen Creek (which felt oddly like north Tucson we were driving so long).  During the long ride, the boys made use of their dollar store dart guns by shooting their leftover fries out the window at street signs.  Yeah, that's not something you see every day.  I give them an A for creativity. You have never heard three 12 year old boys have so much fun in a car.  Noah, ever the cautious one, made sure they only did it when no other cars were nearby so no one mistook their miniature shotguns for real ones!  Needless to say, my backseat needed a bit of vacuuming when we returned home, which the birthday boy and french fry shooter extraordinaire naturally took care of.  I think it was the "you'd better high tail it out there and clean that up before your dad sees it" comment that did the trick.  Dad doesn't like a mess in the car and french fry remnants all over the place might have sent him over the edge.

One of my favorite parts of the day was the fact that my son and his friends were totally cool with me hanging out with them.  I mean, they didn't invite me to play laser tag and Noah didn't hold my hand or anything, but they let me hang out with them at lunch and were cool with me sitting with them at the movie.  In today's "drop me off at the corner so no one sees us together" world, it was a delight for me that my son likes having me around.  Of course it could just be because the three of them won't talk to strangers--cashiers included!--and they just needed a go-between to order things for them and protect them in case someone asked them a question. 

Here's a shot of Noah with his birthday cinnamon rolls.  He picked them out at the store for his birthday dessert.  How easy is a tube of cinnamon rolls to prepare??  I kept saying, "are you sure this is what you want?"  What can I say, he likes cinnamon rolls!  But he doesn't like smiling for the camera.  That would be a 12 year old boy thing.  Well, for him it's a 9-12 year old boy thing.  He is either looking like he's at a funeral or like this.  I told him I would put this one up for posterity's sake, so here it is.

Concert fun

A couple of weeks ago, Emily and I went to the Phil Wickham concert.  It was awesome.  They put all of the words to the songs up on the screens so that we could sing along and it made it an amazing time of worshipping God rather than just a concert where our focus would have been on the performers.   We loved it!

We went with my friend Kelly and her daughter Hannah who just happens to be Emily's friend. Here are Em and Hannah with Fee, the opening act.  I knew nothing about this band and really enjoyed their music.  They'll be going onto my ipod soon.  Their songs were very much about glorifying God.  

This is Em with Meredith Andrews who was the opening opening act.  She was adorable.  Em and Hannah both loved her and spent several minutes talking with her while Kelly and I held our places in line to meet Phil.  She too will be making her way to our ipods.

And here is Em with Phil Wickham.   She's creating quite the collection of pictures and autographs of singers at this point.  

Costumes

Here's some pictures of Noah and Rachel's costumes from their class parties on Friday.  The scary thing is that Noah would have been a pretty girl had he been born one!  Of course he stands and walks like a boy so it was pretty funny to see him dressed up in his sister's clothes. Several of the teachers didn't recognize him until he said something to them.

This is Rachel with her two best friends in the whole wide world--Cassie and Aubrey.  Rach has been a kind of candy for Halloween for the last 3 years running.  First it was Milky Way, last year was Butterfinger Crisp and this year was my personal favorite.  Emily made her costume and did a fantastic job.  

Medical update

I forgot to tell you in my post tonight.  I have some good news, medically speaking.  It's not often you hear that from me is it??  I have a blood test done quarterly that looks for leukemic cells.  It is so accurate, it can find one leukemic cell out of 10,000 cells.  And after about 2 1/2 years on my medicine, there is now no leukemic activity in my body!  Woohoo!  Everybody do the Gleevec dance!!  Now that you are done dancing, you are all wondering, what does this mean?  Well, this is a very good thing, but basically nothing changes.  I still need to take my medicine because it is the medicine that is controlling the leukemia.  Going off of it could lead to a relapse, and we don't want that at all.  And there is no dosage change because I am on the minimum effective dose already.  From what I understand, there is the possibility that, if my numbers stay at zero for two years, I could have the option of going off of the medicine.  But, that is a long way away and that would be a lot of zeroes to string together each quarter (it's not unusual for it to fluctuate even after hitting zero).  So, we'll just wait and see and I'll continue taking my Gleevec and dealing with the side effects as they come.  But I am rejoicing because God is using this (sometimes icky) medicine to control this (always icky) leukemia.  He is showering grace upon me and I am so thankful to Him!

Sorry I was away so long

It was brought to my attention that I hadn't posted in way too long (thanks Jodi!).  Where does the time go?  I have no answer to that question.  I think I am just so fried at the end of the day that I can't put letters together to make words so it seems pointless to try to post anything. Sehi;ase iehils eighilae giheia makes no sense to anyone, now does it?  But most nights that is what you would get.  

So, hmmm what to write...hmmm...maybe this is why I don't post...hmmm...

Oh, tonight we were all talking and somehow we started to see how many countries we could list. I think we got 50 something, which I was impressed with considering the late hour for me and the fact that my children are not exactly versed in international happenings.  So, then Sam said he would pay $5 for someone who could list all 50 states.  Nothing motivates kids like a little cashola.  So, everyone went off and start writing furiously.  Sam and I joined in to see if we could do it.  Rachel thought she had all 50, but unfortunately she had written Delaware twice.  But I have to say how impressed I was that after only studying it for a few days she could already get 49/50.  And once she found out that she missed one it only took her about 30 seconds to discover which one she forgot.  I was impressed with myself too.  I got 49/50, having forgotten Utah.  I was trying to go alphabetically, but somehow I skipped over U.  Sam was the only one to finally get 50.  Katya got around 25, which is seriously impressive considering her short time here in this country and the fact that when her class studied them she was still working on acquiring English.  The next challenge Sam threw down was all of the countries of South America.  He was going to do Africa, but decided to ramp them up a little bit more slowly!

Before we started our competition we were discussing Daddy's degree in engineering for some reason.  And then Rachel turned to me and said, "You have a college degree in teaching, right?" I told her no, that I have a degree in marketing.  To which both she and Noah responded with "What? You have a what?  Why would you have that?  How could you do that??"  Thanks guys for the vote of confidence.  But that's not all.  The fun continued.  Our discussion turned to the fact that not everyone needs to go to college if what they are interested in doing does not require a college degree.  And Noah said, "You don't make as much money if you don't go to college so you need to go."  So Rachel responded with, "No, you could be a mom and that's not hard."  I was having trouble following her logic, but apparently she feels that my job is waaaay easy.  It's a good thing it's easy since I am not bright enough to work in marketing.   I'm sure what she meant was I make it look so easy and that no college in the world can teach all that I am so incredibly capable of doing.  It's just an innate talent so college would not be necessary.  Yeah, that's what she meant.

1958

While Sam and Rachel were off being cultured at the symphony, we sat at home and played on the computer.  In honor of my dad's high school reunion this weekend for the class of '58 we transformed ourselves to see what we might have looked like if we had graduated with him...here are the results:

Emily

Noah

Katya

Me

And of course, to round out the evening of ridiculousness, we had to include the dog...

A Night at the Symphony

Our precious friends the C's called tonight to see if we would like two tickets to the symphony. Well, we're just going to sit around and do nothing tonight, I'm not sure....of course we'll take them!!  Sam took Rachel (after sitting through THREE soccer games in the heat today, I was, strangely, not up to going out) and she was so excited she was beaming.  She just started playing the flute this year and loves it so she was thrilled to see professionals in action.  I am really looking forward to their return to hear how much she loved it.  See how nice they looked.

Rach didn't have any shoes besides flip flops--which are not symphony approved shoe wear--and so we pulled the ones she's wearing out of my closet.  Sadly, they are only a tiny bit too big for her.  How did my little Peanut get big enough to wear my shoes to the Symphony?????

It's baa-ck!

Guess what the neighbors got!

Sheepie #3!  Apparently they were out of wool.

Speaking of Jokesters...

I forgot to post this picture the other day.

I came home from being out for a few hours and found this on the front yard:

Who? Noah.  Why?  Your guess is as good as mine. 

Yum!

This is what Noah and Rachel brought for their lunch today:

They saw it in a magazine on how to trick your friends into thinking you were going to eat a moldy sandwich that was left in your lunch box.  It's actually peanut butter with green food coloring.  Ick. Impressive color match, don't you think?   I still wouldn't eat it even though I know it's just peanut butter!!

So, after watching them make nasty sandwiches for lunch, I went into the pantry to get something and discovered this can:

It says Stinky Sweatsock Casserole!  

"Smells and tastes like old shoes! Yum!" Those little jokesters.

A Class on What???

The other day I had a movie on and one of the characters said the word "sex."  Noah and Emily were in the room at the time.  I immediately paused the movie and then looked at Noah and said "your ears didn't hear that word" and told him he needed to go upstairs to finishing his reading.  Being so incredibly obedient, he responded, "Why doesn't Emily have to leave the room?"  To which I replied, "She's already had sex education."  And, with a look of horror that only an 11 year old boy would have, he said, "WHAT???? They teach that????"   

(I had his permission to tell this story!)

Me, myself and I make me happy.

I can see this journal thing is going to be very interesting...

List five things that make you happy.

I like control, playing things I like to play, choosing stuff, going places I lik to go to, and playing by my rules. Those are things that make me happy. I like doing what I like to do. I shouldn't do what I like to do. I should do what other people want to do.

Yeah, that control one--that one is really fun when you are the mom. And he's not kidding. Control is his main desire in life--regardless of the consequences of fighting for that control. And the two sentences at the end--the "moral" of the story, if you will--were purely for effect. "Shoulds" don't have a lot of bearing in T-man's life at this point. Which is why you can understand that he is at the top of my prayer list, right after patience for the day ahead!

The obsession continues...

Rachel's class has been studying Native Americans and for one of their projects they made "Kachina" dolls (I put that in quotation marks because I am quite certain that authentic Kachina dolls are not made from toilet paper tubes and styrofoam balls). I know you'll be just as surprised as I was to see who she modeled hers after...

Noah, Builder of Pyramids

Noah had to make a pyramid for a school project. Being the go-getter that he is, he began working on it immediately even though it wasn't due for 2 weeks. He scrapped the first version made of cardboard--even though he spent hours making it--in favor of this one made of wood. And he made this entire thing all by himself. I like that in a kid. Of course he brought a bucket of dirt/sand into the house to sprinkle on the sides after he painted them. That part I wasn't too excited about. He did vacuum (most of) it up though, so that was very encouraging as a mom!

He was supposed to include inside of it some things for the "afterlife" like the Egyptians used to. The butter box "sarcophogus/coffin" contains the mummified remains of his sisters' Fashion Polly doll. The good news is that she would be able to jet ski and play soccer and hockey in the miniature plastic doll afterlife.

Yep, I did it all.

I've been having Tommy do a journal entry each morning with a prompt he has to write about. This was the prompt a few days ago: "Have you ever been blamed for something you didn't do?"

His response:

I have not been blamed for something I didn't do. Becase I always do it. When I sin they know I sined. When they know I sined they know I sined so they know I did it. When I sin they know I didn't get blamed for something I didn't do becase I did do it.

And that just about sums Tommy up. Of course it's not complete without the picture that he drew to go along with it:

Notice the very unhappy looking lady with crazy hair in the middle? Who do you suppose that is a depiction of? Hmmm?

I bet it would be interesting if there were a prompt that said, "Have you ever gotten away with something you should have gotten in trouble for?" He just might need extra paper for that one.

Encouragement in Many Forms

Tonight I went with my friend Kelly to see Nick Vujicic speak at Central Christian Church. I really needed to hear what he had to say. He was born with no arms and no legs and through God's grace he is a means of encouragement to millions. He said tonight that if he had been born with legs and arms he probably wouldn't be there speaking to us. It's his missing limbs that give him an audience. Wow. Here is one video of him from youtube:




One thing that he said tonight that stuck with me is that God is more interested in changing your heart than He is in changing your circumstances. What a great reminder. As I am struggling with some of Tommy's behaviors that are a result of his early life, I needed to be reminded of that truth. God very well may not change my circumstances, but He is most definitely at work within my heart to make me a little more like my Savior every day by showing me my dependence on Him and His grace. And that is a very good thing in the midst of difficulty. One of these days I'll fill you in on our little Tommy and all that God is doing. But not tonight. :-)

When we walked out of the church tonight it was pouring rain. Buckets and buckets! But, I had brought my big umbrella so Kelly and I huddled under it and tried to make our way to the car and stay a little dry. But my measly umbrella was no match for God's big wind and this is how it ended up:



Sad little umbrella. Didn't have a chance. Services will be Friday at 11:00. We'll miss him. He was a trusty servant to our family during his short life. In lieu of flowers please send donations to the United Umbrella Fund (UUF).

Anyhoo, Kelly and I tried to get the sad little umbrella to close and couldn't (it's injuries were too severe) so, being the great friend that I am, I took off running to the car leaving Kelly in my dust...er...splash...wake...well, whatever...we ended up completely soaked and laughed our butts off. God may not be changing my circumstances right now, but He graciously brought my friend alongside to be encouraged with me, share my hurts and laugh hysterically with me just when I needed it the most. Thanks Kell, for sharing a great night with me. And for staying with the umbrella in it's hour of need!

Man, I love a deal!

My new favorite store is Fresh and Easy. Just the name sends chills up my spine. I LOVE it! Sam loves it! The whole family loves it! Last week I was there and scored some deals BIG TIME. I got $160 worth of groceries for only...drumroll please...$60!! WOW! All of you should be very impressed. Your mouths should have dropped open. You should be saying, "Holy Pickles, Batman!! I didn't know that kind of a deal was possible! What a Proverbs 31:18* woman!" (Go ahead and say it if you haven't, I'll wait. Just don't leave out the "Holy Pickles, Batman!" part.....)

Here is all of the food I got:


See all of that meat?? Actually it's a lot of STEAK! Mmmmmmm. And ALL of that meat was 50% off. Actually almost all of the food was 50% off (the exceptions being the Ben & Jerry's and brownie mix--some things are worth paying full price--but full price on B&J was only $2.39!) . And then I had $20 in coupons that the dude running the checkout gave me! It just doesn't get much better than that!

*In case you don't know that verse it's: "She perceiveth that her merchandise is good."KJV Or in the NLT it says: "She watches for bargains."

Puppy Love

I went in to Rachel's room this morning and discovered this:

It is three pieces of yarn connecting the ceiling to some pictures hanging over her bed (in front of her extensive Webkinz collection). How she attached the yarn to the ceiling is anyone's guess. (side note: she just told me that she put a chair on her bed to reach it. I didn't need to know that.)

Upon closer inspection I found that this is the view from where Rachel lays her head down each night:


So the last thing she sees before she heads off to dreamland is her beloved Michael Phelps. She's seriously infatuated. She has a picture on her desk at school and these over her bed. Every time he was on during the Olympics she would come running to see him and get a funny smile on her face.

Every one else can have their rock stars--Rachel's going for the sweet, athletic guys who break world records and love their mom. I'm cool with that.

Just a "little" update

OK, so everyone has started school now! Woohoo! Katya started at a new school on Monday. It's called Bios Christian Academy and there are only 33 students--in the whole school! Rachel's class last year was bigger than that. Talk about personalized education. So far we are very pleased. It seems to be perfect for her. Her teachers will require much of her and are already beginning to challenge her. She may not like it right now, but in the long run I think she will be very glad.

And Tommy...well, if you haven't heard, Tommy is at home with me this year. After much deliberation on our part and much prodding on God's, we decided to keep him home and do our schooling through an online charter school called Arizona Virtual Academy. So far it is going well. We have two weeks under our belt and are doing well academically. And God, in His graciousness, has used that two weeks to reveal much in Tommy's character that we were not aware of (well, fully aware of--we were aware of a lot or we wouldn't have brought him home!) and He has confirmed over and over that this was the right choice for Tommy and our family. Not to say it has been or will be easy. Oh no, Tommy is making sure of that. He is working hard to be an instrument in the Redeemer's hand in my life!!!! You can be sure there will be stories as a result. There already are actually. I'll wait until the twitch recedes a bit before I try to tell them. Someday we'll look back on this and laugh. Right?? I said, right???

The other three kids are doing great in their respective schools. Rachel's teacher is apparently the most amazing teacher in the history of teachers based on the way she talks about her. One of the many things for which Rachel adores her is that she lets the kids decorate their desk tops with pictures and then covers it over with clear contact paper. Rachel took that to heart and her desk is covered with pictures of dogs. Everyone else has just a few pictures, but Rachel went full bore because really, what good does the blank space do her when she could be staring at a dog's cute face instead?

Noah is doing very well and likes his teacher and class. For those of you acquainted with the Noah of a few years ago, he is like a different boy. He is totally mellow and has begun to just take things in stride. I am enjoying Noah 2.0 very much. Although we just took him to the doctor and found out that he's got some sort of Patellafemoral Syndrome (or something like that anyway). He'd been having knee pain and come to find out his knee cap is crooked or something because of the RAPID growth he has experienced over the last year. (He's about a 1/4 of an inch away from passing me by.) The doctor gave him a cute manly little brace to support his knee cap. Apparently it is helping so that is good.

Emily is enjoying sophomore year, but not so much the getting up at 5:00am every morning. She gets up when her alarm goes off and is ready early for her ride. She does NOT get that from me. I stand in awe that she has not acquainted herself with the snooze button. And sadly enough for me, when Sam is out of town (which seems much more frequent now that school has started and we're in a crack of dawn carpool oddly enough), I am the designated driver Tuesdays and Thursdays. Not so bad right now--not looking forward to when it is still dark!

Hmmm...what else is going on? Oh, you mean besides my computer crashing hard into a dark jagged abyss of no return? Not much. If you haven't experienced hard drive failure, I'd highly recommend it. Very much a character building exercise. And the worst part is that all of Emily's friends' e-mail addresses were lost in The Crash. It's a good thing that I didn't have anything that important on there.

And soccer just started. For 3, count 'em, THREE of our kids. Tommy is joining Noah and Rachel this year in the 2 1/2 month whirlwind we call soccer season. AND Sam is coaching Noah's team. The good news there is that I don't have to get him to practice! But we have a total of five different practices in three different parks each week. And we'll be spending most of Saturday at Crossroads Park starting Sept. 13. No, that's not hyperventilating you are hearing, someone must have turned on a fan or something.

And if that isn't enough, Katya is going to play volleyball at school! Which of course coincides with soccer season quite nicely. Her practices will be Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 6:30 AM!! Katya, unlike her sister Susie Sunshine, is well acquainted with her snooze button so this should be loads of fun on practice days.

The funny thing in all of this is that we really don't have our kids involved in a lot of stuff. Actually they're involved in one thing only! It just all happens that each of their one things is happening at the same time. We won't be coming up for air until January since soccer leads right into the Christmas season. I'm hoping to still be sane by then, but odds are not good.

So, if you don't hear from me, you'll know why. You can whine and complain all you want, but unless you are willing to take a carpool shift, you might have to be even more patient than you have been between posts up til now. Of course, with all of the tricks that are apparently up Tommy's sleeve, he may inspire me to write a little more often. Who knows? Stay tuned and see!

Day One. Only 179 More to Go 'Til Summer!

So our day started off really early this morning. Which is not my usual routine. At all. Emily started her sophomore year in high school today. How A) I got old enough to have a sophomore in high school and B) How she got old enough to be a sophomore in high school I can't quite figure out. But I digress. Emily decided to take A hour this year because apparently, you can never have too much school. At the end of summer we got a lovely letter from the school telling us that they were going to be adding 25 minutes to the school day 'cause someone just re-read the state regulations and discovered that our high school kids were not were not there long enough. Maybe they should start reading those things correctly the first time? Just a suggestion. Anyhoo, this means that A hour now starts at 6:30 AM. Yikes! Isn't there a state regulation about starting school too early?

Being an early bird and wanting to get those yummy little wormies, Em was up and ready for her ride by 5:45. So, she decided to come say goodbye to us at that point. Which shocked me out of a deep sleep marked by a somewhat bizarre dream that I cannot remember except for it's bizarreness. It being the first day and all, I did what I am supposed to do. I got up so I could take a picture to mark the day. Why? Because it's my job as the family photog and she's only going to have her first day of sophomore year once in her life and clearly we need photos of it. I sat with her while she waited for her ride and then sent her off to the wolves school, with my love and my prayers. I will most likely not be repeating my "up at 5:45" thing tomorrow because I am really tired right now. Sam is taking her and her friend to school tomorrow so he'll stand in my stead. Maybe he'll take a picture of her because she'll only have her second day of sophomore year once...

After I showered, had breakfast, spent some time reading my Bible, did about 2 or 3 loads of laundry, and made a chair from some branches we had in the backyard, the rest of the kids got up and we headed off to Noah and Rachel's school to drop them off. It was quite lovely with only about 118% humidity. Ick. If you stood still you were kind of not so incredibly sticky and horribly hot for about one second. And the poor kids' backpacks weighed like 78 pounds with all of their supplies jammed into them. It's a good thing they were on the "first day of school adrenaline high" because they might not have made it there otherwise!

(Notice Noah's 6th grade boy look of enduring the photo rather than actually smiling for it? And Rachel is all girl and all about having a photo session!)

And I actually missed them while they were gone! It was mostly quiet, even though Katya and Tommy were still home (more on why later), but being down to 2 from 5 kids does tend to bring the noise and activity level down a bit. I was really looking forward to the quiet part, but I was just struck all day by how old they are getting. Rachel is now in 5th grade and Noah in 6th. They are too young to be so old!! So, I was missing them and looking forward to them coming home. That is, until they got home. After a couple of hours with Noah, who I like to think of as the family air horn, I was realizing how nice it is to have a little bit of quiet while they are gone! Man, he is loud. BUT, he's not loud at school. At school he's this quiet kid who never raises his voice above normal decibels. I think he saves it for when he gets home or something. He thinks it's hysterical. Yeah, me too. While I'm shopping for muzzles and ear plugs.

But, I truly did miss them (if not their noise) and probably will tomorrow too. Even Air Horn Boy. But not necessarily enough to get up at 5:45 again or to walk them to school in the tropical rainforest weather we're having. I'll wave goodbye from my comfy bed and then again from the front door! See you at 3:00! With my ear plugs!

Granny rides, Ms. Magoo and God's all sufficient grace

Well, we're back from our multi-city trip to California. We stayed in Anaheim, Pasadena, Coronado and Bonita. We swam in many pools and in the ocean (not me though--I stick to pool water without scary things like jelly fish, stingrays and other harmful creatures that can remove limbs). We ate in many restaurants. I love restaurants. Truly. I can think of nothing more relaxing at dinner time than going in, reading a menu, eating, paying and walking away from the mess. Nothing says vacation to me more than eating out.

If you will remember before we left, I mentioned that God was showing me that His grace is sufficient for whatever comes our way. It was good to have that reminder because there were several times that things didn't quite go as I'd hoped. That is because God is sovereign and I am not. Although I really wish I was sometimes. If we're being honest I think most of us really wish we were at certain times--like the times when we are mad because we want something and aren't getting it. Wouldn't it be cool if God gave us each a sovereign card that we could use like once a week or something just to make something go our way? So for instance, I could use my sovereign card and my children would keep their rooms clean for a day. Or I could use my sovereign card and get to go out to eat on a night when I am just whipped and don't feel like cooking (is there a night when I actually feel like cooking?). You know, really unimportant things like that. But I digress...

So, day one of our trip I got to put my money where my mouth is, see where the rubber meets the road and count my chickens because they hatched. You see, I woke up not feeling so great on Friday. And we were going to Knotts Berry Farm. But, my ickiness has been known to pass on, so I went on with my day as if everything was fine. I even went on a ride. Not such a good idea. You see, it was a roller coaster ride that flips you upside down and generally messes with your equilibrium. I was seriously dizzy and somewhat nauseous after that. So I skipped the next mind numbing roller coaster with poor Tommy who was too small to ride it. But, the next one looked fun, so I waited and got on with everyone and ugh, couldn't wait for the 45 seconds of the ride to be over. Nauseous is a kind word for how I felt. Thankfully I didn't have to embarrass myself by vomiting all over the park. It stayed at ultra nauseous for a while, but did eventually calm back down to somewhat nauseous and thoroughly dizzy and achey. Thankfully we had rented my pathetic self an electric cart to drive around for the day so that was my "ride" for the remainder of the day. (Although I did get to go on the log ride, because that is a fun nostalgic ride that doesn't spin you upside down or shoot you out of the gate at 389 miles per hour.) And sad as it is to say, there were even times when I went a little too fast in my granny cart and added to my dizziness and nausea. Now that is a pathetic little picture, is it not?

But! God's grace was most certainly sufficient for the day. I was sad that I didn't get to enjoy the park with the kids, but once I realized that this wasn't going to go away and this was my circumstance for the day, I prayed that the Lord would help me be content in that which He had allowed. I was able to spend the rest of the day having fun watching the kids have a blast. From my granny ride.

OH, and lest I forget, God's grace is sufficient when your 13 year old's glasses go flying off of her head while she is on a ride, never to be seen again. And let me remind you that this was the first official day of our trip (because the day spent driving doesn't really count). Day 1 of 10 for a child who has a serious vision impairment (i.e. can't really see the big E on the vision chart!). I felt like we should have a leash on her to keep her from pulling a Mr. Magoo and ending up falling into a big hole somewhere. We did lose her while we were on Hollywood Blvd a few days later, which was fun. We turned and stopped in front of the Kodak Theater and thankfully I am constantly doing a head count and noticed that Ms. Magoo was not with us. She got about another half a block away from us. Thankfully, Sam went to look for her and found her about the same time that she was realizing that the fuzzy shapes around her were not her family. Hollywood Blvd is not where you want to lose your attractive 13 year old daughter. God graciously protected her and gave us patience! I told her to memorize the colors of all of our clothes so that she could discern which fuzzy shapes were her family! If that didn't work I was going to get one of those little teddy bear leashes they have for toddlers. She didn't get lost again.

So, other than a few other minor mishaps, the trip went well. And now we are home, I have secured some cute new glasses for Ms. Magoo, and I look forward to seeing God's grace in action as we prepare for the new school year! And believe me, I'll be needing a lot of grace this year! But that is for another post another day. Stay tuned...

Tommyism

Tommy needed some water in the back yard the other day and came in and said,

"Mom, can I unhose the hose?"

Thankfully I speak Tommy-ese (although not fluently to be sure). So I told him he could indeed unhook the hose from the sprinkler.

No one else says it quite like him.

Ears, Batteries and God's Amazing Grace

So, we're leaving on vacation today. 10 days of California fun and sun. It will be nice to be out of the heat. But of course, you can't prepare to go on vacation without a few hiccups. Hopefully we are done with ours, but you never know...

Yesterday morning Noah was really complaining that his ear was hurting. We had gone swimming on Sunday and he tends to get water trapped in his ear so I figured it was an outer ear infection, since I'm an expert on these things. I called the doctor and was able to get in within a half hour--serious evidence of God's grace and mercy. Sure enough he has an outer ear infection....AND an inner ear infection! Two for one bonus! And we all know there is nothing I like better than getting my money's worth out of my copay. So, we got him his two prescriptions and are on our way to healing. Thankfully this all occurred before he had to try to endure the rides at Knotts Berry Farm with a mondo ear infection. That would have been fun. Not to mention the fun we would have had at an L.A. urgent care or ER. Nothing says vacation fun quite like that.

So, the rest of yesterday was spent running errands in preparation for leaving today. I was all over Gilbert zooming around in my van and picking up scads of snack foods for my little linebackers. I got home and about an hour and a half later, Sam called from work and asked me to go get his dry cleaning. So, being the dutiful wife that I am I jumped into my trusty van to head off to do my husband's bidding. Only the car wouldn't start. At all. Nothing. Nada. No power-ito to the engine-ito. Hey man, I tried to do his bidding in a prompt and timely manner. Instead I got to call him with the happy news of a dead van. All I can say is how thankful I am for the Lord's gracious kindness in having the van die in my garage and not in the Walmart parking lot in the dead of summer. Or in Indio. (We've already done that once and got to witness the cops swooping down on a criminal at a nearby convenience store while we waited for Sam to fix our car. Seriously. Very fun. Don't need to relive it thankyouverymuch.) Or even in the morning when we were planning on heading off to KBF for a day of fun. Not to say that nothing will happen to make us stop in Indio (please Lord, no) or before any of our planned events, but it was nice to have it happen at a time and place we could deal with it a bit more easily. Apparently the Lord knew I was already near my limit. :-)

Oh, and Sam said that the battery didn't just die, but cracked and sprayed stuff all over. Nice. At least it didn't go out with a literal bang, if you know what I mean.

So, I think yesterday was chock full o' enough fun to last us through the next ten days, don't you? Thankfully it was also a reminder of God's grace in all circumstances, icky and otherwise, so no matter what comes we're prepared 'cause we know that He is in control. And hey, it would make the scrapbook--and the story--that much more interesting, so bring it on!

A Blackbird is a What?

I had a revelation this evening. You could even call it an epiphany. Sam and I had gone to Barnes and Noble and were in various sections reading different parts of books as we went. At one point I found myself in front of some "classics." Lately I've been thinking that I really should read more "classics" and become more "well read." (It sounded good to me and if these books have hung around this long I figured they have to be good stories right? I was wondering, why I haven't read them by now because I am sure they are gripping!?) I think the whole thing started after I watched the movie "The Great Debaters" about a debate team from Wiley College back in 1935. Those folks were truly educated. They read great books and could quote them and were just all around smart. I think I was thinking it would broaden my understanding of life and give me new insights into the world as we know it. Or something like that anyway. So, at Barnes and Noble, I picked up a book and started on the first chapter (note: I cannot remember what book it was just a few hours later, so you know that can't be good). Not more than two sentences in I realized that this books was a bit wordy and "old English-y" and I most certainly didn't understand a word. So I put it back. I noticed another "classic" collection of Emily Dickinson's poems and thought--ooooh, poetry! Perfect. I read the first 3 stanzas (good staying power, don't you think?) and realized that I had no idea what she was talking about. So, that's when I had the epiphany. I am just not deep enough for "classics." I would be happy seeing a movie based on The Odyssey and I'd really like to have Emily's poems translated into modern English. And I am never going to have a conversation with anyone that graduated from Wiley College in 1935 where I would need to be able to recite a Langston Hughes poem. And while I am certain that Chaucer's Tales are fascinating, they are just not in a language that I understand. And really, I don't want to if I'm being honest. As I recall in school when we had to read Chaucer our teacher had to fill in a lot of blanks regarding what words really meant. Me? I like to use words that mean exactly what they mean. I'm not going to use the word blackbird to mean a soldier or whatever kind of substitutions those crazy classic authors did. If I'm talking about a blackbird it is because for some strange reason I have recently seen one and felt the need to talk about it.

So, if you want to talk about the winner of American Idol, or a lovely fictional story (in modern English ifyouplease), or even what you had for dinner tonight, I'm your girl. But if you want to discuss Shakespeare and what the deeper meaning of Hamlet's thoughts were, you need to look elsewhere. Unless of course I've seen the movie.

Summer School Carpools and Ipods on My Pillow

Sam was gone all last week at a "business" conference. It has been dubbed by the attendees as "Summer Camp for Christian Capitalists." He had an amazing time. It was all about using your business to further the Kingdom of God. He came away very encouraged and motivated to serve Jesus more fully through his work. Very cool week. For him. I was at home with the kids. Slaving away. And getting up WAY too early.

The early deal was because Emily is in summer school and our car pool was split up by weeks. Last week was my week. Great timing. So, every morning I got up at 6:00 AM to get ready and then leave at 6:40 to start the rounds of picking the other kids up so we could be out at Desert Ridge in time for their 7:15 start. And I am such a morning person that I loved every minute of endured it. It was nice to experience the boys in the carpool that Emily had told me about live and in person--'cause they were a hoot. But I think I could have enjoyed it much more at a more reasonable hour. This was one conversation they had: "Dude; (note: every comment started and ended with 'dude'. Clearly it is a requirement for 15 year old boys) wouldn't it be cool if we fireproofed the inside of a car and then lit the outside on fire and then drove around? People would be, like, whoa, Dude." They all agreed that would be, like, cool, dude. In between teasing one another and punching one another, these little gems came out of their mouths. Apparently this is what I have to look forward to with Noah and Tommy and their friends??? Yeah, looking forward to that.

The upside of getting up with the sun (I know the sun actually came up earlier, but I'm not about to confirm personally what time that is), was that several mornings I did get a lot accomplished at an early hour. The downside was that I was brain dead by dinner time. I was completely numb and in a walking coma for the entire evening. But the kids, who slept later, were full of life long after their cereal dinner thankyouverymuch.

Oh, and did I mention that my "Aunt Flo" came to visit on Monday (wink, wink). This just added to the level of exhaustion that I was feeling which made it even more fun. I felt like I was unable to focus on one thought for more than about a nanosecond the whole week. The good news is my mood was relatively stable, by the grace of God to be sure, and so I didn't seriously hurt anyone in the family. Clear evidence of the grace of God.

Several days the kids had friends over, which in hindsight was a bad idea as it used the remaining brain cells I had at my disposal, but I was attempting to give the kids something fun to do and didn't pace myself.

So, back to the Summer Camp for Sammy. Each night he would call me and tell me all that he was learning, and how he was so encouraged and they were spoiling them with great food at wonderful restaurants and going to baseball games. And then he told me how each night on their hotel pillow there was a gift left for them. One night it was an ipod shuffle and an itunes gift card to give you an idea of the caliber of these gifts. So, let me get this right Honey...you are sleeping in a hotel room that a maid comes and cleans, you are eating out at every meal AND you get a fantastic gift every night on your pillow? I told the kids to pool their money and get me something fantastic for my pillow gift that night. Nothing showed up. And I still had to make my own bed.

Well, I did what any sane mom would do in this situation, I packed up the kids and took them right over to Sam's hotel and camped out with them for the final two days of the conference. We hung out at the pool, played in the glass elevators and went out to lunch at TGIFridays at Chase Field. Friday night was the "graduation" dinner for the conference and I got to go. It was an amazing dinner. The most tender piece of beef I've had in a long time and way better than cereal for dinner! Mmmm. It was nice to be included in the spoiling!! I still have my eye on that itunes gift card though....

So, on Saturday morning I was excited to have Sam back with us and not off at his conference sessions. We were still in the hotel and Sam and I went down for breakfast to talk while the kids watched cable. We chatted and even visited with several friends and throughout, Sam kept saying it was like he had looked into the sun and had a bright spot in his eyes and that his eyes were hurting. I suggested we go get some ibuprofen and as we were heading toward the room the nausea hit him. He only gets a migraine once every couple of years, but it picks my first day of freedom to hit. So, he went up to the room, we closed the curtains and the kids and I went to the pool while he slept. And puked. He alternated the two apparently. The latter of which I was happy to have missed. At check out time we packed up and came home and then he proceeded to take a nap. And when I say "nap" I mean he went to bed for the night at 4:00. And then I babysat the 2 year old and 2 month old that "we" had committed to babysitting prior to the Great Migraine of June 08. Oh, I need to mention that the 2 month old refused to take her bottle and cried for much of the 4 hours that I babysat. Thankfully the kids occupied the 2 year old while I walked the floor and prayed and attempted to pacify a hungry baby. It has been a VERY long time since I had to do that! The good news is that both the baby and I survived the incident, although I had a hard time using my arms for a while since they were locked in the same position for hours!

Today we had church (my arms are still sore by the way) and nothing else. Ahhhhhhh. Tomorrow VBS starts and I am a helper. At least it starts "late" at 8:30. :-0

So, tonight I am going to bed early, well, as early as it will be when I finish here. And maybe I'll dream of Spa Weeks for Summer School Moms where I get a maid and a masseuse and an ipod on my pillow.

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails...and whips

I just looked outside in the backyard and found my 11 year old son playing with a hockey stick that has a jump rope tied to it. He was cracking it like a whip and spinning it around like a serious weapon. He was hitting the wall and the tree and the grass as if they were mortal enemies. Then he came in and proceeded to drink water directly from the kitchen faucet. The only thing missing was a truck driver burp and a bit of scratching.

My first thought after seeing this manly display was that my girls would NEVER think to do those things. They jump with a jump rope and drink from a cup. What is it about boys' wiring that causes them to be Dr. Destructo with just about anything available? Everything is made to be either destroyed or taken apart--and not necessarily in that order. These thoughts lead me to think about those crazy people that say that we teach our boys and girls their specific roles. Riiiiight. I taught Noah to drink from the faucet so I wouldn't have to wash a glass. Not that that is a bad idea altogether, but it never occurred to me as a means to reduce the dirty glassware in the house.

Well, now the whip-fest has ended and he and his friends are running through the house shooting at one another with Nerf guns. I better go send them back outside so they don't destroy the girls' tea set and dolls.

He's all boy

Tommy doesn't just grow out of shoes, he beats them to a pulp. They start out pretty and white an fully intact:



And before you know it they are shredded:


And this is just from regular use--running around at recess and that kind of thing. No mountain climbing. No knife fights. No lion taming. (At least I don't think so) I'm thinking his next pair of shoes should be steel toed boots?

A camera in the hands of children

I have an old camera that the kids use periodically. Today I needed to use it and found that the memory card was full. So, I downloaded their pictures to clear them out. Very creative use of a camera. This is a sampling of the very random things they've taken pictures of...

Katya taking pictures of herself standing over the air conditioner while it is on.




Yes, that is Tommy.


Apparently they decided to color their oatmeal one morning.


Their bathroom. Why? Who knows.


I don't think they could have gotten any closer.


A Webkinz. Rachel obviously had the camera at this point.


This qualifies as torturing the dog.


The St. Louis Arch on our drive back from Chicago.


A family photo of the Webkinz.



Someone's eggs?


Guess who had it again. There were waaaay too many to post.


Proof that they don't make their beds in the morning.


Further proof.


Yummm. Why we needed a picture of it though I'll never know.