Thursday, June 21, 2007

Finally...

Well, it seems that scheduling has thrown me off the blogger path once again. It is late but I really wanted to post to the blog since it will be the last blog for a few weeks. We are heading off to the Wonderful World of Disney on Friday. Yes folks, we are following the American way and taking our family to the famous Mouse's playground. We are very excited. First we will meet some very good friends near the beach in Florida and play on Saturday. Then we'll visit the nearest ward building on Sunday, catch up on our rest and then head to Disney on Monday to meet up with some other very good friends who we will spend the week with. I was proud of myself yesterday for saving some money. I heard of the much coveted autograph books that are sold at Disney, for about $18.00 a pop. So the kids and I headed off to Hobby Lobby and picked up 4 small autograph journals for $1.50 a piece, added a few Disney stickers and walla! we now have our very own autograph books for all those over sized characters to sign. We walked away feeling pretty good that we saved $30.00. I'm sure we'll make it up at the park though, so my success will be short lived

We finally found the missing Webkinz stuffed cat. Daria's that is. She loves this cat so much and bawled her eyes out causing a stuffy nose and headache when she found out she lost it. Of course all the while I'm wondering why if she loves this cat so much has she not seen it for over a week?? Go figure. She and Katri put on their detective minds and interviewed family members and neighbors on when and where they last saw the gray stuffed animal. Oddly enough after many prayers, the cat was found stuffed in one of my winter boots. Now that one I will never figure out. No one will fess up to it, but obviously it looks like an attempt to get rid of the gray stuffed animal once and for all. I'm guessing a two legged male creature had something to do with it.

The detective work was cut short however with a very scary event of a mechanical pencil pointy side ending up in the back of Dustin's head and the eraser side ending up in the back of Daria's mouth. I have no clue how that happened and of course my constant warnings of "don't walk around with things in your mouth" didn't pay off. Daria was lucky, very lucky. But the impact must have been extremely hard since the eraser end actually punctured a hole in her jaw, right between where the top and bottom teeth are. We really thought we would have to take her in for stitches, it was a pretty big hole. But after having a medical friend look at it we started a regimen of salt water swishing to keep it free from bacteria or infection. I am so thankful that it didn't go through the back of her throat where her spinal cord is! What a freak accident.

Last week I held a small party at my house for my previous Primary class. A group of energetic 10 year olds. We had a successful marshmallow war and water fight. I think I probably had about 5 bags of small marshmallows in my garage and on the driveway. Thanks to the kids most of it was cleaned up.

After feeling in a slump with my current exercise program I decided to borrow some Turbo Jam workout DVD's from a friend. Let me tell you! my glutes have hurt for 2 days straight. In fact almost every muscle in my body hurts, but it's not a bad hurt, just a good hurt. Since I'm up late I'm going to pass on working out in the morning and give my body a break. Maybe I should get up and do an hour of stretches to get these muscles back where they belong.

Sunday, Father's day went well. Church as usual. This is the first time in 10 years that I've not had a Sunday calling. My new calling is sort of a behind the scenes type. So it was a bit awkward walking into church with nothing to do but sit and listen. Now that was actually pretty cool!

Ok, so these little items below have revolutionized my kitchen. One would think that with only 4 human beings in this home that only 4 cups would be used. One would think! We go through so many cups each day it drove me nuts. So I ran across these little bands. They are called "Bear Bands" so you can keep track of your liquids at a party. No parties going on here, just a mother who is tired of wasting water or electricity in washing cups. They come in 12 colors so you just choose the color you want. They stretch out pretty large so any size of cup can be used.



Until the next post, have a Happy 4th of July!

Monday, June 11, 2007

Ironic

So tonight for family night everything started out great as usual. It was short. Ken is out of town on business in my old stomping grounds. Daria played an opening song. Dustin and I sang along. We read some things and had a small lesson. Then we decided to play games. Shouts of joy rang through the home as both kids ran upstairs yelling "We want to play Sorry! I'm yellow, I'm red.." Fine with me. The kids and I play this game often. So we are maybe 5 minutes into the game. Daria's the only one with a player on the board and I get a Sorry card so I bump her off. A minimal fuss starts but she calms herself down. A few minutes later Dustin gets a sorry card. He bumps Daria off because her player was closest to his home base. This begins an all out tantrum that you usually see a 3 year old do, not an 8 year old. I had to remind Daria that the game is titled S-O-R-R-Y, uhm, you know, there's going to be a lot of disappointing moves?? She wouldn't stop so she lost her opportunity to play. Dustin and I finished the game. Both kids have been a little cranky. I suspect it's due to lack of regular sleep and lack of a regular schedule.


Dustin has just changed his mind about being an FBI agent and wants to be an Air Force pilot. I will add this to the list of things he wants to be when he grows up. His reasoning: He wants to fly a fast plane. Well, they do have fast planes (jets). Daria is sticking with the veterinarian option. I have a feeling this just might come true.



Dustin asked me the other day if gasoline was really Dinosaur pee. No explanation needed. Daria asked me if we eat food in Heaven. Dustin said that he was going to eat fluffy clouds. Ahh, life is never boring here.



I'm on the battled field of the "wearing to many clothes" in our house. Especially after Daria's 12 pair of shorts/Capri's that she wore in a minimum of 7 days. The question I should be asking is why she has that many shorts and Capri's. Fortunately most of those are hand-me-downs. I shard the story of Grandma Carol who often wore one dress per week when she was a little girl and when it was dirty that she wore a pinafore over it. Dustin on the other hand has no problem wearing dirty clothes. In fact if I didn't work with him on putting on clean clothes he would wear the same thing all week long. Not a pretty site. We're working on it.



For anyone with kids, young or older, here are some great CD's that we've been listening to. I just can't get enough of them. The Primary Colors has the Snowman song on it and the Sharing Time has the Snowman II song. Don't let the titles of the songs fool you into thinking that they are just kids stuff. These singers take the traditional songs and give them a great enjoyable twist. I think I like each song just as much as the kids do. If you go to DeseretBook.com you can look it up and check out some of the sound clips. These guys have great harmonizing voices.



This past Sunday I was released as a Primary teacher. Only six months in this calling. At first it was hard because I had a hard class. Ten year old kid's going on 11, mostly boys. But I'll tell ya, by last Sunday I was pretty sad to be released. As a class we've finally come to a place where we are all working together and I think the kids really like coming to class. I will miss them but I reminded them I would still see them in the hallways at church. I had a jar that we filled with beads as the kids worked on being reverent (being 10 is the hardest age for sitting still and being quiet!) and bringing their scriptures. Stuff like that. They loved the challenge and we actually finished filling the jar the Sunday before last. So this Wednesday we will have a fun pizza party and marshmallow war at my house. They are great kids! 5 boys and 2 girls. My new calling is Enrichment Leader. It's been ages since I've been in a Relief Society calling but I'm looking forward to it. My favorite place has always been with the youth, Primary and Young Women's because there is so much energy and excitement for life at those ages. It's so bright and kids love to learn. But I love the Relief Society and I think it's the coolest women's organization in the world, so it will be so nice to be with the ladies on Sunday and gain from their wisdom and challenges.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Ken earns his way to the top, summer fun, Could I be a kid again!


One would think that with school being out and my schedule minus a bunch of activities that I’d have ample time to update my blog. Quite the contrary.

The biggest news of the week or year is that Ken finished his EMT classes last Thursday!!!! Yeah! Not only did he finish and pass the test he finished top in his class. Another round of applause!! The kids prayed for him every night that he would do well on his test. Now all he has left to do is take the National Registry test, then he is officially a licensed EMT. Way to go!!

Swim lessons for Daria and Dustin started this week. Every morning 9am sharp. Their excitement helps smooth over the fact that the water is still pretty cool in the morning. Another year older for each means that they are both doing better than last year. As I sit and watch their lessons I realized something about myself. The fact of the matter is, I just don’t prefer water. If I had a choice between the beach and the mountains I would choose the mountains. It could be because I grew up around the mountains, but I know other people who love the beach and never lived near one. When I was pregnant with Daria and learning meditation techniques in our natural childbirth classes we were told to focus on a place that brings you peace and energy. Some recommendations were the sound of the waves. But quite frankly, the sound of waves doesn’t calm me at all. It brings thoughts of hot scorching sun, sticky sweaty humidity, sand stuck on everything and my hair turning into a Tina Turner hairdo. Not a pretty site. It’s not that I don’t like the beach, I just don’t prefer it. My idea of calming water is trickling rain in the forest. Thus, feelings about the beach equal feelings about swimming pools. I just don’t like being hot. My idea of a relaxing time is sitting in a grove of Aspen trees with the dry breeze rustling through the leaves and fresh unadulterated air, sounds of birds and the crackle of walking on pine needles. Now that to me is peaceful, not a city in site! Yeah! Ok, back to reality. The fact of the matter is I live in one of the hottest places on earth. Not only is it hot here but with two children, that means that during the summer months all activities need to include some sort of water immersion…. The pool. So I relinquish my real desires and accept the fact that my summer just might be spent in the hot sticky air near a pool so the kids can have fun. Life could be worse.

The summer is going great. I love the summer because we have a free schedule within reason that is. Basically I look forward to a schedule that is not dictated by some educational facility. But being the “A” type personality I am, without a schedule I fumble and become quite useless. So in order to make sure we have a fun enjoyable summer I did institute a flexible schedule. Each day there is reading time and time to practice math skills, piano practice. That doesn’t take long. Wednesday is library day, Thursday is cleaning day and Friday is reserved for day trips or fun stuff. The rest of the time is sprinkled with playing with friends and bike rides. Tomorrow is cleaning day. I figured that 4 people are making messes in this house so at least 3 people can clean it up. I don’t want to spend my summer cleaning so that’s why I chose just one day. It’s worked out great. The kids know that nothing fun is going to happen until we are all done. Last week Daria vacuumed the house, Dustin folded the laundry while I did the detail stuff (showers, bathrooms etc.). Tomorrow Daria will fold laundry because I noticed that every pair of short and Capri she owns is in there. I’m not sure why since we just did laundry last Thursday. That’s only 7 days and there are a lot more than 7 pair of shorts in there. Apparently laundry will be accompanied by a talk about resources, money, electricity, and water.

Last week we added a new fish to our fish tank, a fabulous red male Beta. That makes 10 fish now (not including the sucker and the shrimp). The Beta is red with white fins, which is highly unusual and hard to find. I think they are called "butterfly". We named him Firewing. Daria, who was just not content with the family fish tank finally got one of her own. A small ½ gallon, along with a very beautiful blue Beta. The beautiful ble Beta is now the ugly step-child because his long back tail fin is now missing due to an accident with Daria's hand. I’m glad we put the blue one in her tank and not the red one! We also have 3 little shrimp in the family tank. By far they are my favorite to have. They are so fun to watch and almost impossible to see as their bodies are transparent.

I wish I could be a kid again. Yesterday after swim lessons we ran by a toy store. Our goal was to get a Webkinz dog that Dustin and I could share. For those of you with kids you probably know what those are. For those of you who don’t, they are stuffed animals that come with a code. You use that code on the internet to play with your virtual pet, earn Kinzcash by answering questions (science, math, language, etc.) to buy food and toys for your pet. I got tired of bothering Daria to play with hers so Dustin and I worked towards getting our own. Now we are the proud owners of a brown dog named “Buddy”. But that’s not why I want to be a kid again. While in the store I was drawn to the Breyer Horse section. As a girl I collected those and still have them packed nicely in a box upstairs. It made me think that I never really thought of myself as a creative person, but looking at the horses brought back some fun memories. My Breyer horse statues (all 62 of them) all had names, I created a stock sheet that showed their made up by me pedigree lines. I made halters out of silver chains, horse blankets out of materials, and the most creative of all was I would stage them in ways that made them look real (minus the fense and giant flowers in the background. Just imagine if I had Adobe Photoshop back then!) and take picturesPretty creative for a kid in elementary school. I remember owning one of those old cameras that took 110 film. My mom must have developed the film for me. At any rate, looking at the new Breyer models gave me the feeling that I wanted ALL of them and I just wanted to go home and play with them. Uh…. Ok, another slap back to reality……