Hunger-Induced, Excessive Random Spewings

Fall soccer is in full swing.  We’ve got games and practices every night during the week (except Friday) and games every Saturday.  I think three kids involved in sports at the same time is my max.  Katie will not play soccer until someone else is done or can drive themselves.  Thankfully we have some carpooling options we can fall back on when I can’t run the entire show on my own.  I’ve been taking pictures, but don’t really feel inspired to look through any for this post.  What would make me really excited about soccer pictures would be getting a sweet new zoom lens – what’s $2,000 when you’d be able to capture amazing shots of your children to be cherished for generations to come?

My sister and I decided that I would take all the pictures in Hong Kong and send them to her on DVD’s.  I finally got them all on disk and in the mail on September 6th – it’s been 3 weeks and she still hasn’t gotten them.  She lives in Utah so it should only take a few days, right?  At what point would you consider them lost? 

My siblings can attest that I had a reputation as a child for still having Halloween candy at Easter.  I’m not quite sure how to describe that – was it hording?  I think it was more logical and necessary rationing.  We didn’t usually have candy around the house so Easter and Halloween were my only opportunities to stock up for the year.  To a much lesser degree I still exhibit some of these same tendencies.  So what do you think would possess me to open up (and empty) one of our last boxes of macadamia nut chocolates from Hawaii?

Our neighborhood has a facebook page where people post about free tickets to sporting events, objections to the new low-income housing project going in nearby, missing cats, etc…  Sunday morning the page was plastered with comments about the massive manhunt in the neighborhood early that morning. 

To read a news article, click – here -

So apparently, my street was blocked off and covered with officers outfitted with night vision goggles and armed with weapons.  A helicopter circled overhead for hours using thermal-imaging equipment to locate the six dangerous escapees.  Our neighbor said the rooms in his house looked like a disco party with all the spotlights shining in from every direction.  And me, I slept through the whole entire three hour ordeal.  It’s not a surprise that Justin would sleep through all the lights and noise, but me?  I’ve got mamma ears.   If my kids get up and use the restroom I know about it, but having the entire police force, K9 unit, and helicopter right outside my house – nothin’.  Our friends were interviewed on the Sunday evening news and Monday afternoon when we left to walk Jason to the bus stop they were interviewing another neighbor for the Monday evening news.  I did my best to walk around them so I wouldn’t be on camera, but they were filming my whole street.  Thankfully, they didn’t include the kids and me on the segment, but my house was still in the background.  I’m totally bummed I missed all the action – how much cooler of a story would it be if I could tell if from a first-hand witness?  (Yes, the whole idea of dangerous juveniles being housed nearby is disturbing as well.)

We’ve lived here 18 months and have yet to see a bear; I think we might be the only family in the neighborhood who hasn’t seen a bear since we moved in (we saw one the first time we looked at houses in the area though), even the new families that have only lived here a few weeks have crossed paths with the bears.   When my little brother was here last fall he saw a bear just walking down the street.  What’s up with that?  Not that I’m at all comfortable with the idea that we have bears, coyotes, and cougars roaming around (oh, and don’t forget the hardened criminals), but I feel like they are toying with me. 

A few weeks ago, in a nearby neighborhood, someone shot and killed a bear that was rummaging through his garbage.  Apparently, this isn’t the first time the guy has shot at a bear.   Perhaps we need to stop killing the bears or relocated the cougars so they can keep our forests safe from the criminals?

I was asked by an acquaintance this week if we own any guns.  I informed him that Justin isn’t at all a gun-kind-of-guy; is it strange that I can see myself being a gun-kind-of-woman?

Justin’s car is dying.  It’s safe to say it’s been dying for years; he bought it before we got married.  His car has so many quarks and issues (a future post of it’s own I’m sure), but it keeps on going (98% of the time).  And since we know we won’t get anything out of it we need to run it until no amount of revving the gas will get it to go.  Hopefully, none of us get injured in this process.  Justin has started dropping in on a few car dealerships recently though, I think he’s secretly praying for a quick passing. 

I love, love, love Halloween.  It may have something to do with the massive amounts of candy and chocolate my kids rake in, cause the whole decorating the house or dressing up in costumes isn’t my thing.  Okay, my LOVE of Halloween is totally 100% about the free candy.  We’re skipping Halloween this year – sad, huh?  But we’re going to Hawaii instead so I think that might make up for it.  Besides I’ll get to replenish my stock of macadamia nut chocolates.

I’m volunteering in Jason’s classroom on Friday and I’m really excited.  Before we moved I volunteered regularly in the girls’ classrooms (ever since Abigail started preschool), but when he moved here it became more difficult.  I’d have to find someone to watch my younger kids, and in turn watch someone else’s kids so it would be “fair”, drive 20 minutes each way to the school, etc…  And to be honest, I was a bit burnt out.  I’ve made arrangements to swap childcare with another mom so I can be at the school a few times each month.  It’s only a few hours, but I’m glad I will no longer be the uninvolved Mom that the teachers never see.

We had our family pictures taken on Saturday – I’m anxious to see them.  We haven’t had professional pictures taken since before Katie was born so it was long overdue.  Hopefully we get at least one that turns out.  As you know I’m not one for fancy hairdos and I’m clueless about accessorizing – we just threw something together that we already had.

I used to call Justin and I cheap – we are not cheap, we are frugal.  We like nice things, but purchases are usually very researched, analyzed, and we try to make sure we are getting the best deal possible.  A resent illustration:  while traveling in Oregon this summer we decided to purchase a few things we’d been eyeing since we could get them there tax-free.  We have a 9.5% sales tax rate here so that is quite the savings.  One of our purchases was a waffle maker.  We lugged it around during our trip, but didn’t use it till we got home since it usually takes me a while to accept that I’m not going to return everything we purchase.  Shortly after we used it we got a coupon from the store that would make it even cheaper.  I called the store and they couldn’t do a price adjustment so I let them know that I would be purchasing another one with the coupon and returning it with the old receipt.  They said that wouldn’t be a problem.  They have a 90-day return policy and I figured I was actually being nice cause I was keeping the one we’d used and returning the new one unopened.  What do you know, a few more weeks pass and said waffle maker is the featured item on the website and is even cheaper – so that resulted in us owning three identical waffle makers.  

I think Justin was a little embarrassed (though it was his idea) when he carried two waffle makers and a large pot that we also found cheaper into the store to return with three different receipts spanning nearly two months, plus a few other smaller items we were returning or exchanging.  Excessive or smart shopping?

Speaking of being frugal, I bought a dress at the Gap Outlet last week for $0.99 + tax, regularly priced at $69.99.  I wore it to church on Sunday and felt incredible.  It’s a simple dress, but I think the price tag made me feel that it was the most attractive article of clothing I own.

Today is my Dad’s birthday.  Fourteen years ago today was his funeral.  Last year we made a birthday cake and I shared his testimony of the gospel with my kids.  There’s no cake today.  Our stake has asked the members of the stake to participate in a 40 day fast for missionary work in the area.  Each family is asked to fast one day during these 40 days.  I thought today would be an appropriate day for our family.  I didn’t realize at the time how tricky it would be for the girls since they would be at school all day (apparently, we’d have to notify the school why they wouldn’t be eating anything at lunch) so they started their fast after lunch instead.   They usually come home from school STARVING so I expected lots of complaining this evening.  I know they were hungry, but they did awesome!   Me?  My stomach is growling so loudy that I'm heading up to bed to dream about caramel macadamia chocolates.

Miss Katie

It’s time for a little update on Katie.

(For some reason the video clips aren’t working in Safari, but if I switch to the Firefox browser they work fine.  If someone is tech-savvy and knows why let me know.)

I think she is our happiest child yet – she spends most of the day smiling and her laugh is infectious.  She brings so much happiness into our home – EVERYDAY!  What a blessing it is to be around such pure JOY.

On this particular day she was asking for “one pony.”  I pulled it all back and was shocked and saddened by how much older she looked.  I haven’t done it again.

Katie has started showing interest in going on the potty.  I am reluctant to start that process.  Potty training has really been quite easy with my other kids and I attribute part of that to my waiting until they were ready to take it on and succeed.  Not quite sure she’s there yet, but every once in a while she’ll go “poopy” on the potty, though I don’t think she’s ever peed.

She is talking – a ton.  She can make full on sentences now – sentences that are understandable to even those that don’t live with her.  Though she still jibber jabbers and makes no sense at all sometimes.  We’ve recently realized that she picks up on things we say too – the good and the bad.  The other day I told her she had she shoes on the wrong feet and her response… “Oh, crap” as she sat down on the floor to switch them.

This next video is lengthy (and low quality), but an accurate representation of what it would look like to be a fly on the wall at our house.

She insists she is done with sippy cups, toddler utensils, and small IKEA bowls – this girl is ready to be a big girl.

She is adored by the masses – ok, maybe she doesn’t know massive amounts of people, but people love her.  We’ve become good friends with the new LDS family in the neighborhood and their kids dote on Katie to no end and Katie eats it up.  She gets so excited anytime she sees them, gives them hugs, and jabbers on about anything and everything.  They are so gentle and loving to her – especially the 5 & 8 year old boys.  Sometimes it seems she’s more excited to see them get off the bus than her own siblings.

The boys went as slow as possible in their car to keep Katie safe

She is so easy to get down for naps or bedtime – rarely is there any complaint.  She goes happily and sleeps awesome.  Long naps and peaceful nights.

She still sleeps with her binkie and a favorite blanket (she rubs the tag on the blanket between her fingers).  She knows the binkie stays in her bed though and she’ll spit it out when we come to get her out of her crib.

She is still in a crib, but the girl’s old full sized bed is in her room ready as soon as Justin and I are ready to make the move.

She still likes electronics.  If she can get her hands on my iPad she’ll have it locked up in no time with an excessive amount of incorrect password attempts.  She likes to press keys on the computer any chance she can get as well.  The most catastrophic thing she’s done was earlier this year she was playing on my phone and accessed my Picasa account where all the photos posted on the blog are saved.  Somehow she deleted two entire albums – completely wiped off the blog in a matter of seconds.   Hundreds of pictures from June 2007 - March 2009 gone!  Sure I could recreate those links, but there’s only so much time in a day.

Katie loves to read books, work on puzzles, and do anything her older siblings are doing.  She’s easy going and doesn’t usually require anyone to entertain her.

She is smart.  She can put together puzzles quickly and has recently displaying incredible memorizing skills.  For family scripture study, each night we work on memorizing a scripture.  Last week the kids were learning, “Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy.”  She shocked us when Justin started the sentence and Katie was able to fill in the blanks.

The Sunday before I left for Hong Kong Katie started being really clingy when I tried to take her to nursery (maybe she knew something was going on and her Mom was leaving her for awhile).   Apparently she’d only cry for a minute and then she’d get over it, but it still made me sad to leave her.  She did great last week and today so hopefully she’s past that brief phase. 

Katie is starting to pretend.  She’ll have long one-way conversations on the “phone” – in this case it was my old high school calculator.

The other day I put Jason and Katie to work by shredding a bunch of old papers.  They had lots of fun with it.   Katie is a good little helper, but tends to be more willing to if someone is working along side her.

Like all toddlers, Katie mimics what she sees.  When I rub lotion on my feet she sits down and wants lotion on her feet too.  Last week as I was getting ready I saw she put lotion on her face just like mommy.

Well, maybe not just like mommy.

I love her.  I really, really LOVE her.  My Mom once told me that being at home with her kids when we were young was the happiest years of her life.  I know it’s the same for me.   And I’m lucky this little girl is a part of that!

Kindergarten

I tried – really I did, but he was certain he was ready and I couldn’t bring myself to keep him home with me any longer.  My little boy started kindergarten on Tuesday, September 4th.  Thankfully he’s only half day so to be honest I hardly even notice he is gone.  Katie always naps in the afternoon and Jason usually just quietly entertained himself while I did whatever it was I needed to get done.  So it works well for him to have school in the afternoon so he and Katie still have the mornings together.

Jason and I met his teacher the previous week and she spent a few minutes “accessing” him while I filled out paperwork in the hall.  When she came out she told me he was such a cute little boy and that he was well prepared for kindergarten.  I expressed my relief on hearing that since he just turned five this summer.  She said he is the youngest in the class but without a doubt is ready for kindergarten.  It felt great to hear that, though it doesn’t mean this momma is ready to send him :)

Jason on his first day of school:

The awesome backpack we picked up at Walmart the day before school started:

We love that he has a buddy in the neighborhood that is in his class.  They were so excited to get on the cute little bus and head off to school that I didn’t even think to have him pause and turn around for a picture.

The AM/PM kindergartners rotate weeks attending school all day on Friday (the whole school gets out 2 hours early on Fridays, so technically it’s not a full day anyhow, but they do get to eat lunch and ride the morning bus).  This past Friday was Jason’s first Friday at school.  He was super pumped to take a lunch to school.  He has recently become a HUGE fan of sandwiches – nothing special just a regular ole cheese sandwich, but he LOVES them.

It also meant it was Katie’s first full day without Jason.  She’s gotten so used to taking a nap right after we get home from walking Jason to the bus in the afternoon that that morning when we got home at 8:30am she asked, “bed?”  She didn’t seem either disappointed or relieved that she wasn’t taking her nap already (she’d been awake less than an hour).  Right after lunch though she immediately questioned me again, “bed?”  I told her yes to which she replied, “Yeah!”.  She’s so stinkin cute!  

The three “BIG” kids heading off to school together last Friday

I could tell that the full day at school took it’s toll on Jason that afternoon/evening.  Things that normally wouldn’t bother him did and he was much more sensitive.  Glad I don’t have to deal with a tired little boy every day.  Seriously, what’s happening to my babies!  Slow down…

Labor Day Weekend

Way back in April we had some friends in Auburn invite us to go camping with them over Labor Day weekend.   As fun as it sounded, Justin already had plans to attend the Cougars (BYU) vs. Cougars (WA State) football game with his Dad (a WA State Cougar Fan) and brother-in-law in Provo.  As Labor Day neared we heard that one of the families had backed out and there was an extra site for the taking.  I decided, very last minute, to take the kids myself and have Justin meet up with us Saturday night when he got back in town.

Camping is a big job – thankfully our friend Chad is an amazing cook and was preparing most of the meals so I didn’t have to stress too much about preparing a bunch of food for the 4 days we’d be there.  But packing up the van, four kids, all the camping gear… lots of work.  The other four families hadn’t started school yet so they planned to leave first thing Friday morning – I thought it best to caravan with them so the girls skipped out on school that day.  Yep, pulled them out on only their third day of school.

We camped in Kalaloch – an extremely popular, and difficult to reserve, campground right on the Washington coast.  We arrived in the early afternoon and had plenty of time to set up camp and get settled before everyone else arrived.

A little human rubber-banding

My handsome guy – the man of the family for two days

That evening we went down to the beach and walked around the tide pools

Katie wanted nothing to do with the sand and insisted on being carried 90% of the time

The next morning we ate a delicious breakfast – seriously, we ate the most amazing meals all weekend – then headed to the beach for the day.  The men built a cabin on the beach (and at DJ’s request I needed to take step-by-step pictures of the process…)

Finding and cutting down the perfect supports 

Creating the entrance

Supporting structure and roof

Adding the roof

Some walls for privacy (I changed into my swimsuit later in the day)

The perfect little beach house – Katie even laid down on a towel and took a nap in here later in the day

The kids loved, loved, loved playing and digging in the sand.

And my girls, they could not get enough of the waves, who cares if the water is freezing cold!

As I was editing this not-so-fabulous picture I noticed a sea lion popping his head out of the water in the distance – how cool is that?!?

One of the families brought a bunch of wet suits for everyone to use.  Carly was the only one that didn’t get any sort of protection for the freezing cold water.  She didn’t mind the cold, but without a wet suit she also didn’t get any protection from the sun.  Her back burned so badly that it blistered and peeled in the days/week that followed.  I felt terrible that I didn’t think to put sunscreen on her.

Jason also enjoyed playing in the waves, but spent most of the day on shore.  Mainly due to his overly protective mother.

It didn’t take Katie long to kick off her shoes and get down and dirty.

Justin arrived late Saturday night just in time to help get kids to bed.  We went to the Olympic National Park the following day and did the same hike we’d been on three year ago.

Instead of Jason in a kid-pack there was this cutie.

One of my favorite things about camping is sitting around the campfire and eating smores.  The kids also enjoyed telling jokes and singing songs around the campfire (of course my kids only listen and encourage others).

I did a terrible job taking pictures around camp, but it was impressive.  Our friends know how to do it right!  Their site was the place to be – hand washing station, kitchen that could feed the masses (and again, with an impressive menu), private shower in the woods – so much fun!

Grades 5 & 3

The girls headed back to school on Wednesday, August 29th.  Jason got to stay home with me a little longer since the kindergartners didn’t start til after Labor Day.  I tell ya summer break went by so fast, too fast.  We had an amazing summer, but I still feel like we didn’t have enough time to fit in all that I would have wanted.  

Taken just before school let out for the summer – Abigail is somewhere in the orange section and Carly is in green

Abigail couldn’t wait to go school supply shopping when I got home from Hong Kong.  She was so excited about getting everything organized.  I only had one Saturday home to do all our preparing.  In addition to purchasing all their supplies the girls each got haircuts…

I only have a before picture because we got home so late that night.  Carly hadn’t had her haircut since the last back to school haircut.  Carly loves to have her hair done and has learned to put it up or braid it herself which made me surprised by how excited she was to have it chopped off.  I trim Abigail’s hair throughout the year, but her hair was probably the longest it’s ever been.  I’ve only insisted on “doing” Abigail’s hair a handful of times this summer so 95% of the time it looked just like that.

And here are my girls on their first day of school.

We’ve had a few new families move into the homes being built near us so we’ve gotten a bus stop a little closer to our house and there are lots more kids to ride the bus with.  This also means the kids have a normal sized bus instead of the cute little bus they’ve rode on in previous years.

Both girls have teachers that participate in team teaching.  For example, one teacher will teach writing and social studies while another teacher teaches them math and science.  It works great for my girls and I like the idea that the teachers become more specialized in certain subjects.

We’re eight days into this year (though the girls missed last Friday so we could go camping over Labor Day weekend) and both seem to be enjoying school so far.  They both lucked out and even have a friend (or two) from the neighborhood in their class.