999: Happy Halloween!

 Hey!  This is my 999th post.  Wow!
Well, we had a great Halloween.
We had lessons in the morning/afternoon as usual.  By around 3:30 PM the boys were cleaning out pumpkin guts and getting ready for the evening's festivities.
The boys were pretty creative in their pumpkin designs this year, and between helping them, I didn't get to our traditional pineapple jack-o-lantern.  I did the watermelon, just no pineapple.  Oh well, next year!
Ben took the boys out trick-or-treating and I stayed home handing out candy.  We had more trick-or-treaters this year than we ever have!  It was really fun.  Joseph has this motorized bat that flaps its wings and flies around on a string you hang from the ceiling.  He hung it up above the front patio and it was irresistible to all the little kids coming by.  They all had to come and stare at it up close.
The boys stayed out for about an hour I think, then came home and watched "The Great Pumpkin" on the computer before finally being persuaded to go to bed.
Here are the pictures!
When the boys told me they wanted to be British red coats, I was a bit worried.  There are no children's sized British red coat costume patterns, so I had to find another pattern and modify it.  They turned out well, although they took a long time to make.  I finished listening to 3 audio books while making these.  :-)  ("The Worst Hard Time," "The History of US volume 1," and "The Forgotten 500" for the record.  All very good books.)
Over the past week or so, the boys have been wearing their costumes almost every day.  It's really gratifying to see how much they like them!  Also funny to see them going about their normal day in costume.  :-)
Here's Mosey working on some spelling.

And Joseph practicing his flute.  He actually looks like an army fife here, I think!

This picture made me laugh-- look what he's reading!  We're studying the Revolutionary War right now, so it is great timing.

Last Saturday was our ward's trunk-or-treat at the park.
Here are the three British regulars!

Anyone need children's British redcoat costumes?  I've got three!

Marching off in-step to interrogate the rest of the crowd about their loyalty to King George.  If they were not sufficiently enthusiastic in their professions of loyalty, they were shot without mercy!

 I tried to get a couple of individual pictures of each of the boys.  Here's Captain Brigham Turner:

And Lieutenant Moses Turner.  He takes this all very seriously!

I didn't get an individual shot of Joseph (he slipped away mysteriously), but here's a candid during dinner:

And Colonel Joseph Turner with Lieutenant Mosey.

There were also a number of pirates there, which the boys were quick to capture and demand to see their letters of marque.  If they didn't have them?  Bam!
Here's one about to lose his loot to Brigham.

Anyway, that was a fun night.
Now for tonight.  Here are the boys getting ready to head out trick-or-treating.

And the pumpkin masterpieces.
Joseph carved a pumpkin pi.  Get it?  :-)  He just finished a unit on finding the area and circumference of circles, so pi was on his mind.  I thought he was very clever to think of it!

You can't see it in the picture above (it was still a little light out when I took that picture), but pi was also written around the top of the pumpkin-- to the 26th decimal place!

Here's a little better shot when it was darker.

 

Brigham carved a British Regular on his pumpkin.  He made the design and carved it out all on his own.

 

Here he is with his masterpiece.

Mosey found a wolf pattern online and carved about half of it himself.  We don't have any good pumpkin carving knifes, so I thought he did a really good job.

And here's my watermelon jack-o-lantern.  No pineapple buddy this year!

So that was it!  I hope everybody else had a fun Halloween.  Let the sugar-fest begin!

Weekly letter Oct. 30

Hi Everyone,
[Edit: I was released from my calling as 2nd counselor in the Relief Society presidency last week.  I've known about it for a couple of weeks, but didn't talk about it on this blog since it wasn't announced at church yet.  I've been in the presidency for 3 years, and served as the 2nd counselor for 2 1/2 years, so I suppose the time was right for a change.  It was good timing as it happened on the same day that Ben was called to be Elders Quorum President, but my feelings have been very mixed about the whole thing.  I've love this calling, but it has absolutely pushed me beyond my comfort zone on a regular basis.  It's good to feel important and needed, and a little disorienting not to have a calling.  It's also nice not to have a calling for a little while.  :-)  I'll really miss the close association I had with the other women in the presidency and with the women on my committee.  Will I have any friends anymore?  :-)]
I think I did my very last ever 2nd counselor related task last night.  I made a poster and attendance and food sign-up sheets for the November activity that my committee and I had planned.  I emailed them to the new counselor, and that was that!  I will miss so many things about this calling, but I am also quite happy not to have to make a hundred phone calls and stress about asking people to participate and figure out how to make it to the church to decorate before hand and keep track of receipts and stay up all night the night before to make sure everything is all set to go and then analyze and over-analyze how things went and did we get enough people coming, and was it worth their time, etc., etc., etc.  Today at church I happily signed the attendance sheet that I had made, signed up to bring a topping for our potato bar, and then passed the clip-board on to the next person.  What a strange feeling!
I have no calling yet.  In Sacrament meeting, one of our Gospel Doctrine teachers was released, and a new one was not called, so I am REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hoping I am not being considered for that calling.  I know callings are supposed to help us to learn and grow, but that is one calling I am petrified of, and I really don't think I would do well.  I need to go and find some wood to knock on for the next 10 minutes.  :-)
This past week was pretty good.  My van is back from the shop, and fixed, although over the last couple of days the brake/ABS lights have gone on randomly while I'm driving, which was one of the problems it was having before getting repaired, so I'm wary.  Maybe it's just residual "issues" getting worked out with the new part?  I hope so.  When we picked it up from the shop and drove it home, I was very annoyed to find that the right blinker was still blinking abnormally fast-- something it had started doing just a couple of days before taking it into the shop.  I thought it was an electrical issue.  After we got home I googled "turn signal blinking too fast" and lo and behold I discovered that cars are wired for the blinker to go really fast when one of the lights are out!  Who knew?  (Don't tell me if you knew that.)  So for FHE last week we went to O'Reilly's and Ben showed the boys how to change the brake lights.  I'm sure I could have come up with some spiritual analogy, but I didn't.  :-)
Tuesday was such a busy day.  Since I didn't get my car back until Monday night, we rescheduled Joseph's flute lesson for Tuesday evening.  So Mosey, Joseph, and I left at 3:45 to take Mosey to speech.  Joseph hung out with me during his session.  (Another clinician is supervising Mosey's therapy right now since his previous one is on maternity leave.  He's also a (mostly) former stutterer.  So interesting to talk to other adults who stutter!  I don't really define myself as a stutterer too much anymore, but there will be elements of my character that are forever shaped by those formative experiences growing up, and there are situations still that bring up all those old feelings.  I've actually found myself using some of the techniques Mosey has been practicing in speech in certain situations for myself!)  Afterward, we quickly swung by Burger King to get the boys some food (did you know BK now carries veggie burgers??  Awesome!), and then not-so-quickly sat on the freeway in 5:30 rush-hour traffic until we got to Ben's work where I dropped Mosey off and then got back on the freeway in rush-hour traffic to take Joseph to his flute lesson.  Then we got back on the freeway and sped as fast as I dared back home in time to take Joseph to the scout pack meeting that night where he and Brigham got their Bear and a few other patches and pins and whatnot.  Then finally back home at around 8:30 to supervise bedtime and last-minute cello practicing before having my final 2nd-counselor-related meeting with Judy.  Phew!
On Friday night we had a pizza party for our art group.  We had 12 kids here eating pizza and watching The Sound of Music.  I was actually pleasantly surprised at how well many of the kids did in maintaining their interest over that 3 hour movie.  There was a lot of gun and sword fighting upstairs during some of the slower scenes, but I believe everyone saw enough of the movie to follow the plot.  And it was so fun to hear all those kids singing along with "Do a Deer."  I also realized having a pizza and root beer float party for 12 kids 3 hours after the house is finished getting cleaned is probably not a great idea.  I spent 2 hours after the party cleaning up again.  :-)
The mom of 4 of the kids in our art group finally had her baby this past week-- 10 days late and 10 lbs!  Mosey was disappointed when I told him she wouldn't be bringing her baby to the party.  I can't wait to see him.  I love babies (especially big fat baby boys just like my Mosey) and I wish I could have had a few more.
Last night was our ward's fall festival.  We had it at a park out in Steiner Ranch instead of at the church, which was being used by the other 2 wards for their joint Trunk-or-Treat (still feeling a bit rejected that Anderson Mill ward was pointedly not invited...) It was good, though, because more people probably came than would have anyway because of it not being 30 minutes away for the Steiner Ranch folks.  And other people at the park joined in with some of the games the Youth set up, and for the Trunk-or-Treating, so it was a missionary opportunity to boot! 
The boys' red-coat costumes were a hit.  They do look so cute together.  The boys have been wearing their costumes non-stop this past week.  So funny to look around and see red-coats working on math and spelling.  But the fact that the boys so clearly enjoy these costumes makes it worth the effort it took to make them.
On the way home, we stopped at HEB to get pumpkins to carve on Monday, as well as our traditional pineapple and watermelon.  My 3 red-coats were also a big hit at the grocery store.  :-)
I'm still looking for a new violin teacher for Brigham.  Why is this so hard?  The lady I really want is all booked up.  I need to find out if she has a waiting list.  There are a couple of other teachers that teach out of the violin shop down off of Lamar and they look promising, but then I'd have to drive down there every week.  There's another violin shop really close by, about 3 minutes away, and there are 3 teachers that teach from there, including one I'm very interested in.  But the studio is on the 2nd floor of this cool little mediterranean-architectured office building which I'm pretty sure does not have an elevator.  Maybe I'm wrong, I need to check that out.  It's going to be awkward in any case quitting from the guy Brigham's taking from now, and I'd rather not have to do that again if I can avoid it, so I want to make the right decision with this new teacher.  I think I will schedule 1 trial lesson with 3 of the teachers I'm looking at and then hopefully be able to make a decision.  Joseph wants to try another flute teacher.  I'm really torn on this.  His current teacher is a very nice person and an outstanding flutist.  He came to Joseph's piano recital last year, and has been very supportive and encouraging and kind to Joseph.  But Joseph is the first beginning student he's ever taught, and I wonder if there are things a more experienced teacher could be teaching Joseph more effectively.  Also, his teacher is French and while he speaks English, his accent is heavy and sometimes his word choices are awkward, and Joseph doesn't always fully understand him.  But Joseph is too shy/embarrassed to say when he's not understanding.  I think those things combine to make lessons stressful for Joseph.  But I really like this guy!  There aren't any other male flute teachers around, and while I know that isn't a huge deal, it was definitely a plus.  And he is such a very nice person, and as far as I can tell a really good teacher.  I don't know.  I have a trial lesson scheduled with a teacher that lives a lot closer by, so if we do switch I guess I can tell Francois that it's too far to drive every week.  Why do I feel guilt like this?  Joseph is my primary concern, not Francois.
Well, that's it for tonight.  Tomorrow is going to be a challenge keeping the boys focused on schoolwork.  They were dismayed to realize that Halloween is not a no-school holiday.  :-)

Love,
Gabrielle

Weekly letter Oct. 23 plus some pictures

Hi everyone,
Here are the high (and low) lights of the week:

1. The primary program was today. The boys all had a part. Joseph gave one of the talks he gave in primary last June, Mosey had a part that he memorized, and Brigham played a violin solo-- "Praise to the Man." They all did a great job. I commented to Ben as they were up there about how far Joseph has come from 4 years ago when he first of all refused to go up there for the program, and then when we sternly "encouraged" him to go up there, he did and then hid under the sacrament table. I guess they do grow up. :-) Not only did Joseph very happily go up there, he actively volunteered to read a second part originally supposed to be given by a boy who couldn't come at the last minute. Mosey is fun to watch up there. He is an enthusiastic singer, and so cute. Brigham did a super job on his violin solo. I guess he got a lot of compliments-- he told me after church, "I feel like I'm famous now!" Joseph and Brigham are among the "big kids" up there.  How can it be that they have only 1 more primary program?! :-(

2. I finished the boys' costumes! They turned out really well I think. I don't have pictures yet, so you'll have to wait until next week. They took a long time to make. My problem is that I am not a very fast sew-er. And I'm a perfectionist. Those two qualities combine to turn any sewing project I do into a bigger production than it ought to be. The more time I spend on a project, the more perfectionistic I become ("I've already spent this long on it, it better be perfect!"). Anyway, after a week of late nights and blowing through 3 audio books, they are finished! The boys really like them. I have gotten a lot of "These are the best costumes we've ever had, mom," which makes it worth it. And the boys get a lot of use out of costumes because they actually use them!

3. The boys had their Halloween piano recital yesterday. Joseph played "Theme from E.T.," Brigham played "Harry's Wondrous World," and Mosey played his own arrangement of 3 Halloween songs, entitled "No Moon for a Witch and a Mouse." It was his first piano recital! And I didn't even get to see it.  The Halloween recital is only for students. :-)

4. Ben fixed the garbage disposal. I never knew how much we rely on a garbage disposal (or at least 2 functioning sinks) until ours broke. The boys and I did a science experiment making a homemade battery with pennies, aluminum foil, and salt water. The battery worked, and then the salt-encrusted pennies got put into a cup of water to soak. Then the cup of pennies accidentally got dumped down the sink. Ben thought he got all the pennies, but apparently one lodged inside the garbage disposal, jamming it up. But Ben put on his Mr. Fix-it hat, took the garbage disposal out from under the sink, found the rogue penny, pried it out, and then successfully put everything back where it goes. My hero!

5. My car broke. Well, it didn't actually break, but it came close. Apparently there is some part that provides pressure to both the steering and brake fluids, and it cracked. It started making a funny sound a couple of weeks ago, and steadily got worse until by Wednesday I did not dare drive it anymore. And it's a good thing I didn't, because if that part had fully broken, the steering and the brakes would have gone out. And that would have been a very bad thing. It's unfortunately an expensive fix, around $1,000, but that's how it goes. I'm really glad it didn't totally break on me while I was driving. Ben took it to the shop yesterday morning, and they ought to have been finished with it by yesterday afternoon, but they got the wrong part and now it won't be done until Monday. Grrr. We'll have to skip TKD, and reschedule flute lessons. There's never a good time to not have a car.

6. Related to #4, Ben played chauffeur for us yesterday. He got up at 7:00 to take the car to the shop, jogged home, drove the boys to the piano recital, drove me to a baby shower, drove to Target to buy some gift cards for me to give as a present for the baby shower (like I said, I hadn't dared drive since Wednesday, and so I hadn't purchased a gift), then drove back to the baby shower to give it them to me, then drove over to pick up the boys from the recital, and drove back to pick me up from the shower. Then an hour and a half later he drove me and the boys up to a park so I could visit teach while our kids played. He went to Best Buy to look at laptops, and then drove back to pick us up. Then it was back home for quick baths for the boys (at the park, they took turns completely-- totally and utterly-- burying each other in the gravel under the swing set. They got very dirty. :-)), and then he drove the boys over to Traci's apartment where she took them to go to the "Boo at the Zoo," a fun haunted zoo thing at the Austin Zoo. Ben and I drove around for a while trying to think of what to do with no kids (it doesn't happen often, and our minds went blank!) before deciding to split a veggie burger at The Cheesecake Factory and then go to the grocery store. It was apparently Homecoming for one of the local high schools, so the place was overrun by gangly teenage boys and appallingly skimpily dressed teenage girls. I can't understand how any parent-- especially any father-- can allow their daughters to go out like that! Even if you have no moral standards of modesty, it defies sense that any parent can think it's OK for their minor daughters to go out in public like that!
Ben and I talked about whether or not the secularizing trend in the western world can be reversed, and if so, what it would take for that to happen. I wonder similarly if the sexualizing trend in our American society can be reversed. Preferably in the next couple of years before my boys reach puberty. :-)


Well, that's it for tonight. I'm going to try to get more than 4 hours of sleep a night, which is about what I averaged last week.
I hope everyone had a great week!

Love,
Gabrielle

We put up our Halloween decorations last week.  Mosey got my witch's hat out of the box and sported it while doing his math homework.  :-)

Cute witch!

Mosey likes to do his schoolwork in interesting places.  On the stairs, on the floor, sitting on top of the table (if I don't catch him doing it first).
Here he is doing some history narration while standing on the couch.  Whatever works!

One of the boys' favorite computer games (and Ben's too), is Civilization.  Recently a friend of ours gave the boys the most recent version, Civilization V, about which I have mixed feelings.  Among computer games, it is pretty good.  It's a game of strategy, it incorporates elements and characters from history, and there is no graphic violence (there are armies that destroy each other, but it's along the lines of Risk).  But it is a computer game, and it's no substitute for regular play or reading.  Played in moderation I think it is fine.  But Brigham loves, loves, loves that game, and, like his dad, can get lost in it for hours.  I have to watch him closely.  :-)  But look how happy he is playing it!


Here are videos of the boys playing their Halloween songs and wearing their new costumes.

tough week

Last week was a rough week.  Mostly because of one very stressful thing going on.  But this week is better, and I'm hoping to be able to stay on a more stable emotional keel.
A couple of significant things have happened, mainly that Ben was called to be Elders Quorum President.  Not that much of a surprise, but still a little overwhelming when it becomes a reality.  He'll do a great job, but it's going to mean a lot more time away from home for him.  He was gone for 6 hours on Saturday helping with a move.  I've got some strong opinions about the Elders Quorum Moving Company (sarcasm), but this isn't the forum.  :-)
 The boys had a good day today.  We got very nearly all of our schoolwork done, despite getting started about an hour too late.  I was up too late the night before and overslept by 45 minutes.  And I'm up too late again, tonight.  Oops.
I'm trying to cut down on my yelling (that is my weakness), and staying up too late doesn't help.  I yell when I get frustrated-- it's not indicative of me being really angry, usually I'm not angry at all.  Just frustrated.  But it's way too easy to interpret yelling as anger, and that's not fair for the boys.  I don't yell THAT much, really.  :-)  But I'd like to get to the point where I don't yell at all.

Mosey and Joseph had TKD, and then Joseph had flute.  We all went to Target after that to pick up prescriptions, look at Halloween decorations, and do a much-needed grocery run.  In the car we are continuing to listen to Joy Hakim's A History of US.  We're listening to volume 1 right now (about halfway through).  I'm having them read the other ones on their own, but this one we're listening to together.  She has a bunch of interesting questions she asks, and it was pretty cool to have discussions with the boys about making judgments upon other cultures and times, about how things might have changed if only for one person or one decision.  They're all smart boys and it's fun to be able to hear what they think.

We came home and Ben was asleep (up until past midnight at his first EQP meeting), so we decided to postpone FHE until tomorrow.  Frozen pizza and grapes made a super-fancy dinner.  :-)
The boys have decided they want to be British redcoats for Halloween, so I've been plugging away on the boys' costumes, hoping I'll be able to finish by Saturday when they will be wearing them for their Halloween piano recital.  There are no child's red coat costume patterns, so I'm modifying another one I found.  It's working out, but it's very slow going as I try to figure out what I'm doing. I love how excited they are about the costumes, though, so it's worth a few late nights.  I might disagree with myself in about 5 hours when I need to be up for the day, but oh well.  :-)

Weekly letter Oct. 9

Hi everyone,
I'm so tired right now, I am eating chocolate chips to keep myself awake enough to write this email.
The biggest news of the week is that it RAINED! A lot! I woke up Friday morning to the sound of rain on the roof. There is no more beautiful sound around these parts. And then yesterday it rained even more! The boys were so excited-- they got on their swimming suits and ran out in the rain and got totally drenched. I wish I could have joined them!
During the first downpour, Joseph and Mosey went right out in their clothes.

(pretending to be mimes trapped behind glass)

After that, I made them change into their swimming suits.

I think it was the first time since about last March that my kids have felt COLD outside!

Ben went out to Bastrop yesterday as part of a regional clean-up project (Bastrop is where the worst of the fires was).  He came back covered in soot, and totally exhausted.  He spent 4 hours with a chainsaw, cutting down burned trees and piling them up to be hauled off.  The clean up required out there is overwhelming.

 Fireman Ben

The rest of the week was pretty normal with school work and music lessons and tae kwon do and such. 
I've signed up Brigham for a month of lessons with another violin teacher (his old one is now in Boston).  I'm not thrilled about him, truth be told, but I'll give him a month.  I emailed several people who advertised on Craigslist, and heard back from 4 of them.  One is a very sweet girl who lives pretty close by, but I get the sense that she's not going to push Brigham very hard.  I heard back from two other guys-- one seemed great until I checked out the blog and facebook page he linked to.  Ummm, a facebook page with bizarre pictures of yourself, and a blog page with new-age-y really bad poetry is not a great way to advertise yourself.  Maybe I'm judging too much on appearances.  The other guy also seemed OK, but he's very young.  I think a college student at UT, and I'd rather have someone with more experience.  So I went to this other guy who has a music conservatory about 15 minutes away.  He teaches piano, cello, violin, and viola.  His main instrument is piano, and then cello.  On his resume I couldn't see any performance experience with violin.  But, he has lots of years of teaching, and an established studio, so I thought we'd give him a try.  I'm underwhelmed.  He's this short, odd, 40-something year old man who is not married (and I doubt ever has been), whose mother runs his studio office.  None of which make him a bad teacher or human being at all, but I'd prefer a teacher that Brigham can sort of relate to and want to emulate.  And he didn't really do any teaching during Brigham's trial lesson-- just heard him play, and then talked to us about signing him up for the London College of Music exam next month.  Hmm, writing this I'm wondering why I signed him up for any other lessons.  But, I did, so we'll see.  He does have an established studio with lots of students, so that's something.  Why is this so hard?
What else?  I taught music leading at our art class on Thursday.  It was rather entertaining to watch 11 pre-teens enthusiastically waving their arms around.  They did a good job!
I can't think of any other noteworthy happenings this last week.  I've read (listened to) a couple of really interesting books recently, if anyone is needing a book recommendation.
"The Clockwork Universe."  Here is Amazon's description:
The Clockwork Universe is the story of a band of men who lived in a world of dirt and disease but pictured a universe that ran like a perfect machine. A meld of history and science, this book is a group portrait of some of the greatest minds who ever lived as they wrestled with nature’s most sweeping mysteries. The answers they uncovered still hold the key to how we understand the world.
At the end of the seventeenth century—an age of religious wars, plague, and the Great Fire of London— when most people saw the world as falling apart, these earliest scientists saw a world of perfect order. They declared that, chaotic as it looked, the universe was in fact as intricate and perfectly regulated as a clock. This was the tail end of Shakespeare’s century, when the natural and the supernatural still twined around each other. Disease was a punishment ordained by God, astronomy had not yet broken free from astrology, and the sky was filled with omens. It was a time when little was known and everything was new. These brilliant, ambitious, curious men believed in angels, alchemy, and the devil, and they also believed that the universe followed precise, mathematical laws—a contradiction that tormented them and changed the course of history.
The Clockwork Universe is the fascinating and compelling story of the bewildered geniuses of the Royal Society, the men who made the modern world. 
And then yesterday I finished "Demon Under the Microscope."  Here's the description:
The Nazis discovered it. The Allies won the war with it. It conquered diseases, changed laws, and single-handedly launched the era of antibiotics. This incredible discovery was sulfa, the first antibiotic. In The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager chronicles the dramatic history of the drug that shaped modern medicine.
Sulfa saved millions of lives—among them those of Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.—but its real effects are even more far reaching. Sulfa changed the way new drugs were developed, approved, and sold; transformed the way doctors treated patients; and ushered in the era of modern medicine. The very concept that chemicals created in a lab could cure disease revolutionized medicine, taking it from the treatment of symptoms and discomfort to the eradication of the root cause of illness.
A strange and colorful story, The Demon Under the Microscope illuminates the vivid characters, corporate strategy, individual idealism, careful planning, lucky breaks, cynicism, heroism, greed, hard work, and the central (though mistaken) idea that brought sulfa to the world. This is a fascinating scientific tale with all the excitement and intrigue of a great suspense novel.
These were really great books!  My favorite combination-- interesting, well-written, and teaching me something new.  There are so many interesting things to learn in this world, and not enough time to learn even a tiny bit of it.  And I also just finished "A History of Us: Volume 1" by Joy Hakim.  She has a series of 11 books of American history, aimed at probably the upper elementary/middle school level, but totally interesting and accessible to all ages!  It's not dumbed down at all and I learned a lot.  The first one goes from pre-history to 1600.  So interesting!  So well-written!  I've decided to add these books on to our history curriculum.  She also wrote 3 books on the history of science that I've been working my way through.  They are also aimed at kids, but they again, are so engaging and well-written and fascinating, anyone would love them.  The 10 volume American History set goes for more than $100 on Amazon, but I think I'm going to make the plunge. 
Well, that's it for tonight. 

Love,
Gabrielle

Fun

Today in our homeschool art co-op, I taught the kids the basics of leading music-- 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 6/8 time, finding the downbeat, starting with the upbeat, etc.  I was happy to see how fast they caught on.  And there was something really awesome about seeing 9 boys (and 2 girls), ages 7-11, waving their arms about, leading music with the energy and verve that only kids that age can muster.  I should have taken a picture!

Overheard

While eating lunch today, Joseph and Brigham had a very interesting conversation.  They were discussing what to be when they grow up.  Apparently they have decided that they want to have a business together, and they were brainstorming ideas.  Joseph said to Brigham, "Maybe you can become an expert in fission or fusion and we can have a company that does that."  Then followed a great little exchange in which Joseph described the difference between fusion and fission.  He got it right!  And then Brigham said, "I don't understand how making two atoms fuse together can release energy.  If splitting atoms apart releases energy, then doesn't making them go together take energy?  You can't make energy out of nothing."  Hooray, some of the things we've been learning about the last couple of years are sticking!  It's actually a great question, and I'm too far removed from my chemistry days to give him a very good answer.  :-) Next, Brigham said, "I'm going to find a way to make a new kind of steam engine and get rich."  He is forever coming up with some Rube Goldberg contraption, often involving steam engines.  :-)  But Joseph shot him down saying, "Steam engines aren't energy efficient."  Some other ideas they had: a company making army tanks.  An oil company.  Starting a new car company.  Making a satellite company.  "I bet you can make a lot of money by sending satellites up into space!" 
I loved overhearing that conversation!  And I can't wait to see what they end up doing with their lives.  :-)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2011

Weekly letter from October 2

Hi Everyone,
Late night again, tonight.  I should be in bed in 20 minutes, but I know it isn't going to happen. 
Here's what else happened this week:
Monday:  Lessons, tae kwondo.  Visiting teaching in the afternoon. 
For FHE we went to Walmart (so spiritual!  :-)) in hopes of finding a pattern and fabric for the boys' Halloween costumes which they have been "reminding" me about.  Frequently.  :-)  Anyway, this was the only Walmart in the area with a sewing department, and I was really dismayed to see it moved around, and greatly reduced in size.  No pattern books, just a few generic costume patterns on display.  And their $1 and $2/yard fabric section is gone.  I think there are still some good prices, but they mixed all the fabric up, and you have to search through each bolt to find the price.  Grrr, boo, arrgh!  I'm so disappointed.  First of all, Walmart was way cheaper than Hancock Fabric (the only other fabric store near me), and also Walmart has the ride-on carts.  Hancock Fabric does not, so I have to lug my wheelchair there, and then I don't have anywhere to put bolts of fabric because I can't push a cart, so I have to bring one of the boys with me to push the cart, and there's really nothing 8-10 year old boys love more than browsing through a fabric store with their mother.  :-)  Oh, well.  I don't sew that much anyway.  But it's still annoying.
Tuesday:  Lessons, Mosey's speech therapy appointment.  It was cloudy all day, and it actually rained a little bit!  Not much-- barely enough to get the driveway damp, but enough so that the boys ran outside and attempted to take pictures of the rain falling.

 
It was windy and blustery, with big dark thunderclouds piled up all across the sky.  But that one little sprinkle of rain was all we got.  In the evening, it was blowing and gusting and I thought for SURE we'd get a big downpour.  Nothin'.  Boo.  But, one good thing was that my friend Caroline from back in my Rice days came over!  She was here doing a deposition (she's an attorney in Portland), and so stopped by for dinner.  It was so fun seeing her.  So hard to believe how long it's been since we were at school together.  We video-chatted with her husband Adrian (one of my sophomore year roommates).  I got to see her two kids, and they played a little piano recital for us.  I didn't take even one picture with her.  What's wrong with me??  We had grilled shrimp and vegetable kabobs that were really good.  Actually, I can't take much credit because Brigham and Joseph did most of the work.  I had to take Mosey to speech, and I knew I wouldn't have time after I got back to get the dinner ready.  So I left Brigham and Joseph with instructions to peel the shrimp, put them in the marinade, then chop up vegetables and put them in the marinade, then clean up the kitchen and playroom.  And they did it!  It's so hard sometimes seeing how fast they are growing up, but also so awesome sometimes.  :-)
Wednesday:  Lessons, tae kwon do, piano lessons, violin lessons!  Joseph is such a funny boy.  Not exactly ha-ha funny (although he is that, at times).  After being really enthusiastic about tae kwon do over the summer, he's been giving me a hard time about it.  He claims he didn't understand that I was signing him up for lessons through December.  He thought I was only signing up Mosey.  It's not true, and he knows it, but whatever.  Anyway, the deal is that he needs to go twice a week.  He can choose not to go, but then he needs to reimburse me $8 for the lesson.  He's taken me up on this offer once.  The thing is, almost every time he goes, he has a good time!  I tell him to remember how good he feels so that next time he won't be so reluctant, but he can't retain the feeling, I guess.  He is so, so afraid of the teacher "yelling" at him.  But truly, the teacher does not yell.  He sometimes corrects, and sometimes uses a stern voice (although never to Joseph as far as I have been able to observe).  He comments when students come in late-- makes them stand at the back of the class instead of according to belt rank, but even then he is not angry and doesn't yell.  We've been late (by only 1-2 minutes) a couple of times, and now Joseph is petrified of being late and
"yelled" at.  Once we went, he went inside and saw people in the class already stretching and warming up.  He thought the class had started and he was late, and so he ran back to the car and refused to go into the class.  He wasn't even late!  Argh.  Anyway, he didn't want to go this time (again), but I finally talked him into it.  He had a great class, and on the way out, the teacher said to me, "He had a great lesson today-- he's doing really well."  I was so glad he said that-- I pointed out to Joseph that I've never heard him compliment another student specifically like that after class.  I really hope Joseph can develop a little more emotional toughness.  It will help him so much in life if he is able to take criticism, even chastisement now and then without it devastating him.  Is this something he'll just grow out of, or should I still keep trying to give him opportunities to experience that sort of thing so he can learn how to process and cope with those feelings?  I don't know.  We'll see how TKD goes tomorrow-- if he gives me a hard time about going again.  In general, he's doing really well, though.  I'm proud of how he is growing up.
Piano lessons were fine.  Brigham had his very last violin lesson with his teacher.  I'm sad!  This was a good teacher for Brigham, and I still haven't lined up another teacher yet.  I think his teacher was sad to leave, too.  I have a feeling that Brigham was one of his more favorite students.  He came to our house, since he was staying at a friend's before actually moving out to Boston, and lingered quite a while after Brigham's lesson, giving him advice and saying goodbye. 

Brigham and Mr. Eversole

Thursday:  Lessons, cello, art, flute, Relief Society activity!  Phew! Busy day!  Mosey's cello teacher finally came back.  He's been gone for 2 weeks dealing with the death of his wife's grandmother.  Such drama involving his wife, an estranged aunt, a grandmother who disinherited her children in favor of her granddaughter, and then a subsequent murder investigation instigated by one of the disinherited children against the granddaughter (it was nothing-- pure spite, and was quickly dismissed).  Boy am I glad I have such a (relatively) sane family!  :-)
Art class went well.  I even got Joseph singing!  "The Ants Go Marching" is another good song for this age group.
We had a RS activity at our house-- a woman in our ward who is a registered dietitian did a workshop on nutrition.  I'm always paranoid no one will come.  But about 20 people showed up, which was great!  Especially because we didn't have a single chair or bench or stool left in the entire house for anyone to sit on.  And Jacqui (who gave the presentation) was really good at deflecting the occasional controversial comment.  :-)
Friday:  Yay, Friday!  Joseph and Brigham had worked hard to get extra work done on Thursday so they didn't have as much to do on Friday.  I got my hair cut (much needed) in the afternoon.  When I got home, I found Mosey on the back porch making pottery.  We have a little toy potters wheel that doesn't work very well, but it didn't stop Mosey.  He made two little vases and painted them.  Natasha (one of two girls in our art class) invited the boys to her birthday party on Saturday, and Mosey decided to make her something.  He carved her name in one of the vases, came inside, found a gift bag and a birthday card, and got the whole gift ready by himself.  He's such a sweet boy.  After Ben got home, he took Brigham and Joseph to a ward member's house to watch the BYU game.  They came back halfway through, not wanting to stay for another BYU defeat.  The host is a former BYU football player and is rather... intense about all things BYU football.  Mosey and I went to Hancock Fabric and he was very good about pushing the cart and helping me find things.  :-)  We came home to find 10 minutes left in the game, and Ben completely disgusted.  I went into my room to fold laundry, and was shocked when Ben came in a while later to tell me about the miraculous turn around.  I feel sorry for the original quarter back.  Great turn around for BYU, but a rotten night for that guy, I think.
Saturday:  Conference!  Yay!  I love conference weekend.  My boys really love it, too, which I'm so happy about.  I remember not really loving conference when I was their age.  Maybe it had something to do with having to go and sit for TWO HOURS in the darkened Stake Center with absolutely nothing to do but listen to talks I didn't pay enough attention to to understand.  My boys are much more mature than I was, and played on the floor with blocks while listening to the talks.   Mosey spear-headed another craft project for the boys.  He decided he wanted to make a bracelet for Natasha, too, and Joseph and Brigham joined in.  They got out all my bead stuff and spread it out on the kitchen table, and spent a good hour and a half designing and stringing bead bracelets for Natasha.  So sweet, I could barely stand it!  :-) 

They went to the birthday party between sessions, came home for the afternoon session, and then helped Ben stain the deck for an hour or so before he had to go to the Priesthood session. 

So they had a great day!  I spent most of the day doing laundry.  Folding laundry is a pretty good listening-to-conference activity.  I tried to go grocery shopping, only to discover that our garage door opener is broken.  The big spring broke, and I could not get out of the garage.  Ben was able to muscle it up when he got home, and wedge boards under it to keep it up.  What a pain.  I'll have to get that fixed tomorrow.
Today:  More conference!  The boys were so excited when all three of the hymns they're learning on piano were sung in the various sessions.  Praise the the Man, We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet (that was an obvious one), and Now Let Us Rejoice.  Mosey ran over to the piano when the choir started singing We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet, but was sad to discover they were singing it in a different key than how he learned it.  Otherwise, how fun for him to accompany the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!  I made a good Sunday lunch (almond parmesan tilapia, green salad, and roasted pine nut cous cous), and then we took Ben to the airport.  Closing session of conference, then a fun google video chat with Mama, Daddy, and Eva, (in which the boys performed a little piano recital of their hymns), then a super fancy Sunday dinner of cold cereal, and to bed! 
I really enjoyed conference.  I'm not sure which was my favorite talk.  I really loved Elder Anderson's talk.  How I wish I could have another baby.  Siblings of mine, you all need to have one extra one for me, OK?  :-)
That gets me all caught up, I do believe.

Love,
Gabrielle