06/28/2012

1.  Not so great of a day.  Crummy Supreme Court ruling.  Anxiety about my appointments in Houston.  Still didn't manage to get the clothes folded.  What is wrong with me?  Then my sister called me and talked me down from the wave of anxiety I was riding at the moment.  She's coming down to go with me to Houston.  It's such a relief to know that I won't be alone.  It means about 24 hours worth of driving for her!  I will owe her big time.  :-)

2.   I did manage to wrangle the boys into helping to clean out and organize part of the garage.  This is a big job and will take multiple sessions to complete, I think.  It's so hot in the garage (even at 8:00 at night) that I can't be out there for too long supervising.  It is progress though!

3.  Here are some pictures of our kitchen.

See that bowl of fruit, nearly full?  I think there are about 2 pieces left in there tonight.  I remember my mom buying bags and bags of produce when we were growing up, and now I see why.  It's mostly Mosey-- he LOVES fruit.  Tonight for dessert he had frozen slices of banana (try this-- it is good!).

06/27/2012

1.  I woke up this morning to discover my phone had not charged overnight.  This was bad because the appraiser had asked me specifically to stay available via cell phone so we could arrange a time for him to come over.  So I plugged it into my computer, but it wouldn't charge!  Just showed a white light.  So I tried using the "call phone" function on gmail, only to discover that our microphone is malfunctioning.  And then I accidentally shut down the computer while I was trying to fix the microphone.  And that computer (not mine) takes FOREVER to boot up.  It was a comedy of errors-- everything I did to try and get hold of the guy failed.  Finally I emailed Ben and he called the guy.  Meanwhile, Mosey, my tech-support kid, came downstairs to help me out.  He is so interested in all things technical.  We figured out how to reset the phone, and then he did some internet research to figure out what the white light meant.  I need to find a better way to capitalize on this interest that he has.  

2.  So after we finally arranged a time, the appraiser came by this morning.  It was a bit anticlimactic because after ALL the work we've done (and had done) over the past two weeks, he spent about 2 minutes total in the house.  Went into the kitchen and bathrooms, snapped a picture of each, and then he was done.  But we were pretty happy about the number he came up with.  This area is rising in value, so with that and the improvements we made on our house and yard over the years, it's worth about 22% more than when we bought it 5 years ago.  I think this makes Ben both more and less inclined to add on (is that possible?).  More, because our house is worth more than he thought, and we could pay for almost all of it with the equity in our house.  Less, because now he knows how much we could "make" if we sold our house and bought something for less than what the added cost of the addition would be.  So I guess it doesn't really change his position too much.  :-)

3.  The boys spent the afternoon making shields out of duct tape and the lids to some big plastic storage bins we have.  They've been listening to a lot (a lot) of Percy Jackson recently, and they had sword-fighting on the brain.  Afterward they had some pretty good battles in the backyard.  And no one ended up in tears, either.  Bonus!

06/26/2012

1.  Piano lessons bright and EARLY this morning.  Especially early for me since I had terrible insomnia last night (this sometimes happens to me when I stay up too late) and slept less than 3 hours.  The boys ate breakfast, practiced a little bit, and then played through their songs before going to piano lessons. 

2.  After piano lessons we went home and the boys and I worked hard cleaning the house for the appraiser.  Of course, when we were nearly done, the appraiser called back and said he needed to reschedule for tomorrow morning.  Oh well.  :-)

3.  Speech and debate class in the afternoon.  Afterwards, all the boys played for a while.  Mostly inside since it was 108 degrees outside!!!!!  UGH!!!!!  There are two other parents who sit inside waiting for their kids.  Interesting folks.  Clearly on the other end of the political spectrum as I am.  One of the parents is a man who adopted a sibling group of 4 kids with his partner.  He and the other woman know each other well, so I mostly sit and listen in on their conversations.  Today the man was talking about his plans to send his oldest son to an exclusive private boarding school in the North East, so he'll have a shoe-in for an ivy-league college, so that he will then have a shoe-in for an ivy-league graduate school.  I got to brag on my siblings and siblings-in-law who have gone to ivy-league graduate schools *without* going to exclusive private schools and buying fancy ivy-league bachelor's degrees (which seems like essentially what you're doing going to an ivy-league as an undergraduate).  I don't think we were persuasive, though (the other mom there was on my side).

4.  Went to Target in the evening to pick up a prescription and buy some new things for the kitchen, just to REALLY spruce it up.  Bought new containers for the sugar/flour/brown sugar/powdered sugar that I keep on the cupboard.  Bought a stainless steel bread box instead of the falling-apart basket we currently use.  Bought a sleek stainless steel container for spatulas and spoons.  After dinner Ben and I worked on organizing the kitchen, getting rid of a lot of clutter on the countertops.  It really looks amazing now.  I will take pictures tomorrow before it gets messed up again! 
Discovered that we are missing a little end piece to the light assembly that Ben broke last night.  Figured it must be in the trash that the boys gathered up this afternoon.  So I went outside in the pitch black with Ben's head-light and dug through bags of old, yucky garbage (garbage day is tomorrow).  Didn't find it.  Yuck and ugh.  It's not that noticeable, but it's one of those things that is really irritating to me.  I know it's got to be in one of those bags outside, I just can't find it and really don't want to spend any more time going through moldy, sticky, smelly garbage.  Oh well.

06/25/2012

1.  The appraiser called today and said he's coming tomorrow (Tuesday), so Ben and I decided just to go ahead and buy the new oven so that the kitchen can be finished off.  It worked out well because in the afternoon I actually got 2 calls on the oven, and one of them came over to check it out, and ended up buying it!  They gave me a check and will pick it up tomorrow.  Good timing.  I spent quite a while cleaning it really well so it should be in good shape for its new home.  :-)

2.  The boys continue their Percy Jackson kick.  They've been re-listening to all the Percy Jackson books which we first listened to probably 3 1/2 years ago (or more).  I remember them, but for my boys 3 1/2 years is long enough that they don't remember all of it.  Mosey can't really remember any of them.  He's been putting them on his MP3 player and listening to them on heaedphones, so he's about a book ahead of Brigham and Joseph.

3.  When Ben got home we went to Lowes and picked up the oven as well as a new light fixture for the kitchen.  When we got home Ben disconnected the old oven, installed the new one, and then started working on the light.  In our kitchen we had a big fluorescent light fixture-- the big rectangular ones like in schools.  3 out of the 4 bulbs were out, so it' wasn't much good, and was extremely ugly.  We ended up getting a flex-track light that has a flexible rail that the lights are attached in in any arrangement you like.  It is a great light and Ben worked hard on getting it put together. At around 3:00 AM when he was finishing, he dropped the *last* light assembly he was connecting.  Of course it shattered when it hit the tile.  Ben was so upset!  It is very frustrating to work hard on something for several hours, and then not be able enjoy the fruits of your labor!  Still though, it's going to be an awesome light when we get the new light assembly.

some pictures

Scales, hanging out on Joseph's head.  This is our alligator lizard that Joseph found on a hike about 7 months ago.  He/she/it has been a great pet!

Silly Mosey.  Protesting when I came over to give him some Saturday-morning chores.

Mosey and Blaze. 

Another one of Scales, hangin' on my shoulder.

And on Joseph's head again, watching the computer-game intently.

Why is it fun to put lizards on your head?  :-)

Oh, such a cute and adorable face my Mosey is giving me.

How Ben spent his Father's Day afternoon.  Wrestling with his boys.

Ben is such a good dad.

All my boys in their Mitt Romney T-shirts.

Brigham is a mini-Ben.  Here he is listening to his headphones (Mitt Romney's book, "No Apology"), laying on the piano bench and lifting weights (a leftover piece of granite the granite guys gave us).  Ben lifts weights a few times a week, in exactly this way (although using 50 lb dumbells).

Brigham and Ben installing new light fixtures in the bathroom.

Brigham's awesome block creation he made this afternoon.

Another one of that cute puppy, Blaze.

06/24/2012 weekly family letter

Hi everyone,
This last week was pretty crazy!  It's been a continuation of the house fix-it project.  We finally finished getting the kitchen sink properly installed, the faucets and plumbing under the bathroom sinks finished, the wallpaper removed and texturing and painting of the bathrooms, new light fixtures put up in several rooms, and new hardware installed on several doors.  In between projects I attempted to keep the chaos and dirt at bay, with dubious success.

The boys enjoyed the week.  I think all kids like an injection of chaos into their lives every now and again.  :-)  There was too much computer game playing.  I'm going to try this week to implement a schedule for the computer games, and if I can't do it, then I may have to consider draconian measures like banning them entirely.  I don't want to do this, because I think in small amounts, computer games are fine.  The one the boys are most into these days is Tanki Online (which I think I've talked about before-- you are a tank and you are trying to shoot other tanks in order to get "crystals" that fall from the sky and give you points so you can upgrade your tank and shoot more tanks and get more crystals-- obviously a lot of creative thinking, strategizing, and skill-building going on-- oh, wait...).  It's a stupid game, but since it's played online, you can play against your friends if you're online at the same time.  Also, most of the 8-12 year old boys in the ward play this game and it is a point of commonality between them all, something I'm sensitive to with my homeschooled boys.  So I don't necessarily want to ban them entirely.  But I also do not want to spend my summer policing computer use.  Yesterday after entirely TOO LONG on the computer (I was distracted working on some other projects), I came in and said, "OK, the computer is OFF.  No more games!"  And then Brigham said, "But I haven't even had a chance to play!"  Which I think was probably true.  But if he's playing, his brothers are watching him play, which I think may be even WORSE than playing the game yourself (more passive).  So I told him too bad, and then felt guilty.  So, I think we're going to have an hour of computer game time-- 20 minutes for each boy, and they can all sit there and watch each other play if they want (why???), but after that hour, online computer games are done.

Other things:
Dentist/orthodontist appointments for the boys.  No cavities.  Brigham and Joseph are ready for the next step in their orthodontia, which will be head gear or herbst devices.  Head gear would be worn 12 hours a day, overnight.  Herbst devices are semi-permanent devices in the mouth-- basically little hinges that connect the top and bottom jaw, doing the same thing as head gear.  You can't take it out, and it is quite a mouthful.  I've read online that kids are absolutely miserable for a couple of weeks, and then they get used to it.  But then sometimes the hinges get disconnected and you have to go back and get them fixed.  Head gear, on the other hand, can be taken off, won't interfere with eating and talking, and won't (presumably) get broken.  But it probably would mean some level of battling with the boys to get them to wear it for the full amount of time.  Ben is in favor of the herbst device.  I'm more in favor of the headgear, because having that mouthful of metal all the time with no break sounds pretty miserable.  Anyone have any thoughts?  We need to get moving on this.

The boys decided Thursday was Sandy's birthday (based on how old the vet estimated she was when she was taken by the rescue organization).  They were so excited.  They gave her extra treats, took her on special walks, and otherwise babied her.  They love that dog.

I sold our refrigerator.  It took a good 2 1/2 hours to clean it all out.  The way it fit in our kitchen, it was extremely hard to pull all the way out, so I think the floor underneath/behind got cleaned about once over the past 5 years.  And since it was against a wall, the refrigerator door couldn't open all the way, so the drawers and trays couldn't be pulled all the way out to clean underneath and behind.  So it was a fair amount of work.  Joseph and Brigham helped a bit, but it was mostly a job I needed to do.  I'm not going to way 5 years between cleanings anymore.  :-)  We got a new refrigerator-- I finally decided to just get a new one.  I think it was the right choice.  It is a "stainless-look" refrigerator, which I guess is a different type of metal, or a different finish or something.  In any case, it doesn't show fingerprints!  The boys helped to get it set up on Wednesday night.  It was a late night for them since Ben and I didn't even get it home until after 10:00 PM.  Yesterday Ben and Brigham installed the new microwave, so now all we are waiting for is to sell our oven so we can get a matching stainless one, and then the kitchen will be done!

On Friday night the boys had some friends over to spend the night.  I'm not a huge fan of overnights. The boys got very little sleep and were consequently tired and grumpy the next day.  But this family is moving to Utah in 2 weeks, which will be hard on Joseph since he and Jacob are good friends, so I'm letting them spend as much time together as they want. 

Today was church.  We were SO LATE.  Neither Ben nor I set our alarms, because I almost never sleep past 7:30, and even if I do, the boys are always up by 8:00.  Except for this morning.  The boys were catching up on sleep from the night before, and I guess Ben and I were wiped out from all the stuff we were doing this weekend.  So we woke up at 8:45, exactly the time we should have been pulling out of our driveway.  Oops. 

OK, here is a little bit of a pity-party.  Feel free to skip.

I've been a little bit down the past few days.  It's been fun doing a lot of home fix-it stuff, but it's one of those things that forces me to confront my diminished abilities.  I'm working on things I've done several times before, only now it is so, so, so much harder.  And then I start thinking about how different my life is from how I thought it would be.  And then I start feeling jealous of other people.  And that is a recipe for misery.  I know I need to focus on what I CAN do, rather than what I can't do.  But this whole week has been a study in what I can no longer do.  And when I get depressed, it's hard to think of anything I can do really well.  I know I do some things well, but it's hard to think of anything that I do or am NOW that is better than it would be if I didn't have MS. 
I know there are not always compensating benefits to bad things in life.  In fact, there frequently are not.  But I still do like to think that if I really try hard to make something good of a bad situation, then I should be able to do it.  Maybe I just don't have the perspective to see it, but this week I've had a hard time thinking of anything about myself that is better because of MS.  I keep thinking of what a better mother and wife I could be if I wasn't disabled.  How many more things I could do!  I follow a small handful of other mommy blogs which recently have been causing me some pain.  They are full of fun summer-time activities that they are doing *with* their kids-- things I can't do.  I feel sad I can't do them, and sad because I can't give my children those opportunities or memories with their mother.  Even the pictures on a couple of these blogs cause me pain because I see how limited I am in my own photography.  Good photography is mostly about being in the right place at the right time, finding the right lighting and the best angle, all things that are very hard for me to do because my mobility is so limited.  I read these blogs and I see pictures of what I wanted for my own life.  And that is really hard.  I know their lives aren't perfect; no one's is.  Some of them have gone through really hard times, and I do not begrudge them the beautiful lives they have created for her families.  But I do mourn what I might have had.
When I get in these moods I often try to think how much worse it *could* be, and how fortunate I really am compared to most of humanity.  But it's not really cutting it this time.  In fact, it's back-firing a little bit because I start thinking about how much worse it could still get.  So even when I'm thinking, "At least I can still ______," there is a little voice that is saying, "How long is that going to last?"  Why is it hard for me to really enjoy something that I know I might lose?  It seems like it should make it easier.  But it doesn't really because the enjoyment is contaminated by intruding thoughts of how crappy it will be if/when I no longer have it.  This is a character flaw because it shows ingratitude. 
Anyway, I guess it's OK to go through periods of mourning sometime.  I'll get through it and things will get better.  I think especially after my Houston appointments are over and that anxiety is cleared out, things will get better.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I wish I could just take a vacation from MS.  To have my old body back just for a day (or a week or a month).  But, I guess it would make it that much harder to go back.

I'm going to try hard this week to be happier, even if it means simply making myself smile more during the day.  I'm going to do things with my kids instead of dwelling on what I can't do.  I'm going to try to banish negative thoughts.  It's so stupid to waste time being sad.

I hope everyone else also has a happy week! 

Love,
Gabrielle

06/23/2012

1.  I woke up to the sound of boys splashing in the pool at 7:00 AM.  Not so awesome because I was up really late last night painting doors (I also figured out how to use our router to cut grooves for the hinges and hardware on our new doors).  They all had a great time, though, lack of sleep notwithstanding.  :-)  For a while in the morning after swimming and eating some pancakes, they all played the "power game" (a game made up by Joseph which I don't fully understand yet), and then messed around up on the room until it got too hot. 

2.  For the rest of the day we worked on more house stuff, interspersed with Ben working and me doing laundry and cleaning up.  Ben and Brigham got the upstairs light fixture in.  This was the one that Ben accidentally partially ran over in his car.  Oops.  One of the glass globes broke and we're going to have to buy a new one.  And the light fixture itself is a little crooked as a result.  Oh well.  We also discovered that the wall behind the light fixture in the boys bathroom is still covered with wall-paper (all the rest has been removed already), and the hole is slightly bigger than the round base of the fixture.  Double oops!  So after brainstorming for a while, Ben pointed out that the lid to a cool whip container is slightly bigger than the base of the fixture, and so could be used to cover the hole behind the new fixture.  Joseph spray-painted it silver to match the light fixture.  And, it kind of works!  I painted more doors. 

3.  We had pizza for dinner while watching a Star Trek episode.  I wanted the boys in bed early!
After they went to bed, I was procrastinating going to the grocery store, and came across this awesomely cool thing-- called holophonic recording (or binaural recording--google it, it's pretty cool to read about).  It's basically "3D" recordings.  You listen to it with headphones, and it is the weirdest phenomenon I've encountered in a long while-- the noises sound like they are literally happening in the room *right there.*  It is so incredibly odd.  I can't explain it-- you have to listen.  It only works with headphones, though.  Here are a couple of recordings.  So, so cool!

06/22/2012

1.  It's my parents anniversary today-- 39 years (right?).  Wow! 
Here are a couple of pictures of the happy couple:

Walking together on campus at BYU.  I believe I remember that satchel my dad is carrying.  And look at his sandals with socks!  My mom's outfit is awesome-- love her shoes.  I remember dressing up in that skirt when I was little.

And here they are on their wedding day-- at the reception in my great-grandparents' backyard in Provo (just across the street from the Provo Temple, at the mouth of Rock Canyon, I believe).  Yep, they were definitely married in the early '70s.  :-)

2.  Ben stayed home from work today and spent nearly the whole day working on stuff in the house.  He and Brigham put up the new light fixtures in the bathroom, and Brigham did the light fixture in the hall almost all by himself!  Joseph and Mosey installed new light switch and outlet plates, and I changed out door hardware and hinges.  Joseph went with me to Lowes.  Ben and Brigham installed the new microwave, which ended up being a bit of a comedy of errors as we installed it first, thought it was wrong, changed stuff, reinstalled it, found it didn't fit, and then discovered we had done it right the first time.  Oh well.  And Ben cut his finger really bad on the 2nd (unnecessary) attempt, so I felt really bad.  I painted doors which we will hopefully soon install in place of the ugly flat-panel wood-stained laminate doors we have now.  Painting these doors is a pain in the neck because they are not flat-panel.  They are pretty, but it took me more than an hour to paint just one side.

3.  In the evening the Anderson boys came over to spend the night.  They are moving to Utah soon, and I think they are all sad to be parting company.  Especially Joseph.  He craves outside friendships more than Brigham does .  They set up our huge gigantic tent in the backyard (it has 4 "rooms"-- it may as well be like the Weasley's tent! :-)) and probably got maybe 8 hours of sleep between all 5 boys!  It stressed me out a bit, but I remember doing the exact same thing when I was a kid.

06/21/2012

1.  Day two of painters in the house.  It took them until about 6:00 to finish up, but it looks so great!  I love it!  It's always a bit nerve-wracking choosing colors because you can't really tell what it will look like until it is on the walls, but I'm happy with what we chose-- light butter yellow for the master bathroom, and a light grey-blue for the upstairs bathroom.  There is going to be quite a bit of cleanup still because the floors have dried-on plaster stuff from the popcorn ceiling being scraped off.

2.  This was a big clean-up day for me.  The chaos from the past several days reached a level of intolerability so that I couldn't relax until the house was picked up, and the floors were swept and mopped.  Not that it was going to do any good for any significant length of time!  :-)

3.  Ben came home from work early today to help supervise the painting.  I'm way more comfortable with him doing that than I am.  I'm too timid and feel bad asking for anything "extra."  Ben isn't, though, and got the painters also to help him put the big bathroom mirrors back up (the granite people had taken them down, but didn't put them back up).

4.  The boys decided that today was Sandy's birthday.  We don't know her real birthday, but we know she is about 2 years old now.  We wanted it to be on the summer solstice, which I thought was the 21st.  Turns out it was the 20th.  Oh well.  The boys did some special things with her-- taking her on extra walks, giving her treats, and basically babying her all day long.  After lunch I drove the boys and Sandy up to Trailhead park for them to take her on a walk along the trail.  They love that dog!  And so do I.

5.  Later in the afternoon, our art friends came over to swim.  Mosey and Natasha disappeared upstairs where they played legos for a while, and then watched the painters doing their stuff.  They found the big mirror which had been removed from the wall in the bathroom, and started pulling bit of dried glue off the back.  And then, almost simultaneously, they both cut their fingers on the glass!  It was the weirdest thing.  Well, not weird that they cut their fingers-- messing around with a mirror with a raw-edge is not that smart, but so weird how they both got hurt at almost the exact same time!  Natasha's was bleeding more so we had to do some first aid, but then after that they had matching band-aids.  :-)

06/20/2012

1.  I was so tired this morning.  I stayed up late last night putting stuff back in our master bathroom.  But I couldn't just put things back where they were, I needed to reorganize and put things back organized!  Which took a while.  I love organizing things.  Too bad I live with 4 other humans who do not prioritize organization quite as much as I do.  :-)

2.  Today was another great big chaotic day here.  We had painters come to remove the wallpaper in the bathrooms, retexture, and remove the popcorn ceiling.  Tomorrow they will paint.  This was a long, very messy project!  And it got even messier when I sold the refrigerator.  The boys helped me quite a bit, but still, thoroughly cleaning refrigerators is a lot of work.  The boys took everything in the refrigerator and put them on the kitchen table.  Then they took out the drawers and shelves and did a pretty good job of washing those out.  I had to take Mosey to TKD, and then I finished up when we got back home.  The refrigerator was pretty dirty in some parts because the way it sits in the kitchen, the refrigerator side door can't swing 180 degrees all the way open, only 90 degrees.  So I never could get the shelves and drawers out to clean underneath.  But Ben pulled the refrigerator out, and today we had the great fun of cleaning out 5 years worth of crumbs and gunk that had accumulated under the drawers.  Yuck.  But we sold it, the guy came, and took it away.  Bye, bye! 
After Ben got home tonight, we went to Lowes and got our new refrigerator.  I tried to find something that would work for us on Craigslist, but there just wasn't anything, and we really had to get a new refrigerator, because all of our food was sitting out on the table!  I like the new one.  Even though it was a PAIN to get it into the house, unpacked, untaped, and put back together.  The boys helped quite a bit, but at 11:00 (yes ELEVEN O'CLOCK), we finally told them to scram and get into bed.  I finished up assembling the shelves and drawers and handles and organizing and loading the food back in. 

3.  Today was the most unstructured day the boys have had yet.  Way, way too much computer gaming around here.  After this week things will settle down.  I've just been way too busy this week to properly monitor and police computer game usage.  Mosey had TKD, and Brigham had violin lessons, but aside from that, it was a free-for-all.  I guess it's OK to have a few of those during the summer.

4. And now it's 2:43 AM, and the painters are going to be back in about 5 hours and I'm going to be dead tired.  Good night!

06/19/2012

1.  I double booked piano lessons and the boys' dentist/orthodontist appointments.  Oops.  So I rescheduled Mosey, and then took Brigham and Joseph right after their lessons were through, leaving Mosey to hang out with the family who takes lessons after us.  Mosey ended up having a great time.  Jacob (one of the kids) let him play Tanki Online on his laptop.  :-)  Joseph and Brigham are ready for the next step in their orthodontic journeys.  We've been debating between headgear and herbst appliances.  I kind of lean toward headgear because they don't have to wear it all the time.  Ben leans toward the herbst I think *because* they have to wear it all the time.  Maybe he's right, it just looks so uncomfortable to have all that metal in your mouth.

2.  In the afternoon, Joseph and Brigham went to their first speech and debate class.  It looks like it will be fun-- a whole bunch of boys!  There are so many more homeschooled boys than girls in this area.  After their class they ran around and played guns for a while.  :-)  Mosey didn't want to go (wanted to stay home and play computer games, no doubt), but I made him.  And he was glad because there were 3 other younger kids who also weren't in the class (the class is only for 6th graders on up) and they had a great time running around.  Mosey is my most social boy!

3.  Later on, Mosey had his dentist appointment.  He was NOT happy about going.  But he went, did fine, and got a giant whoopee cushion from the treasure box afterward.  He was in heaven.  Is there anything funnier than a whoopee cushion for little boys?  I think not.  He got a little too enthusiastic at one point and split a hole on one side.  Oh, the tears!  But I was able to fix it up with packing tape when we got home, and it's been non-stop giggles since then!  :-)

06/18/2012

1.  Monday and no lessons!  We kept ourselves busy, anyway.  We cleaned up the house a little bit after the weekend.  Mosey had tae kwon do.  He is loving it during the summer because there are a lot of other kids in the summer classes.  I'm so happy that he likes TKD.  He also got his level 1 blue belt today!  Good job, Mosey.  I worked on getting the sinks put back together.  The boys all did their practicing. 

2.  We also had our first fist-fight of the summer...  :-(  Joseph and Brigham duked it out over accusations that the other left the cereal box outside.  Yes, it really was about that.  Brigham is my most willing clean-up helper, and so consequently believes (rightly, to a certain extent) that he lceans up more than his brothers do.  So when earlier in the day he had brought the cereal box inside to put it away, and then he couldn't find it, and then realized it was BACK outside, he was very frustrated.  I understand.  Anyway, Brigham accused Joseph of leaving it outside.  Then Joseph counterattacked and accused Brigham of taking it outside.  Then Brigham swung at Joseph and ended up knocking out one of Joseph's teeth!  Luckily it was only a molar that really needed to come out anyway.  Joseph retaliated using his fingernails (I need to tell him that if the fingernails get used in ONE more fight, they are getting trimmed down to the quick), and within seconds both the boys were screaming bloody murder.  Mosey got scared and ran inside and told me about it.  I went outside to break it up, and it turned out that MOSEY was the one who accidentally left the cereal box outside.  So Joseph and Brigham fought over pretty much nothing.  Mosey felt very bad, I could tell.  I sent the big boys to different rooms to cool off.  Mosey made hot chocolate (just the thing on a 97 degree day, wouldn't you say?) for both of his brothers, and in not so long a time, they were all friends again.  I sure do hate fighting amongst my children.

3.  The handyman came again in the evening and he got all the sinks functioning perfectly.  And he worked with Ben to take the microwave down to replace with a non-broken one.  But, since nothing can be simple, it turns out the screws that came with the new microwave are not long enough to make it through the wood support above the countertop.  And the ones that were part of the old microwave didn't have the correct thread.  We went to Lowes, who didn't carry that particular screw, and decided to forget about the screws and try to order them online.  So now we have no functioning microwave, and a gaping hole in the wall where you can see the lovely wall paper that someone, somewhere, at some time thought would be a nice addition to the kitchen.  :-)

06/17/2012 Family letter

Hi Everyone,
Happy Father's Day to Daddy and all the other fathers in our family.  I hope you had a great day.
During Sacrament meeting, one of the speakers spoke beautifully about some specific experiences he had with his father and a couple of other father-figures in his growing-up years.  So after Sacrament meeting I stayed on our bench and wrote down a few of my favorite memories of growing up with Daddy.  Here they are in no particular order:

Twenty Reasons Why I'm So Glad Daddy Was My Daddy

• Upside-down rides!
• Parade of the house on Christmas morning + Santa's letter.
• Father's blessings the night before the first day of school.
• Staying up late, listening to the Space Music program that came on the radio at midnight, studying on the brown rocking chair in the living room, with Daddy working at his desk.  It always made it easier to stay up studying when he was up with me.
• Listening to Dodgers games, or sometimes attempting to listen to the faint sounds of BYU basketball over the static on the radio.
• Holding onto Daddy's finger when we would go on errands together.
• Learning to appreciate Gregorian Chant.
• Daddy taking me to the ER after I fell off my bike and busted my lip.  It was the first and only time I ever got stitches from an accident growing up (Naomi, have you ever counted how many sets you had?  :-)), and having Daddy there with me helped me to be brave.
• Going to Daddy with calculus problems that had me stumped.  Most of the time he was able to help me.  :-)
• Working in the garage with Daddy building my mouse trap for GATE.  I still remember that awesome mouse trap!  I wonder how many mouse traps Daddy made with his various children going through that program?
• Spelling quizzes in the car on long road trips.
• Stories of his life on the farm as a kid, on long road trips.
• Long complicated descriptions of the mechanics of the various farm tools he grew up with, on long road trips.
• Listening to oldies on the radio while helping him to wash the cars.
• Running downtown with Daddy while training for marathons.  That was a 16 mile run, wasn't it?
• Hanging out at Daddy's office on Saturdays-- watching Gidget and other old TV shows on the TV in the conference room, eating sugar cubes from the coffee service in the cupboards (I still remember those sugar cubes in the pink boxes).  Fun times!
• Riding in Daddy's Datsun, singing, "Buy a Datsun!  It's good for you!  It's good for me?  It's good for you!"
• Listening to Rush Limbaugh and cutting my teeth on politics with Daddy.  I still remember vividly the time he explained Laffer's curve to me.  It was such a revelation and marked an important milestone in my political development.
• Daddy throwing us across the pool at our Palm Drive house.  That's how he kept in such good shape-- throwing all his kids around!
• Daddy picking me up from PYSO in his Mercedes, listening to Hugh Nibley lectures on the car ride home.

The older I get the more I am grateful for the childhood and the parents that I had.

I think Ben had a good day.  No breakfast in bed, but I did make him omelets before church.  And that's something, because church-day breakfasts are usually granola bars in the car on our way to church.  :-)  After church he took a nap and then went home teaching with Brigham (who gave the lesson!) while the other boys and I stayed home and made dinner.  Beef and broccoli stir fry, plus peach cobbler.  A bit of an unusual combination, but I didn't manage to get to the store this weekend, so I was stuck with what we had on hand.  And it was good!  The boys wrote cute and funny cards for Ben, and for a present, I bought all of us Mitt Romney T-shirts plus a Romney decal for Ben's car.  He's never put a bumper sticker or anything on any car he's ever owned before, but he told me a few days ago that he wished he had one for Mitt.  I hope he liked that present!  After dinner the boys and Ben and Sandy had a rousing game of chase and tackle in the front yard, and then the boys watched the pilot episode of The A-Team (man, those old 80's TV shows were CHEESY!) while Ben and I kept working at the kitchen sink.

This rest of the week was busy!  It was (finally) the last week of school lessons.  We didn't end with quite the bang that I had hoped, but it was still pretty decent.  Now I'm excited for summer!  We are dog-sitting the Dew's little puppy again, which adds another element of chaos into the household.  Puppies are SO cute, and a whole lot of work.  Just like human babies.  :-)  Blaze (the puppy) thinks a really fun game is to dart up to Sandy and nip at her ears or tail.  Sandy does not think this is a fun game.  Lots of loud barking generally ensues.  We got granite installed in our kitchen and bathrooms on Thursday.  Things are still a chaotic mess around here.  We now have the kitchen sink installed and functioning, the dishwasher functioning (although still not bolted into place correctly), and the faucets installed in the master bathroom.  Although the PVC drain pipes under the sinks are still not finished.  At least the faucets look pretty!  I have been to Lowes about 6 times over the past week.  We decided kind of at the last minute to upgrade our appliances to stainless steel, since we had to get a new dishwasher and microwave anyway.  Ben has been wanting to get our house all fixed up, in case we need to sell the house.  No particular plans for doing so, but I guess it makes him feel good to know he's got an escape route, should he need it.  :-)  The kitchen and bathrooms have been high on his list of things to take care of before we could sell our house.  At the end of this week we are having someone come in and remove the old wallpaper from the master and upstairs bathrooms, and texture and paint the walls. After that our house should be nearly ready to put on the market if we ever need to.  Or we can just live in a nicer, fixed up house!  I'm hoping Ben will like the changes so much he never wants to move!  :-)
So, with music lessons, practicing, school lessons, and the upheaval of having workers in the house and the general disruption that big giant messes bring about, it was a busy week.

Speaking of big giant messes, the lady who has been cleaning our house for the past 4 years has retired.  And I don't think we're going to hire anyone else.  I think it's time for the boys to start taking on some of these jobs themselves.  I'm hoping this summer will be a good time to ease them into more formally scheduled chores.  I'm hoping the extra elbow-grease they have to spend in keeping the house in working order will in general help them feel more accountable and less inclined to make big giant messes in the first place.  :-)  Anyone have good advice on teaching kids to do housework?

Well, that's it for tonight I think.  I always write the worst, most disorganized family letters.  Sorry!  I love you anyway!  I have to go to bed because I have to get up early and marshal the boys into a cleaning brigade.  Someone is coming to look at our fridge later in the morning (I listed it on Craiglist), which means that we need to unload most of the stuff in it into our garage refrigerator, and then clean it out.  My boys are totally going to think that is an awesome first-day-of-summer-vacation activity.  :-)

Love,
Gabrielle

06/16/2012

1.  3 trips to Lowes in one day is too many.  :-)  First trip was to the Leander Lowes to pick up a kitchen faucet (changed our mind and decided to go with brushed nickel instead of black), microwave, and dishwasher hookup stuff.  Second trip was to our local Lowes for p-traps and new bathroom faucets.  We thought we could reuse the old ones but the connections under the sink were way too corroded and rusted and they were no-name faucets so we couldn't order replacement parts.  Oh well.  Third trip was 15 minutes before closing to get a new drain basket for the kitchen sink, because the one we bought a couple of days ago snapped in pieces while we were trying to install it.  Lowes let us switch it out for a new one, which worked much better. 
I had helpers with me for the first 2 trips, though. Joseph came with me to Leander after archery, and Brigham and Mosey came with me later in the afternoon.  It's nice having helpers. And for some reason store employees always like to comment on what good helpers my boys are.  Do they say that to all kids who come into the store, or is it only because I'm the one shopping in a wheelchair?  Whatever, I'm just glad the boys get some positive affirmation for helping. :-)

2.  I'm on the verge of banning all computer games for the whole summer.  There was way too much whining going on today by a certain eight year old boy around here.  I think maybe a total fast from computer games for a couple of weeks might be a good thing, to remind him about all the other fun toys and games we have around here.  In any case, starting Monday (no computer games on Sundays), there will be no computer use at all until practicing and chores are DONE.  And maybe I'll institute computer blackout times where the computer is turned off.  That would be good for me as well.  I don't want to be a scrooge during the summer, but I am the mom and I do get to make the rules, right?  If mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

3.  We had a handyman come over to help install sinks this evening.  I'm not sure how much help he was.  :-)  I think he must have been having an off day or something.  The model of kitchen faucet we got has some awkward clip connections that he just could not manage.  He spent 2 1/2 hours here trying to finish installing one faucet.  Finally he had to go off to another job and said he'd come back tomorrow to finish up.  After he left, Ben was able to make the sticky connection the other guy couldn't do, so I'm not really sure what the problem was.  He came recommended, though, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.  He spent the whole time working on the kitchen, so the boys and I worked on the bathroom sinks.  The first faucet took me FOREVER to finish.  I made every mistake possible and had to redo every step at least twice.  I was about ready to throw in the towel myself.  But the second one was a snap, once I finally knew what I was doing.  And the third one upstairs will be easy too.  Slowly but surely our disaster of a house will get put back in order!
I enjoyed working with Mosey on the sink.  I asked if anyone wanted to help and he immediately said, "Oh, I would really like to help if I can!"  Mosey likes stuff like this.  And he did help for quite a while before losing interest.  There really wasn't a whole lot he could do except help me by holding things in place.  Which was a big help, but was also boring.  :-)

06/15/2012

1.  Friday!  Also the last day of school!  It was kind of a let-down of a last day, because I was preoccupied for most of the day with taking care of other stuff. 
I had to call a bunch of Lowes stores to find one that carried the dishwasher we want.  This really had to be done because we can't turn the water on in the kitchen sink until the dishwasher is installed! 
Then I had to call around and find a garage door repairman.  Oh yeah-- yesterday amidst all the hubbub, Ben accidentally backed out of the garage with the back door of the van open.  It hit the garage door and knocked it off it's track, and disconnected the spring.  Ben worked on it for about an hour last night, but decided to give up when he started getting scared about losing fingers (the spring on the garage door is at an incredibly high tension). 
Then I called a painter that came out a couple of years ago to give us an estimate on removing the awful wallpaper in our bathrooms and repainting, to ask him to come back and give us another estimate because Ben is sick and tired of the bathroom wallpaper being halfway torn up (which happened when we naively thought we could remove the wallpaper ourselves-- HA!  Not when the original builders applied it directly onto the sheetrock!  WHY would they do that??  What a mess!).  We never had the work done a couple of years ago because we couldn't decide which one to go with, so we just didn't do it at all.  :-) 
Then I called around to find a handyman because Ben is just no way going to have time to install all the sinks. 
Then I took pictures of our refrigerator and range to post on Craigslist. 
Then I got sucked into searching for stainless refrigerators on Craigslist.  Buying new is so expensive!  Things on Craigslist are so cheap!  And so my supervising of the boys' last day of lessons was not so stellar.  I don't think they minded, though.  :-)

2.  I really hate making big purchasing decisions.  I get paralyzed when there are too many options, and no clear best-choice.  After spending WAY too much time online looking at refrigerators on Craigslist, and then searching for reviews for the various models I found listed, I narrowed down the field to 3 options.  The new refrigerator we liked at Lowes, and two others available on Craigslist. 
Ben and I went to one guy's house to see the refrigerator he was selling, only to find that he had JUST sold it right before we got there.  Darn it, I probably would have bought that one.  Then the next one we went to go look at, also used, was a great refrigerator, but not stainless steel.  It was a metallic silver color, but definitely not stainless steel.  So there go 2 of my 3 options, leaving "buying new."  But I'm just not sure I can actually do it!  I think I'll spend another day or two looking for used refrigerators.  Ben thinks we should just buy new.  Maybe we should, I don't know.

3.  The boys went with Ben and I to see the second refrigerator, which was in this cool house down off of Volente down by the lake.  The guy who showed us the refrigerator was sort of the caretaker-- an interesting but sad and lonely guy who told us about his mother who committed suicide 2 years ago yesterday, and didn't seem to want us to leave.  There are lots of lonely people in the world and I felt humbled to take notice of how fortunate I am to have my family. 
Anyway, afterward we drove around and looked at some lots available down by the lake.  Ben harbors some fantasies of building a house on the lake.  It is such a beautiful area, but so expensive (although I'm sure Ben is right that houses in that area don't lose their value too much), and really not the kind of setting I want the boys to grow up in.  Living among millionaires in their super-fancy houses on the lake (even though ours would not be super-fancy) is NOT real life.  While Ben and Brigham and Joseph were out looking around, Joseph caught a big toad, and had to take it home with us.  :-)
Then, we drove up to a Lowes in Leander to pick up the dishwasher I finally was able to locate (a display model-- the ONLY one available in all of the Austin metro area).  A trip to Lowes is a fun family outing. 
When we got home (entirely too late), Joseph suddenly realized he couldn't find the toad!  He scoured the car, throwing away trash and clearing out a bunch of stuff the boys had left in the car.  My sweet Joseph was very worried about the toad.  Finally I told him we'd leave the car door open, and the garage door open a crack, and I was sure it would hop out of the car and be just fine.  His shoulders drooped, but he went inside.  Then, just as I was getting out of the car, I saw it!  It had been hiding under my seat.  I captured it, yelled to Joseph, who got a big smile on his face and took it inside.  Now it is sitting happily in a bowl of water in a big metal tub in the middle of the playroom.  :-)

06/14/2012

1.  It was a busy day!  We got granite installed in the kitchen, master bath, and the boys' bathroom.  It looks so good.  Ben has been wanting to put in granite since we moved into the house 5 years ago, and has been keeping his eye out for a good price.  A few months ago Lowes had an incredibly good deal, and here we are! 
I had no idea how big of a job, and how messy of a job this would be.
We had to clear off all the countertops (obviously), as well as under the sinks.  Under the sinks in the master bathroom has been an area of anxiety for me-- the only place in the bathroom I haven't yet thoroughly organized.  Well, this will give me a chance to organize it!  For now, we just dumped everything into plastic bins.  So there are boxes everywhere, kitchen items on the floor in the playroom, and bathroom things on the floor in my room.
The boys were supposed to be doing schoolwork, but it was tough because watching the tear-out and installation were way more exciting.  So I pretty much let them watch as much as they wanted-- it's not every day you get such hubbub in the house!  Mosey got such a kick out of watching them tear out the old countertops.  He kept rushing back to me to tell me to come look-- "It looks so weird, mom!"  And he collected everything he could-- broken chunks of the old countertops, long strips of old caulking (yuck), and as many scraps of the granite as the workers would let him have. 
It took ALL day for the people to finally finish up.  They got here around 9:30 AM, and didn't leave until 8:30 PM.  I guess it was a big job.  They ended up leaving several big pieces of granite from the sink cut-outs that are now sitting on the couch and the kitchen table.  I'm sure the boys will come up with something awesome to do with them.  :-)
Unfortunately, when the workers were done installing the countertops, things were nowhere near ready to put back together.  The sinks were in, but none of the faucets or drain assemblies or pipes were assembled.  They had to remove the big mirrors from the bathroom walls, which they left leaning against the wall.  Ben struggled trying to get the kitchen faucet in, but the new sink is deeper than the old one, and after more than 2 hours I told him to go to bed!  We were both up till after 2:00 AM.  I think we'll end up having a handyman come and finish up the sinks.  It's too time-consuming for Ben.  I hate not being able to do stuff like this-- I used to be the handy one between the two of us, and I actually like that kind of stuff.  Oh well.  :-(

2.  On top of the granite stuff, we also had our homeschool group over to swim in the afternoon-- 11 yelling and laughing and splashing little kids (and one dog who can't stay out of the pool).  AND, Stephanie brought her puppy over again for us to dog-sit.  That puppy is SO darned cute.  And SO energetic.  So for a couple of hours it was pretty much utter chaos around here.  But a fun chaos!

3.  So, in the spirit of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," our kitchen project is expanding.  Once the granite was in, it looked so good, and we knew it would look so much better with stainless steel appliances.  I'll take a picture when it's all done, but there is grey in the granite that would tie in the stainless appliances really well.  And we need a new dishwasher and microwave anyway because the ones we have are on their last leg.  And our refrigerator ice-maker is broken, and to fix it will be $600, more than the refrigerator is worth, so getting a new refrigerator wouldn't be totally crazy.  The only thing we really don't need to replace is the range, and I think I can get a decent price for it on Craigslist.  So, last night we went to Lowes to look at stainless appliances.  Actually, earlier in the day Ben went to Lowes to get a new dishwasher, but he got a white one, since the one we were replacing was white.  So after we decided to go stainless, I did a bunch of research, and we went back to Lowes to return the dishwasher and take a look at some of the other options I had researched. 
Long story short(er), we'd like to get all the new stuff in over the next couple of days, before the house appraiser comes back.  So I've been checking all the different Lowes locations to see which ones carry the items we're looking for.  It's going to be nice, but it's kind of crazy right now. 
On the way home from Lowes, Brigham (who came with Ben and me) quizzed Ben on the causes of the Great Depression and the various effects of the government policies that followed.  Brigham loves politics, and has a sharp little mind that likes to understand how everything works.  It's fun to listen to him and Ben talk-- Ben explaining things, and then Brigham repeating back to him to make sure he understands.  I remember having discussions kind of like that with my dad when I was about Brigham's age!

06/13/2012

1.  This morning Ben and I rushed to Lowes to pick out faucets for the new sinks we are getting with our granite-makeover.  The installers were supposed to come this morning at 10:00, so at 9:45 we we finally checked out at Lowes (who knew there were SO MANY CHOICES for faucets??  It took us so long to decide), and then rushed home to clear off the countertops (who knew we kept SO MUCH STUFF on our countertops?).  Turned out they were delayed, and delayed, and delayed, and finally called to tell us they couldn't make it today.  Grr.  So tomorrow morning (supposedly) it is.

2.  It was a pretty good Wednesday.  School went pretty well.  Joseph did well on math today.  Not sure what the difference was between today and yesterday, but I'll take it.  Of course, during math time Mosey freaked out about all the NOISE everyone was making.  It wasn't that much.  I was talking quietly to Joseph and Brigham about their work, and they were quietly asking me questions.  But Mosey apparently was so incredibly distracted, there was no way he could get his math done.  I finally got some ear plugs out for him, but apparently he could hear "perfectly" with those in, too.  Life is hard. 

3.  I took Brigham to violin lessons this afternoon, only to discover that he had his music, but not his violin.  He is my absent-minded professor, for sure.  Ben was working from home today (because the granite installers were supposedly coming), so he was able to run it over to us a lot faster than I could have driven home and back.  Of course 1 minute before he got there, Brigham's teacher called to tell us he could borrow one of the violins they had in the shop.  Oh well.

4.  I finally got an email from my nurse in Houston.  Yep, it's that time of year again.  I DO NOT WANT TO GO.  I'm not sure why these yearly trips throw me into such upheaval.  I hate going.  I HATE GOING.  I hate being a patient again.  I hate having to see doctors and feel like a sick person again.  I hate it.  It reminds me way too much of what things will be like if I get sick again.  I don't want to get sick again.  Being a sick patient is the exact opposite of how I see myself and how I want to be.  And this year I have to do the whole shebang with the leukopheresis and the lumbar puncture along with the MRI and the regular battery of neurological testing and blood draws.  Joy.  Which means I have to find a ride for myself since they will not let me drive home after the lumbar puncture.  I don't know why, because I always feel fine afterwards, but whatever.  I'll be there for at least 3 days and I'm sure Ben can't be there the whole time, and I can't be there with the van because I can't drive home.  Ugh.  I'll figure it out, but it's just such a pain, and I hate it and I don't want to go. 

06/12/2012

1.  It was the first day of our summer piano lesson schedule.  It really makes it feel like summer!  Too bad we have 3 more days of school.  :-)  After piano, I commiserated with another mom, who was dropping her kids off for lessons after ours, about the challenges of keeping to a schedule during the summer.  I am really, truly, for reals committed to doing it this summer.  I mean it!

2.  I wish I knew what to do to help Joseph with math.  He completely defeats himself.  He is good at math.  He knows how to do the problems, and he doesn't have any trouble actually carrying out calculations.  But he'll decide something is too hard, and just sit there and moan and cry and refuse to let me help him.  So, of course, an assignment that should take 20 minutes, takes an hour.  Or more.  No wonder he hates math.  He's been doing this since he was 7 years old!  How can I help him to stop?  He completely does this to himself.  He'll sit there and whine, saying, "What's 24 plus 24?  Come on, tell me!  What's 24 plus 24!"  Of course, he knows very well what 24 plus 24 is.  Why does he do that?  Or he'll insist on trying to do some complicated problem in his head, which would be so much easier and much faster if he would just write the numbers down and do the problem the regular way!  If he would just decide not to whine, but to work his way through the problems, come to me if he is confused, listen to what I have to say, LOOK at the paper as I'm showing him something, he would have no problem completing his assignments, and I feel quite sure, would enjoy it a lot more.  Joseph doesn't like being told what to do (understatement).  With his other assignments, there is more flexibility.  He can answer questions the way he wants to.  He and I can adjust assignments to better fit him.  But with math, there is only one way to do the problems he's working on.  There are rules in math that he just has to follow.  I think this is why he resists so much.  There's no way to make the problems "his," and there's no flexibility with the answers.  How can I help him?  I never had trouble like this with math.  I never loved math, but I could always make myself sit down and buckle down and get it done.  And Ben always liked math, so he doesn't get it, either.  Joseph is nearly 11 years old.  He should be old enough to figure this out by himself, and decide not to torture himself.  I hope it happens soon, because another school year of fighting with him over math doesn't sound like too much fun.

3.  Mosey has been obsessed with "Old MacDonald" recently.  He sings the song to himself all the time.  Sometimes at very high volumes.  And he's started using "Old MacDonald!" as an expletive.  He drops something on the floor: "Old MacDonald!"  I tell him it really is time for him to do his piano practicing: "OK, fine!  Old MacDonald!"  It is pretty amusing.  :-)

06/11/2012

1.  Four more days of school!  It was a reasonably OK school day, although we didn't get started on lessons until later than I wanted. 

Brigham's favorite place to read is on the recliner on our back porch.  Comfy!  He's looking like such a big boy to me these days.  Stop growing!

And here's Joseph.  He favors that big chair as well, and often I'll see the two of them squished up next to each other, reading, but today Joseph opted for the kitchen table.

And, he granted me the favor of eye contact!  :-)

2.  Flute lessons this afternoon.  The last flute lesson until August!  Joseph's teacher won't be teaching on Mondays anymore, so we'll have to see how we can fit flute lessons in on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.  Maybe we'll have to go with a new teacher. 

3.  It was HOT today.  103 degrees, according to the big bank marquis that we pass on our way to flute lessons.  I think this is the first day we've broken 100 around here.  I hope we are not in for a repeat of last year.

06/10/2012

1.  Church!  Brigham gave a talk which he helped to write last night.  "I choose the right when I follow the principles of the gospel."  He use the metaphor of a compass as principles of the gospel.  I think it's so great that kids in the church grow up with so many opportunities to practice public speaking, the most-often reported fear of Americans.

2.  After church the boys helped me pick up the house a little bit, and then said goodbye to Blaze (the puppy) when Stephanie came by to pick him up.  She was entirely too generous with my boys, but they were pretty thrilled, and anxious to dog-sit again, any time.

 Goodbye, Blaze!

3.  At dinner time we played a rousing game of "Would You Rather."  This is a fun game, and especially fun for my boys who like to pose ridiculous questions to each other just for the fun of it.  Joseph is especially famous for this. 
He'll say, "Mom?"
And I'll think he's asking a serious question and say, "What, honey?" 
"What would you do if I woke up and suddenly had green scales and webbed toes?"
Umm, throw you in the pool?  :-)

06/09/2012

1.  Took Joseph to archery, after NOT enough sleep.  Joseph was the co-winner of the class shoot-off today, which was really fun for him.  At the end of the class, each kid gets a balloon to tack up on their target.  Each kid gets three shots, and if they don't pop their balloon, they are out.  Joseph got his on his first arrow.  Then the winners go on to the next round and try to pop the balloons still left on the wall.  He ended up tying with another boy who has a super-fancy bow with a site and stabilizer, so I think Joseph felt pretty good.  :-)

2.  I finished the quilt.  It took me forever, and entirely too many picked seams.  The problem was the ruffle I attached to the sides.  It was hard to make, and harder to sew on.  But it turned out really cute, and it was worth it because this is a good friend, and I haven't made the time to see her as much as I should have.  Being a bad friend is one of my perpetual well-deserved insecurities.  I love my friends and think about them all the time, but I'm really bad about picking up the phone to actually talk with them.  What is wrong with me?

3.  Well, I know a little of what is wrong with me.  I just finished a book called "Quiet," about introverts.  It pretty much describes me to a T.  So it's not my fault I'm anti-social!  I'm an introvert!  :-)  I need Ben to read the book so he can understand me.

4.  After finally finishing the quilt, I made a casserole to take over along with the quilt.  Mosey came with me to help me carry things.  First we had to go to HEB to get some fruit to go with the casserole.  Mosey went straight to the toy section and talked me into letting him buy another dragon.  We went to my friend's house and chatted for a while (Mosey was very rude and kept asking when we were going to leave-- I'm doing a bad job teaching manners!), and then went to the pool store to get chemicals, then to the pet store to get crickets, and then to the gas station for gas.  Mosey was pretty annoyed with me when we got home.  He hadn't counted on so many errands.  That's the last time he'll be willing to come with me, I think.

5.  We watched Narnia, all 5 of us squished onto our bed, and ate honey nut cheerios out of the box and popcorn.  I boycotted making dinner.  :-)

06/08/2012

1.  Mosey's last day of Day Camp.  I managed to get him up, dressed, fed, and ready to go by 6:25, only to realize that he didn't have to leave until 6:45 this morning.  Oh well.  :-)  He ended up loving camp, and came home in the afternoon SO excited.  He passed off a whole bunch of requirements and electives, made some cool crafts, and had lots of fun with the other boys in his den.

 I think this is his happy face??  :-)

2.  I started making a quilt for a friend who's about ready to have a baby.  I already had my squares cut out, and thought the quilt would be a quick project I could finish in a few hours.  Not.  Why am I SO SLOW at things?  I got bogged down making a ruffle for the edges, and finally at 4:30 AM (I didn't work continuously all the day long, but long enough!), I said enough is enough and made myself go to bed so I could get up at 8:15 in the morning (less than 4 hours away) to take Joseph to archery. 

3.  In the afternoon, a friend came by to drop off the family puppy for the boys to dog-sit while they are gone for a couple of days.  He was a cute little 3 month old puppy-- so CUTE!  And SO much energy!  I was reminded why we didn't want to get a puppy for the boys.  And I was confirmed in that decision.  Fun to watch for a couple of days, but man, puppies take a lot of commitment!  He loved to play (of course), but has sharp little puppy teeth that he didn't know how to manage too well.  The boys ended up putting on big fluffy coats to protect their arms.  Ha!

4.  When Ben got home from work we watched The Miracle Worker, about Helen Keller.  What a good movie!  I remember it from when I watched it as a kid.  So interesting to imagine what it must have been like to try to teach language to a child with no conception of what a word is. 

06/07/2012

1.  The morning went much better for Mosey.  :-)

2.  The twins and I spent the morning cleaning the house.  I know they were really excited about it.  But I wasn't feeling great (fighting a stomach bug), and it really needed to be done.  They were fairly OK with helping out-- there was only one small argument about who needed to clean up what.   Joseph wanted to get a head-start on some of his schoolwork for next week, so he spent an hour or so writing notes for the oral presentation he is going to give on bats.  Joseph has been on a bit of a bat-kick recently.  He's always loved bats, and is thinking about trying to build a bat house in our backyard.  Anything to get rid of some mosquitoes is just fine with me!  Give me bats over mosquitoes any day.  Then he and I went to HEB for dog food, and to replenish the crackers and fruit snacks I bought for Mosey's cub scout lunches.  I don't often buy pre-packaged food like that, and so when I do, it tends to get inhaled rather quickly.  A box of Cheez-Its, a box of vanilla wafers, a bag of Quaker mini rice cakes, a box of fruit-snacks, and half a package of oreos gone in less than 48 hours.  Now that's impressive.  And it's also the reason I rarely buy stuff like that.  But, for special lunches for cub scout camp, it's OK.

3.  Mosey came home very excited.  He had fun at camp.  They went to a water park, among other activities, which was a huge hit, even though he spent the rest of the evening rubbing his chlorine-stung eyes.  He also made a flower box and planted a beautiful flower in it just for me!  Sweet boy.

4.  Brigham and Ben had an epoch wrestling match tonight.  Ben is very strong, but his strength is matched 100% by Brigham's iron will.  Brigham would NOT surrender and eventually I had to decree the match to be a draw so we could eat dinner.  When Brigham gets a little bigger, he will be a formidable opponent!

06/06/2012

1.  The day started with me attempting to wake up Mosey for scout camp.  He was up entirely too late the night before, and that added to the tiring day in the sun on his first day at camp made for a very sleepy boy.  6:15 came very, very early.  I had his lunch made the day before, so all he needed to do was get up, get dressed, put on sun screen, and grab a bagel to eat on the ride up to camp.  But the boy would not wake up!  And I couldn't get upstairs to wake him up!  Finally, all my calling woke up Joseph who then woke up Mosey who then came downstairs VERY reluctantly, moved at a snail's pace, couldn't find his shirt, and ended up making his ride wait for 5 minutes while we frantically searched for (and found) his shirt, slathered on sunscreen, and pushed his lunch and his breakfast into his hands as he ran out the door.  Whew!  It made me remember one of the great things about homeschooling-- no crazy mornings!  I remember too well trying to wake up the twins for school.  It was a bad way to start the day-- yelling at them to come downstairs, hurrying them through breakfast, getting after them when they inevitably couldn't find their backpacks or their shoes or the lunchbox that had been in their hands 2 minutes ago, or all three.  :-)

2.  It was odd having only 2 boys at home.  Very quiet!  I guess we know who generates a lot of the noise around here.  :-)  The boys have decided to put off their final week of school until next week when Mosey is back, so this has been a summer-vacation preview.  And they better enjoy it, because when the real thing comes, I'm going to be a lot stricter.  Entirely too many minutes were spent in front of the computer.  But, they also did practicing and a lot of reading, we went to the library, and Brigham had violin lessons, so it wasn't a total wash.

3.  When Ben came home from work, he and Joseph and Sandy went running.  I can't remember if I wrote last week how Joseph ran six miles with Ben!  Wow!  I don't think he was running the entire time, but still I was very impressed with him.  And wistful, too, since I had so looked forward to the day when my boys would be big enough to go running with me...  In the meantime, Brigham and Mosey played chess in the backyard.  Brigham is a great chess player, so when Mosey won, he was SO excited, and ran inside to tell me all about it.  I have a feeling that Brigham might have assisted with Mosey's victory.  Which was nice, but also in his best interest, since Brigham loves to play, and Joseph won't ever play with him, since Brigham always wins.  So giving Mosey a taste of victory now and again will probably serve to keep him coming back for more, which means more chess for Brigham.  Sneaky!

4.  In an effort to avoid the morning's drama in getting Mosey ready and off to camp, I had him sleep in my room.  He was so tired and fell asleep in about 2 minutes, almost unheard of for my night-owl.

06/05/2012

1.  Today was Mosey's first day of Cub Scout Day Camp.  He was out the door at 7:00 with his camp shirt on, and his sack lunch, ready for a HOT day of scouting fun.  He had a great time, and was excited to tell me about it when he got home. 

He was very happy to see Sandy when he got home, and Sandy was happy to see him, too.  :-)

2.  This morning Ben decided on the spur-of-the-moment to take Brigham and Joseph up to Ft. Worth to see Mitt Romney speak.  I would have liked to have gone, but I wanted to get some stuff done here at home a little bit more.  As it was, I'm glad I didn't go because Ben and the boys were among the very last to get through the door, and with  me in my wheelchair, I'm not sure we would have gotten in at all (it was very crowded).  Anyway, Brigham and Joseph thought it was great, and especially liked seeing themselves on CNN when they got home.  :-)  They listened to "Animal Farm" on the way there and back, and tonight we had a fun discussion about who each character represented.
Here are some screen-shots of Ben and the boys.  I sent my camera up with them, but it got left in the car.  Oh, well.

There's Joseph in the back, with his blue bat cap on.  You can see the top of Ben's head next to him.

Here's a good one of Brigham and Ben, and part of Joseph.

And, the only frame I was able to capture with all three of my boys visible! 

It will be fun for them to be able to tell people that they saw the President of the United States in person!

3.  While all of my boys were gone, I had the house to myself from 9:00-5:00.  WOW!!  I used every minute and got a lot done.  I straightened up the house, cleaned up from breakfast, etc.  Then I cleaned up and organized the playroom, which took a few hours.  But I feel so much more at peace knowing it's all in order!  And I FINALLY got through all of the papers and mail that was overflowing from the box on my desk.  I sure love having an EMPTY box on my desk.  It won't stay that way for long, though.  :-)  This took another couple of hours.  And then I folded laundry.  So, all very exciting stuff, but I know I'll sleep easier tonight knowing it's done.

4.  When Brigham and Joseph and Ben came home, we all went out into the front yard to see the Venus transit over the sun.  I'm glad we had our eclipse glasses from a few weeks ago!  They are getting good use.  I didn't take any pictures because it was pretty hard to see as it was, and I doubt it would have been easily visible through my camera.  Still, it was cool to see.  It was such an interesting perspective, to see this object between us and the sun.  It made the fact of Venus's existence a lot more real to me.  Normally I only see it as a star in the sky, but seeing it there between us and the sun made me suddenly "feel" our place in the solar system a little more vividly.  This has been a good few weeks for astronomy, that's for sure!