Last night, after coming home from Harry Potter, I sent the boys in to get ready for bed. 20 minutes later I went in the bedroom to find Joseph and Mosey sitting on the bed, practicing spells. They both made wands, and Joseph has been writing spells in his little spell notebook. He started this several months ago, but the movie inspired him to get it out again. Ever since, I've had two little wizards running around the house casting spells. Mosey is especially good at the deluminate spell when I'm right in the middle of something requiring light. :-)
Mosey even brought his wand (made from a straw, a wooden skewer, and black and silver duct tape) to church with him today. Now *that* would horrify those Southern Baptist anti-Harry Potter nuts out there!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Thanksgiving
Somehow I managed to get through this Thanksgiving holiday without taking a single picture! I guess I wasn't much in the picture-taking mood.
Ben's mom and dad came to visit, flying in during the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday. I had a neurologist appointment Wednesday morning--just my usual yearly checkup for medication refills. Everything's fine. I'm trying a new spasticity medication which I hope will help. My doctor also increased my Baclofen dosage-- I'm at the maximum dosage now, so I hope the added medication, Zanaflex, will help. Spasticity is my biggest MS-related physical complaint right now. I brought the boys with me so Ben's parents could sleep in, and we got smoothies in the hospital cafeteria, just like we did in the old days when I was coming in every other week for bloodwork after my transplant. I do not miss hospitals.
Back home, I attempted to do a half-day of school lessons. After hearing the news about my friend, though, my heart really was not in it. I've kind of felt that way about this whole holiday. The boys all played the piano for Grandma and Grandpa, and I got great delight in listening to Grandpa Kent teach Brigham some fun little piano duets. Jackee and I started baking some things for Thanksgiving dinner while the men-folk watched Mythbusters. We had breakfast for dinner (pancakes and bacon and eggs), and then tried to get everyone in bed early.
On Thursday I got up early and continued my baking projects. I made sausage, cranberry, and apple stuffing, pecan-topped sweet potatoes, jello salad, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and blueberry cream pie. The boys worked on giant block buildings, and I enjoyed listening to Mosey read "Dragon Rider" to Grandma Jackee. We ate dinner with our friends, the Taylors, so I only had to worry about half the meal. Kristen made the turkey, mashed potatoes, and rolls. Ben isn't much of a turkey-eater, so I bought half a ham at HEB and we brought that, too, which ended up being a big hit.
A cold front blew in on Thursday, and it was downright cold by the time we drove out to Steiner Ranch. The boys brought their scooters, thinking they might ride around in the street after eating, but it was too cold for that. Instead they ran around with the Taylors' 3 little boys, playing guns and other boys games. I'm glad we went to the Taylors'. It got my mind off things, and I think everyone had fun.
Yesterday morning we drove down to San Antonio, stopping at the Temple to look around a bit and visit the distribution center there. Then we went downtown and took a boat ride through the river-walk. The boat tours start off at the mall, and it was absurdly crowded. I despise shopping malls, and the day after Thanksgiving is the worst time to be at one. Plus, that evening there was the annual San Antonio Riverwalk Christmas boat parade, so half of Texas was trying to get there at the same time. The river boat was fun, though, and worth doing again when we have visitors. The Riverwalk is the #1 tourist attraction in Texas-- above the Alamo which is #2! We ate a late lunch/early dinner at Rio Rio, an extremely slow (although delicious) Mexican restaurant overlooking the river. Then we hurried over to the Alamo, taking an unintentional detour completely around the shopping mall (oops), and making it to the Alamo a whole 5 minutes before closing... We made it safely back to Austin in time for Ben to take Kent and Jackee to Half-Price Books. Jackee loves that store (who doesn't?!), and filled a suitcase full of books to take home.
This morning Brigham and Mosey serenaded Grandma on their violins. We took Kent and Jackee to eat at Rudy's to complete their Texas vacation, and then dropped them off at the airport. We're going to leave in 15 minutes to go downtown and watch Harry Potter at the Imax theater.
I've spent the holiday feeling extremely grateful, so that is good. Too bad it sometimes takes tragedy to really hone my gratitude.
Ben's mom and dad came to visit, flying in during the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday. I had a neurologist appointment Wednesday morning--just my usual yearly checkup for medication refills. Everything's fine. I'm trying a new spasticity medication which I hope will help. My doctor also increased my Baclofen dosage-- I'm at the maximum dosage now, so I hope the added medication, Zanaflex, will help. Spasticity is my biggest MS-related physical complaint right now. I brought the boys with me so Ben's parents could sleep in, and we got smoothies in the hospital cafeteria, just like we did in the old days when I was coming in every other week for bloodwork after my transplant. I do not miss hospitals.
Back home, I attempted to do a half-day of school lessons. After hearing the news about my friend, though, my heart really was not in it. I've kind of felt that way about this whole holiday. The boys all played the piano for Grandma and Grandpa, and I got great delight in listening to Grandpa Kent teach Brigham some fun little piano duets. Jackee and I started baking some things for Thanksgiving dinner while the men-folk watched Mythbusters. We had breakfast for dinner (pancakes and bacon and eggs), and then tried to get everyone in bed early.
On Thursday I got up early and continued my baking projects. I made sausage, cranberry, and apple stuffing, pecan-topped sweet potatoes, jello salad, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and blueberry cream pie. The boys worked on giant block buildings, and I enjoyed listening to Mosey read "Dragon Rider" to Grandma Jackee. We ate dinner with our friends, the Taylors, so I only had to worry about half the meal. Kristen made the turkey, mashed potatoes, and rolls. Ben isn't much of a turkey-eater, so I bought half a ham at HEB and we brought that, too, which ended up being a big hit.
A cold front blew in on Thursday, and it was downright cold by the time we drove out to Steiner Ranch. The boys brought their scooters, thinking they might ride around in the street after eating, but it was too cold for that. Instead they ran around with the Taylors' 3 little boys, playing guns and other boys games. I'm glad we went to the Taylors'. It got my mind off things, and I think everyone had fun.
Yesterday morning we drove down to San Antonio, stopping at the Temple to look around a bit and visit the distribution center there. Then we went downtown and took a boat ride through the river-walk. The boat tours start off at the mall, and it was absurdly crowded. I despise shopping malls, and the day after Thanksgiving is the worst time to be at one. Plus, that evening there was the annual San Antonio Riverwalk Christmas boat parade, so half of Texas was trying to get there at the same time. The river boat was fun, though, and worth doing again when we have visitors. The Riverwalk is the #1 tourist attraction in Texas-- above the Alamo which is #2! We ate a late lunch/early dinner at Rio Rio, an extremely slow (although delicious) Mexican restaurant overlooking the river. Then we hurried over to the Alamo, taking an unintentional detour completely around the shopping mall (oops), and making it to the Alamo a whole 5 minutes before closing... We made it safely back to Austin in time for Ben to take Kent and Jackee to Half-Price Books. Jackee loves that store (who doesn't?!), and filled a suitcase full of books to take home.
This morning Brigham and Mosey serenaded Grandma on their violins. We took Kent and Jackee to eat at Rudy's to complete their Texas vacation, and then dropped them off at the airport. We're going to leave in 15 minutes to go downtown and watch Harry Potter at the Imax theater.
I've spent the holiday feeling extremely grateful, so that is good. Too bad it sometimes takes tragedy to really hone my gratitude.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Heavy heart
Got news today that a dear friend just lost her husband, mother, and uncle in a private plane crash.
It's hard to feel very enthusiastic about the holiday.
Life is awfully hard to understand, sometimes. Some people coast through with nothing more difficult than the normal ups and downs of life. Other people get hammered with the most awful tragedies that mortality has to offer. And there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to it.
We all want to know why, so we can reassure ourselves that it can't happen to us. But it can, and for some of us, some of the most undeserving, it does.
There is some comfort to be found in the plan of salvation, but it feels hollow, sometimes, compared to the extremity of the loss and pain to be endured in this life. My friend, only in her 40's, will be a widow for the rest of her life. She has lost her mother, the person she would probably otherwise have leaned on the most to help her through this, and the loss of whom by itself is awful. Her uncle's family has lost a husband and father. Stephanie's three sons, one still in high school, will not have their father to guide them through their lives. This good family, in an instant, has been dropped into the whirlwind.
It's Thanksgiving tomorrow, and I sure have a lot to be thankful for; among the top of my list is my husband and my mom. My friend has just lost these, and that leaves me with an extremely heavy heart...
It's hard to feel very enthusiastic about the holiday.
Life is awfully hard to understand, sometimes. Some people coast through with nothing more difficult than the normal ups and downs of life. Other people get hammered with the most awful tragedies that mortality has to offer. And there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to it.
We all want to know why, so we can reassure ourselves that it can't happen to us. But it can, and for some of us, some of the most undeserving, it does.
There is some comfort to be found in the plan of salvation, but it feels hollow, sometimes, compared to the extremity of the loss and pain to be endured in this life. My friend, only in her 40's, will be a widow for the rest of her life. She has lost her mother, the person she would probably otherwise have leaned on the most to help her through this, and the loss of whom by itself is awful. Her uncle's family has lost a husband and father. Stephanie's three sons, one still in high school, will not have their father to guide them through their lives. This good family, in an instant, has been dropped into the whirlwind.
It's Thanksgiving tomorrow, and I sure have a lot to be thankful for; among the top of my list is my husband and my mom. My friend has just lost these, and that leaves me with an extremely heavy heart...
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Mister, Mister, Mister
Mister is the Houdini of dogs. I don't know how he does it, or why, but he manages to escape our house and yard despite all of our best efforts. He never goes far-- he just takes himself on a walk around our neighborhood. I've never had to go out driving looking for him for longer than about 5 minutes. I'll find him just loping along the sidewalk sniffing around and doing doggy stuff. He escaped a couple of weeks ago during a torrential downpour. We got in the van looking for him, and found him walking cheerfully down the street utterly soaking wet.
Well, yesterday he managed to escape again. I have no idea how. Both backyard gates were closed tight. I think he must have squeezed out when Mosey went out the front door to get the mail, or maybe when we opened the garage door backing out on our way to the dentist. Either way, he got out. We finished up at the dentist office (pretty uneventful in spite of Joseph's fears-- he was very nervous for some reason. He was sure he had a cavity and that the dentist would yell at him. Well, he didn't, and the dentist didn't yell. He's never been reprimanded at the dentist's, so I'm not sure where this fear comes from. Maybe underlying guilt about not brushing enough? Mosey does have one little cavity which doesn't surprise me since he is a sugar fiend-- he's finished almost all his Halloween candy while his brothers have most of their still left.), and went to the Bank (very aggravating-- someone got my debit card number somehow and tried to make several hundred dollars of online purchases last weekend. Luckily Bank of America spotted the unusual activity and suspended the transactions. Now I have to get a new debit card and change every single one of my automatic payments. Grr. The BofA person on the phone told me I could go to any bank to get a temporary replacement card. Turns out, though, that Texas is in a different region than Florida, where we opened the account, and temporary cards can only be issued in the region of origin. The only way to get our accounts transferred to Texas accounts is to close them all down and open new accounts. Ridiculous. So I went all the way into the bank, waited for 25 minutes to talk to the person (why there was only ONE person working in the bank full of at least 6 offices is beyond me), only to find out that they couldn't help me and I have to wait the 2 weeks for my new card, which hadn't even been ordered yet. You wouldn't think this is a big deal, but for me, it is. The simple act of getting gas, for example, is made many times more difficult if I have to walk all the way into the gas station to pay cash, and then back to pump the gas, and then back and forth again to get change...), where I got a frantic call from Ben. Animal Control had picked up our wandering dog, and were taking him all the way downtown to the animal center. They could take him back home, but only if I were right there. Well, I wasn't, and couldn't get back in time, and we ended up not being able to contact the animal control people in their van anyway. I was very annoyed and not looking forward to the fee for springing him from doggy jail. I was sure it would be at least $100. So after horseback riding we drove down and picked up Ben from work and went to the Animal Center. To our surprise and delight, we discovered that they 1) gave Mister his yearly shots (which he hadn't had yet), 2) microchipped him, 3) gave him a flea and tick treatment (Frontline is expensive!), 4) gave him new tags and a new collar (although only because they lost his), and 5) released him back to us for only $20. What a deal! That is WAY less than I would have paid at our vet's office. Next time I need to take Mister in for his yearly vet visit, I'm going to have someone drop off a "stray" Mister at the Animal Center, and then we'll go pick him up in the evening with everything all done! (Just kidding, but it's still tempting.)
So, an annoying event turned out well after all.
We celebrated by going out to eat at Marie Callenders (Brigham's favorite restaurant), because, you know, 5 days before Thanksgiving is a GREAT time to get pie. :-)
Well, yesterday he managed to escape again. I have no idea how. Both backyard gates were closed tight. I think he must have squeezed out when Mosey went out the front door to get the mail, or maybe when we opened the garage door backing out on our way to the dentist. Either way, he got out. We finished up at the dentist office (pretty uneventful in spite of Joseph's fears-- he was very nervous for some reason. He was sure he had a cavity and that the dentist would yell at him. Well, he didn't, and the dentist didn't yell. He's never been reprimanded at the dentist's, so I'm not sure where this fear comes from. Maybe underlying guilt about not brushing enough? Mosey does have one little cavity which doesn't surprise me since he is a sugar fiend-- he's finished almost all his Halloween candy while his brothers have most of their still left.), and went to the Bank (very aggravating-- someone got my debit card number somehow and tried to make several hundred dollars of online purchases last weekend. Luckily Bank of America spotted the unusual activity and suspended the transactions. Now I have to get a new debit card and change every single one of my automatic payments. Grr. The BofA person on the phone told me I could go to any bank to get a temporary replacement card. Turns out, though, that Texas is in a different region than Florida, where we opened the account, and temporary cards can only be issued in the region of origin. The only way to get our accounts transferred to Texas accounts is to close them all down and open new accounts. Ridiculous. So I went all the way into the bank, waited for 25 minutes to talk to the person (why there was only ONE person working in the bank full of at least 6 offices is beyond me), only to find out that they couldn't help me and I have to wait the 2 weeks for my new card, which hadn't even been ordered yet. You wouldn't think this is a big deal, but for me, it is. The simple act of getting gas, for example, is made many times more difficult if I have to walk all the way into the gas station to pay cash, and then back to pump the gas, and then back and forth again to get change...), where I got a frantic call from Ben. Animal Control had picked up our wandering dog, and were taking him all the way downtown to the animal center. They could take him back home, but only if I were right there. Well, I wasn't, and couldn't get back in time, and we ended up not being able to contact the animal control people in their van anyway. I was very annoyed and not looking forward to the fee for springing him from doggy jail. I was sure it would be at least $100. So after horseback riding we drove down and picked up Ben from work and went to the Animal Center. To our surprise and delight, we discovered that they 1) gave Mister his yearly shots (which he hadn't had yet), 2) microchipped him, 3) gave him a flea and tick treatment (Frontline is expensive!), 4) gave him new tags and a new collar (although only because they lost his), and 5) released him back to us for only $20. What a deal! That is WAY less than I would have paid at our vet's office. Next time I need to take Mister in for his yearly vet visit, I'm going to have someone drop off a "stray" Mister at the Animal Center, and then we'll go pick him up in the evening with everything all done! (Just kidding, but it's still tempting.)
So, an annoying event turned out well after all.
We celebrated by going out to eat at Marie Callenders (Brigham's favorite restaurant), because, you know, 5 days before Thanksgiving is a GREAT time to get pie. :-)
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Better!
Mosey had a really excellent day yesterday, after just a bit of a hiccup of a start.
The boys have morning chores before we start lessons. Yesterday it was Mosey's turn to clear off the table, put away the breakfast things, and wipe down the countertops an table. A really hard job, to be sure. :-) When I announced chore time, Mosey immediately went into a pout and said, "I'm NOT going to do it!" This time I didn't give him any chances and he went directly to the hall closet for 10 minutes. (Side note: having the big boys here to help me is crucial in my disciplinary abilities-- when I have to pick up a screaming, thrashing almost-7-year-old for a time-out, I can't very well wheel my wheelchair. So I hold Mosey and one of the twins pushes us. And Monday when Mosey ran away around block again, Joseph and Brigham both circled opposite ways around the block and man-handled him back to the van-- a very interesting sight to the neighbors, I am sure...)
However, when he came out of the closet, he was as nice and as sweet as could be and was delight all day long. Phew! At the end of the day I gave him a little toy airplane I've been saving in my closet for the right occasion. He was really surprised and really happy, so I hope it will be a good positive-reinforcement for good behavior. We'll see today!
The boys have morning chores before we start lessons. Yesterday it was Mosey's turn to clear off the table, put away the breakfast things, and wipe down the countertops an table. A really hard job, to be sure. :-) When I announced chore time, Mosey immediately went into a pout and said, "I'm NOT going to do it!" This time I didn't give him any chances and he went directly to the hall closet for 10 minutes. (Side note: having the big boys here to help me is crucial in my disciplinary abilities-- when I have to pick up a screaming, thrashing almost-7-year-old for a time-out, I can't very well wheel my wheelchair. So I hold Mosey and one of the twins pushes us. And Monday when Mosey ran away around block again, Joseph and Brigham both circled opposite ways around the block and man-handled him back to the van-- a very interesting sight to the neighbors, I am sure...)
However, when he came out of the closet, he was as nice and as sweet as could be and was delight all day long. Phew! At the end of the day I gave him a little toy airplane I've been saving in my closet for the right occasion. He was really surprised and really happy, so I hope it will be a good positive-reinforcement for good behavior. We'll see today!
Monday, November 15, 2010
trying to catch up...
I've been wanting to write for several days now, but haven't found the time. Here's what's been happening the past few days.
We're very slowly getting back into lessons after our vacation last week. Very slowly. I always like to think that after a vacation we'll all be nicely rested up and eager and ready to jump back into things. Not so. It seems more difficult! Why is that?
Last Thursday morning the big boys got a pass from lessons while they marched in a Veterans' Day parade in downtown Austin. I wish I could have gone down to see them! Their Den leader took pictures, though. Joseph got to carry the flag! Not that easy for the 1.3 miles of the parade course up Congress Street to the Capitol.
After the parade, one of the veterans there gave the boys donuts. So nice!
The boys got Burger King happy meals on the way home (lucky boys!), and got back just on time to get ready for piano lessons and violin lessons. I had a Relief Society activity in the evening (putting together care packages for soldiers-- a good activity for Veterans' Day, huh?), which made for a bit of a late night for me.
On Friday we were supposed to have a full docket of lessons. Normally Fridays are easy days-- 1/2 lessons, but since the boys didn't do any lessons to speak of the day before, I wanted them to make up for it on Friday. I was met with huge resistance. I tried to explain to them how public school kids are expected to make up the work they miss on days they are absence, but I don't think they were convinced. As it was, I ended up having to do some errands in the afternoon, so they got off easier than I would have liked.
Ben and I were asked to play some music for a wedding Friday night at the church. So I drove to the music store to find some wedding-appropriate violin music. Then we dropped by the violin shop to get a new bridge for Brigham's violin. Brigham just moved up to a half-size violin-- the same one I learned on! It's still a very nice instrument.
The wedding in the evening was nice. It was such a good example of the power of Mormon women! The wedding was of a sweet couple who have been investigating the church. They have 3 little girls, but never got married. So on Tuesday they decided to get married so they could get baptized. And on Friday there was a beautiful wedding with the cultural hall all decked out and a wedding cake and flowers and a photographer and live music. It was really amazing. Who needs a year or more to plan a wedding? Ask some Mormon women and they'll throw something awesome together in 3 days! :-) It helps that we have some really talented women in our ward, though. I know the plans for the wedding were greatly expanded from something simple in the relief society room, to a much more formal event, and I know it was a lot of work for everyone involved. And there may have been some who wondered if it was really worth it. But, with the seriousness of wedding vows, and the focus of our church on family, I thought it was entirely appropriate that a big deal was made. And I hope it was worth it to everyone involved when they saw the faces of the newly formed family.
There was one sour point in the evening, however. Toward the very end of the reception, Ben had finished playing the piano, and I had put my violin away. Brigham came to the piano and started playing. He opened up one of the piano books Ben brought and played "Melody" by Schumann. Then I told him to play the Mozart Twinkle variations he's been working on. He has it memorized, which surprised both of us! (Just variations 1-3, not the whole thing!) A number of people came by to compliment Brigham on his piano playing. As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed that Joseph was extremely grumpy. I was surprised because I had thought he was having an OK time. As we were getting our stuff out to the car, he finally came out with it-- Brigham got to play the piano, but he didn't, and now everyone would think that Brigham was better at the piano than Joseph was. That broke my heart a little. I told him that Brigham isn't better at the piano, he just happened to have one song ready for performing, and another that he had the music for! Joseph is working on his Christmas recital piece, but it's not performance ready yet, and the Hedwig's Theme that he perfected a couple of weeks ago wasn't exactly appropriate for a wedding. Joseph really is a good piano player. He and Brigham, like with everything else, both have their strengths and weaknesses with piano, and they are different from each other. Brigham is a good sight-reader, and has a real knack for improvising. But Joseph is much more intuitive with rhythms and has great hands for powerful chords. His teacher just a couple of weeks ago told me that she could see him playing one of the Rachmaninoff piano concertos when he's a teenager, because he is so good with that style of music. Anyway, I told him that I was really sorry, and that it really wasn't fair that everyone got to hear Brigham, but not Joseph. I promised him that I'd figure out a way for him to get to play the piano at the ward Christmas party so everyone in the ward would have a chance to hear him play, too.
Having twins is hard! It's difficult to praise one twin without the other feeling like he is not praiseworthy, at least not in that particular way... I have to be careful about how I handle that with other people around. Instead of saying, "Yes, Brigham is really talented at the piano-- he loves playing," I need to say, "Yes, Brigham is really talented. Joseph is also an amazing piano player-- they both love playing." Ah, well. By the time we got home, Joseph was in good spirits, and I think no lasting damage was done.
Saturday was a tag-team day for Ben and I. Both of us were scheduled to go to a Stake leadership training in the morning, but of course the boys were home and it was Mosey's last soccer game, so I went and left Ben with the boys.
Mosey's team ended up tying the last three games, which was a mercy. Their team actually got a lot better as the season went on, and with the majority of his little 6-8 year old team being 6 years old, I think they did pretty darn good. And Mosey had fun and wants to play again, so it was a success.
In the evening, we were both supposed to go to the adult session of Stake Conference, so Ben went to that and I stayed home with the boys. Between times the boys all worked hard in cleaning the cars and straightening up the house.
Yesterday was Stake Conference, which is always nice because it means 2 hours of church instead of 3 (not that I mind 3 hours, it's just nice once in a while to have only 2!), and in the afternoon we drove out to a park in Georgetown that has several acres of pecan trees.
It got cold on Sunday! Well, cold for Austin. Time to get warmer clothes out.
The boys collected a big pile of pecans which we've been working on all day. Yum. In the evening I had a Relief Society committee meeting at our house which lasted 3 hours (!!).
Today I was determined to have a very good, efficient, effective day of lessons. Mosey, however, was not. He had a pretty terrible, rotten, no good, very bad day. He only actually completed one lesson (math), and that was after 3 1/2 hours, much of it spent in the closet. I don't know what came over him. I think I handled everything right. I gave him lots of choices. I never lost my cool. I think my expectations were entirely reasonable, and I followed through with the consequences I set forth for him. But for whatever reason, he was bound and determined not to cooperate. Finally, at about 5:15, he got himself banished to his room for the rest of the night. I went upstairs with him and lay with him in his bed. He struggled and yelled for about an hour, and then finally settled down. Eventually he lay cuddled next to me and planted kisses on my cheek, so I guess I was forgiven. He fell asleep at 8:00, which meant that I was up there with him for almost 3 hours. I really hope tomorrow is a better day. I was reminded of some of what we went through with Joseph a couple of years ago. Joseph has almost entirely grown out of all that, for which I am extremely grateful.
The day was pretty good for the other two boys, though. I just wish I were better at keeping to our schedule. The problem, I think, is that I've only scheduled 30 minutes for piano practicing, when in reality they each take about 45 minutes. And we never get through with breakfast and dressing and chores until 8:15 or sometimes 8:30, so by the time the big boys are done with piano (their first lesson), we're already 45 minutes or an hour behind "schedule," and I get stressed out. I think I just need to accept that their practicing is going to take an hour and a half, and rearrange our schedule to reflect that.
Oh, one more thing. The boys and I finally finished the wall art project for our front entryway wall. I printed a bunch of 5x7s and mounted them on pieces of foam board that I cut to size, and then put them up on the wall with mounting tape. I love it! It's a big wall, and I can add more as time goes on.
We're very slowly getting back into lessons after our vacation last week. Very slowly. I always like to think that after a vacation we'll all be nicely rested up and eager and ready to jump back into things. Not so. It seems more difficult! Why is that?
Last Thursday morning the big boys got a pass from lessons while they marched in a Veterans' Day parade in downtown Austin. I wish I could have gone down to see them! Their Den leader took pictures, though. Joseph got to carry the flag! Not that easy for the 1.3 miles of the parade course up Congress Street to the Capitol.
The boys got Burger King happy meals on the way home (lucky boys!), and got back just on time to get ready for piano lessons and violin lessons. I had a Relief Society activity in the evening (putting together care packages for soldiers-- a good activity for Veterans' Day, huh?), which made for a bit of a late night for me.
On Friday we were supposed to have a full docket of lessons. Normally Fridays are easy days-- 1/2 lessons, but since the boys didn't do any lessons to speak of the day before, I wanted them to make up for it on Friday. I was met with huge resistance. I tried to explain to them how public school kids are expected to make up the work they miss on days they are absence, but I don't think they were convinced. As it was, I ended up having to do some errands in the afternoon, so they got off easier than I would have liked.
Ben and I were asked to play some music for a wedding Friday night at the church. So I drove to the music store to find some wedding-appropriate violin music. Then we dropped by the violin shop to get a new bridge for Brigham's violin. Brigham just moved up to a half-size violin-- the same one I learned on! It's still a very nice instrument.
The wedding in the evening was nice. It was such a good example of the power of Mormon women! The wedding was of a sweet couple who have been investigating the church. They have 3 little girls, but never got married. So on Tuesday they decided to get married so they could get baptized. And on Friday there was a beautiful wedding with the cultural hall all decked out and a wedding cake and flowers and a photographer and live music. It was really amazing. Who needs a year or more to plan a wedding? Ask some Mormon women and they'll throw something awesome together in 3 days! :-) It helps that we have some really talented women in our ward, though. I know the plans for the wedding were greatly expanded from something simple in the relief society room, to a much more formal event, and I know it was a lot of work for everyone involved. And there may have been some who wondered if it was really worth it. But, with the seriousness of wedding vows, and the focus of our church on family, I thought it was entirely appropriate that a big deal was made. And I hope it was worth it to everyone involved when they saw the faces of the newly formed family.
There was one sour point in the evening, however. Toward the very end of the reception, Ben had finished playing the piano, and I had put my violin away. Brigham came to the piano and started playing. He opened up one of the piano books Ben brought and played "Melody" by Schumann. Then I told him to play the Mozart Twinkle variations he's been working on. He has it memorized, which surprised both of us! (Just variations 1-3, not the whole thing!) A number of people came by to compliment Brigham on his piano playing. As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed that Joseph was extremely grumpy. I was surprised because I had thought he was having an OK time. As we were getting our stuff out to the car, he finally came out with it-- Brigham got to play the piano, but he didn't, and now everyone would think that Brigham was better at the piano than Joseph was. That broke my heart a little. I told him that Brigham isn't better at the piano, he just happened to have one song ready for performing, and another that he had the music for! Joseph is working on his Christmas recital piece, but it's not performance ready yet, and the Hedwig's Theme that he perfected a couple of weeks ago wasn't exactly appropriate for a wedding. Joseph really is a good piano player. He and Brigham, like with everything else, both have their strengths and weaknesses with piano, and they are different from each other. Brigham is a good sight-reader, and has a real knack for improvising. But Joseph is much more intuitive with rhythms and has great hands for powerful chords. His teacher just a couple of weeks ago told me that she could see him playing one of the Rachmaninoff piano concertos when he's a teenager, because he is so good with that style of music. Anyway, I told him that I was really sorry, and that it really wasn't fair that everyone got to hear Brigham, but not Joseph. I promised him that I'd figure out a way for him to get to play the piano at the ward Christmas party so everyone in the ward would have a chance to hear him play, too.
Having twins is hard! It's difficult to praise one twin without the other feeling like he is not praiseworthy, at least not in that particular way... I have to be careful about how I handle that with other people around. Instead of saying, "Yes, Brigham is really talented at the piano-- he loves playing," I need to say, "Yes, Brigham is really talented. Joseph is also an amazing piano player-- they both love playing." Ah, well. By the time we got home, Joseph was in good spirits, and I think no lasting damage was done.
Saturday was a tag-team day for Ben and I. Both of us were scheduled to go to a Stake leadership training in the morning, but of course the boys were home and it was Mosey's last soccer game, so I went and left Ben with the boys.
In the evening, we were both supposed to go to the adult session of Stake Conference, so Ben went to that and I stayed home with the boys. Between times the boys all worked hard in cleaning the cars and straightening up the house.
Yesterday was Stake Conference, which is always nice because it means 2 hours of church instead of 3 (not that I mind 3 hours, it's just nice once in a while to have only 2!), and in the afternoon we drove out to a park in Georgetown that has several acres of pecan trees.
The boys collected a big pile of pecans which we've been working on all day. Yum. In the evening I had a Relief Society committee meeting at our house which lasted 3 hours (!!).
Today I was determined to have a very good, efficient, effective day of lessons. Mosey, however, was not. He had a pretty terrible, rotten, no good, very bad day. He only actually completed one lesson (math), and that was after 3 1/2 hours, much of it spent in the closet. I don't know what came over him. I think I handled everything right. I gave him lots of choices. I never lost my cool. I think my expectations were entirely reasonable, and I followed through with the consequences I set forth for him. But for whatever reason, he was bound and determined not to cooperate. Finally, at about 5:15, he got himself banished to his room for the rest of the night. I went upstairs with him and lay with him in his bed. He struggled and yelled for about an hour, and then finally settled down. Eventually he lay cuddled next to me and planted kisses on my cheek, so I guess I was forgiven. He fell asleep at 8:00, which meant that I was up there with him for almost 3 hours. I really hope tomorrow is a better day. I was reminded of some of what we went through with Joseph a couple of years ago. Joseph has almost entirely grown out of all that, for which I am extremely grateful.
The day was pretty good for the other two boys, though. I just wish I were better at keeping to our schedule. The problem, I think, is that I've only scheduled 30 minutes for piano practicing, when in reality they each take about 45 minutes. And we never get through with breakfast and dressing and chores until 8:15 or sometimes 8:30, so by the time the big boys are done with piano (their first lesson), we're already 45 minutes or an hour behind "schedule," and I get stressed out. I think I just need to accept that their practicing is going to take an hour and a half, and rearrange our schedule to reflect that.
Oh, one more thing. The boys and I finally finished the wall art project for our front entryway wall. I printed a bunch of 5x7s and mounted them on pieces of foam board that I cut to size, and then put them up on the wall with mounting tape. I love it! It's a big wall, and I can add more as time goes on.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Surprise!
Ben and I pulled the greatest trick ever on the boys.
Last Wednesday I told them we needed to meet Ben to go eat dinner with someone who was coming to interview with his company. He was only staying for an hour or so between flights, so we needed to go down to the airport to eat with him in one of the airport restaurants. Also, Ben's company needed to send several suitcases of papers back with this guy, so before we could go into the airport, we had to check the bags. The boys thought this was odd, but sometimes there's no understanding some of the strange decisions of corporations. Inside the airport, we went through security so that we could get to the restaurant. But, unfortunately, when we got in, we found out the guy's flight had been delayed, and he hadn't arrived yet. We ate anyway, and then sat at the gate where the guy would be coming in. Finally, his plane came to the gate. We didn't know what he looked like, but he knew Ben would be waiting for him with his family, so he would recognize us when he came off the plane. Well, the passengers came out of the plane one by one, but he wasn't there! So, we needed to go down into the plane to see if he was there! The airline gate agent, led us down to the plane. Once in the plane, Ben said, "Why don't we just sit in these seats and see if this plane is going anywhere good?"
At this point, the boys were totally baffled. "What's going on? Mom, what's going on?"
Ben sat by Mosey and asked him if he thought the flight attendants would notice we were on the plane. "Don't tell them, Dad!"
But, finally, we let the cat out of the bag. We were on our way to Florida!
Several months ago, we found great tickets to Orlando, so we decided to surprise the boys. Boy, was it a surprise! I kept thinking the boys would see through our extremely flimsy ruse, but I guess they trust their parents, or something... :-)
We flew into Orlando, arriving very early Thursday morning (like, 12:05 AM). We stayed the night in a hotel, and then drove down to South Florida the next day. We stayed 5 days, until Monday night, then drove back up to Orlando, and flew back home yesterday.
It was such a great trip. I have a bunch of pictures which I will try to get posted in the next few days. We went to Butterfly World, out to the Everglades, we took a glass-bottom boat tour out to the coral reef off of Key Largo, toured Coral Castle (Brigham loved this place), went to church at our old ward, spent some time with some dear friends, went to all our old haunts in Rock Creek (the area of Cooper City where we lived), went to the beach on Key Biscayne, went on a bike ride through the Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, and finally back to the beach one last time.
It was so much fun and such a needed break for all of us.
Now we're home, suitcases are unpacked, laundry is started, and it's back to real life. :-)
Last Wednesday I told them we needed to meet Ben to go eat dinner with someone who was coming to interview with his company. He was only staying for an hour or so between flights, so we needed to go down to the airport to eat with him in one of the airport restaurants. Also, Ben's company needed to send several suitcases of papers back with this guy, so before we could go into the airport, we had to check the bags. The boys thought this was odd, but sometimes there's no understanding some of the strange decisions of corporations. Inside the airport, we went through security so that we could get to the restaurant. But, unfortunately, when we got in, we found out the guy's flight had been delayed, and he hadn't arrived yet. We ate anyway, and then sat at the gate where the guy would be coming in. Finally, his plane came to the gate. We didn't know what he looked like, but he knew Ben would be waiting for him with his family, so he would recognize us when he came off the plane. Well, the passengers came out of the plane one by one, but he wasn't there! So, we needed to go down into the plane to see if he was there! The airline gate agent, led us down to the plane. Once in the plane, Ben said, "Why don't we just sit in these seats and see if this plane is going anywhere good?"
At this point, the boys were totally baffled. "What's going on? Mom, what's going on?"
Ben sat by Mosey and asked him if he thought the flight attendants would notice we were on the plane. "Don't tell them, Dad!"
But, finally, we let the cat out of the bag. We were on our way to Florida!
Several months ago, we found great tickets to Orlando, so we decided to surprise the boys. Boy, was it a surprise! I kept thinking the boys would see through our extremely flimsy ruse, but I guess they trust their parents, or something... :-)
We flew into Orlando, arriving very early Thursday morning (like, 12:05 AM). We stayed the night in a hotel, and then drove down to South Florida the next day. We stayed 5 days, until Monday night, then drove back up to Orlando, and flew back home yesterday.
It was such a great trip. I have a bunch of pictures which I will try to get posted in the next few days. We went to Butterfly World, out to the Everglades, we took a glass-bottom boat tour out to the coral reef off of Key Largo, toured Coral Castle (Brigham loved this place), went to church at our old ward, spent some time with some dear friends, went to all our old haunts in Rock Creek (the area of Cooper City where we lived), went to the beach on Key Biscayne, went on a bike ride through the Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, and finally back to the beach one last time.
It was so much fun and such a needed break for all of us.
Now we're home, suitcases are unpacked, laundry is started, and it's back to real life. :-)
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Halloween
Halloween is over and gone for another year. The boys were all very happy with their costumes, and I spent a *little* less time on them this year than last, which is a good thing.
Saturday night was the church Trunk-or-Treat. I sent Ben and the boys on ahead while I attempted to finish a costume for myself. It was a sad failure, and I ended up just wearing a black dress and witch's hat. But I made it in time to see some of the reaction to Ben's costume. He dressed up as Joe Dirt and was quite the sight. The costume works a little too well on him-- he didn't look like himself, but he didn't really look like he was dressed up in a costume, either! The wig is exactly the same color as his real hair, which I think helped to make it more real. After, we went to a Halloween party at the home of a fellow homeschooling family. I made cupcakes to bring, just like the ones I made last week. The edible ink markers are fun!
Yesterday was church as usual, and then the festivities began. I made dinner while Ben helped the boys cut the tops off their pumpkins and begin scooping out the insides. The pumpkin carving took a while, but I believe each boy actually cut almost all of their pumpkins themselves (I think Ben helped Mosey with the knife insertions). We made our traditional pineapple and watermelon jack-o-lanterns, too. The result of all of this was a great big, huge, gigantic mess in the kitchen. Ben moved some of the pumpkin scooping and carving to the floor so the boys could reach better, but that also served to expand the mess as well... I was up until 2:00 AM this morning cleaning everything up, mopping the floor, sorting the seeds from the guts for roasted pumpkin seeds, and generally trying to get ready for the start of this week...
But anyway, the boys went off trick-or-treating at about 7:30. They went by themselves this year! Brigham and Mosey were done by about 8:30, but Joseph wanted to keep going, so Ben went off with him and he stayed out another 20 minutes or so. He really cleaned up, I can tell you!
I didn't get very good pictures of their costumes. I really wanted to take some pictures before it got dark, but we were finishing pumpkin carving, and it just didn't happen.
I tried to let everyone (including myself) sleep in this morning, but the boys were all up by 7:30 anyway. It ended up being a slow lesson day, anyway, because Joseph woke up sick. This kid can't catch a break-- he just got over a stomach virus a couple of weeks ago! This one appears to have been pretty short-lived, though (knock on wood), and he was feeling better by this afternoon. He wasn't sick from too much candy, either-- he's pretty disciplined.
OK, it's way too late and I'm very tired, so I'm just uploading all my Halloween pictures because it takes too much energy to decide which ones to post and which to leave out. Also, I am too lazy to put them in any kind of order.
Ben as Joe Dirt at the church Trunk-or-Treat. I think he caused a scandal! :-)
Brigham as a zombie at the Trunk-or-Treat
The cupcakes I made.
Mosey the pirate! He has a problem with maintaining eye contact when I have the camera out, and I was about out of battery, so here's what you get. He was SO excited about this costume, and has worn it about 15 times since it was finished. I made the shirt and vest and belt.
This is Joseph just after Trick-or-Treating last night. This is a recycled black cloak from his grim reaper costume a couple of years ago. I added the silver trim to make it more alien-y.
It was Joseph's idea to use a swim cap under the hood so his hair wouldn't show.
Joseph's bat pumpkin.
Ben striking some poses on our front porch Halloween night, as we greeted trick-or-treaters. Do you like his ball-point-pen barbed wire tattoo? Maybe I should be a tattoo artist. :-)
Brigham was my most enthusiastic pumpkin-guts cleaner-outer.
Brigham the zombie after coming home from trick-or-treating.
Brigham's cat pumpkin. Good design, huh?
Joseph was at first not excited about carving pumpkins. I think he doesn't like to compete with Brigham (and everything turns into a competition with twins) when it comes to things artistic, and he's a bit of a pessimist anyway. He kept drawing faces made of squares and rectangles, saying that was all he would be able to do. I encouraged him to try something else anyway, and I'd help him if he needed help. As it was, he did the entire thing himself! I think he surprised himself and I'm so glad he did it!
Mosey working on his pumpkin with Dad. Ben helped him begin the cuts, but I think he did most of the actual cutting himself.
And here is the final result of Mosey's first jack-o-lantern! Good job, baby!
Pineapple man. His mouth was better when I cut it, but it got kind of squished down by its own weight.
Pirate Mosey coming back from Trick-or-Treating. He weighed his candy bag this morning-- 3.8 lbs!!! Oh, my.
This is my skull jack-o-lantern.
The trick-or-treaters, about to head out.
Here's watermelon face. I like this one this year. Carving watermelons and pineapples is a tradition in our family since the time a few years ago when we waited until Halloween day to buy pumpkins. The grocery store was sold out, so instead Ben bought a pineapple and watermelon. I love this tradition! You get to eat the guts and all the parts you cut out! (Although the juice it generates is pretty spectacular and exceedingly sticky...)
Here is Joseph this evening, after he was finally feeling better. He dumped all his candy out on the kitchen floor and organized it by type. We have dentist appointments coming up later this month, and looking at this, I'm thinking the boys better start brushing their teeth 5 times a day!
So, that was the Halloween weekend. On to Thanksgiving!
Saturday night was the church Trunk-or-Treat. I sent Ben and the boys on ahead while I attempted to finish a costume for myself. It was a sad failure, and I ended up just wearing a black dress and witch's hat. But I made it in time to see some of the reaction to Ben's costume. He dressed up as Joe Dirt and was quite the sight. The costume works a little too well on him-- he didn't look like himself, but he didn't really look like he was dressed up in a costume, either! The wig is exactly the same color as his real hair, which I think helped to make it more real. After, we went to a Halloween party at the home of a fellow homeschooling family. I made cupcakes to bring, just like the ones I made last week. The edible ink markers are fun!
Yesterday was church as usual, and then the festivities began. I made dinner while Ben helped the boys cut the tops off their pumpkins and begin scooping out the insides. The pumpkin carving took a while, but I believe each boy actually cut almost all of their pumpkins themselves (I think Ben helped Mosey with the knife insertions). We made our traditional pineapple and watermelon jack-o-lanterns, too. The result of all of this was a great big, huge, gigantic mess in the kitchen. Ben moved some of the pumpkin scooping and carving to the floor so the boys could reach better, but that also served to expand the mess as well... I was up until 2:00 AM this morning cleaning everything up, mopping the floor, sorting the seeds from the guts for roasted pumpkin seeds, and generally trying to get ready for the start of this week...
But anyway, the boys went off trick-or-treating at about 7:30. They went by themselves this year! Brigham and Mosey were done by about 8:30, but Joseph wanted to keep going, so Ben went off with him and he stayed out another 20 minutes or so. He really cleaned up, I can tell you!
I didn't get very good pictures of their costumes. I really wanted to take some pictures before it got dark, but we were finishing pumpkin carving, and it just didn't happen.
I tried to let everyone (including myself) sleep in this morning, but the boys were all up by 7:30 anyway. It ended up being a slow lesson day, anyway, because Joseph woke up sick. This kid can't catch a break-- he just got over a stomach virus a couple of weeks ago! This one appears to have been pretty short-lived, though (knock on wood), and he was feeling better by this afternoon. He wasn't sick from too much candy, either-- he's pretty disciplined.
OK, it's way too late and I'm very tired, so I'm just uploading all my Halloween pictures because it takes too much energy to decide which ones to post and which to leave out. Also, I am too lazy to put them in any kind of order.
So, that was the Halloween weekend. On to Thanksgiving!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
This and that from the past few days
Mosey is obsessed. Obsessed with duct tape! You would not believe how much of the stuff he has gone through recently. He is making all kinds of things-- wallets (duct-tape covered zip-lock bags), boats (raft of skewer sticks covered with duct tape), a rosin case for his violin rosin, not to mention the innumerable things he's used duct tape to construct-- a makeshift dog leash, collars for his stuffed animals, the list goes on.
The stuff is miraculous! Give him a roll of duct tape and he will keep himself busy for hours and hours. Mosey is my connoisseur of tape. He goes through it like candy. Packing tape, scotch tape, blue painter's tape, and, of course, duct tape.
Another (unrelated to duct tape) funny thing recently: Mosey brought in the mail a few days ago, and I sorted it, giving him the junk mail to throw away. Somehow we ended up on a mailing list for an American Girl catalog. I kept it and said, as a joke, "Oh, hey, boys! I've found the catalog I'm going to order all your Christmas presents from!" And then I pulled it out to show them, and watched the horrified expressions on their faces. :-) The really funny thing, though, is that later on in the day, I caught Mosey sitting on the couch completely immersed in the American Girl catalog. We've now had the thing for a few days, and it's getting positively dog-eared! (Seriously, all the stuff they have for those dolls is really amazing!) Still, I don't think they'd be too thrilled with an American Girl doll for Christmas.
On Monday night we had a family home evening activity at Walmart, trying to get parts to fix the boys' bikes. We discovered you can buy an entirely new bike for the cost of a new tire and a couple of new innertubes. So Brigham bought himself a new bike! This is BIG NEWS because Brigham hardly ever buys ANYTHING. He's been saving his money since he was old enough to collect pennies for little chores, and he now has over $270.00 (!!!). Ben has given him the nick-name of "Money Bags," and Mosey especially really loves to call Brigham, "Old money bags Brigham." :-) But old money bags Brigham spent $43 of his money on a new bike Monday night. I was proud of him! It's good to save, but I think it's also important for him to have the experience of buying something himself, and then being responsible for taking care of it. He was very diligent, and as soon as he realized the sprinklers were going to get it where he had parked it in the backyard, he ran out and moved it under the back porch.
Joseph's been my errand-buddy the past couple of days. Whenever I have errands to run, I ask the boys if they want to come. Brigham and Mosey always have way better things to do at home (Webkinz World, Civilization, kapla blocks, duct-tape creations), but Joseph likes to come with me. It's awesome getting to have one-on-one conversations with him.
Halloween is coming! The boys are counting down the days in earnest now. I'm still putting the last touches on Joseph's and Mosey's costumes, and hoping I'll have time to maybe make one for myself this year. We'll see. My "Boo" shirt from the Target Halloween line may have to suffice. :-)
That's it, I think. Bedtime!
The stuff is miraculous! Give him a roll of duct tape and he will keep himself busy for hours and hours. Mosey is my connoisseur of tape. He goes through it like candy. Packing tape, scotch tape, blue painter's tape, and, of course, duct tape.
Another (unrelated to duct tape) funny thing recently: Mosey brought in the mail a few days ago, and I sorted it, giving him the junk mail to throw away. Somehow we ended up on a mailing list for an American Girl catalog. I kept it and said, as a joke, "Oh, hey, boys! I've found the catalog I'm going to order all your Christmas presents from!" And then I pulled it out to show them, and watched the horrified expressions on their faces. :-) The really funny thing, though, is that later on in the day, I caught Mosey sitting on the couch completely immersed in the American Girl catalog. We've now had the thing for a few days, and it's getting positively dog-eared! (Seriously, all the stuff they have for those dolls is really amazing!) Still, I don't think they'd be too thrilled with an American Girl doll for Christmas.
On Monday night we had a family home evening activity at Walmart, trying to get parts to fix the boys' bikes. We discovered you can buy an entirely new bike for the cost of a new tire and a couple of new innertubes. So Brigham bought himself a new bike! This is BIG NEWS because Brigham hardly ever buys ANYTHING. He's been saving his money since he was old enough to collect pennies for little chores, and he now has over $270.00 (!!!). Ben has given him the nick-name of "Money Bags," and Mosey especially really loves to call Brigham, "Old money bags Brigham." :-) But old money bags Brigham spent $43 of his money on a new bike Monday night. I was proud of him! It's good to save, but I think it's also important for him to have the experience of buying something himself, and then being responsible for taking care of it. He was very diligent, and as soon as he realized the sprinklers were going to get it where he had parked it in the backyard, he ran out and moved it under the back porch.
Joseph's been my errand-buddy the past couple of days. Whenever I have errands to run, I ask the boys if they want to come. Brigham and Mosey always have way better things to do at home (Webkinz World, Civilization, kapla blocks, duct-tape creations), but Joseph likes to come with me. It's awesome getting to have one-on-one conversations with him.
Halloween is coming! The boys are counting down the days in earnest now. I'm still putting the last touches on Joseph's and Mosey's costumes, and hoping I'll have time to maybe make one for myself this year. We'll see. My "Boo" shirt from the Target Halloween line may have to suffice. :-)
That's it, I think. Bedtime!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Austin Gem and Mineral show
Today was a good Saturday.
Brigham and Joseph had their Halloween recital at their teacher's house. This is a students-only recital, and all the kids came dressed up and brought food for a potluck lunch. I made mini cupcakes decorated with spiders and spider webs and bats and skull and crossbones and eyeballs and "BOO!" They turned out cute, although I probably spent too long on them last night. I'll make more next week and take a picture.
Joseph is an alien this year. He's recycling a grim reaper robe from a couple of weeks ago and added some silver accents and some nifty alien face paint. Brigham is a zombie. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours going from Goodwill to Goodwill to find the elements of his costume. We went to 3 different Goodwills and a Salvation army in order to find one pair of dark pants and a suit-jacket type thing. I couldn't believe the poor selection of boys clothes! The pants he finally found were size 7. Good thing we shredded the bottoms anyway, because they were too short. We never could find a white button-down shirt, so we used a blue button down shirt the boys used as painting smocks. We also couldn't find a boy's suit jacket or blazer. Brigham found a women's size 2 suit jacket which fit reasonably well once we cut the sleeves a bit. I guess little boys just use their clothes up, not leaving much worthwhile giving to Goodwill. I only made it through the first Goodwill and the Salvation Army right next door before my legs gave out. I sent the 3 boys into their other stores by themselves to browse around and buy what they needed. I have independent boys!
Anyway, these are my favorite kinds of Halloween costume-- not store-bought, but also not requiring hours and hours of my time and labor. The boys used their imaginations and came up with their own costumes. I love it! I'll take pictures next week. Mosey's going to be a pirate, which also could be a pretty easy costume, but I told him I'd sew him a fancy ruffled pirate shirt, so it's turning out to be a little more work.
Mosey had a soccer game this morning which Ben took him to. They tied, 0-0! This is a good thing for this little team. :-) Every week their loss margin has shrunk, and today they tied, so maybe, just maybe, they'll win next week? I hope so. Mosey doesn't care as much as Brigham and Joseph did, but he does care a little. The YMCA didn't do a super good job in dividing the teams equally by age. This is a 6-8 year league, and Mosey's team has mostly 6 year olds with a few 7 year olds. No 8 year olds at all. There is a huge gap between the soccer abilities of most 6 year olds versus most 8 year olds, so this little team doesn't have much of a chance against teams with even a few more older kids. A couple of weeks ago when I went to his game, the other team was HUGE compared to Mosey's. One of the girls was the tallest, biggest 8 year old I have ever seen. She was nearly my height!
But Mosey is still enjoying soccer, and that's what I care about. And he came home thrilled because Ben took him to Red Barn (local nursery) and bought him a pumpkin. I admit I am not a good soccer mom. I don't like watching my boys' games! I just get too nervous for them. They're probably not even nervous, but I am! I hate to see them lose, not because I care if they're superstars, but just because I hate to see them disappointed and hurt. And yet, I know these experiences are one of the most valuable thing about playing team sports! Intellectually, I don't want to deprive them of these experiences, but in practice it is awfully hard for me. I'd much rather Ben take them, and then afterwards I can either be consoling or celebrating. I know Mosey likes it when I come, but the soccer field is about a million miles away from the parking lot, and I can't walk there by myself. The path is not the slightest bit wheelchair accessible. So I don't feel too guilty about not going to all his games. And today I had to take Brigham and Joseph to their recital, anyway.
On the way home from the recital I asked Joseph to go into the pet supply store to get crickets for Spots. Joseph was horrified because he was still in his costume and face makeup. But I didn't want to go all the way home and then all the way back, since the store was right on our way home. So I made him go in anyway. I hope I'm not traumatizing him for life. I know Joseph is acutely self-conscious, and he hates feeling like people are looking at him and thinking he's weird, or laughing at him. I told him no one on earth would think he was weird or laugh at him. It's the week before Halloween, and he's obviously coming from a party. Anyway, he did go in and get the crickets. I hope I'm not exacerbating the problem.
When we got home, I told the boys we were going to go to the Austin Gem and Mineral Society's gem and mineral show at the Palmer Events Center downtown. Oh, my, how the moaning and groaning did commence! You would have thought I just told them we were all going to get fillings at the dentist!!! They wanted to stay home. Brigham wanted to draw. Joseph wanted to read. All of them tried to tell me that Saturdays are supposed to be their free days. I have no idea where they got this notion, but I need to root it out of them, and quick! Saturdays we don't have school lessons. But that's it. Saturdays are NOT free! I told them we could stay home and do chores all afternoon if they wanted, and Mosey actually just about took me up on the offer until I told him about the gem hunt they had at the show. Finally they all very reluctantly got into the van and we headed downtown. Well, the gem and mineral show ended up being fantastic! We stayed all the way until closing time, and the boys loved it. We saw all the gems and minerals you could hope to see. The boys got pieces of petrified wood and a fossil as free gifts. There was a "gem hunt" where the kids had 2 minutes to dig through big tubs of gravel to find the hidden polished rocks-- then they got to keep what they found. Mosey was especially thrilled with this, and did it twice ($0.50 each time). There was a place where you could buy geodes and crack them open. We didn't buy any (expensive!), but watched them being cracked open. I gave each boy $4 to buy something. Mosey got a moonstone, and Joseph and Brigham got these cool glass diamonds-- about 3 inches in diameter. Brigham's is green, Joseph's is blue. We just finished our section on minerals, and are starting on rocks in science, so the timing of this event was perfect. The boys knew a decent amount about minerals, and they were all able to find real specimens of the specific gems that they did their reports on. Everywhere there were experts on the things we were looking at-- rare gems, geodes, fossils, petrified wood, etc. We got to watch minerals being cut and polished. Anyway, this was a really awesome way to spend Saturday afternoon. It would have been easier to stay home, but I told the boys that if they just stayed home and built with blocks or drew pictures, they would never remember any of it a year from now, but if we went to the gem show, they would probably remember it their whole lives. And all three of them enthusiastically told me that I was right and that they were glad they came. I didn't even have to say "I told you so!"
The only thing that could have made it better was if Ben had been able to come. He's been swamped at work and worked from about noon until 7:45 tonight. Poor guy!
I didn't take any pictures there because when I got there and took out my camera, I realized my memory card was still in my computer at home... Oh, well.
When we got home, Brigham and Joseph immediately began trading their stones they got at the gem hunt. I was making dinner, listening to the negotiations in the background. Joseph is a hard bargainer, and knows just how to play Brigham to get what he wants. It was fun to listen to them, but I started to get worried. Finally, negotiations were complete, and the boys were putting away their final selections. Brigham looks at what he's got left, and started crying. He had this pitiful pile of rocks left, and Joseph had a huge sackful. Brigham had voluntarily traded all his rocks away, but he's just not as sophisticated a bargainer as Joseph, and I don't think he quite realized what was happening until it was too late. I went over and got out my kitchen scales to see how much each boy had. Joseph ended up with over 3 times the weight of rocks than Brigham had! I complemented Joseph on his negotiating skills, but told him that he was honing his talent at the expense of his brother, non-malicious though it may have been. So we entered into another round of mom-mediated negotiations, and I think both boys walked away satisfied. After it was over, Brigham told me, "I learned a lesson tonight, and that lesson is to be happy with what I have!" I told him if he learns this lesson, he will be way beyond most human beings on this planet.
That was it! A great Saturday.
Brigham and Joseph had their Halloween recital at their teacher's house. This is a students-only recital, and all the kids came dressed up and brought food for a potluck lunch. I made mini cupcakes decorated with spiders and spider webs and bats and skull and crossbones and eyeballs and "BOO!" They turned out cute, although I probably spent too long on them last night. I'll make more next week and take a picture.
Joseph is an alien this year. He's recycling a grim reaper robe from a couple of weeks ago and added some silver accents and some nifty alien face paint. Brigham is a zombie. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours going from Goodwill to Goodwill to find the elements of his costume. We went to 3 different Goodwills and a Salvation army in order to find one pair of dark pants and a suit-jacket type thing. I couldn't believe the poor selection of boys clothes! The pants he finally found were size 7. Good thing we shredded the bottoms anyway, because they were too short. We never could find a white button-down shirt, so we used a blue button down shirt the boys used as painting smocks. We also couldn't find a boy's suit jacket or blazer. Brigham found a women's size 2 suit jacket which fit reasonably well once we cut the sleeves a bit. I guess little boys just use their clothes up, not leaving much worthwhile giving to Goodwill. I only made it through the first Goodwill and the Salvation Army right next door before my legs gave out. I sent the 3 boys into their other stores by themselves to browse around and buy what they needed. I have independent boys!
Anyway, these are my favorite kinds of Halloween costume-- not store-bought, but also not requiring hours and hours of my time and labor. The boys used their imaginations and came up with their own costumes. I love it! I'll take pictures next week. Mosey's going to be a pirate, which also could be a pretty easy costume, but I told him I'd sew him a fancy ruffled pirate shirt, so it's turning out to be a little more work.
Mosey had a soccer game this morning which Ben took him to. They tied, 0-0! This is a good thing for this little team. :-) Every week their loss margin has shrunk, and today they tied, so maybe, just maybe, they'll win next week? I hope so. Mosey doesn't care as much as Brigham and Joseph did, but he does care a little. The YMCA didn't do a super good job in dividing the teams equally by age. This is a 6-8 year league, and Mosey's team has mostly 6 year olds with a few 7 year olds. No 8 year olds at all. There is a huge gap between the soccer abilities of most 6 year olds versus most 8 year olds, so this little team doesn't have much of a chance against teams with even a few more older kids. A couple of weeks ago when I went to his game, the other team was HUGE compared to Mosey's. One of the girls was the tallest, biggest 8 year old I have ever seen. She was nearly my height!
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| Mosey after his game a couple of weeks ago. He didn't want to high-five the other team, and he stalked back to the sidelines very clearly unhappy. |
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| Now that is a scowl! Luckily, he bounced back pretty quickly. |
On the way home from the recital I asked Joseph to go into the pet supply store to get crickets for Spots. Joseph was horrified because he was still in his costume and face makeup. But I didn't want to go all the way home and then all the way back, since the store was right on our way home. So I made him go in anyway. I hope I'm not traumatizing him for life. I know Joseph is acutely self-conscious, and he hates feeling like people are looking at him and thinking he's weird, or laughing at him. I told him no one on earth would think he was weird or laugh at him. It's the week before Halloween, and he's obviously coming from a party. Anyway, he did go in and get the crickets. I hope I'm not exacerbating the problem.
When we got home, I told the boys we were going to go to the Austin Gem and Mineral Society's gem and mineral show at the Palmer Events Center downtown. Oh, my, how the moaning and groaning did commence! You would have thought I just told them we were all going to get fillings at the dentist!!! They wanted to stay home. Brigham wanted to draw. Joseph wanted to read. All of them tried to tell me that Saturdays are supposed to be their free days. I have no idea where they got this notion, but I need to root it out of them, and quick! Saturdays we don't have school lessons. But that's it. Saturdays are NOT free! I told them we could stay home and do chores all afternoon if they wanted, and Mosey actually just about took me up on the offer until I told him about the gem hunt they had at the show. Finally they all very reluctantly got into the van and we headed downtown. Well, the gem and mineral show ended up being fantastic! We stayed all the way until closing time, and the boys loved it. We saw all the gems and minerals you could hope to see. The boys got pieces of petrified wood and a fossil as free gifts. There was a "gem hunt" where the kids had 2 minutes to dig through big tubs of gravel to find the hidden polished rocks-- then they got to keep what they found. Mosey was especially thrilled with this, and did it twice ($0.50 each time). There was a place where you could buy geodes and crack them open. We didn't buy any (expensive!), but watched them being cracked open. I gave each boy $4 to buy something. Mosey got a moonstone, and Joseph and Brigham got these cool glass diamonds-- about 3 inches in diameter. Brigham's is green, Joseph's is blue. We just finished our section on minerals, and are starting on rocks in science, so the timing of this event was perfect. The boys knew a decent amount about minerals, and they were all able to find real specimens of the specific gems that they did their reports on. Everywhere there were experts on the things we were looking at-- rare gems, geodes, fossils, petrified wood, etc. We got to watch minerals being cut and polished. Anyway, this was a really awesome way to spend Saturday afternoon. It would have been easier to stay home, but I told the boys that if they just stayed home and built with blocks or drew pictures, they would never remember any of it a year from now, but if we went to the gem show, they would probably remember it their whole lives. And all three of them enthusiastically told me that I was right and that they were glad they came. I didn't even have to say "I told you so!"
The only thing that could have made it better was if Ben had been able to come. He's been swamped at work and worked from about noon until 7:45 tonight. Poor guy!
I didn't take any pictures there because when I got there and took out my camera, I realized my memory card was still in my computer at home... Oh, well.
When we got home, Brigham and Joseph immediately began trading their stones they got at the gem hunt. I was making dinner, listening to the negotiations in the background. Joseph is a hard bargainer, and knows just how to play Brigham to get what he wants. It was fun to listen to them, but I started to get worried. Finally, negotiations were complete, and the boys were putting away their final selections. Brigham looks at what he's got left, and started crying. He had this pitiful pile of rocks left, and Joseph had a huge sackful. Brigham had voluntarily traded all his rocks away, but he's just not as sophisticated a bargainer as Joseph, and I don't think he quite realized what was happening until it was too late. I went over and got out my kitchen scales to see how much each boy had. Joseph ended up with over 3 times the weight of rocks than Brigham had! I complemented Joseph on his negotiating skills, but told him that he was honing his talent at the expense of his brother, non-malicious though it may have been. So we entered into another round of mom-mediated negotiations, and I think both boys walked away satisfied. After it was over, Brigham told me, "I learned a lesson tonight, and that lesson is to be happy with what I have!" I told him if he learns this lesson, he will be way beyond most human beings on this planet.
That was it! A great Saturday.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Quick catch-up
The past few days have been busy, as usual. Here's a very, very fast run-down:
Thursday (last): Our busy day with school lessons, then piano lessons, then violin lessons. We forgot Brigham's recital piece at home, so Joseph and Mosey and I raced home to get it during Brigham's lesson-- getting it to him just in time with 5 minutes to spare. The boys are working on their Halloween recital pieces and sounding awesome. Brigham and Mosey had good violin lessons. I was especially proud of Mosey who did a really good job of focusing and listening to his teacher (his teacher has a dog that is almost irresistible to Mosey, and just a little distracting during lessons). After violin lessons we went to Home Depot for "just one thing." The boys don't love going to Home Depot or Lowes because it inevitably turns into a much longer shopping excursion, and this was no exception. The boys were good and helpful, though, perhaps encouraged by the promise of frozen custard at Shakes on the way home. :-)
Friday: Our slower "off" day. We went to Ben's work for their fall work party. It was Oktoberfest-themed, I think, with great German food, and various event-planning employees walking around in lederhosen. :-) This year families were invited, but the boys were still among the very few children. I guess most other school-aged kids were in school! The boys especially liked the caramel-apple making station with apples, caramel, and various toppings to roll them in. What a fun idea for a party! That night was the Fathers-and-Sons outing, postponed from last Spring when it got rained out. The weather was perfect last weekend, and the boys were so excited. We went to HEB and got camping food (tin foil dinners, hot dogs, s'mores), and then went home and got packed up. I was excited, too, because I got the whole evening to myself for my own projects. I reorganized our hall closet food storage shelves, and then made Mosey a VIP poster like the ones I made for Brigham and Joseph when they were in 1st grade. I've been meaning to do this for him, and managed to get prints made a couple of weeks ago. It is fun making these, but very time consuming. I was up until after 5 AM finishing it, and then getting the house all picked up and ready for a Relief Society activity in the morning.
Saturday: In the morning we had a family history workshop at my house for the Relief Society, learning to use www.familysearch.org. It was fun, and I think I was coherent, despite my 3 hours of sleep. :-) The boys and Ben got back around noon and I sent them all straight to the showers to banish the campfire smell, and then I took a nap myself. We had a quiet afternoon and evening the rest of the day.
Sunday: Typical Sunday. Went to church, came home, made dinner, ate dinner, cleaned up dinner, tidied up for Monday, and went to bed! The boys enjoyed the weather and rode their bikes out in the driveway/basketball court. Mosey is determined to learn to ride a two-wheeler. I feel like a negligent mom that I haven't facilitated his learning to ride a bike until now... He's always been happy with the Big Wheels and his scooter. But his friend Joseph, just a few months older than him was spending the afternoon with us after church, and he is a hot-shot bike rider and I think got a bike-riding fire burning under Mosey.
Monday-Wednesday: Typical weekdays. Lessons are going well. We did a fun science experiment with limestone and vinegar, showing how acid rain works and demonstrating the metamorphosis of rock into sediment. We finally did our scratch-tests with the minerals we bought at the State Capitol a couple of weeks ago. Mosey took a trial Tae-Kwon-Do class on Monday evening and loved it. The only problem is that the class is held at the top of 19 very steep stairs. I wonder if I can get Ben to take him? Joseph came with me and actually got kind of interested as well. He and Brigham quit Tae Kwon Do at about the same age Mosey is now, and I can see how much more coordinated they are after a couple of years. They probably would be much better now, and might get more out of it. I'm not sure if I should encourage them to start up again, though, because I like that Mosey has his own activity. We'll see. For family home evening we had a lesson on tithing, and set up our new bank balance for the boys-- we're moving to a fancy Excel version, an upgrade from my poster-board chart on the wall system we've been using up until now. Today the boys had art (my unit on drawing is done and the boys are doing a sculpture unit at another mom's house), and Mosey threw a fit when we got there, not wanting to go in the house. He hid under the seat in the van telling me he felt like he was going to throw up. I couldn't figure out what was going on! They were making pinch-pots with clay, for heaven's sake! What kid doesn't like to do that?! Finally I got it out of him that he felt like he wasn't as good at art as the other boys and was afraid he couldn't do it. I asked him if he wanted me to go in with him and help and he nodded. As it turned out, I didn't help a bit. He did a great job, and turned out one of the better pots. I hope that helped his confidence. He is the youngest boy there and I think feels a bit intimidated. I don't expect that of him since he's otherwise such a very confident, outgoing, fearless kid. I think the fact that he is so good at so many things kind of works against him in some ways-- he is more afraid of not being good enough, because he really doesn't have any experience with it! :-)
Tonight I spent a scintillating couple of hours folding laundry, and now I'm going to bed because 6:20 comes awfully early, and Thursdays are our marathon days!
Thursday (last): Our busy day with school lessons, then piano lessons, then violin lessons. We forgot Brigham's recital piece at home, so Joseph and Mosey and I raced home to get it during Brigham's lesson-- getting it to him just in time with 5 minutes to spare. The boys are working on their Halloween recital pieces and sounding awesome. Brigham and Mosey had good violin lessons. I was especially proud of Mosey who did a really good job of focusing and listening to his teacher (his teacher has a dog that is almost irresistible to Mosey, and just a little distracting during lessons). After violin lessons we went to Home Depot for "just one thing." The boys don't love going to Home Depot or Lowes because it inevitably turns into a much longer shopping excursion, and this was no exception. The boys were good and helpful, though, perhaps encouraged by the promise of frozen custard at Shakes on the way home. :-)
Friday: Our slower "off" day. We went to Ben's work for their fall work party. It was Oktoberfest-themed, I think, with great German food, and various event-planning employees walking around in lederhosen. :-) This year families were invited, but the boys were still among the very few children. I guess most other school-aged kids were in school! The boys especially liked the caramel-apple making station with apples, caramel, and various toppings to roll them in. What a fun idea for a party! That night was the Fathers-and-Sons outing, postponed from last Spring when it got rained out. The weather was perfect last weekend, and the boys were so excited. We went to HEB and got camping food (tin foil dinners, hot dogs, s'mores), and then went home and got packed up. I was excited, too, because I got the whole evening to myself for my own projects. I reorganized our hall closet food storage shelves, and then made Mosey a VIP poster like the ones I made for Brigham and Joseph when they were in 1st grade. I've been meaning to do this for him, and managed to get prints made a couple of weeks ago. It is fun making these, but very time consuming. I was up until after 5 AM finishing it, and then getting the house all picked up and ready for a Relief Society activity in the morning.
Saturday: In the morning we had a family history workshop at my house for the Relief Society, learning to use www.familysearch.org. It was fun, and I think I was coherent, despite my 3 hours of sleep. :-) The boys and Ben got back around noon and I sent them all straight to the showers to banish the campfire smell, and then I took a nap myself. We had a quiet afternoon and evening the rest of the day.
Sunday: Typical Sunday. Went to church, came home, made dinner, ate dinner, cleaned up dinner, tidied up for Monday, and went to bed! The boys enjoyed the weather and rode their bikes out in the driveway/basketball court. Mosey is determined to learn to ride a two-wheeler. I feel like a negligent mom that I haven't facilitated his learning to ride a bike until now... He's always been happy with the Big Wheels and his scooter. But his friend Joseph, just a few months older than him was spending the afternoon with us after church, and he is a hot-shot bike rider and I think got a bike-riding fire burning under Mosey.
Monday-Wednesday: Typical weekdays. Lessons are going well. We did a fun science experiment with limestone and vinegar, showing how acid rain works and demonstrating the metamorphosis of rock into sediment. We finally did our scratch-tests with the minerals we bought at the State Capitol a couple of weeks ago. Mosey took a trial Tae-Kwon-Do class on Monday evening and loved it. The only problem is that the class is held at the top of 19 very steep stairs. I wonder if I can get Ben to take him? Joseph came with me and actually got kind of interested as well. He and Brigham quit Tae Kwon Do at about the same age Mosey is now, and I can see how much more coordinated they are after a couple of years. They probably would be much better now, and might get more out of it. I'm not sure if I should encourage them to start up again, though, because I like that Mosey has his own activity. We'll see. For family home evening we had a lesson on tithing, and set up our new bank balance for the boys-- we're moving to a fancy Excel version, an upgrade from my poster-board chart on the wall system we've been using up until now. Today the boys had art (my unit on drawing is done and the boys are doing a sculpture unit at another mom's house), and Mosey threw a fit when we got there, not wanting to go in the house. He hid under the seat in the van telling me he felt like he was going to throw up. I couldn't figure out what was going on! They were making pinch-pots with clay, for heaven's sake! What kid doesn't like to do that?! Finally I got it out of him that he felt like he wasn't as good at art as the other boys and was afraid he couldn't do it. I asked him if he wanted me to go in with him and help and he nodded. As it turned out, I didn't help a bit. He did a great job, and turned out one of the better pots. I hope that helped his confidence. He is the youngest boy there and I think feels a bit intimidated. I don't expect that of him since he's otherwise such a very confident, outgoing, fearless kid. I think the fact that he is so good at so many things kind of works against him in some ways-- he is more afraid of not being good enough, because he really doesn't have any experience with it! :-)
Tonight I spent a scintillating couple of hours folding laundry, and now I'm going to bed because 6:20 comes awfully early, and Thursdays are our marathon days!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Damage control
On the way home from art today, Joseph was moaning about how we're going to be doing a singing unit soon. "What's wrong with singing?" I ask.
"Singing is for girls," he replies with an utterly disgusted tone.
"What?! Who ever told you that??"
After some digging, it comes out in the open that when he was in public school, he got teased for his high-pitched voice (or at least, what he interpreted as teasing). He thinks that singing will make him sound like a girl.
Ugh. That is so frustrating! I don't know if the kid really was teasing Joseph, or if the simple fact of Joseph's high (utterly adorable) voice being pointed out was enough to make him really self-conscious about it. Joseph is really sensitive and it doesn't take much to push him over the edge like that. But whatever, it's so sad that this has apparently turned him off of singing.
It has been a mystery to me why he's been such a pill about singing with the primary kids in Sacrament Meeting over the past couple of years. I guess now I know why.
When we got home, I got on Youtube and tried to find a bunch of videos from male American Idol contestants from the past few years. I told him that if you are a successful male singer, you are probably RICH, FAMOUS, POPULAR, and definitely not girly.
I'm not sure he bought it. I guess at least I don't have to worry about having a son obsessed with becoming a rock star? :-)
He also told me that he was teased for wearing his CTR (Choose The Right) ring when he was in school. Another little girl in his class, (one of I think 5 LDS kids in the school, including my 2), also wore a CTR ring, and Joseph got teased by Andy (he still remembers his name 3 years later) about being "married" to her because they wore matching rings. That was the last time he ever wore his CTR ring.
I really wish I had just been brave and started homeschooling them from the very beginning, never even bothering with the whole public school thing. They were only in school for 2 years and I'm still having to do damage control.
"Singing is for girls," he replies with an utterly disgusted tone.
"What?! Who ever told you that??"
After some digging, it comes out in the open that when he was in public school, he got teased for his high-pitched voice (or at least, what he interpreted as teasing). He thinks that singing will make him sound like a girl.
Ugh. That is so frustrating! I don't know if the kid really was teasing Joseph, or if the simple fact of Joseph's high (utterly adorable) voice being pointed out was enough to make him really self-conscious about it. Joseph is really sensitive and it doesn't take much to push him over the edge like that. But whatever, it's so sad that this has apparently turned him off of singing.
It has been a mystery to me why he's been such a pill about singing with the primary kids in Sacrament Meeting over the past couple of years. I guess now I know why.
When we got home, I got on Youtube and tried to find a bunch of videos from male American Idol contestants from the past few years. I told him that if you are a successful male singer, you are probably RICH, FAMOUS, POPULAR, and definitely not girly.
I'm not sure he bought it. I guess at least I don't have to worry about having a son obsessed with becoming a rock star? :-)
He also told me that he was teased for wearing his CTR (Choose The Right) ring when he was in school. Another little girl in his class, (one of I think 5 LDS kids in the school, including my 2), also wore a CTR ring, and Joseph got teased by Andy (he still remembers his name 3 years later) about being "married" to her because they wore matching rings. That was the last time he ever wore his CTR ring.
I really wish I had just been brave and started homeschooling them from the very beginning, never even bothering with the whole public school thing. They were only in school for 2 years and I'm still having to do damage control.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Rewind: flood!
I'm trying, slowly, to go back through my photos from the last couple of months and organize them. I found these pictures from about a month ago. We had been in Target and heard a tremendous downpour-- loud enough that we heard it well inside the store. Joseph and Mosey ran up to the front of the store and looked out the glass doors. It was raining, and hard! When we were done shopping and driving home, we were amazed to see a lot of water in the drainage systems around our neighborhood. These look kind of like big, grassy river beds, and I'd never seen them filled up like that (although I'm sure they have been-- I'd just never been out driving immediately after a huge downpour). We were on our way home and had to be on our way somewhere else shortly after that, although I can't remember where. But the boys really wanted to go play in the water. I almost said, "No, we'll go next time it rains," but then thought better of it. This would be something the boys would remember, and it's good to be spontaneous sometimes! So we went home and unloaded the groceries, and then made our way to one of these waterways. The boys ran down and played in the water and I stood on the bridge overlooking where it crosses over the road. By the time we got there, the water had subsided somewhat. Before, there was whitewater! It's good it had gone down a bit; I'm not sure how safe it would have been otherwise.
In this picture, you can see how high the water had been earlier-- see the line of leaves and debris on the left side of the river? The water was at least up to there, probably another 18 inches deeper at least.
Jack is here!
A few days ago Mosey decided to cash in most of the points he's accumulated so far this school year to buy a new Webkinz. Yes, another one. He had him named before we even clicked "complete order" on Amazon.com. Jack was coming! He was supposed to be here on Tuesday, but took his sweet time and finally got here yesterday, causing quite a disruption during the big boys' grammar lesson.
Mosey is a happy boy! I'm not sure I've ever seen a look of such anticipation on his face when the box came and he started opening it. I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures, although by that time, the look of utter bliss had subsided somewhat. He's still cute!
I wonder if Arctie has got some competition for Mosey's primary affections?
I wonder if Arctie has got some competition for Mosey's primary affections?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Poor, poor Joseph
Joseph is finally better today, after being really, really sick for 2 days. I thought he was going to have a 24 hour bug, but that virus kept going strong for about 48. Yesterday he spent the day sleeping and throwing up, and that's about it.
I was worried about him getting dehydrated. I gave him water and juice to sip, but he couldn't even keep that down. He woke up in the night so thirsty, and I felt so mean telling him he had to only take small sips. He told me, "Water is the best thing in the world, mom!"
As bad as I felt for him, there is nothing like a sick child for a constant source of cuddles. He asked me once, "Why do you stay near me? Aren't you afraid you'll get sick?" I told him that yeah, I might get sick, but it was worth it to me if I could help him at all through his sickness.
That's a mother's love!
He finally woke up this morning feeling better, although really weak. It's amazing how 48 hours with no food shows on a 58 lb boy. His eyes looked huge in his head and his cheeks were noticeably hollow. He told me, "I feel tiny, mom." And he looked it. He ate a little today-- hot chocolate, some applesauce and toast and half a bowl of chicken noodle soup. I hope he'll eat more tomorrow and get his strength back.
As for the rest of us, we basically took the last couple of days off. Yesterday was Christopher Columbus Day, which the public schools had off. The boys' cub scout pack planned a field trip to a police station and then bowling. Joseph stayed home and slept (and threw up), but Brigham and Mosey went. Mosey told me before hand, "I hate bowling! There is nothing that will ever make me go bowling!" Well, I guess Sister Kelley is pretty persuasive, because he did go bowling, and he came home saying, "Bowling is the most fun thing ever!" He had a good time. :-) I'm hoping to take Joseph on his own private Police Station tour; I know he was disappointed to miss it.
I wanted to do part-lessons with Brigham yesterday, but he totally balked at that. He didn't have a very good day yesterday after getting home from the field trip. My asking him to do his piano practicing and violin practicing and work on his mineral report was pretty much akin to me telling him to work 18 hours a day in a textile factory... He was very angry. As it was, he spent a lot of time complaining, and very little time actually working on his lessons... He never even got around to his music practicing. And then I was working with Mosey on learning to tie shoes, and Brigham came over and wanted to try. He knows the bunny-ear method of tying shoes, but I was teaching Mosey the regular method. Anyway, a (very) long story short, Brigham got frustrated and then got mad and then I got mad and then some voices were raised and some doors were slammed and a very frustrated mom went into her room for a self-imposed time out. It wasn't pretty.
All the boys were put to bed at 8:00 and I think I was asleep by 10:00, which is something of a record for me.
Today was a little better, thank goodness... I finally edited a few recent pictures which I will append to this post.
Finally, a smile out of this boy! He was the picture of misery for two days straight.
See how big his eyes are? He was starting to waste away after only 2 days!
Even his cheeks were starting to hollow out. Here he is perusing the Webkinz online catalog.
Two silly boys.
Here's Mosey working on his writing. You know what? One of his two front teeth is finally loose! He's excited, but I'm so sad... When kids get their permanent teeth, they lose that "little kid" look forever. He's my baby!!
Cute little Mosey feet swinging under his chair as he does his school work.
I was worried about him getting dehydrated. I gave him water and juice to sip, but he couldn't even keep that down. He woke up in the night so thirsty, and I felt so mean telling him he had to only take small sips. He told me, "Water is the best thing in the world, mom!"
As bad as I felt for him, there is nothing like a sick child for a constant source of cuddles. He asked me once, "Why do you stay near me? Aren't you afraid you'll get sick?" I told him that yeah, I might get sick, but it was worth it to me if I could help him at all through his sickness.
That's a mother's love!
He finally woke up this morning feeling better, although really weak. It's amazing how 48 hours with no food shows on a 58 lb boy. His eyes looked huge in his head and his cheeks were noticeably hollow. He told me, "I feel tiny, mom." And he looked it. He ate a little today-- hot chocolate, some applesauce and toast and half a bowl of chicken noodle soup. I hope he'll eat more tomorrow and get his strength back.
As for the rest of us, we basically took the last couple of days off. Yesterday was Christopher Columbus Day, which the public schools had off. The boys' cub scout pack planned a field trip to a police station and then bowling. Joseph stayed home and slept (and threw up), but Brigham and Mosey went. Mosey told me before hand, "I hate bowling! There is nothing that will ever make me go bowling!" Well, I guess Sister Kelley is pretty persuasive, because he did go bowling, and he came home saying, "Bowling is the most fun thing ever!" He had a good time. :-) I'm hoping to take Joseph on his own private Police Station tour; I know he was disappointed to miss it.
I wanted to do part-lessons with Brigham yesterday, but he totally balked at that. He didn't have a very good day yesterday after getting home from the field trip. My asking him to do his piano practicing and violin practicing and work on his mineral report was pretty much akin to me telling him to work 18 hours a day in a textile factory... He was very angry. As it was, he spent a lot of time complaining, and very little time actually working on his lessons... He never even got around to his music practicing. And then I was working with Mosey on learning to tie shoes, and Brigham came over and wanted to try. He knows the bunny-ear method of tying shoes, but I was teaching Mosey the regular method. Anyway, a (very) long story short, Brigham got frustrated and then got mad and then I got mad and then some voices were raised and some doors were slammed and a very frustrated mom went into her room for a self-imposed time out. It wasn't pretty.
All the boys were put to bed at 8:00 and I think I was asleep by 10:00, which is something of a record for me.
Today was a little better, thank goodness... I finally edited a few recent pictures which I will append to this post.
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