I t's Spring Break!

It was Spring Break this week. We finally got out to celebrate on Thursday. We felt a little restricted by this weekend's General Conference because we didn't want to be somewhere that would be hard to listen. So our plans to travel much distance were nixed. We ended up driving all the way to a small town, famous for it's church college, recently turned 4 year University.

Upon arrival, we stopped in Winger's for lunch, then drove down the road to DI for some treasure hunting.

Next, we drove to the building next door to do some bowling. We were bumper bowling because of the kids, but it really helped the grown-ups, too! The kids used a ramp to send their balls down the lane. We did fairly well. The kids all got into the 90's and Chad and I were one point different from each other, in the 120's. For the first 8 frames, I was dead last in the family. We had some really pretty shoes there. I know it's to deter you from stealing, but I have to think that some things get so bad that the temptation returns just for proof of the hideousness! The hardest workout of the game was making sure Rebekah didn't get herself killed as she wandered around us while we slung stone balls back and forth!

Here is some video of the kids launching their bowling balls. (Sorry it's a little grainy. I spliced 5 movies together and had to use a different format to get YouTube to record it all. Just stand back a few paces from the computer screen!)

By the time we were done bowling, it was late enough to check into our room. We had some time to get a short rest while the kids watched a couple of Magic School Bus shows. We then donned our swimming gear for 20 minutes in the pool. I REALLY look forward to the day when the kids can swim on their own and we won't have to have one or two hanging on us in self-preservation. Then we were back to the room in a quick scramble to get dressed, and up to the campus for a quick bite to eat on our way to see the planetarium show at 7. Rebekah and I wandered around the science building for 75 minutes while we waited for everyone to enjoy the show. Apparently, the kids were not really captivated by the show and were pretty wiggly in there.

So we were finally able to head back to the room for a bedtime treat and SLEEP! The three older kids slept in one bed together and fell asleep much faster than Rebekah. It was a risky arrangement, but despite elbows and knees, no one was seriously injured.



We slept in as long as we could. Sometime before 8 AM, we were up and getting dressed. Free breakfast at the motel and then we were headed out to an airplane museum. The museum people must have been able to sleep in longer than us because despite their posted hours saying they were open, they were not. No explanation.

So, we had a whole day and nothing planned. We decided to put some miles on the van. We drove to Arco and had lunch in a little restaurant called, "Pickle's Place." It was painted very green. From there we drove a little further to Craters of the Moon National Monument. It was cold! But we were tough and even hiked out to the caves. We went down inside an old lava tube now called Indian Tunnel. It was very rocky and Rebekah was carried most of the way. In another month, that's going to be a nice place to visit (not too hot, not too cold). In two months, there will be wildflowers blooming among the lava rock. We won't be back until much longer than a month or two from now.


We finally got home again around 5 yesterday. We were very tired. So we had cold cereal for dinner and watched an old movie, "How to Frame a Figg."

General Conference will now be starting in about 10 seconds. We are rotating our 72 hour kits today, so the kids have been looking forward to GC all week! Rebekah has already downed a package of fruit snacks!

F our Mystery Pictures

ANSWERS BELOW!






OK Here are four mystery pictures for you to play with. Let's get a few of you to leave your guesses in the comments. If Mary gets all these, I'm going to be suspicious!






























electric burner on high
bath towel
edge of book pages
toothpicks

those were some good guesses!

T oday while the sun shines

Here is Nathan hamming it up for the camera. A lot of people at church have never gotten close to seeing this side of Nathan. He is the most reverent a child can be and still be breathing. I wouldn't be surprised if he ever just tipped over because he fell asleep or his muscles gave out! Anyway, you can see for yourself if he gets out of his predicament.

We spent all day working on the garage, yard, house or laundry. Chad took advantage of warm, sunny, 63 degree weather and spent the entire day cleaning out the garage. I am very happy about that! We have a lot of garbage now. I took advantage of no kids in the house to go through the kids' clothes. I had to buy 4 new storage bins at Wal-Mart. I finally removed all size 3 clothing from Nathan's drawers and closet. He's only 5 now! I got the girls' clothes separated, too. Our kids have too many clothes.

Today was the first day this year that I hung out laundry to dry. Three loads. It's getting warmer!! Daniel was very helpful and begged to take the laundry down and then folded much of it himself before helping to put it away. This morning he marched right up to me at the sink, pushed up his sleeves and asked me where the bowls went in the dishwasher. !!!! Isn't he a nice boy?

I did a little weeding this afternoon. Our tulips and daffodils are just coming up. We think we planted the daffodils a little too deep. They should have blossomed by now, but have broken ground behind the tulips. We have large clumps of healthy, green grass in our flower beds. The lawn is still thin and yellow. Why is the (unwanted) grass in the flower beds doing so much better than the (wanted) grass in the lawn? Maybe I should plant some tulips around the lawn.

The neighbor kids played with our kids today. It all started when I offered them some freezer-burned ice cream from the freezer (only the best around here!!). After that they were braver and entered the yard. They are twin girls (six years old, I think) and have lived next door for over a year. Last year they cleaned me out of my tulips in the flower bed. They don't go to school in this town for some reason and they're always outside playing in their pj's (today it was thermals). My biggest hang-up is the lifestyle they're being raised in. Their mom and her girlfriend have attrocious language. Those are my two hang-ups. I'm ok with the kids playing with them until things start showing up in their playing. I'll probably restrict the playing to our house, though. I've seen enough of their lifestyle in their yard to not want the kids asking me questions. Let's cross those bridges when they're older!

H unting for gold (and the rest of our weekend)

Since Saturday was St. Patrick's Day, we had a hunt for leprechaun gold. It was a picture scavenger hunt and along the way, everyone got a little stuffed white/green bear. At the end of the rainbow was a clear green piggy bank and 3 gold foil-covered chocolate coins. There was money taped to the back of the coins for the bank.

The day had been beautiful so we walked 15 minutes to Subway for dinner. While we were there, we were talking about our hunt we were going to have when we got home. Daniel, ever skeptical, piped up, "Leprechauns aren't true!" We reminded him that it would be wise to believe, if only for a few hours.

Earlier that day the kids had enjoyed playing with their Laird cousins. Daniel seemed to slip right into "take charge" mode. He's lucky they were willing to play along since 2 of them tower over him. Leah enjoyed having an older girl to play with. She didn't even seem to notice that her cousin was 5 years older.

Chad got deep in rabbit gunk as he moved the cage out of the greenhouse. There was a lot of fertilizer in there! Chad and Daniel planted some berry bushes. Will we have berries for jam this Fall? It's always a gamble.

I spent the day working on my quilt block creation and doing laundry (when I wasn't napping). The laundry takes the whole day and I didn't get the last load into the dryer until after 11:30 PM. It goes without saying that it's still not folded.

In Primary yesterday, Daniel was yucking it up as usual. Gratefully, I only had 3 kids in class. The 3 hardest ones! One of the kids said, "Daniel is so funny!" And then the other one added, "Yeah! He's like a clown!" I think Daniel grew 1/2 an inch (or was it just his head?).

Rebekah started saying, "Bye-bye" yesterday. She was trying to repeat names, too, but they weren't very clear. She's very good at saying, "uh-uh." As you picture that, add a baby scowl.

So now the week has begun again. Ho hum. I do get to take the cat to the vet for booster shots today and Daniel's P/T conference is this afternoon. I teased him last night and said I had to go talk to the teacher to find out how bad he is. He looked at me for several seconds and then said, "I'm not bad!" Good! Let's keep it that way, Mr. Clown!

B locks for March and April

I really didn't like March's block (as I have mentioned before), so I redid it. I like these colors better than the first attempt. There are still some things about it I don't love, but not enough to do it for a 3rd time.
April's block is a flower (tulip?). The leaves and stem are paper-pieced. I'm still working to get the hang of that. And because I am so hard to please, I am making this block for May and substituting the given pattern for my own creation. You see, the scheduled May block is a bunch of tea cups. I don't drink tea or coffee and hardly get the motivation to make myself some hot chocolate. And that doesn't really seem like Mother's Day to me anyway. So in keeping with the saying, "April showers bring May flowers" I will be moving the flowers to May and unveiling my one-of-a-kind block next month. Aren't you so excited??

Sorry if the crooked pictures bother you. It is kind of annoying.

A Harder Mystery Picture

Now what are you looking at? Yes, it's right side up.

B ye-bye, Arlyn

I would like to announce to the world that I am within 4 lbs of my goal to get to my prepregnancy weight from 4 babies ago. I hit a new low on the scale today...without Fast Sunday to help! It has taken me since July, when I hit an all time non-pregnant high during a family vacation, to lose over 16 lbs. Half of that has come off since the new year. I finally figured out what to do. (Or better said, what NOT to do.) It has felt satisfying!

Y ikes! and DOUBLE Yikes!

Nathan had his five year well check yesterday. He also got his school shots. He had to get 3 and so one arm got two. He didn't have to be restrained...he was very good about that. But he did cry. A lot. Tears were pouring from his eyes and he kept saying, "It hurts!" The nurse really felt sorry for him. The Dr.'s office usually gives the kids a sticker after a visit, and Leah was even given a dum-dum sucker after her shots (she didn't cry). The Dr. himself gave Nathan a coupon for a free ice cream cone ( I think they forgot that with Leah). But the nurse really felt sorry for Nathan and so he walked out with a sticker, a dum-dum, his coupon, a bottle of bubbles and a little toy dinosaur. He could barely carry everything! The nurse said she was a Grandma now and didn't worry about spoiling anymore. I mentioned she might be out of control. She agreed.

He was so affected, he couldn't buckle his seat by himself. This morning, his arm with two shots is red, hot and a little swollen. We're giving him lots of acetaminophen.

Daniel has learned a new word. I heard him in his room last night and thought he said "suck." That is a banned word in our family. I started to explain this to him and he stopped to correct my misunderstanding. (What he said only rhymes with that word.) When I heard the "correction" come out of his mouth, I got much more serious than I had started out. This of course shocked him and I think he got embarrassed. I had to explain to him that I wasn't mad because he didn't know about that word yet and when he got older he would know what it means and understand why it's bad.

All this led into a discussion about being "clean" in our words, thoughts and things we do so the Holy Ghost can help us when we're older. Nathan even got included. So maybe I'm grateful that my six-year-old learned the 2nd worse swear word? (He already informed us that he "knows 'dog' spelled backwards" is the worst swear word.) I think I would prefer he didn't have to know about those things (at least for another 20 years)!

Rebekah has learned a new word, too: "Uh-uh." :)

Mystery Picture

What are your guesses for this one? Check the comments in 3 or 4 days for the answer.

My weekend

This is what I did this weekend. Actually, I started it on Thursday (or was it Wednesday?) and finished it this evening. It was a birthday present for a sister I visit teach. I delivered it tonight and she loved it (like she would have said that she didn't). Anyway, I knew that she would appreciate the gift. That's probably why I was willing to put the time into it.

There was a Primary activity today. I took Leah since she's more than ready to be a Sunbeam, but gets to enjoy Nursery for one more year. I was assigned to an activity that "spotlighted" each child. I got to ask them a list of questions about themselves. There are a lot of girls that like pink and a lot of boys that like lions. Interestingly, the "favorite part of Primary" that received the most votes, was singing time. Yeah. I'm in there and I don't hear a lot of singing coming from the kids! Daniel said his favorite part was classtime...he must REALLY love his teacher! (me)

Daniel was invited to a birthday party today. It was at a skating rink, clear on the opposite side of town. He had never been skating, so I watched him "hold to the rod" three times around and then said I'd see him later. I wandered around some stores while I waited. I feel it's a miracle that he didn't seriously injure himself. He had a lot of fun.

This past week was our RS Birthday celebration. It was a very nice evening of relaxing, eating and visiting. I was asked to sing, "Gentle" (Michael McLean) and worried the whole time that I was off key. It's about 2 octaves lower than what I normally sing, but someone admitted that the song made her cry, and I don't think it was my performance that caused it (whew!).

And now I look forward to a nice, relaxing Sunday. We've already set the clocks ahead. This may be the one day this year that the kids sleep all the way to 8 AM!

The Wrong Side of the bed

Last Sunday, early morning, we awoke to hear Leah crying. This is not an unusual occurance. This time, though, she sounded a little muffled. The more she cried, the more muffled she sounded. Since it was still dark outside, we were a little disoriented. We finally realized that Leah was UNDER our bed and getting more frantic the more she awoke and couldn't really move. I can't believe that she even got under there at all. I can't fit a large shoe box under there, but she can wiggle under in her sleep. Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed!

It hasn't been a good week for sleeping. Sometime mid-week, I was up all night hearing Leah and Rebekah in a coughing choir. They were doing solos, duets, refrains and it was all in forte. Rebekah was pausing one or two minutes before starting in again. I hate it when my kids are coughing, especially when they're young and can't really tell me how they feel. I kept cringing with the nasty coughing and imagined that their throats were getting sore. I gave them both prescription strength med., but I couldn't give the stuff with codine to Rebekah and it took her a LLLLong time to quiet down. Then Daniel came in sometime before dawn and said he didn't feel good. He clarifed and said he didn't feel safe. He'd started to have a bad dream. I gave him a sleepy hug and told him to get a drink and go to the bathroom before going back to bed. The next night, I was so tired that when Leah started coughing, I medicated her, cranked up the humidifier, and closed her door most of the way. I would have liked to close our door, but since we often have sleepy visitors, I didn't want to risk the collision of door to face and suffer the trauma that would follow that!

Mystery Picture

Here's a new mystery picture. Maybe this one will be a little harder. Now, I don't see many people guessing. Just log in anonymous when you leave a comment if you want. Some will be harder than others. Give it a shot!

y=2x+1

I spent my weekend boning up on my Algebra knowledge. A neighbor asked if I could tutor her 11-year-old in his studies since he's failing and was just moved up to this accelerated class. Do any of you remember much from your Algebra classes? I sure didn't. I've had a crash course on finding y-intercepts, slopes, and solving for m, x, y, etc. Does y=mx+b mean anything to you? Yeah, so I spent Friday, almost the whole of Saturday, and all morning today speeding through chapters of formulas and graphs. All for $12/hour. He's set up to come Mon. - Wed. - Fri. for the time being. Wow. This sure makes me sound like a nerd!

So anyway...that's what I've been up to most recently.

Remember to: Solve graphically and show your work algebraically!