Since we don't have a dog yet...

we've had to make due with what Mother Nature provides. This squirrel has been getting more and more comfortable with us, to the point where if the garage door is open he considers it an invitation to go in and snag any stray goldfish, animal cracker, etc. that might have landed on the garage floor.

I was a little surprised that he was THIS comfortable with us, but Katie couldn't have been happier to feed our already chubby little squirrel.

Winter Wonderland

Hello Blog. It's been a while. But luckily a monster snowstorm came through, and not only do I have good material, but we're unable to leave our house--so I'm back to blogging. We got about 2 feet of snow in a 24-hour period, which is as much snow as we've seen here in the last couple of years combined.

I think we've got a solid chance of having our first white Christmas in a long time.

Summer Photos

The summer is coming to an end--and it has been a great one. Stay tuned for the forthcoming back-to-school photos.

Why do I try?

You pick out the outfits. You find the photographer. You force your children to get dressed up in nice clothes on VACATION. You even buy a bag of Skittles to be your ace in the pocket. But sometimes, it's just not meant to be.

We got 5 out of 6 looking at the camera on this one. Unfortunately, all 5 of us who are looking are squinting because we would have had to be up crazy early to not be staring at the sun. Live and learn.

And yet, I know I'm going to put them all through it again next summer. Some day I might get around to posting all of the other things we've done for the past month or two. Perhaps after Tuesday, when a certain yellow vehicle stops outside my door to escort my two oldest back to reality. All good things do come to an end.

A Little Wiffle Ball Never Hurt Anyone...

...but if not done carefully, it can hurt your windows.

Seriously, how many times do you have to remind your kids that right in front of the house is NOT a place for wiffle ball?

But when your 3-year-old pitches a ball, it's hard not to want to hit it. Even if you are the mom. Standing outside the front window. And your reflexes kick in before your good judgement alerts you that you are an idiot.

So we will be visiting the window shop sometime in the near future.

And according to Katie, "it was DEFINITELY a home run" so at least I have that to console myself with.

I just realized I forgot to tell Ryan about this. So, Ryan. if you see it here first, I'm really sorry.

He said he be coming home to "recalibrate" some things with me over lunch (what am I, a printer?), so maybe I'll break it to him then.

Baby Birds Round 2

After getting back from vacation, I noticed that there was a bird in the nest that wasn't flying away. I wasn't sure if it was the mom or one of the second batch of babies. After almost 2 days of not eating or drinking, I knew it wasn't going to last much longer. I called around and found out there is a bird sanctuary about a half an hour away. So into the shoebox went our little finch, and off we went.
The person I gave it to said it looked like a fledgeling (a baby) that has conjunctivitis--a common finch disease. They're going to give it antibiotics, food and water, and it should get better. I'm going to to just believe that my heroic act of driving it out to the middle of nowhere was worth it. Hopefully Mother Nature is more kind this time!

Family Vacation

We had a great trip out to Boise, Idaho--via Washington D.C. and Salt Lake City. We got to see Ryan's parents (who are back from their 3 year mission in Australia) as well as his brother, Travis, and Jessica, Travis's finace. It was an eventful visit, and will be blogged about tomorrow. For now, I finished a quick slide show consisting mostly of the week we spent with my family. I have 5 siblings, and none of us live in the same state (Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, Virginia, Alaska, and California) and my parents live in Montana still. We got together at my sister's house in Boise and had a wonderful time. The time went by way too quickly!

Latest Home Improvement Project

This was our old "deck" , which was really more of a small patio that had stairs attached to it. We wisely hired out the job of expanding the deck to someone else.

Which was great, since just in digging the holes for the posts, he cut our cable line (which he had fixed within a couple of hours),
Had to saw through various large tree roots
He pulled out large boulders (I didn't get a picture of that one), and sliced our underground drainage pipe (which he also fixed).
We love the finished product. I especially love our beautiful maple tree that shades it the entire day and makes me feel like I'm in a treehouse when I'm out there. I'm all about the do-it-yourself mentality, but some things are best left to the professionals.

"Hello, Ryan? This is the 1970's calling...

...and we want our racquet back." Ryan has been sporting this since we got married.

It's the "Borg 535" model, inherited from his parents. It is named not for our good friends the Borgs, but for the tennis superstar Bjorn Borg. Luckily the Bjorn Borg shorts did not come with the Bjorn Borg racquet. Neither did the headband and wristbands.

Ryan got a little racquet upgrade for Father's Day.

He also got a new pair of basketball shoes. But since they're New Balance and not Nikes, they won't be added in to the list of Ryan's "swag" ("swag" being "cool things that you own", as defined by the 12-year-old kid he home teaches. The only thing on that list is Ryan's iphone). Luckily Ryan doesn't mind having a short list.

Bath Time

With four kids, it's become more and more difficult to only do one thing at a time. So we've had to double up on things--like bath time and doing the dishes. I was able to clean almost the entire kitchen while Chloe had fun in the sink. It was great for both of us.

The Saga of the Birds

The last couple of years, birds have built a nest right above my front door. I LOVE my birds. I'm obsessed with watching for them and listening to them cheep-cheep-cheep every time the mommy or daddy come to feed them (although I don't love their feces-encrusted nest).

When I saw them getting ready to fly, I watched even closer waiting for that moment when they would jump out of the nest. I could tell one was getting ready to go, so I ran in and grabbed my camera. Go baby bird, go!

You can't see it here, but one of those blurs is my baby bird after he took off just a second after I took the last photo. Hooray!

And then it happened. What is "it"? "It" is Mother Nature and her cruel ways. Little did I know that I gynormous blue jay was just sitting there waiting for my sweet baby bird and the second it landed in the tree, the blue jay attacked it. The mom and dad bird tried to help it, and I did all I could considering I had a baby in my arms (yes, I was completely overly emotional about it considering that fact) and a camera, and they were too high. But within a minute my baby bird was dead on my neighbors yard. I was crushed. I cried. It really was too cruel. That whole "circle of life" is crap.

Eventually all of the birds left the nest, hopefully to a better fate. I was too jaded about the whole thing and couldn't get too involved. After I was sure they were all gone, I cleaned off their nest that was taunting my pain and decided to move on.

And then, wouldn't you know it, there was a flurry of activity outside my door one day, and I looked out to find my mommy and daddy house finches going back to work building this:

I didn't have the heart to evict them. There must be some eggs in the nest, because the mommy bird is there all day and the daddy bird brings her food. She sings a loud, pretty song whenever he comes to feed her. I know I'm just setting myself up to get hurt again, but I can't resist watching this sweet little pair of God's creations. Hopefully Mother Nature is more kind this time around.

The Pleasures of Summer Vacation

We told Mason and Katie to go outside, so they took their Harry Potter books (Katie--book 1 and Mason--book 3) and did just that.

My MacGyver Moment

About six months ago, we switched the lock on Andrew's door so that it locks on the outside (when verbal communication fails, you resort to more direct methods).  He kept leaving his room during quiet times as well as in the middle of the night--so he left us no choice.  Or, maybe we just couldn't come up with anything better.

Either way, it proved to be a very useful solution.  Until Friday.  I had gone into Andrew's room with him for something, and while I wasn't watching, Andrew went over to his door, locked it from the outside, and then closed it--with both of us inside.  He had done that to himself before, but never while I was in the room with him.  

Ryan was already gone for the day, Chloe was in her crib asleep, and I had no phone to call for help.  I usually can use a credit card to slide in the crack to open a door, but Uno cards weren't up to the task.  I considered pulling out the pins in the hinges, but when the hinges haven't been parted in over 30 years, they weren't even considering yielding to my worthless fingernails.  So I went to work on my only other option that I could think of, which was unscrewing the doorknob.  One screw came out easily with my nail, but the other wasn't going to budge.  I felt very MacGyver-ish searching around the room looking for something that could work as a screwdriver.  I finally found a little metal tab on the back of a picture frame that I could use to turn the screw one quarter turn at a time until I finally could get a hold of it.  

It took a solid 20 minutes to finally figure it out and get it opened, and I have now learned my lesson that I need to keep a screwdriver in there so I can get out in case that happens again.  Ideally Andrew will just get to the point where he won't need it anymore...but that may be a while.

Do you know the very worst thing about wars?

That was the question that Katie posed to me on the way home from church today.  It's a tough one--having to narrow it down to the very worst thing.  There are so many bad things to choose from.  

But Katie had it figured out.

Before starting, she acknowleged that there were a lot of bad things about war, but this one was really bad.

Because, as you know, wars can last a while.  Even years.  And you know what that means.

It means a lot of birthdays that they had to celebrate away from their families.

(If only that really were one of the worst things about wars.)

Ryan's #1 Fan

I thought that would be me. But it's not.

Ryan has an official page on facebook for his book and the fact that he's an author. The best part about it is that you can be a fan of Ryan and his book (as I am).

I noticed that I was not his first or only fan, so I clicked on his page to see who had beat me to the punch. He's a guy from a high school in New York who left this gem of a comment as the first thing on Ryan's "just fans" wall:

"I felt bad that this guy had no fans."

Well, he was nice enough to get 4 or 5 of his friends to become fans as well. We're off to quite a start. The next on board have been the teenagers we go to church with, so I think that I'm the only fan out of the current 20 or so that has actually graduated from high school.

Gotta love facebook.

Get Ready For Lift

Ryan and his dad just finished writing a book, and the first copies were delivered today.  Congratulations!!  It's very cool to see it as the finished product.

Here's the link to the book on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Lift-Becoming-Positive-Force-Situation/dp/1576754448/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241541351&sr=8-1 It's destined to be a best-seller.

Tis The Season

Next to holidays, my kids' favorite time of the year is caterpillar season.  Right around this time every year, our yard explodes into a caterpillar farm. 

I spotted the first one a few days ago.  As a result, I hear the front door slam every morning at 6:45 or so after Mason and Katie rush out to hunt them before leaving for school.  

I have been historically pretty srtict on not letting them bring them in the house, but Andrew was having such a great time with them that I let him bring a couple in to play during his quiet time.  

I think they had a great time.  They got to ride on the bus.

Heck, they even got to drive the bus.
They went for a spin around the room.
And even got to take a ride on the "ferris wheel."
I'm sure they were the envy of all the other caterpillars. Or at least they would have been had Andrew not lost them before we were able to return them to the wild.

Luckily there are plenty more.  But none will be lucky enough to hang out with Andrew during quiet time again.  Eventually we'll get our kids a real pet.  Maybe.  I keep thinking about it, and quickly get overwhelmed at the idea.  At least for the next couple of weeks, they have an unlimited number of pets just outside their door.

There are many reasons why I love spring.  The trees, the flowers, the warm weather...you get the idea.

This picture is of non of those, but is also a reason I love spring.  I am tired of buying pants for my daughter.  The pair on the right lasted only a month before she had shredded the knee.  The other two have been around a little bit longer, but not much.  

Judging from the state of her pants, I definitely need to invest in some bandaids if I expect her knees to make it through the summer once they no longer have denim seperating them from asphalt.  At $1 a box, bandaids are a much better buy than her pants were.

Something Worth Watching

This is a great clip--sorry I couldn't put it right into the blog. It's from Britain's Got Talent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PPlkOyaqaQ

Easter with a Touch of Trick or Treats

We had one final Easter egg hunt this afternoon with some friends. Not wanting it to get too boring, we added in a special egg using a little something I had found while hiding the eggs... I wish I could say I had been gutsy enough to actually be the one to cram it into the egg, but that credit goes to a friend with a much stronger tolerance for wriggly lizards.

Let's Make a Deal

Today on the way to church, Katie asked me if she could talk to me. Alone. With no one else in the room.

Needless to say, I was intrigued.

I kept trying to imagine what it might be. More concerns about the crazy things her body will do when she has a baby? Probably not--I knew she had been sufficiently freaked out about all of that to last her a while. Maybe a boy she likes? Again, probably not. Her best friend at school is a boy, chosen because she didn't have to worry about playing princess things with him, not because she "likes" him.

My curiosity overwhelmed me, but my requests for an explanation met with little success (since we were in the chapel--definitely not a room all by ourselves). I am persistant, so I finally got her started on a game of 20 Questions with me so I could figure out the answer.

I don't have enough time to take you through the dramatic course of how I got the answer out of her, but I had to laught when I finally did. She wanted to discuss with me the possibility of negociating with the Easter Bunny to get her a Flip Camcorder (Mason has one that he got for Christmas). She had come up with this scheme of basically sacrificing some of her other toys to the Easter Bunny to garner his favor, and then throwing out a Hail Mary request for what she really wanted.

It's hard not to tell her that it's a great plan, since she was so very sincere about it and had obsiously put a lot of thought into it. I didn't know how to tell her that I knew that the Easter Bunny had already picked out a couple of perfect things he knew she would love (a jump rope for her, so she'll stop using my favorite scarf, and a hooded bath towel so that she won't always want to use Chloe's). I think she'll forgive him.

Cinquains of Love

You may not remember what a cinquain is, but I wouldn't be surprised if you were forced to write one or two at some point during your elementary education (thanks to Adelaide Crapsey, the poet who made them popular. That is one very unfortunate last name).

Here are Mason's poems (typed on heart-shaped paper) written to Ryan and I:

Mom
Nice cleaner
Loving caring helping
Stirct nice tired happy
Miracle

(I thought the "miracle" at the end was a nice touch. And yes, I am tired. A lot.)

Dad
Nice professor
Loving caring helping
Strict mournful happy helpful
Workful

("Mournful"? That's not usually the word people think of when they think of Ryan. Mason explained to me that he picked that word because "when Dad does something bad, he always repents to us." Very sweet. And I have to say that although "workful" isn't exactly a word, it describes Ryan very well.)

Katie's Music Performance

Katie had her music performance last night, and she did awesome. It's one of my favorite things they do all year. This was my favorite song, mainly because the girl right in front on Katie took on the role of lead dancer. The lead dancer, and only dancer. But she had no reservation doing a solo--which made it all the better. The song has a pretty good beat, so I have to admit I was doing a little dancing myself.

The Absent-Minded Professor

Do you ever have one of those days? You know, the kind when you don't realize until half-way through the day that the shoes you are wearing don't match?

Lucky for Ryan, they aren't so different that anyone noticed. Lucky for me (and my blog) a colleague of his was in the room with him when he made the realization, so I got a picture of it.

Ryan's Pain, My Gain

Last night was a blur (but when isn't it?). I remember Chloe crying for a while, Ryan getting Chloe, me feeding her, and Ryan saying something about Andrew having been up half the night.

Ryan has the very, very unfortunate situation of being a light sleeper. Married to a deep sleeper. When morning came (change the word "morning" to 5:45 am) and Andrew was already awake, I was bracing myself for a rough day. But somehow that never came. Instead, I got this at 12:30:
Which didn't last very long, since I thought I could move him to the couch without having him wakeup. I was wrong.

But when I put him in his room for quiet time an hour later, things got really quiet, and I went upstairs to find this: Unbelievable. He hasn't napped in a couple of months. AND, I had managed to get Chloe to nap at exactly the same time. It's a first. I had over 1 1/2 hours of quiet in the middle of the day. I hardly knew what to do with myself. Having Andrew so tired made for quite a nice day--at least for me :).

Roll Recipe

Back when I did a post about cinnamon rolls, a couple of people asked for the recipe I use--so here it is. It's Ryan's aunt's recipe. I think my clothes would fit a little better if this recipe didn't exist.

BASIC ROLLS
Mona Prestwich

Mix and let stand 20 minutes.
4 T. yeast (4 pkgs.) in 1 cup warm water and 2 T. sugar

2 c. scalded milk
2/3 c. shortening
4 t. salt
2/3 c. sugar --- 1 c. sugar for cinnamon rolls
4 eggs beaten
1 t. vanilla
8 rounded cups flour
(Don’t make the dough too stiff--very important!)
Knead
Let rise to double.
Roll out. Spread with melted butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.
Roll up and cut into rolls. Let rise to double. Bake at 350 for approximately. 20 min.
(For rolls, make in whatever way you want and bake)

Happy Day

I went though all of the random paperwork and "to be filed" things that I've had laying around piling up for...oh...say a year or two and finally got out my shredder and went to work.

I only jammed my shredder a couple of times through the whole event, and Andrew was thrilled with our magic little chopping machine. I was so happy when I got it all done. And then I realized that after 8+ years of being a stay-at-home-mom, I must have pretty low standards for what constitutes a happy day. All I know is that having a clean desk and clean file boxes is a GREAT way to start the week.