In Lieu of Halloween

A few days after Halloween, I realized that I had not taken a single picture. We had a great time, but I have no visual reminders of my children this year. So, instead of posting a Halloween update, I thought I would offer you a 17th Century religous poem by George Herbert that I discovered in my History of British Literature class. I think it is beautiful, and quite moving. I hope you enjoy it.

Love (3)

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrace in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked anything.
A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat. So
I did sit and eat.

Hooray for Hump-Day!

Yes that's right it is finally here! The mid-term I have been waiting for. I am still alive and even in possession of most of my faculties. I survived the first seven weeks, and it even went by rather quickly. Only seven more to go until Christmas vacation. . .a time where I get to choose what I do and when. I can't wait. But I must make this post short as I have a test I must take. I guess there is a small downside to mid-term after all;).

Fathers & Sons

Cleaner and warmer.

I didn't get good pics of the father's and son's outing, but as Ian and I, JC and J were about to leave Ian suggested that the kids wash up in the creek. I thought it was a pretty good joke (since it was cold outside and the stream was freezing!) and added that they would have to do it in their undies. Of course, the youngsters were happy to oblige (sorry for the sideways videos), and we were happy to goad them on:

As do most things when it comes to men, it turned into a contest.

The best thing...

The best thing about apple crisp...

Is having it shared with you.

Bleu Cheese Touch

The Cougars haven't fared so well this season, but the Bleu Cheese Touch might get a BCS bowl.
J with the hand-off.
J blocking for some other kid with the hand-off.
White knuckles at the line.
Center lineman springing into action. A great game- many flags were thrown, and nobody had to be carried from the field.

Children who Recycle

I went out to find J and L the kids this morning- I had heard them in the back yard. I could still hear them but couldn't see them. Eventually I found them here:

I am hoping they were just in it for the fun... they didn't ask me to roll them out to the curb!

J Burning it up- wait for it...

Recently, Anna and I went Backpacking with Mitch and Mad. We had a fun time gazing at the stars and huddling around a small camp fire. The girls appreciated our food selection, which consisted of cup-o-noodles, hot chocolate, instant oatmeal, doughnuts, and gummy-worms.
Just wanted to share this picture of the sky. I took it near our house as a storm faded. -Mike

First

For the first time in...well really, the first time ever, our entire family is in school. Yes, school. As in homework, and intelligent discussion, and homework. So, if we seem a little absentee in mind and body know that it is in pursuit of higher education...and will all be worth it in the end. Right?

A New Home for the Night

Last night we had a late night delivery. Not just boxes, but sectional-couch-size boxes (thanks Al and P!). They were so big they almost didn't fit through the fence to the backyard. It was just like Christmas when I unveiled them in the morning. The children spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon crafting homes. They would make very chic homeless people.

This is the final result: a one room palace big enough for 4 and all stuffed animals, pillow, blankets, cushions, games etc. that they could ever need for a sleepover.

They look pretty happy in their home-made tent. Sleep well little ones.

Summer Happenings

I haven't posted much this summer so I thought I would bring you a few highlights. First we have Mike celebrating Independence Day with his super festive red-white-AND-blue tie ensemble. It was the talk of the Sunday School.

This summer James discovered "The Magic Treehouse" book series. Here he is with Ellen, playing Jack and Annie, in a reinactment of Afternoon on the Amazon. I have to say he looks pretty handsome in those specs.

Here is Sophia at her second swim meet against Riverside Country Club. She did a great job, and was true to herself in that despite the outside sunshine and high temperature...she was cold.

James celebrated his SEVENTH birthday this July. Here he is blowing out the candles of his Heli-pad birthday cake. Special thanks to Angie for finishing the cake and hosting the party. Unfortunately I missed everything because I was sick. LAME-OH!

Not pictured is Anna, who went to girls camp for the first time and LOVED it. She hasn't stopped singing camp songs since she got home.

As for me, if I could picture myself it would be in front of the computer...doing homework. Yes, I am in school again; I am on the 15 year plan. Maybe I'll actually finish this time. Maybe.

The Race

Sophia swam in her first meet today. She swam the 50m freestyle, the 25m backstroke, the 25m breaststroke, and the 200m freestyle relay events. She did a great job, despite being a little nervous about the newness of everything. This video shows Sophia swimming her favorite...the breaststroke. She did such a good job, her stroke is just beautiful. I am so proud of her. She is an amazing girl.

The Soccer Mom

Okay, I admit it...I am a TOTAL soccer mom (minus the minivan). From August to October and March through May there is little else I think about. Both girls had really fun seasons. They worked hard and improved quite a bit. We even discovered that Anna is an amazing goalie...much to her dismay, as she would rather run around on the field colliding with anyone who tries to get near the goal.

This year Anna played on a AA competition team called the Jaguars. It was a newly formed team so it was a rough start, but by the end they were beginning to play like a team. They are such cute girls. I can't wait until next season.

On Saturday, Sophia tried out for a U-10 AA competition league and made it. She was is so excited and she is really looking forward for soccer season to begin.

I am so glad the girls enjoy playing so much. I totally love the game so it has been really fun coaching them and seeing them grow. However, I am also looking forward to next season as I will not be coaching either Anna or Sophia's team. I really look forward to sitting back in the cheering section...of course James might need a coach :).

Over spring break (yes I know that was two months ago) we made a visit to the farm at Thanksgiving Point.


There we discovered how to be Cow Pokes (or cow "sits" as the case may be).


We fed the ducks.


We (minus E) took a pony ride including the obligatory photos... whether they were wanted or not.

And finally concluded our visit with a brief stay in the village jail.

It was a fun afternoon.

Little E

My initial name-writing guilt arrived one morning at the public library. We were standing in line at the children's circulation desk, waiting to get a name tag for story time. Ellie's turn comes up. The librarian looks at Ellie and asks for her name. In a minute whisper Ellie replies. Then comes the guilt inducing question.... "How do you spell that sweetie?" Obviously, this question is not directed to me. I look at the librarian incredulously and intervene with a "she doesn't know how to spell her name yet." "Oh," the librarian says. That settled it. There may be moments when I cannot even get the child to do something as pleasant as eat candy cheerfully, but I am going to get this child to write her name....even the small "e" at the end. And you know what? It wasn't even half as painful as I thought it would be. In fact, it was kind of fun.

See that smile? That's a I-just-wrote-my-name-and-I-am-so-happy-about-it-I-will-condesend-to-have-my-picture-taken smile.

Here's the close up view. Check out that lower case e. I am so impressed.

Karate Chop!

James came home from karate a couple weeks ago with a board that he had split in half...with his bare hand. He was very casual about it and reported, "You only have to hit it three times, mom. The first two you hit it soft with concentration. The third hit you hit it hard and it breaks." He was very anxious to try it again. So far, he has kept those lethal hands to himself and my furniture remains in tact.

FHE Funnies

Last night in FHE we were talking about how Jesus told Simon Peter to "feed my sheep." So I asked the children, what they could do to feed the sheep. Ellen stood in front of me, face to face, with her hand raised high. So, as I could no longer see anyone else in the room, I acknowledged her and asked, "So Ellen, how can you feed the sheep?" Her reply was funny but true. "We can feed them corn, mommy!" That wasn't quite the reply I had in mind. I didn't know sheep ate corn.

Hmmmm

This morning as I sat in the carpool drop-off lane I witnessed the most hilarious thing. I had dropped Anna off, and I sat waiting for her to return with the math assignments for the sick kids at home, when out of the corner of my eye I saw something surprising... Parked in front of me was a truck with a cover over its bed. The back was open, and inside, laying prostrate face down was a girl. She lay there for a minute with her arms spread wide, her red shirt blaring against the black of the bed. Then realizing she was at her destination, she slowly slithered out of the truck bed, grabbed her backpack, closed the tailgate, and went into school. So my question is, did she really come to school in the back of the truck?

Bad Dreams

Okay, so I am the first to admit that I could never write a book about parenting because, let's face it, kids are totally baffling. So I was really wondering if I went wrong somewhere when tonight my little Ellie prayed that James would have bad dreams. Maybe, it's just me...but I think that's taking April Fools Day a little too far. Who knew Ellie had such a dark sense of humor. I just hope she didn't notice me laughing in the dark....afterall, I really don't want to encourage this type of behavior ;).

What?!

It's finally here...April Fools Day! James has been waiting and planning all week to play an April Fools joke on me, but through my vast April Fools experience I have learned that the best time to play a joke is before the jokee realizes what day it is. That being said, first thing in the morning I jumped gleefully out of bed, and ran with a purposeful panic downstairs to James' room. I paused outside the door to get in character and ran into the room, grabbed his covers and in an urgent voice said, "James, James get up! It's 8:15. You're late for school." Now to the boy's credit he didn't even flinch but flung his covers off the bed, sprang out of bed, and ran out of the room. I called out to him, "James, wait." He obediently came back into the room, a look of determined focus on his face. I looked at him and in my best nah-nah-nah-nah-nah voice I said, "April Fools!" He immediately tackled me with an "I can't believe you got me," and we laughed. Of course, he spent the rest of the morning trying to get me with things like "Ellen's fish (a big yellow rocking fish) is growing!" But to no avail. That's right. Mom-1 James-0.

Bad Hair Day?

Some people have bad hair days. While some people....have James hair days. Three inches of pure mess, combed by his pillow. Unfortunately, NOT dress code.

Results

I received an email today telling me to check my application status. I clicked on the link, entered my password, clicked on results, and read the words "we regret". I did all I could do, I guess it just wasn't meant to be. My only problem now is, what do I do next? If music isn't the right direction, what is?

James was frustrated today about having to dry the dishes. I told him I thought some upbeat music would help him along, to which his reply was: "Crap! that will just slow me down dancing."

Atta Girl Nan!

Today Anna's Activity Day leader encouraged her group of girls to find a way to earn some money to donate to the disaster relief effort in Haiti. Anna took this very seriously and as soon as she came home she began to create a flyer advertising her babysitting services with all the proceeds to be donated to Haiti. Then she made a list of families in our ward that she would feel comfortable sitting for and off we went to deliver. She knocked on each door and presented her flyer as well as a sales pitch., all by herself. WOW! I am so proud of her for being so proactive, and finding a way to serve others....even if she is only eleven years old.

Oops

Okay, so this morning I am on facebook and I see that one of my friends profile pictures is none other than the Wicked Witch of the West (who from here on will be known as WWW). Well, at the exact moment I see the WWW Ellie walks over to my computer, looks at the screen, sees the witch, and asks, "Who is that mommy?" I tell her it's the WWW. Her follow up question is, "What does she sound like mommy?" So of course, in all my brain-deaded wisdom, I cackle the spookiest most convincing WWW cackle ever (I mean it was REALLY good). Immediately I can see this was the wrong choice because I look over to see her terrified face. She begins to bawl her poor little head off. I now have to spend the next 30 minutes apologizing profusely and telling her that witches aren't real (of course she insists they are). In the end I worked it out by explaining that in the end of the Wizard of Oz the WWW gets melted by a bucket of water, and turns into slimy green goo. That seemed to satisfy her fears...for the moment. I sure hope she can sleep tonight. I guess that 'mommy of the year award' is going to pass me over yet again this year. Hopefully she'll block this entire experience out. At least I can laugh about it, right?