Favorite Play Place

Football Fundamentals

Owen had football practice last night. The kids were playing catch during warm-ups. The coach could see that they needed help with throwing, so he gave them some help...

"When you're throwing the ball, you don't want to pull your arm way back like this. Just hold your hand like this (pointed his finger like aiming a gun) and pretend you have a huge booger on the end of your finger. Then just flick it like this."

For the next half hour or so we heard from several of the boys different comments like, "Hey! I got a huge booger on my finger!"

But it got even better.

When it was time for them to practice offensive/defensive line, the boys were having trouble with their three-point stances. To help them, the coach squatted down to demonstrate and said, "Just pretend you're about to sit on the toilet just before you squat."

I hope the coach was just trying to get their attention and be funny. It'll be interesting to see what they learn at the next practice.

Wretched Arachnids

Anyone who knows me understands that I am terrified of spiders. I hate hate hate them. Not just because of what they look like and how they eat, but they are sneaky. You can't feel all eight of their creepy legs crawling on you. I don't know how many times I've had one crawling on me, and then to my surprise, whoever is sitting by me brushes it off. I literally freeze when that happens. There's a rumor out there that a person eats an average of I don't even care how many spiders in their sleep because even just one is absolutely mortifying. They sneak into our beds and live in our snowboots during the summer months. I absolutely hate them.


Back in November 2006 when we came here to look at houses, I discovered that this town has some very large furry juicy spiders. We were in the basement of a house that I really thought was going to be the one. The basement was finished, which was appealing to me. And no crawl space either. Suddenly my husband said, "Yeah, that's a pretty big spider." Of course my first reaction was to duck. Then I turned and saw it. On the wall. I believe it was a wolf spider, at least it looked like one, but blacker and bigger. Our realtor, a wonderful wonderful lady replied very casually and almost happily with, "Oh look! There goes another one!" I looked and another one was scurrying across the floor. The realtor walked right over, and without a second thought she stomped on it.


That was it. I wasn't moving into that house. We kept looking.


After purchasing this house, my husband immediately got a contract with Terminix. I didn't even have to ask or suggest it. We bought new construction so I knew our chances of having any of those furry beasts in our home was slim.


Terminix has been great. So far, I haven't seen a single one of those furry monsters. But I did discover that truly, the town we live in, is Spider Heaven. I'm not kidding. You seriously won't see a single ant scurry across the sidewalk or driveway. No ant hills, nada. But I can GUARANTEE you that you will see a spider, about the size of a dime, scramble by. They plaster the foundations of our houses, too. These little guys are everywhere.

We've lived here 8 months now, and Terminix has been out at least once every single month. I call even at the sight of ONE spider in my house. A neighbor who thought he was being helpful informed me that spraying doesn't really work. The spiders hold their breath. I didn't even know spiders had lungs.



Guess what my boys are doing right now with their buddy from across the street?




Yep. They are catching those spiders. Owen is scraping them off the foundation with that frisbee, their brave friend is holding the jar, and Ethan is faithfully and accurately counting them.

When I took this picture today there were fifteen in that jar. FIFTEEN.

I asked the boys what they were going to do with them when they were done. They said they would let them go in the vacant lot behind our house. It is time to call Terminix.

She's My Baby

When Emmy was born, I remember a specific card someone gave us. It was pink, of course, with a black and white photo of baby feet on the front. On the inside was a simple message, She'll bring you more joy than you can imagine.


Although it's certainly true with all three of my kids, I'm thoroughly enjoying Emmy's baby stage, not wanting to "rush to the next stage" like I did with the boys.


She can do all kinds of cute things now, she claps, raises her hands above her head to play "So Big," makes this cute little click click click noise with her tongue, and plays copy cat~when I tilt my head to the side, she does the same. And of course she's always always smiling, showing that one cute dimple.

She does bring me more joy than I could ever imagine.

Windows

We moved about 8 months ago (wow it's been 8 months!!) and little by little we are working on decorating it. We saved up our pennies and bought blinds and valances for the kitchen and living room. They were installed just the other day.


These are the two patterns I chose. I have red going through the living room and kitchen. I put the stripes in the kitchen and the floral in the living room. The colors are a little brighter in the picture than in real life.

I probably should have cleaned before I took pictures, but eh.

I know only one of the vases has grass in it, I've been deciding if I like the grass or not. I'll get more grass if I decide I like it. I also need to find a bigger mirror for above the fire place. This mirror will go in the hallway above the hall table. Or maybe I will just leave it there.

I'll be painting the walls on the main level a beige color that is found in the granite on the fireplace and counter tops. I think it will look really sophisticated and "grown up."

Please! I'm Begging You!

Please please please please nominate me for TLC's What Not to Wear. Seriously. I need help. I was feeling pretty good about the fact that today I actually did my hair and sort of did my make-up. I'm wearing dark brown cargo shorts that go just below my knee, lots of pockets and draw string thingies at the knee. Love them. Also wearing a brown ring tee that says LucasFilm. I've been feeling pretty stylin' all day today, until just now.


I just got back from the movie store, took the boys there to get some video games. Then I saw the guy, the kid working there. Pretty much had on exactly the same thing I have on, except his brown ring tee didn't say LucasFilm but something else. I am dressed today like a high school boy. I NEED HELP.


I seriously don't have a "style" and my dear sister-in-law and mother-in-law are so encouraging and offer suggestions, but I JUST DON'T GET IT. I really don't like clothes shopping unless someone goes with me and just brings stuff to the dressing room for me to try on. I don't want to dig through all that stuff and figure out what goes with what. Just pick stuff out and bring it to me. Or just nominate me for that show. Thank you.

Ethan's First Book

I loved Writer's Workshop when I was a teacher. I loved seeing the kids make their books, loved hearing them proudly read them aloud, loved plastering them all over the walls and hallways for other kids and parents to read. Today, Ethan made his very first book!

The really fun part was teaching him how to read it aloud, because he'll have to do that tomorrow. I love how he held his book up to show me the pictures, just like a teacher would do!

First Day of School

Vacation!

Field Trip

Our church has a mom's group called Play and Pray where twice a month we get together and the kids play and we have Bible study or visit with each other. Over the summer we go on field trips. Today we went to the caverns.

Ethan did NOT want to go. He was afraid it would be dark and have lots of bats. I'm so glad he changed his mind, because he and Owen LOVED it. And as it turned out, everything was very well lit, and they only have one bat living in the cave which they actually hadn't seen in quite a long time.
This was my first time using the wrap out in public, I usually just use it around the house. I didn't have a mirror to guide me, and now when I look at it, it doesn't look quite right. But it felt fine, and worked really well for maneuvering around the cave. I'm glad I took it and didn't just carry Emily. That would have been tough.

After touring the cave, we mined for gems. The boys loved it and found all kind of cool rocks and minerals. We finished in the gift shop, where Owen got another little pouch of polished gems and Ethan got a sling shot. It was a great time! It got me really motivated to come home and get out all my earth science teaching stuff~rock/mineral identification collections, crystal growing kits, etc. I think the boys would love that.

Color!

I have NOT been having very good experiences trying to find someone to replace Sarah (who is AWESOME). I've been to several different places, received horrible haircuts and really really bad color from flourescent yellow to a brassy orange.


I finally found a stylist that understands my hair! She specializes in color, too!


I usually get blonde put it to give my hair that sun-bleached look. I decided to try something different and go darker, closer to my natural color. I got a few blonde chunks put in, and I think this fall I'll replace the blonde chunks with dark red. If they accidentally turn pink, well, I think that'd be pretty cool!


The color in the pictures actually looks a little lighter/redder than in real-life.

I didn't take pictures of my whole head because I just got back from the stylist and you know how it is, they never quite exactly style your hair the way YOU do.

It was fun to have some "mom time" and going darker will be a nice breath of fresh hair.

Cute Summer Pics

The boys and a couple of their friends were playing in the pool today, so I thought I'd take a few pictures. They're really too old for a little pool like this now, but it's been hard to get to the public pool with Emily. I have taken her a few times now, and she does love it. Next summer for sure we'll be at the pool every day. In the picture above, Owen has a grumpy face because he was irritated with the other kids running around in the grass and getting grass in the water. I can relate, I remember having the same issues as a kid. While the other boys would play and splash, he'd frantically try to scoop all the grass out. He even got Ethan's butterfly net out and scooped grass out that way.

I love having our patio doors in the living room. I have a great view of the kids while they're playing, and Emily can watch them too. She loves watching the kids play.

The other day the kids were whining that they were bored, so I thought I'd build them a fort. They were all excited. Ethan's reply to my little "fort" was, "Yeah, that's a pretty boring fort, Mom, but we'll make it cool."

After playing in the fort for about 13 minutes they were bored again, so I took the fort down and set up the sprinkler.

This is Emily napping with her "Lovey," a baby gift from Aunt Annette and Uncle Darin.

Chutes and Ladders

As I was reading blogs, I started thinking about Owen and Ethan, they were watching t.v. and were complaining about being bored. I had told them that as soon as their dad got home from work tonite, we'd all play dominoes or something. I just wanted to read blogs and have a little "break." Well, I was feeling a little guilty, and when Owen told me again that he just wanted to play a game with me, I was delighted and happily turned off the computer. Ethan joined in, and the boys chose Chutes and Ladders. Normally I would groan because this game, like Candy Land, can go on FOREVER.



We let Ethan go first because he is the youngest.

After Ethan, Owen. Then me, then Ethan. Poor Ethan landed on square number 16 which meant he had to slide down to square 6. He took it okay, no fit. Then it was Owen's turn, me, Ethan, Owen, me, Ethan. Ethan was catching up. Then wouldn't you know it, he hit square 16 again. He whined just a bit but moved to 6. I praised him for following the rules, what a good boy, I was so proud of him.

The game continued until we all got to squares up in the 60's and 70's. No one really hit any ladders so it was kind of boring. Soon we were in the 80's, and to my unbelieving eyes, Ethan hit square 87. This meant he had to slide clear down to square 24. He started to cry and said, "NO! I'm NOT moving. I'm going HERE!" and moved his marker all over the board to land on 96. He cried and knocked our markers off the game board, pretty typical for a 5 year old. I just kind of sat there, then gave him two options. He could keep playing with us by following the rules, or he could watch me and Owen play. He cried and asked why we couldn't just let him go where he wanted. I told him how we all have to follow the rules, and that you never know, he might land on a ladder that would help him catch up. Finally he slid down to 24.

Owen's turn, my turn, Ethan's turn. He spun a 4. HE SPUN A 4!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!! My boy was being rewarded for hanging in there and following the rules! Spinning a 4 landed him on 28, which was a LADDER that took him allllllllll the way up to 84!!! Believe me, this spin was real. Spins have to go all the way around at least once, and I make the boys keep the spinner flat on the floor so we all can see it and no one can cheat. YAY ETHAN!!!! We clapped and cheered, he was elated!!

Owen's turn, my turn, Ethan's turn. Ethan rolled a 3.

84 plus 3 equals 87. Remember what happens when you land on 87??? You slide. Down to 24. I couldn't do anything but laugh in disbelief.

Well, Ethan had had enough. He grabbed his marker and that spinner and bolted for the kitchen, screaming and crying. He was livid. He said he was NOT going to slide, and that was that. I finally got him to give the spinner back to me and Owen, and he honestly sulked the rest of the game while Owen and I finished it out.

I felt so bad for the little guy. I don't know if I handled it right, I couldn't believe it myself.

I'm not sure if Ethan learned anything from that...all I could think of is I want him to be a good sport at school whether he's winning or losing. He's 5, he's my baby boy, and I WANTED to just let him have it, but I wanted him to understand that he HAS to follow the rules. I don't know if he learned that or not. Anyway, I bet he and Owen don't pick Chutes and Ladders next time!