Finally...

Well, it seems that scheduling has thrown me off the blogger path once again. It is late but I really wanted to post to the blog since it will be the last blog for a few weeks. We are heading off to the Wonderful World of Disney on Friday. Yes folks, we are following the American way and taking our family to the famous Mouse's playground. We are very excited. First we will meet some very good friends near the beach in Florida and play on Saturday. Then we'll visit the nearest ward building on Sunday, catch up on our rest and then head to Disney on Monday to meet up with some other very good friends who we will spend the week with. I was proud of myself yesterday for saving some money. I heard of the much coveted autograph books that are sold at Disney, for about $18.00 a pop. So the kids and I headed off to Hobby Lobby and picked up 4 small autograph journals for $1.50 a piece, added a few Disney stickers and walla! we now have our very own autograph books for all those over sized characters to sign. We walked away feeling pretty good that we saved $30.00. I'm sure we'll make it up at the park though, so my success will be short lived

We finally found the missing Webkinz stuffed cat. Daria's that is. She loves this cat so much and bawled her eyes out causing a stuffy nose and headache when she found out she lost it. Of course all the while I'm wondering why if she loves this cat so much has she not seen it for over a week?? Go figure. She and Katri put on their detective minds and interviewed family members and neighbors on when and where they last saw the gray stuffed animal. Oddly enough after many prayers, the cat was found stuffed in one of my winter boots. Now that one I will never figure out. No one will fess up to it, but obviously it looks like an attempt to get rid of the gray stuffed animal once and for all. I'm guessing a two legged male creature had something to do with it.

The detective work was cut short however with a very scary event of a mechanical pencil pointy side ending up in the back of Dustin's head and the eraser side ending up in the back of Daria's mouth. I have no clue how that happened and of course my constant warnings of "don't walk around with things in your mouth" didn't pay off. Daria was lucky, very lucky. But the impact must have been extremely hard since the eraser end actually punctured a hole in her jaw, right between where the top and bottom teeth are. We really thought we would have to take her in for stitches, it was a pretty big hole. But after having a medical friend look at it we started a regimen of salt water swishing to keep it free from bacteria or infection. I am so thankful that it didn't go through the back of her throat where her spinal cord is! What a freak accident.

Last week I held a small party at my house for my previous Primary class. A group of energetic 10 year olds. We had a successful marshmallow war and water fight. I think I probably had about 5 bags of small marshmallows in my garage and on the driveway. Thanks to the kids most of it was cleaned up.

After feeling in a slump with my current exercise program I decided to borrow some Turbo Jam workout DVD's from a friend. Let me tell you! my glutes have hurt for 2 days straight. In fact almost every muscle in my body hurts, but it's not a bad hurt, just a good hurt. Since I'm up late I'm going to pass on working out in the morning and give my body a break. Maybe I should get up and do an hour of stretches to get these muscles back where they belong.

Sunday, Father's day went well. Church as usual. This is the first time in 10 years that I've not had a Sunday calling. My new calling is sort of a behind the scenes type. So it was a bit awkward walking into church with nothing to do but sit and listen. Now that was actually pretty cool!

Ok, so these little items below have revolutionized my kitchen. One would think that with only 4 human beings in this home that only 4 cups would be used. One would think! We go through so many cups each day it drove me nuts. So I ran across these little bands. They are called "Bear Bands" so you can keep track of your liquids at a party. No parties going on here, just a mother who is tired of wasting water or electricity in washing cups. They come in 12 colors so you just choose the color you want. They stretch out pretty large so any size of cup can be used.

Until the next post, have a Happy 4th of July!

Ironic

So tonight for family night everything started out great as usual. It was short. Ken is out of town on business in my old stomping grounds. Daria played an opening song. Dustin and I sang along. We read some things and had a small lesson. Then we decided to play games. Shouts of joy rang through the home as both kids ran upstairs yelling "We want to play Sorry! I'm yellow, I'm red.." Fine with me. The kids and I play this game often. So we are maybe 5 minutes into the game. Daria's the only one with a player on the board and I get a Sorry card so I bump her off. A minimal fuss starts but she calms herself down. A few minutes later Dustin gets a sorry card. He bumps Daria off because her player was closest to his home base. This begins an all out tantrum that you usually see a 3 year old do, not an 8 year old. I had to remind Daria that the game is titled S-O-R-R-Y, uhm, you know, there's going to be a lot of disappointing moves?? She wouldn't stop so she lost her opportunity to play. Dustin and I finished the game. Both kids have been a little cranky. I suspect it's due to lack of regular sleep and lack of a regular schedule.


Dustin has just changed his mind about being an FBI agent and wants to be an Air Force pilot. I will add this to the list of things he wants to be when he grows up. His reasoning: He wants to fly a fast plane. Well, they do have fast planes (jets). Daria is sticking with the veterinarian option. I have a feeling this just might come true.



Dustin asked me the other day if gasoline was really Dinosaur pee. No explanation needed. Daria asked me if we eat food in Heaven. Dustin said that he was going to eat fluffy clouds. Ahh, life is never boring here.



I'm on the battled field of the "wearing to many clothes" in our house. Especially after Daria's 12 pair of shorts/Capri's that she wore in a minimum of 7 days. The question I should be asking is why she has that many shorts and Capri's. Fortunately most of those are hand-me-downs. I shard the story of Grandma Carol who often wore one dress per week when she was a little girl and when it was dirty that she wore a pinafore over it. Dustin on the other hand has no problem wearing dirty clothes. In fact if I didn't work with him on putting on clean clothes he would wear the same thing all week long. Not a pretty site. We're working on it.



For anyone with kids, young or older, here are some great CD's that we've been listening to. I just can't get enough of them. The Primary Colors has the Snowman song on it and the Sharing Time has the Snowman II song. Don't let the titles of the songs fool you into thinking that they are just kids stuff. These singers take the traditional songs and give them a great enjoyable twist. I think I like each song just as much as the kids do. If you go to DeseretBook.com you can look it up and check out some of the sound clips. These guys have great harmonizing voices.



This past Sunday I was released as a Primary teacher. Only six months in this calling. At first it was hard because I had a hard class. Ten year old kid's going on 11, mostly boys. But I'll tell ya, by last Sunday I was pretty sad to be released. As a class we've finally come to a place where we are all working together and I think the kids really like coming to class. I will miss them but I reminded them I would still see them in the hallways at church. I had a jar that we filled with beads as the kids worked on being reverent (being 10 is the hardest age for sitting still and being quiet!) and bringing their scriptures. Stuff like that. They loved the challenge and we actually finished filling the jar the Sunday before last. So this Wednesday we will have a fun pizza party and marshmallow war at my house. They are great kids! 5 boys and 2 girls. My new calling is Enrichment Leader. It's been ages since I've been in a Relief Society calling but I'm looking forward to it. My favorite place has always been with the youth, Primary and Young Women's because there is so much energy and excitement for life at those ages. It's so bright and kids love to learn. But I love the Relief Society and I think it's the coolest women's organization in the world, so it will be so nice to be with the ladies on Sunday and gain from their wisdom and challenges.

Ken earns his way to the top, summer fun, Could I be a kid again!

One would think that with school being out and my schedule minus a bunch of activities that I’d have ample time to update my blog. Quite the contrary.

The biggest news of the week or year is that Ken finished his EMT classes last Thursday!!!! Yeah! Not only did he finish and pass the test he finished top in his class. Another round of applause!! The kids prayed for him every night that he would do well on his test. Now all he has left to do is take the National Registry test, then he is officially a licensed EMT. Way to go!!

Swim lessons for Daria and Dustin started this week. Every morning 9am sharp. Their excitement helps smooth over the fact that the water is still pretty cool in the morning. Another year older for each means that they are both doing better than last year. As I sit and watch their lessons I realized something about myself. The fact of the matter is, I just don’t prefer water. If I had a choice between the beach and the mountains I would choose the mountains. It could be because I grew up around the mountains, but I know other people who love the beach and never lived near one. When I was pregnant with Daria and learning meditation techniques in our natural childbirth classes we were told to focus on a place that brings you peace and energy. Some recommendations were the sound of the waves. But quite frankly, the sound of waves doesn’t calm me at all. It brings thoughts of hot scorching sun, sticky sweaty humidity, sand stuck on everything and my hair turning into a Tina Turner hairdo. Not a pretty site. It’s not that I don’t like the beach, I just don’t prefer it. My idea of calming water is trickling rain in the forest. Thus, feelings about the beach equal feelings about swimming pools. I just don’t like being hot. My idea of a relaxing time is sitting in a grove of Aspen trees with the dry breeze rustling through the leaves and fresh unadulterated air, sounds of birds and the crackle of walking on pine needles. Now that to me is peaceful, not a city in site! Yeah! Ok, back to reality. The fact of the matter is I live in one of the hottest places on earth. Not only is it hot here but with two children, that means that during the summer months all activities need to include some sort of water immersion…. The pool. So I relinquish my real desires and accept the fact that my summer just might be spent in the hot sticky air near a pool so the kids can have fun. Life could be worse.

The summer is going great. I love the summer because we have a free schedule within reason that is. Basically I look forward to a schedule that is not dictated by some educational facility. But being the “A” type personality I am, without a schedule I fumble and become quite useless. So in order to make sure we have a fun enjoyable summer I did institute a flexible schedule. Each day there is reading time and time to practice math skills, piano practice. That doesn’t take long. Wednesday is library day, Thursday is cleaning day and Friday is reserved for day trips or fun stuff. The rest of the time is sprinkled with playing with friends and bike rides. Tomorrow is cleaning day. I figured that 4 people are making messes in this house so at least 3 people can clean it up. I don’t want to spend my summer cleaning so that’s why I chose just one day. It’s worked out great. The kids know that nothing fun is going to happen until we are all done. Last week Daria vacuumed the house, Dustin folded the laundry while I did the detail stuff (showers, bathrooms etc.). Tomorrow Daria will fold laundry because I noticed that every pair of short and Capri she owns is in there. I’m not sure why since we just did laundry last Thursday. That’s only 7 days and there are a lot more than 7 pair of shorts in there. Apparently laundry will be accompanied by a talk about resources, money, electricity, and water.

Last week we added a new fish to our fish tank, a fabulous red male Beta. That makes 10 fish now (not including the sucker and the shrimp). The Beta is red with white fins, which is highly unusual and hard to find. I think they are called "butterfly". We named him Firewing. Daria, who was just not content with the family fish tank finally got one of her own. A small ½ gallon, along with a very beautiful blue Beta. The beautiful ble Beta is now the ugly step-child because his long back tail fin is now missing due to an accident with Daria's hand. I’m glad we put the blue one in her tank and not the red one! We also have 3 little shrimp in the family tank. By far they are my favorite to have. They are so fun to watch and almost impossible to see as their bodies are transparent.

I wish I could be a kid again. Yesterday after swim lessons we ran by a toy store. Our goal was to get a Webkinz dog that Dustin and I could share. For those of you with kids you probably know what those are. For those of you who don’t, they are stuffed animals that come with a code. You use that code on the internet to play with your virtual pet, earn Kinzcash by answering questions (science, math, language, etc.) to buy food and toys for your pet. I got tired of bothering Daria to play with hers so Dustin and I worked towards getting our own. Now we are the proud owners of a brown dog named “Buddy”. But that’s not why I want to be a kid again. While in the store I was drawn to the Breyer Horse section. As a girl I collected those and still have them packed nicely in a box upstairs. It made me think that I never really thought of myself as a creative person, but looking at the horses brought back some fun memories. My Breyer horse statues (all 62 of them) all had names, I created a stock sheet that showed their made up by me pedigree lines. I made halters out of silver chains, horse blankets out of materials, and the most creative of all was I would stage them in ways that made them look real (minus the fense and giant flowers in the background. Just imagine if I had Adobe Photoshop back then!) and take picturesPretty creative for a kid in elementary school. I remember owning one of those old cameras that took 110 film. My mom must have developed the film for me. At any rate, looking at the new Breyer models gave me the feeling that I wanted ALL of them and I just wanted to go home and play with them. Uh…. Ok, another slap back to reality……

To take away the confusion, here are the links to Daria's recital piece, and the photos from the past few weeks. They will remain at the top right hand corner of the blog.

Daria's Recital Piece "Riley's Rhapsody"
http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q284/kariejbh/?action=view&current=2007MayRecital.flv

Photos of Grandparents visit
http://thehubstop.smugmug.com/gallery/2907567#156506007

Photos of Baptism
http://thehubstop.smugmug.com/gallery/2907731#156518391

The Magical Month of May

Ok, when I’m busy blogging is almost impossible. Now that I’m not busy, it is impossible to think of how long my blog post could be if I explained everything that has kept me busy!! I think May has got to be the busiest month ever. Here are just a handful of events.
Muffins with Mom at school (this happens each year, they have a donuts with Dad also)
Daria’s 8th birthday, and birthday party
Daria begins Achievement Days at church, this is every other Wednesday.
Mother’s Day
Visits from family
Daria’s Baptism
End of year School parties and functions
Piano lessons
Piano recital
Gymnastics
Dr.’s appointments

And the list goes on!!!

Really the most exciting thing that happened this month was Daria’s baptism. We were really so lucky that Grandpa Reed, Grandma Carol, and Grandma M. all flew down from Colorado to spend time with us and attend the baptism. We enjoyed our time together and the kids already miss them so much. In a nutshell here are some of the things that what we did with the grandparents.

Walked Daria to school, Dustin engaged Grandma Carol and Grandpa Reed in a game of kick soccer, went on a picnic, picked a total of 24 lbs of strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, road bikes, played games, watched movies, met good neighbors and friends, ate authentic Chinese food and visited a Chinese desert shop, visited the Antique Rose Emporium, at lunch with Daria and witnessed Daria's baptism.

Picking berries is a blast. We picked a full box of strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries. One never thinks about the price because it’s so fun to fill the boxes up. When we went to check out and the total rang up I had to think for just a moment if I wanted to pay that much for fresh berries. You don’t have to buy what you pick, they will keep whatever you don’t want and make it into jam. But I realized I was not only paying for berries but for the memories. So we took them all. Mom and I used my food saver to pack and freeze them. Our cereal will taste great with these little gems!

Daria’s baptism went very well and I thought was very special. I wondered how many of her friends would attend because most of Daria’s friends are on the swim team and that particular Saturday was the first swim meet. But Daria was really blessed to have so many friends and family come to witness her baptism. We were even surprised by the attendance of a good friend of mine, Michele and her family who drove 2 hours to attend, and several other friends like our friend Amy whose oldest son is Daria’s age. We’ve got great friends! The Relief Society room was packed full and was a wonderful mix of friends from church and friends not from church. Our good friends Jenni and Ino took pictures for us, which I’ve posted to my galleries. I spoke on Baptism, Grandma M. spoke on the Holy Ghost, Dustin recited the 4th Article of Faith and Ken of course baptized Daria. When I was helping Daria dry off and get changed she said “Mom, I cried tears of joy!” It’s amazing what these little one’s can recognize and feel.

We came across an amazing surprise. I had asked my dad and step-mom to bring the VHS recording of my Grandmother (my Dad’s mom) so I could transfer it to DVD. Well the VHS that was brought ended up not being the interview but a 30 minute piano performance that my grandmother at the age of 75 put on for the Red Cross that she volunteered at. My grandmother was very musical but later on in life would not play the piano for anyone. I can still remember the beautiful baby grand piano in her home. I remember her playing only once. She played as a young girl, and then took it up again when she was older. At any rate, watching this video was just astounding. She played some very difficult pieces Chopin and Debussy. For example she played “Nocturne in F# , Etude in E Major & 3 Preludes (all 3 of them)” by Chopin, and “Clare du Lune (spelling??) by Debussy. It was amazing!!! Almost like listening to the radio.
What a priceless treasure. While we watched the video it was as if we were there and we clapped after each piece. I think the best part was hearing her voice which was always very comforting to me.

You know, when you go “away” on vacation it can be expensive. When family comes to visit it usually is not expensive. But for some reason this visit turned out to be very expensive, thanks to the encouragement of my dad who cleverly led us to the local bike shop where Ken and I left with two very brand new nice road bikes. Ok, I admit we were happy to go look at bikes. It was the perfect opportunity because Ken and I know nothing about bikes, and my dad and step-mom know a lot about bikes. This has been the coolest thing we’ve done in a long time. So far we’ve taken several bike rides as a family and all four of us love it!

Dustin was probably the biggest character with our guests. He is a man’s boy and prefers most of the time to be with the big guys. My dad’s visit went like this, “Grandpa, will you play with me? (about a zillion times) “Grandpa will you sit with me?”, “Grandpa look at this” “Grandpa will you throw the ball to me?” My dad was VERY busy keeping Dustin occupied. They did everything from kicking the ball, looking at books, throwing balls, frisbee’s, you name it. It was good to have my family here.

After everyone left we still had our piano recital to look forward to. We finished that Friday night. Daria was spectacular. I will post a link for you to watch.

The kids found a very pretty beetle. They brought it home and we looked on the internet to see what it would eat. Unfortunately we found that all it eats is dung. I told the kids that we were not going to collect poop for a bug. So we decided to let it loose in our friend’s backyard who has dogs. I figured the bug would be very happy with the dog poop. But of course we had to take a picture of it before we let it go.

Dustin asked me why I don’t work. You can imagine the look on my face as I tried not to burst out laughing (like what in the world does he think I do all day!, ha, ha). This spun into a very interesting conversation which ended up with the fact that Dustin wants his future wife to be able to stay home with his children. Dustin is so focused on becoming a police officer. I gently explained that if he wanted his wife to stay home he might want to look for a job that pays a bit more. So then he said “what about a firefighter”. Hhhmmmm I think they make less than a police officer. So he finally settled on an “FBI agent”, it still carries the intrigue of a police officer. The good thing is I’m sure his ideas will change about a 100 times before he even gets to high school.

Tonight Daria asked me if I wanted to see a magic trick, and of course I said yes. She said, ok, I’m going to put this Cheerio under the pillow, when I lift the pillow you will still see the Cheerio. When I tell you to look away real quick, you will find that when you look back the Cheerio will be gone. I played along the whole time knowing she was going to grab the Cheerio when I turned away but it seemed to please her that I was participating in her magic trick.

Ok, so I’ve posted a bunch of pictures on the galleries, so enjoy. If you still don’t have the password e-mail me. I’ve also posted one of Daria’s recital pieces which is on the top of my blog in the right hand corner. And last but not least. As I was going through the baptism pictures that Jenni and Ino took I couldn't help but notice that in most of the serious shots, Dustin was not being serious at all. Now you know why I'm worried about him starting Kindergarden. !!!

Secret hiding places, games, and dewberries

Life continues to be eventful at our home. Here are some excerpts into the minds of a 5 year old and an 8 year old.

Dustin (in relation to my Mother’s Day surprise) “Mom, I know there is a paper in my underwear drawer, so don’t take it out until tomorrow”. Apparently that is his not so secret hiding place for surprises.

Dustin (his mind is ever thinking) “Mom, if you shake your head yes and then no, it makes an L” I admit this took me a few minutes to figure out what in the world he was saying. I finally figured it out and was slightly impressed at the thinking process.

Dustin (in relation to a friend’s dogs who got loose in a small patch of trees behind the donut shop) “mom, you know Abby’s dogs could have been eaten by a bear in there” Mom “where?” Dustin “you know when they got lost in the forest” I just smiled and agreed, even though the patch of trees was not a forest and I knew there were no bears in there. A boy’s mind at work.

Daria (this is on a daily basis) “mom, look how many chapters I read.” No matter how thick or thin a book is Daria will always point out how many chapters she has read. She just finished the book “Because of Winn Dixie”. She said “It’s so good I just might have to read it again”

Daria, while in a state of boredom (in our house we have a slogan adopted from my step-mom that says “boredom is a choice” so if you’re bored there is always something to do), decided to make up a game. It was a pretty cute game. It’s called the Webkinz game. Webkinz are these stuffed animals that have a key that you can go on the Internet and feed the animal you adopted. It is the next big thing amongst 2nd grade girls in Daria’s class. She put two large pieces of paper together and made a game board. The players are cats. We all played it as a family last night. Dustin kept asking what the idea of the game was (he’s looking for someone to beat). I said “to have fun.” You see, you roll the dice and just move along the path. You may land on a spot that has an apple, and then you get to pick an apple (imaginary). Or you may get to go to the park and swing, or pick a flower or eat a cherry. Personally it was so cute that Ken and I had to try hard not to laugh. The biggest challenge of the game was telling our cats apart. They all looked the same. I mentioned to Daria that maybe she should color the cats so we knew who was who. Still I thought it was pretty creative.

An exciting note of this month was that Daria had a piece of artwork in the Art Festival. This is an annual tradition where plenty of artwork from students at all the schools and all grade levels is showcased at the High School. We went up to the school just to see Daria’s piece. I had to take a picture of these cute clay figures that other students made. I thought they were pretty cute. Ok, so the smudges on the photos are from me blurring them out. I do not like to put person's full names on my blog.

And last, just a fun memory. Most of you know that we live very close to the elementary school. Since Daria has been in Kindergarten we have spent most days walking to school with a handful of good friends. Right out our back gate of the community is a grove of trees and bushes which are decorated with honeysuckle at certain times and dewberries. Every day Dustin will pick me a flower. Lately though, the honeysuckle is in, so we always stop and pick a few to suck on. This week the dewberries were in. What a pleasure it is to walk to school and munch on a handful of dewberries as a treat!

This last weekend the kids and I participated in a walk to cure CF (Cystic Fibrosis) since our good friend's two daughters have the disease. It was a lot of fun, and a beautiful walk. Thanks to all those who donated! Here is a picture of Daria and Dustin. Daria is the one in the orange shorts, holding Abby's hand. Abby is the one with CF. Dustin is in the baseball cap. Me, of course I'm the one who is ALWAYS taking the picture.

Another exciting moment of last weekend was that Ken passed one of his huge EMT tests!!!! Way to go DADDY!!!

You know all those e-mail friend questionnaires that ask you things like "what color are your socks?", well they always ask what your favorite time of year is. I realized today that one of my favorite times of year is graduation. Why you ask? Well, Becca's I love getting the graduation announcements and hanging them on my fridge. I even cleaned my fridge off to make room as the announcements have started to come in. I love getting the pictures. In fact I think it's totally boring to get a announcement of any sort without a picture. Tonight I was pleasantly surprised to get an announcement from a young woman who wasn't even in my ward, but who I know very well. I thought that was kind of her to think of me.

On to another day.

Another week

I just had to post this cartoon. A good friend gave it to me as a joke. It seems that when little boys are in their 5th year or actually 6th year of life, they begin to be consumed with making or hearing strange noises. Of course you know I'm talking about Dustin. I'm not sure if he has so much energy all wound up inside that sometimes he just needs to go outside and scream or bark like a dog to get it out. Who knows. It's some form of communication. If he's not doing that he's constantly making rhyming noises, different languages, or just weird sounds because he's got nothing left to talk about but has a hard time being quiet. Then there is the body noises. Ok, no I won't go into detail, but I've been pondering lately on why body noises are so funny. It is a double edged sword. Dustin laughs, I tell him it's normal, we don't need to laugh about it, all while I'm trying to control my laugh. What in the world is so funny about a body letting off some digestive steam? Then there are the burps. I think we got that one under control. Even Daria had to be counseled to stop pretending to burp or make herself burp. As a parent sometimes I just have to sit back and laugh about how funny little kids minds are. At any rate, I often find myself asking Dustin to stop making some noise, which he does, but then replaces it with another one. All I can say is school for him will be very interesting!!

We've had a good week and it's only Wednesday. I unveiled a new family plan during our family night on Monday. I did this in hopes of tackling some of the behavior issues in the house. Amazingly enough the kids love it and home has been a great place this week.

Ken is gearing up for his skills testing for EMT class. He's nervous but I am not worried. He is the top in the class right now and studies like crazy. I'm thinking all will go well on Saturday.

Saturday is our walk for Cystic Fibrosis with Abby and Katie. The kids are looking forward to it. Ken of course won't be able to make it because he will be in class.

Our next big event is next week is a visit from the grandparents. We are really looking forward to their visit. Of course we are excited for Daria's baptism. Daria had her interview with the Bishop tonight. She was nervous to go because Brother S. told her she would have to recite the 13 articles of faith. If anyone knows the Sowers family, they know how much they joke around. Even when I told Daria he was joking she wouldn't believe me. Brother S.'s wife reminded him to joke around with the "big" people, not the "small" people. We all laughed. I reminded Daria that Jesus got baptized and he didn't have to recite the articles of faith.