Jared

Just wanted to share a couple of quick stories about Jared.  

A few weeks ago he had cub scout day camp.  Day camp here is actually a 3-day camp.  They go from 2:30 until 9:30 in the evening so that its a little cooler, and they go Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  They also have a wet camp.  Everyone has squirt bottles and water balloons.  The boys get to swim and they love it.  

Because the camp is three days long the parents take turn chaperoning so no one has to try to be there all three days.  Ben went on Thursday and said it was a lot of fun.

On church the Sunday after day camp one of the counselors in the bishopric came up to me and said he had a story.  He had been one of the chaperones on Saturday and he was the fortunate one who got to give Jared a ride.  While driving home that evening he overheard this conversation in the back seat of the car.

Jared (to the other boys): Do you guys know what a chick magnet is?

Other Boys:  No.

Jared:  A chick magnet is someone that all the girls like...  I am a chick magnet!

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The other story happened just a few days ago.  On Monday for family home evening we made a delicious peach crisp with maple cream (courtesy of Pioneer Woman) for family home evening treat.  We all LOVED this dessert and amazingly enough since we doubled the recipe, we had some left over.  On Tuesday morning Ben and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest for breakfast and then rinsed out the dirty bowls to remove any evidence of our early morning meal.

Later in the day the kids asked us if they could have some peach crisp.  We told them that it was all gone.  Being pretty smart kids they remembered that we had put some leftovers in the fridge the night before.  So we confessed and told them that we had eaten it for breakfast before they had waken up, to which Jared replied with total outrage, "Vile Vermin!"

I guess we will have to make that dessert again sometime.

April Fool's Day and Easter

This year we once again had our traditional April Fools' Day dinner.  This time we were able to have our friends, the Piepers, join us.  It was a lot of fun and craziness as usual.

For Easter Ben was leaving the day before so we celebrated it the weekend before by coloring eggs and having the Easter Bunny come.  We had a fun time.

Gwen got the traditional raw egg that was added to the mix.

California

Nick's baptism

At the end of March my sister's fiance was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  We were able to drive out to California to be there to support Nick in his decision.  It was such a wonderful baptism and we are so grateful that we were able to be there.

This was our first trip to California as a family.  I have not been to California since I was 14 and Ben has only been there for business trips, so it was fun to explore and enjoy it with our family.  On Saturday morning we found a park with a duck pond and a lot of different hiking trails.  We spent a couple of hours going all over.

The kids were totally impressed with the size of the trees, and the running water, something they don't see very often in AZ.

Later in the day we went to the beach.  It was very cold, as you can tell from the jackets they were wearing in the above pictures.  It had been raining off and on all day.  So in an attempt to keep them from freezing to death I told them that they could only go wading, and not above there knees.  Well, I'm sure you can guess how long that lasted.

Ben and I and Becca and Nick watching the kids play.

My two little mermaids.

The artists who created them

Kids hunting for sand crabs

Gwen before she "fell over" into the water.

Jared and Bonnie looking for seashells

Nate the mummy

We had so much fun in California and we can't wait to go back and visit Becca and Nick again.  They were great hosts and we loved spending time with them.  Besides, I think my children have decided to live at the beach.

Craziness at Our House

So I am taking a break in my catching up to write about my crazy day last Wednesday.  I know that everyone has crazy days and I know that there are a lot that are much worse than mine was, but I'm going to document it for the future anyway.  Ben is in India for work right now.  He left on April 21st and his return date was set for May 20th.  This is very important information because not having him around definitely made it a more challenging day.


Wednesday morning I woke up at 1:30 to go get the papers ready for the route.  After preparing them Nate and I delivered them.  I brought Nate home and I changed and went running with my good friend Jamie Pieper.  I love running with friends it gives me some sense of sanity at the beginning of any day.  Anyhow, after showering and getting the kids to school I ran to Sprouts, our local health food store, to pick up some produce.  After unloading a lot of produce onto the register conveyor belt, with the cashier ringing them up, I realized I had forgotten my wallet.  I had my purse, but no cards.  Thankfully, and oddly, I had my checkbook which they very kindly accepted even without I.D.  My next stop was supposed to be Lowes to pick up a couple of items.  Lowes, however, is not as accepting of checks without I.D. so I decided I would have to come back later.

I proceeded home to start cooking a ham, which I had agreed to cook for a funeral that was being held at our church later that day.  I also mixed up a big batch of granola.  I had needed to do this for a while and decided that the craziest day of the week was the best time?!  Before cooking the granola I decided to run back to Lowes to get the items I needed.  I then proceeded to Costco to get some rolls, also for the funeral.  I then returned home, baked some of the granola, cut up a ham, got dressed in church clothes and headed to the church for the funeral luncheon I had agreed to help with.  I stopped by another friends house to pick up things she had cooked for the luncheon and took them with me.

I was at the church from 12:15 until 2:30 at which time I left to pick up my kids from school at 3.  Nate plays the trombone, he loves it and he is pretty good at it.  He had decided on Monday that he wanted to try out for the district Jr. High Jazz band.  Of course Wednesday was the day for tryouts.  So we took the other kids home for a quick snack and got him ready to go.  He needed to be there by 4:30.  Now on this particular Wednesday Bonnie and I were supposed to have activity days at 5:30.  I wasn't sure how long his tryouts would be so I took Bonnie to the activity day leader's house in case I was late getting there, and Jamie very graciously agreed to watch Jared and Gwen for as long as I needed that evening.  Nate did pretty well in his tryout, I think, and we got home a little after 5:15.  Nate went to change for scouts and I took a moment to call Ben since I wouldn't get a chance to talk to him the rest of the day.  After telling him about my crazy morning and about scouts and activity days that I still had to go to, Nate had a court of honor so parents "get" to come, Ben said, "Well, this is probably not the best time to tell you this, but I have to stay an extra week."

WHAT?!?

What day will you be returning?  You know I have to leave to California for Becca's wedding on the morning of the 28th right?  Why do you have to stay?  That is so LAME!  I miss you.  This all spewed forth out of my mouth accompanied by multiple tears running down my cheeks.

After calming down a little bit I sent Nate to his friends to play and then get a ride to scouts since I would already be at the church.  Then I went to the church for Activity Days, which went pretty well despite a few unwanted tears creeping into my eyes, and Bonnie and I stayed for Nate's court of honor.

I got back to the Pieper's to pick up my kids at about 7:45 and Jamie had gotten us a pizza from Papa Murphy's (Thank you Jamie, I owe you big time).  At this point I would love to tell you that we all went home to bed and had a good night's rest, but I can't.  Instead I left Nate to watch the Pieper's boys and Ben and Jamie came over and helped me take all of our old carpet, carpet pad, linoleum, and baseboards out to the front of my house so they could be picked up the next day, which was the one day a year that Peoria does loose trash pickup so I did not want to miss it.  I really don't know what I would be doing without Ben and Jamie while my Ben is gone. They have been amazing!  I am so grateful to have good friends. We did all get to bed at about 10:30 that night.

Since then we have had a really fun book club at my house, a bridal shower, also at my house, Monday night band practice, Tuesday night orchestra concert, Wednesday night band concert (along with one sick boy who puked in the school bathroom, unfortunately for the janitors, not quite making it to the toilet) and lots and lots of Spring Cleaning that we are trying to get done before Daddy gets home from India. 

I will post some pictures of these activities (except the vomiting thing), along with an upcoming piano recital, at another date.  In the meantime, life is going on.  We have survived two weeks of Ben being gone and only have three more to go.  Although Nate did tell me, "Don't take this the wrong way, but when Dad is gone you're a little more uptight."  I'm not sure what the right way is to take that, but he is very right.  I am very ready for Ben to be home, then maybe sanity will return to our home.

Spring Break

After the weekend in New Mexico The girls and I came back home and Mom and Dad came too.  We were lucky enough to have them visit from Monday evening until Friday morning and we loved every minute of it.

We went hiking in the White Tank Mountains.  We took the Waterfall Trail.  I'm pretty sure they use the term "waterfall" very loosely as this is the only falling water we saw.

There was a small pool of water at the end of the trail.   Gwen refused to smile for the camera because she had tripped and gotten a scratch on her hand.

The boys spent a lot of time playing football in the back yard with grandpa.  I've got to say he is one very cool grandpa.

And one afternoon we looked out the back window to find the kids doing this.  They were out there for a couple of hours and there was not fighting or whining or crying.  The little bit of mud was well worth the time they got to spend enjoying each other.

On the Saturday at the end of Spring Break Jared had his very first pinewood derby.  I have to say he has benefited from having an older brother go through three years of pinewood derby cars.  Jared designed, sanded, and painted his own car, and Daddy figured out how to take care of the wheels and the weight so it went smoothly and and quickly down the track.  

Jared took third place overall.

There is a family in our stake that designs and races drag racing cars.  They were kind enough to bring their car over so all the boys could see it.

In this video they started the car up for the boys so they could see how loud it is.  You can see Jared try to be "tough" for a while and not cover his ears. 

We had a great Spring Break and hope to be able to have Mom and Dad visit again soon.

New Mexico

Our girls weekend

At the end of February my parents returned from a 23-month mission to Romania.  As soon as they got home they went on several short trips to visit different family members.  In March my sister Jessica and her husband Spencer blessed their baby girl, Kylie.  Mom and Dad drove down from Utah for that and I was able to drive up with Bonnie and Gwen.  it was so fun to spend time with all of them and Jess and Spencer were wonderful hosts.

Playing with Kylie.

 

Ready to be police officers

Spencer is going to police academy and let the girls dress up in his gear.  They were both taking their jobs very seriously.

Kylie in her beautiful outfit that Jess made for her.

Both of the girls loved playing with their new cousin.

This was the morning we left.  Spencer had already left for work.

The girls practiced their skills by arresting Spencer for stealing candy land.  It was very funny.

I know this is a little late, but thanks Jess and The Spencer for a great weekend.  We are so excited that you are living a little closer to us now.

Insanity...

Here are some of the things we have had going on since I last posted.

Every morning since The first of January we have been delivering the newspaper.  Either Ben, or I, or both of us, get up between 1:30 and 2:00 in the morning to go put the papers together.  Then we call Nate and come pick him up so he can help deliver the papers.  Sometimes I wonder why we are doing this, but then I spend an hour talking to Nate, about important things, or not so important things, or I listen to Nate proudly telling his friends about his job, and a little sleep deprivation seems worth it for the time being.  

Towards the end of February I had a sweet lady in the ward call and ask me if I would help her out.  She knew another lady that was moving to Florida unexpectedly and couldn't take her dog with her so could I take care of her dog until we could find her a home.  Well, long story short, I am a sucker.  We took care of Abby for almost a whole month and then finally, and thankfully, with the help of several ladies in the ward we found her a home.  She was a very sweet dog, but she was shedding all over my home and there is a reason that we have a hairless dog.  

Okay, now of the end of that story.  Two weeks after we found Abby a home her owner called.  She had not moved to Florida and had decided she wanted her dog back.  This was a big problem as, understandably, the people who adopted her did not want to give her up.  The original owner was very angry at us for adopting her dog out and even threatened to call the police on us for stealing her dog!  Who does that?!  Anyhow, finally, after several days and several angry phone calls between her and many of the kind ladies involved in this, with permission from the new owners she called them and they informed her that they were not giving the dog they had legally adopted back.  She threatened to call the police on them and they told her if she didn't stop harassing them that they would call the police on her.  We haven't heard anything else.

Now, having this extra dog in our house shedding all over everything was a pain in the backside, but it made me realize how much better behaved our dog is if he has a friend to play with, so after looking around for a little while for dogs that don't shed a found we a posting on Craigslist for someone that was adopting out their American Hairless Terrier.  We now have two little naked dogs instead of only the one we had before.

Our new dog is named Dobby.  He and Chancho seem to get along pretty well most of the time.  And yes, just to add to the insanity I made them clothes.  I am almost embarrassed to admit to what levels I've fallen.  In my defense, due to the fact our dogs don't have hair they tend to sunburn rather easily so putting clothes on them is the best way to prevent this.  Seeing as how dog pajamas cost $15 to $20 plus shipping I decided to go to the fabric store and buy a pattern, yes they make them, for dog pajamas.  I have now officially started sewing again, after about five years.  My next project of Easter dresses for the girls was much more admirable.  But I'll have to post about them at a later posting, which will be much sooner than this last one, I promise.

Also in February Gwen was student of the month.  As an awesome mom, I once again forgot to go to the student of the month assembly.  I felt so bad.  I had thought it was the next Friday and totally missed it.  But Gwen was alright and was pretty thrilled to get her certificate nonetheless.  

Here is what her teacher had to say about her, it was printed on the back of the certificate so she could keep it (and so slacker moms would know what was said in behalf of their children).  

"This deserving young lady is a joy to have in class.  She always puts forth her best effort and completes work in a timely manner.  she is attentive during lessons and has interesting things to say during discussion.  She is a kind and considerate friend to everyone."

On the day of her assembly, even though neither of us remembered it was this day, Gwen chose to wear a jumper to school.  When she came downstairs I noticed the tag sticking out of her dress right in front.  After informing her that her dress was on backwards she shrugged her shoulders at me and said, "Who cares."  And she wore it that way all day long.

Also in February Bonnie had played a piece on the cello for solo-ensemble.  She was the only person in her grade at school that attended and she did great.  I had never been to a solo-ensemble before so I wasn't sure what to expect, but they have the students go into a room with their parents and the judge and then they play just for the judge.  I was pretty nervous for her, but she didn't seemed to be bothered at all.  She played Yankee Doodle and she received a superior ranking, which is the highest you can get.

Bonnie with her strings teacher, Ms. Schrade.

This is a quick video of a school morning at our house.  Enjoy...

Also since we last posted we have had trips to New Mexico and California, spring break with Grandma and Grandpa Lamoreaux, pinewood derby, a couple of field trips, and some holiday celebrations.  I promise to post about all of these things soon. I have a goal to write more frequently, since this is the only type of journal that I manage to keep on a somewhat consistent basis.  Now that I have written this down as an official goal I will try even harder to be better at posting.