I've Solved My Problem....

We're joining a Nudist Colony in hopes of mitigating this perpetual "little" laundry problem.

I've spent the last two days making that pile, and would you believe in those two days we've already created an additional two full loads now waiting... That's a FULL size couch under there.

Tomorrow will be lots of fun {:-/

They Could Teach You A Lot...

Gabriel's Primary Program was on Sunday. I'm very happy to announce this year went much smoother. I even got to stay in the audience and watch this time. There was drama involved last year....

Anyway, he sat up on the stand quietly, notice I stop short of saying calmly or reverently, he was lots of quiet motion. He had a scrape on the side of his nose he kept messing with so it looked like he was picking his nose the whole hour...nice. After he was done messing with his nose he started licking his hand...nice, again. At the end of the meeting he showed me his red, sore, chappy hand. I told him it was because he kept licking it, he said, "Oh I didn't know that." (Alexandrea wins the award for the funniest kid thing I saw this year. *Hilarious*) Gabriel delivered his memorized line like a champ,

"Noah's family was protected from the flood because they had faith and obeyed Heavenly Father."

After he had memorized it we started working on enunciation. He did great!! He's sure come a long way from where we started a few years ago. I think I'll always have a bit of anxiety when he has to "perform" in front of a group because he's so unpredictable. We're never sure if it'll be a great day like Sunday or one of "those" days.

On a totally different note his line struck me as profound. To say that I'm *sick* of the stage we're in right now is an understatement. I will be SO GLAD to get rid of 2009, good-bye and good riddance! We'll see how my attitude is at the end of next year, but don't get your hopes up too high. :+} Back to my point, Noah's family, just like so many others today, were faced with such a huge trial. My problems pale in comparison, mine are kinda like that yappy Chihuahua that never shuts up or goes away. You just want to say, "Enough already, be gone with you!!" I've felt like a beaten old hag as Stephen and I have tried to navigate through this lovely time. Stephen, the dirty dog, still looks young and rarely shows any signs of stress. That makes me feel that much more haggish. Gabriel's line got me to thinking....maybe I need to evaluate how my faith and obedience are doing. Am I really being as faithful and obedient as I need to?

Our situation now is connected to career choices we made during the summer of 2007. Did we make the right choices?? YES. Is that when things started unraveling?? Yes. Have we done everything right?? Not always. Are we trying to make wise choices?? Yes. How are our testimonies doing?? GOOD. Will we get through this with any kind of sanity left?? I hope so. Why exactly am I so frustrated?? More than the obvious of how to get all the bills paid is that I can't give money or support to groups, people, and places I want. That drives me crazy! Gabriel's teacher was given 200 dollars for her classroom for the whole year. There was a time I could've done some good in alleviating that little problem, not now. I'm frustrated that I can't be as generous in the gifts I give as I want. I can no longer financially support organizations that are fighting for causes that I hold near to me heart. I want to teach my kids to think about others. In my perfect world they'd each get a trip to the store to pick out special Christmas gifts for their siblings/cousins/other family members in mind. I think I've figured out a way to still pull this off. I hope I can because it's such a crucial lesson to learn in life.

IF we're faithful and obedient it will work out and, "this too shall pass." As I started seeing income dry up it was weird to feel "led" in purchasing decisions. We second guessed ourselves when we put a lot of money toward pull ups when they were on coupon at Costco, but those lasted us through almost 5 months. During those months we were able to focus on other financial demands. Every time I go to the store I can feel myself being guided in prioritizing my list. I know it sounds dumb, but it's the truth. The night my poor Stephen walked in looking like he'd been beaten (one of the few times I've seen him stressed) and said, "I don't know what to do. I just don't know...." We again were led to unconventional solutions to the shortage of income. One of the solutions was to start gathering everything we didn't need and craigslisting like crazy. That is what paid for Christmas last year and several other bills. I think getting broke is better than moving. You can get rid of all your junk, but don't have to worry about packing or house hunting. :) Each time the money was gone and the bills weren't we'd be led again. He's been led to where he could pick up work; I've been led in how to approach getting more work. Somehow, we've kinda been making it, still own a house, still like each other, and still have our faith. That's what it really boils down to, faithful obedience. Oh, how I hope I can hurry up and learn my lesson and move on to another trial, if for nothing else, just some variety. I'm so grateful I was able to have my attitude adjusted from my Gabriel. Someday I'll tell him how much he taught me just by working hard on his line for primary. When I start feeling overwhelmed and like I can't breathe and the stress starts to mount, my new mantra has become....faith and obedience, faith and obedience, faith and obedience.

When we get through this we'll be stronger and definitely wiser! I hope we can use it in our child rearing so these wild ones will be wiser than us. All will be well...faith and obedience, faith and obedience, faith and obedience...

Bountiful Baskets Holiday Schedule

Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday the distribution schedule has been modified.

We WILL be doing it again this weekend. You can order again or try it out today. Go to bountifulbaskets.org to contribute. The contribution deadline is tonight. The entire modified holiday schedule will also be posted there. Starting in January we'll be back to the regular bi-weekly delivery schedule again. If you have any questions you can leave a comment or call me if you know me well enough to have my number. :+) Happy Produce!

Deadline for Christmas Trees

If you want to take advantage of the great prices for a Noble Fir Christmas tree, all the paperwork must be in by November 15, that's this weekend.
The trees will be delivered December 5th.

The post below has a link at the bottom to click on and get an order form. You can fill it out and give it to me to deliver or drop it off at any of the Flowing Wells schools. The closest one to us is on Camino de la Tierra just south of Ina.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

GREAT GONGA DEAL!

A couple years ago, after some serious begging, I was able to talk Stephen into getting a Noble Fir tree for Christmas. This kind of tree is expensive which is why it's so short. I'm NOT any kind of decorator and will never claim to be, but I liked how this one turned out. I LOVE Noble Firs; their branches are stiff so lights and ornaments don't make them droop (even on the kid decorated branches with 12 ornaments on the same branch), as they dry out the needles stay right where they ought to be...on the branches, they smell divine, and are BEAUTIFUL!

I just learned that Gabriel's school district is selling Organic Noble Fir trees to raise money for the district family resource center. The prices are FANTASIC! They range from, Up to 6' for $33.00 to 9' and over for $40.00. We've never been able to get a tree for as little as 40 bucks that was as tall or taller than us. Last year we ended up with a HUGE, non-Noble, tree (that was still about 100 bucks after negotiating down) because we didn't have the mula for one till very late in the season. By then all the Nobles, or any small trees, anywhere near our price range were long gone. The drooping branches made me crazy.

If you want in on this great deal there is a link at the bottom you can click on for the order form. Stephen put it on so I know it'll work. :-D The money you spend is TAX DEDUCTIBLE (just include a note with the form requesting a receipt) and will be a great help to a small district that has a big need to help those that live in it. I chose this district for Gabriel because I've seen the inner and outer workings of it; they are so family oriented and foster such a strong sense of community and looking out for each other. I know whatever is collected from the sale of these trees will be used wisely and to benefit those that are truly in need. Not to mention...what an awesome price!

Next week is the deadline for ordering, so you'll have to get them in fast.

Click here to download the order form (works best in Internet Explorer).

Sick or Treat

I had lots of big, fun plans for this Halloween. We were able to still do some of them, but had to start cutting back the closer we got to Halloween because the big boys decided to get sick. Long week short...(When I can get the pictures together I'll add those)

Gabriel ran a fever for over a week, kept complaining that he broke a bone in his ear, missed several days of school including his first school Halloween party, and a few other fun activities. He was very concerned about missing his school party and other fun stuff. Being the empathetic mom that I am, every time he'd say he broke the bone in his ear I'd dismiss it. Lately anytime he "can't" do something it's because he has a broken bone; "I can't clean my room I broke my leg bone", "I can't eat I broke my hand bone" you get the idea. Not to mention, do you know how hard it would be to actually break those tiny bones in your ear?? DUH, I'm an idiot! He has a history of ear problems and doesn't have the language to explain it to me. Sunday, after baths, I was cleaning his ears and surprise there was bloody discharge. Soooo, he missed school for a very non-contagious ear infection. I hope no permanent damage was done. He's well now and back to school. He wanted to be a giraffe again this year. Last year's costume still fit perfectly, so getting him ready was easy.

Garrett started running a fever a few days after Gabriel did. He missed his pre-school Halloween party and several activities too. Fortunately, we were able to do some fun things before he got sick so he doesn't realize what all he missed. He ended up seeing the Pediatrician for a fever that kept hitting 103. It's just a virus, not the flu, that needs to run its course. He just missed another day of pre-school. He'll be back on Wednesday because the fever is gone now and he's wild again. He wanted to be a T-Rex. We really tried to find a costume for him. We ordered 2 online that were too small, checked all the stores on our side of town, and finally gave up and broke the news to him that he'd have to be a monkey again...same as last year. He took it pretty well.

Lincoln is illness free. However, still not a fan of food; although, he's slowly coming to terms with the inevitability of the whole eating thing. He still sees no reason to sleep through the night, but I'm getting good at sleeping through him waking up. He normal crawls now, but it's looks very mechanical. You can see him thinking...right...left...right...left. He was our hand-me-down "lil punkin" till my mom found a cute alien/monster/critter costume for a gonga $1.99.

They were ALL so cute! It's pretty much always a zoo around here so I thought their costumes were pretty fitting. ;+D I'm glad there was still so much fun to be had with Ava (they LOVED their caramel apples!) and trick or treating with Jens. If you ask them how there Halloween was, they answer "FUN!" That's the important part.

Stephen and I came down with some kind of stuffy nose kind of thing. We don't feel sick, just stuffed up. We bought a bunch of expectorant and Sudafed and life goes on.

Sooo, our Halloween weekend can all be summed with Sick or Treat. Stay tuned for our annual trip to the Urgent Care EVERY Christmas Eve.

Almost a First....

Sunday afternoon we were sitting in Sacrament Meeting minding our own business...ok I lied...we were sitting in Sacrament Meeting trying to not be the noisiest family there. I've decided that as long as there is one other family noisier than us the day is a success. Just Kidding, we really are trying to teach them to be reverent...often it's just flat out a losing battle...

Anyway, we were sitting there and the whole Young Women presidency and most of the advisers were released. I kinda took note of that, as we were still trying to get the critters settled. The next thing I hear is Sister "Human" (Gabriel's new teacher of less than 3 months) get called to the Young Women. First I thought, "No Way! Seriously??" The look I shot to Stephen and his reply confirmed I'd heard right. Then I hear, "any opposed?"

I honestly started to raise my hand, in the split second before it went up I caught it....barely. The idea of doing that has never even crossed my mind before. I really really wanted to raise it and shout, "NO WAY, YOU STINKY OL' TEENAGERS CAN'T HAVE SISTER "HUMAN", SHE'S TAKEN, AND LOVED BY LITTLE ONES THAT NEED HER MORE!!" Selfish? YES!

Gabriel's class is BIG.....and uh....WILD. Some Sundays there are other kids his age being naughtier than him. It's evil, but I'm relieved on those days that it's not always my kid in trouble. Several months ago they split his class into two classes, fantastic idea. Nearly 10 wild 5 year year olds will take even the toughest teacher out. For another couple months he had a sub every week while they waited to get a permanent teacher called. I apologize to all the subs, these kids didn't make it easy. One of the subs told me later that she won't sub in the 5 year old class anymore....not that I blame her. Finally, Sister "Human" (Gabriel's mispronunciation of her last name, and such a cute mispronunciation) was called as the permanent teacher. I was SO excited! I knew she'd be able to love those wild kids into behaving and reverent-ish-ly learning important lessons each Sunday. It's been less than 3 months and the change in that class has been amazing. They don't even look like the same class anymore. Gabriel and his wild little buddy are quieter, even if they're moving, it's quiet moving. When they come back during the last 15 minutes of Primary they walk in instead of pushing and running to be the first to sit down. The best part is I can see Gabriel get corrected when he's making bad choices and usually take it pretty well; such an important skill to have for life. He loved to sit on Sister "Human's" lap, making bad choices often got him on her lap, but I could see him physically relax and calm down once he was in her arms. She sent a really cute picture to the kids one week with their picture and "Jesus Loves Me" under it. It's proudly displayed on his wall now. He had such a happy smile....I love it.

I believe when asked to take a calling the answer should be yes, I guess that means when asked to support a change in callings my answer should still be yes....even if I want to say No Way Jose. Oh, how I hope and pray the Lord has someone in mind that can love these wild yahoos as much as their parents, and He does.

You will be hugely missed Sister "Human"!

~Side note Garrett's class has 13, yes you read right, 13 Sunbeams coming up in January. I am going to have SO many years of apologizing to teachers for the insanity they have to endure on behalf of serving my kiddos.~

B O O !

*~* BOO!! *~*

Ha, Ha, I scared ya!

I just thought this was a cute picture. Gabriel's school had a fundraiser at Burger King; the restaurant was passing out crowns for all the kids. We had to catch a picture before he realized it was on his head and started eating it.

National SIDS/ Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Day

Yesterday was the National SIDS/ Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Day. I saw a post on a friend's blog that talked about lighting candles for all the Angels that are no longer with us, so I did. The big candle is for my 6 brothers and sisters we're still waiting to meet. It's humbling to know that you're related to so many that were so righteous they only needed a body for such a short time. It's a good tool for keeping pride in check...I'm here with a body still being tested. All the other candles have names. The Mommies and Daddies of these other candles come to my mind daily; I hope they can feel the hug and love that I send them everyday when I think about them.

It's Here!!

Bountiful Baskets finally has a site set up on the Northwest side. The first distribution day will be this Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. I know it's EARLY, but don't worry we all look like we rolled out of bed and came down....except for those people that always look good and make the rest of us envious. I will need help with the actual passing out of the produce, sooo, if you have nothing else to do 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning come on down and help.

The deadline to contribute online is TONIGHT by 10:00p.m.

The website is www.bountifulbaskets.org (Stephen isn't home so I'm not able to post the link, sorry) You can contribute there at the website. The site is not that clear or user friendly, so sign up for the email for the next round in two weeks. That way you don't have to try to figure out the site each cycle, just wait for the email and click on the link in that email when it's time to order again.

I STINK!

So, in order to maintain my interpreting certification I'm required to earn CEU's (one hour of work equals .1 CEU; Yeah, it takes forever to get 8). If you take certain types of classes they can count toward Professional CEU's rather than the General ones. Professional CEU's are much more difficult to find workshops to satisfy. This semester I had the grand idea to take ASL Linguistics again. This is a class I had to take during the Interpreting Training Program several years ago. The teacher is SO precise in her language use. I knew it would be a good refresher and hopefully help me in better understanding the nuances in the language. It's working I'm seeing more and remembering some of the aspects of the language I'd forgotten. The first time I took the class I ended up with a B, and have NEVER in my life been so happy about, or worked so hard for a B. All the tests are essay tests, like the kind that you fill the allotted space and continue on the back, if you want any chance of full credit. She also counts off for spelling, grammatical, and punctuation mistakes. Trying to write 100 miles an hour with none of those mistakes is difficult for a tired, only half working, brain to do.

Today I got my first test from this year back. I suck. I got a dang 81% on it. Their were two questions that I lost a lot of points on, and I know why, I just flat out ran out of time. The darn class is only an hour and a half. I couldn't write any faster and had to leave information out of a couple of my answers just to make it to the end of the test. One other question she just didn't like the answer I came up with; although, I've used similar answers out in the real world and they've worked fine. There is always room for improvement though.

~**~Note to self: You stink and need to find another profession. ~**~

I think I might keep retaking the class every 2-3 years till I learn and remember enough to earn an A. I was telling Stephen about it, and explaining exactly why my grade was so low, he agrees I might need to find another profession. On a positive note, back in 1999 I got a 71% on my first test, so I'm up 10 percentage points! That means the next time I retake the class I should get a 90%....uh....maybe.

Next hurdle....a research paper, not just any research paper, a linguistics paper containing an in depth analysis of one aspect of ASL. I've got my topic approved, now I better get my butt in gear before I blow that one too. My teacher is not only a master of ASL, but of English too. That means all the mistakes that show up in my blog posts CANNOT show up in that paper.

My long term hope is that this class, in combination with some other activities, will help me prepare for the new certification test they just set up. Yippee!

Well, it's been two hours...Lincoln is summoning me.

Gotta' Work Smarter, Not Harder

Stephen's life motto is: "You have to work smarter, not harder."

I was peeling peaches today for jam, and complaining about how long it takes to get all the dang skins off. Stephen came in and looked at the minuscule pieces I was getting with my fingers and paring knife and innocently asked, "Oh, the peeler doesn't work??" I said, "What peeler??" To which he answered, (with that 'I gotcha' twinkle in his eye) "The one you use for carrots and potatoes." Hmmmm, why is it always him that has the GREAT ideas?!? I pulled out that ol' peeler and by dang it worked like a charm!! Seriously, for eons of time, women have been doubling the time it takes to prep peaches for canning, burning the tips off their fingers trying to pull the HOT skins off, and making a much huger mess than needed. I WILL NEVER BURN MY FINGERS, WASTE EXTRA TIME, OR MAKE THE MONSTROUS PEACH PEEL MESS AGAIN. I had those things ready to pulverize into jam in no time.

At least he's nice about all the ideas he has that are WAY smarter than harder. {=-P Now, that this is out in cyber-space, when ya'll see this handy little tip in a How-To canning book remember they stole it from me, well actually from Stephen. I'm thinking I could re-work a peeler, put a cute peach doo-dad on top and call it the "Amazing Peach Skin Removal System" and get my retirement in place. I'm calling the Patton office now...

Just a phase....I hope

This cute little thing HATES food...well, except tomato soup and melted ice cream. Tomato soup gives him yucky poo, and melted ice cream is just flat out not healthy. He's growing very fast and and gets hungry....constantly! Since he hates food that means that he's back to nursing every 2 hours. I think I'm gonna go a little crazy.

He's also very busy doing things like pulling to the standing position anywhere he can. This would be fine if he'd developed the balance for crawling already, but he hasn't. Don't get me wrong he's VERY mobile...via a weird looking frog jump. So, he frog jumps to to something, then climbs up to stand. If we're not right there soon he falls straight backwards...SCARY. I hope he soon figures out how to balance on his knees so he can then balance on those feet of his.

"Wrestling" with Daddy and Gabriel are fast becoming favorite activities! The other day Stephen got on the floor to play with him and he frog jumped away as fast as he could. Stephen "caught" up to him and he frog jumped away again. I didn't know 7 month olds played tag. Probably means he's a genius. {;-D ha ha

Some things, like Garrett's bed, are easier to stand next to than others.

After a long day of so much excitement a little guy gets all tired out.
**EXCEPT**
He doesn't sleep at night anymore. He wakes up at least 3 times a night, most nights it's 4, and on occasion, when we're really lucky, it's 5 times. I'm going crazy!! I had been just nursing him quickly so he'd go back to sleep and I could "sleep" (lay there with my eyes closed waiting for him to wake up again) too. Recently we've started letting him fuss back to sleep so he learns how to settle himself. He's still in our room so nights are not a whole lot of fun these days, which in turn, makes work not a whole lot of fun. I feel like I'm clawing through every job I get. I'm always exhausted so thinking I'm more tired is nothing new. However, the morning Stephen got up and said, "Man! I'm tired, that Lincoln needs to sleep more." I knew it was getting bad. Stephen neither needs nor tends to sleep for many hours a day, so when he's getting tired you know something's gotta change. I keep thinking he's just hungry so some nights we fight with him till he eats actual real food thinking he'll sleep better. Nope doesn't do a darn bit of good. His cuteness during the day usually makes up for it, so we'll just keep enjoying that....and maybe start sleeping on the family room couches so he doesn't wake us up.

Garrett-ism

"Cars and dirt are pa-tas-tic!!"
Translation: "Cars and dirt are fantastic!!

He's learning new words and trying them out....as long as he keeps it to cool words like pa-tas-tic, not the naughty words, we'll be alright.

"I went pee in the POT!" We're not sure when or why it changed from potty to pot, makes him sound a little uncouth.

"Winken is crying, poor wittle feh-wa". Right after he gets done laying on top of him or poking his eye. Gee, I wonder why he's crying.

This kid is an early riser! He's usually already awake and talking in his room when Stephen leaves to play basketball at 5:30 a.m. I know, insanity on both their parts. Each morning when we go in to get him he asks, "Do I have pre-school today?" If we say yes he throws his little fist up in the air and yells, "YEESS!! I love pre-school!" On the days we say no he asks if he can go to kindergarten yet. Poor kid is going to be so sad next year when he's still not old enough for kindergarten and has to do another whole year of pre-school. Although, he may never get to go to kindergarten if he doesn't start using that "POT" regularly and for nasty poop too. He now gets to clean his own poopy rear end up. As long as he's not wearing a pull-up to his high school prom I guess we'll be ok. Stubborn kid makes his stubborn momma look like a docile, compliant, push-over.

"Mommy/Daddy cuddle me". Us: "Ok come over here". Thump, smack, jab with a sharp elbow, flop one way, flop the other, "Mommy I love you so so much", thump, smack, kick...I'm thinking, "Ummm, we're supposed to be cuddling right now". Then, he jumps down and says, "Ok I'm all done cuddling now".

After sneaking a drink of my Dr. Pepper, "Whoa yours juice is SPICY!"

Gotta love it!

Already ?!?

Gabriel and I were riding in the car and this is what transpired...

Gabriel: (with all the attitude of a 13 year old) Mom, why don't you give me a phone?!

Me: What kind of phone?

Gabriel: (same impatient 13 year old attitude) A phone like you have.

Me: A cell phone? Why do you need a cell phone?

Gabriel: (more attitude like this has been an ongoing issue for a while) Yeah, a cell phone; I need to make calls.

Me: Well, maybe when you get older you can buy a cell phone and make all the calls you want.

Gabriel: (new attitude of oh, you're such an uncool mom and don't get it) No, I need to make important calls nooowww.

Me: (seeing that this is getting nowhere fast) Ok, talk to Dad about it when we get home.

*Pat myself on the back, now it's Stephen's problem.*

Perspectives of a 3 year old...

Garrett loves to tell me about all the things he's gonna do when he becomes a "gril" (girl).

He can't wait to go to water ro-a-bics (aerobics) and blow bubbles and jump.

The other day I was nursing Lincoln and Garrett came in and said, "When I a "gril" I going to feed my baby too." I asked, "Oh yeah? How are you going to do that?" He had the answer instantly! "I going to get LONG boo boos, so he can drink milk."

Seriously?!? Did he really say long? --NO--NO--NO-- They sure have a way of making you feel...well...deflated. No pun intended.

Poor Me.

Ahh, The Best Plans

The following conversation was heard in the Maskey house at the end of a long day of, much welcomed, last minute work that was picked up. We were getting ready to crash for the night.

(Just so we're all clear... this place is a wreck right now)
"Man, I had some big plans for this place today; I was going to get the kitchen cleaned up, make banana bread, vacuum the living room floor, and gets the kid's rooms cleaned up again."

"Eh, who cares, we'll get to it sometime....maybe."



Ok, who said which quote??

Give up??

Stephen was the one with the big plans for the house. Talk about a role reversal! We were both lucky enough to get work on the same day. I'm blessed that he actually makes plans like that. I'm also blessed that he has the know-how to pick up side work and supplement our income. I'm the tortilla winner these days because I have work, but not enough to be an official bread winner. :-D

I couldn't do anything but just laugh when I heard him say that. At one point I would have felt like a failure as a wife, and mother; keeping up with the house is my job. I guess technically I kinda am a failure, but I'm so glad that Stephen isn't mean or rude about my lacking and just helps pull it together when he can.

His philosophy of how to pick a spouse is:
No one is perfect so just find someone who's imperfections don't bother you that much.

While we were dating he saw all my unfolded laundry, moved me and all my junk twice...well three times if you include after we got married, never got a meal cooked by me, and saw how feisty I was; yet, he married me anyway. Am I lucky or what? Due to recent financial changes he now gets meals cooked by me, and seems to like pretty much all of them, which is more than I can say about our ungrateful children. However, I still don't fold laundry and still have a lot of junk...much of which is now available on craigslist. Funny how long you hang onto stuff just to realize YOU DON'T EVEN NEED IT. I am eternally blessed to have found such a good man that takes good care of me. I didn't make it easy for him to date me, and it's not easy to be married to me. Boy, am I glad that I didn't chase him off.

He makes a great banana bread I'm excited for when he gets to it. {;-D

HE WON ! ! !

I can't figure out how to get rid of the darn underlining...I just love technology.

This afternoon Gabriel came home with this on his back. The kindergarten he goes to doesn't use backpacks because the rooms don't have the room. His school had a big "get free stuff" kick off this morning. They collect box tops, campbell's soup labels, ink cartridges, cell phones and other electronics, throughout the year and turn them in for money for the school. Well, this little boy is being raised by a mother who is a pack-rat in recovery...sort of, and has grandparents that trained his momma in the fine art of pack-ratism. This morning he had a baggie full of box tops, several capbell's labels (there is only one kind of soup without soy so we don't usually have much of that stuff around) 5 ink cartridges and 6 old cell phones. The kid that brought in the most stuff won this backpack filled with goodies. I thought he did pretty good, but didn't really think he'd win. I WAS WRONG! Pack-ratting pays off I guess. :-D

Contents of the Backpack:
Recycle Folder
Planet Earth coloring and activity book
Animal Planet coloring and activity book
Crayons for the books
Notebook
Choose to Reuse tactile book
Wall-e (the movie which he's watching for the first time right now)
Glow Bracelets (what kid doesn't love those ?)
A real watch he could hardly wait to put on
Giant bag of Red Vines (soy free)
Box of Skittles (soy free)
Wall-e ring pops (soy free)
Nature valley granola bars (with soy, he said he'll share those with Garrett)
Box of Goldfish (with soy, also shared with Garrett)
3 Bags of Popcorn (not sure if there's soy, so he requested to eat them right before bed so he can sleep the soy off if there is any)
2 little pots with flower seeds
2 little pots with herb seeds
Certificate from the school for a FREE Yearbook
Certificate for a Free School Shirt
Certificate for FREE wristband and the District Fall Festival

I know he was pretty excited about it all and said, "I'm going to write a note that says Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for my cool stuff." He's a funny boy. The principal and one of the ladies that works in the front office presented it to him. He just loves them and always yells hi. The first time he gets sent to the office in trouble, he'll just be crushed to realize that the same cool guy he always says hi to also sees you when you're in trouble. For now though, we'll all just enjoy the delight of a 5 year old that earned something "awesome". Right now he's wearing the backpack filled with his babies and cup, stretched out on the couch watching Wall-e, checking the time every 5 minutes. He looked up and reported, "it's 3:42 or 5. He's transposing 2 and 5 a lot lately and still likes to write his name from right to left.

Yeah Gabriel!

Ahhh, So Sweet...

This greeted me in my email courtesy of my sweet husband.

Stephen is pretty good humored about letting me do whatever I want, as long as it's feasible, but that doesn't mean he's not gonna tease me...especially about my blog habits. He says it's only a matter of time before we hear something from the pulpit about blogging. I say it counts as socializing since the Mommy's don't manage to get out of the house, talk to to grown-ups, or hang out with friends anymore.

He's threatened to commandeer my blog a couple times so he could put on an embarrassing picture or something. If he ever it does it should be pretty interesting...he's such a guy! There have been a couple times he's taken a picture then sent it to me titled, "for your blog". Unfortunately, those are usually the embarrassing pictures when my hair's all messed up or one of the kids exploded all over me, or I spilled something all over myself, etc...yeah not going to put those on.

Back-to-School Picnic

I give up on getting things in the right order...and I can't manage to get my cursor above the picture. Oh well, here it all is.

I love the contrast between Stephen and Lincoln's skin tones. Lincoln was super happy this night for some reason, he was a show stealer.

Gabriel's school had a fun back to school picnic. Part of the reason I chose the school and program that he's in was because of the family focus that the district has. There are so many fun family friendly activities throughout the year. I'm excited to go to them.

We lost Garrett, like real lost, not just lost sight of him for a minute. We were freaked out. He was in a bright yellow shirt yet we still couldn't spot him. I headed one way and Stephen headed back to the parking lot. Just as he got there he found him with another dad bringing him back down to the picnic area. Later Stephen said, "I guess that's what a prompting feels like. I just felt like I needed to get back to the parking lot...I thought I was going to see someone taking him." Heart stopping scary time. Garrett was scared too, but is still hard to keep track of in public. I hope he'll stay closer without something horrible happening. Pizza made everything better.

Grandpa Joe called so Stephen put his ear "cockroach" on Gabriel's ear so they could talk. Funny boy. He was pretty excited about pizza too. It has soy in it so he's only allowed to have it when he's in a place to work off all the excess energy, then go to bed and sleep off any remaining effects from it.

Gabriel encouraging Lincoln in his efforts to sit all by himself....he's close.

There were some cute booths set up for the kids to go and "visit" other places around the world. Poor Lincoln assumed the "along for the ride position".

Australia:
Gabriel LOVED the sack races. He informed me that it was a tie. I'll let him see the pictures later when he's older to see the actual results.

"Hawaii"
The kids made little fruit, marshmallow, and candy bracelets. The funny thing was that the candy was Mexican candy with chili in it. The next day was pretty funny when he tried to eat it. Not even a full minute into it he came running in and said he was all done....looking really hopeful that I would let him spit it out. I obviously let him and then he attacked the sink to get a drink.
Hilarious.

New York:
He watched a couple other kids bob for apples then decided to do it himself. I was really surprised because he's never been a fan of water in his face. He dove right in. He beamed with pride when he actually got an apple. He was hungry and got even more excited when I told him he got to eat it too.

So much excitement....what's left to do but fall sound asleep. He has his 6 month appointment tomorrow I'm curious to see if he's hit 20 pounds yet and will need to be moved to the convertible seat. Those legs of his are sure hanging off the end now.

After a Loooong Day

Monday was a really long day full of craziness! Gabriel came home so over stimulated he was just flat out naughty. I put him in the back yard to play and decompress for a while. Next thing I know he comes running in because Lola (our noisy little Chihuahua) is running down the road. I asked how and why she got out. He said, "She squeezed under the fence." Noticing the shovel in his hand I asked if he'd hit her with it. He said, "Well, she wouldn't stop barking."

I called her back to the house safe and sound. A car had driven by in the meantime, I'm glad she didn't get hit. I went back to the yard and called him in. His first question, "Did you call Dad?" "No" "Are you going to call Dad?" "Yep" "Oh, (looks down sadly) ok."

I put him in his room for a chill out. We found him under his bed sound asleep a little while later. The nap did the trick he was happy for the rest of the evening.

Surprise Visitor

Stephen's dad has been coming up for some eye appointments the last couple of weeks. He's a major home body, so anytime we can get him up here it's pretty exciting. He'd get here about mid-morning and Garrett thought he was in heaven! Here he's showing Grandpa the great swing set in the back yard. (Stephen found this swing set on Craigslist for FREE, it had wood that had broken in a storm. He fixed all the broken pieces and ta dah we have great entertainment for the boys.) Grandpa finished his appointments about the time Gabriel got home from school and then he got to have fun for a little while with Grandpa. I didn't tell them that he was coming because it was so much fun to watch them look out the window when he drove up and realize who was here.

These are some well loved kids!

Free Day at the Zoo!

You have to pretend this is at the end. As we were looking at the last animal I looked down and Lincoln had had enough. He was sound asleep. I'm sure the heat had something to do with it too.

I love how our little zoo creates so many shady places to get some relief from the sun as you enjoy the animals.

The big boys love this turtle shell. They play in it every time we go to the zoo. Gabriel was in kindergarten so just Garrett got to enjoy it this time.

My monkey boy with the little monkey in training.

I love the look on his face here. I'm not sure what caught his attention, but it sure made a cute picture.

I'm excited to see the new elephant enclosure when it's finished. Garrett looked in and said, "Hey, that one don't have none horns on his mouth." So, we learned about tusks.

I feel like I'm surrounded by animals all the time....maybe I should have been sitting there instead.

They both seemed a little mesmerized by the tranquil fish.

After seeing the fish Garrett asked to go back and see them again for the rest of the day.

My little hatchling.

I thought this was a great place for some fun pictures.

Thanks Melanie for including this on your list of fun family activities, the boys had a great time!

1 year anniversary

We've just passed the one year mark on having not much more than trickle income. I swing wildly between ticked off and furious about it and feeling so overwhelmingly blessed that we've been able to pull off survival, keeping our house, and keeping Gabriel fed with his darn expensive soy free food, with very little. I've had my stress level raising again lately, and that makes mommy pretty cranky and impatient. A couple days ago was one of those days that I felt overwhelmingly blessed.

These are great! Gabriel is pretty excited, he said, "oh, I like those!" Then he saw the football picture and said, "Hey I play football on the field!" I would love to see what he calls "playing" football since he's never played or really seen it on TV.

We are truly touched. We have been and continue to be blessed in so many ways. It's the little blessings that come right when they are needed, in such unexpected ways that culminate into a great big blessing over time.

Thank you.

Sitting Like a Big Boy

I had him in the bouncy seat while I was cleaning up the kitchen. I looked over to check on him and found this. He'd pulled himself up and was happy as a clam sitting like the big boys. He was very pleased with himself. He's so close to crawling and sitting by himself. He can't wait to join in all the "fun" around here. He sat there happy for a long time, then started chewing on his toes when he got bored.