Sunday, January 18, 2015

Need Demolition Crew?

Funny thing that happened this week - We started removing the linoleum from our bathroom, in preparation for tile. Mama enticed Underfoot and Hurricane by offering them 1 dollar if they scraped the floor clean.
Hurricane decided it was so much fun that he started removing the linoleum from the kitchen. We weren't planning to do the kitchen until after the bathroom was complete ... meaning that we'd removed everything and installed the new tile.
Hurricane has a way of motivating us.

Today we attended church in our new building for the first time. How wonderful it was! Yesterday was the open house. We spent several nights this week knocking on doors and inviting neighbors to come see the inside of the building.
Hurricane helping with the refreshment shopping.
Mama was tasked with providing refreshments.
In all some 300-400 neighbors toured the building. We can now walk to church in less time than it previously took to drive. I am seriously considering riding bikes with the boys. Mama might still take the car, but bikes could be fun.

With the new building comes a new schedule on Sundays. We now meet from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., which means mornings are busy but then we have the afternoon. Mama is taking a Sunday afternoon nap for the first time in years.
Just a random picture
Underfoot and I played a round of Settlers of Catan, which is my favorite board game. Underfoot is a little young to play, but he is learning quickly.

Hurricane and Underfoot have 5 Saturdays left of Soccer. It is fun to watch them play. The games are held on Saturdays at the same field. Mama coaches Hurricane's team, so she is coaching Hurricane while Underfoot is playing, so I always watch Underfoot's team. It is interesting to see how some parents are far more concerned with winning than we are.
Mama painted the frame of a mirror in our entry area this week.
Before
The new frame is black, which matches the other frames in the entry room and the whole front room. We have a picture family tree and all the frames are black.
After
It is something she's been stewing over for the last 6 months. She is sometimes slow to action, unlike Hurricane.
This week Mama saw the orthopedist to get the prognosis on her ankle. (She had an MRI done back in December.)
It turns out that she has a genetic condition called talocalcaneal coalition, which in plain English means she has arthritis in her ankle and two bones are fusing together when they should not be. They never developed as two separate entities. This means she will like never run again, at least not on a consistent basis. She can swim and bike because they are both low impact, but running is out. She is very sad about this, as she had the goal to run a marathon. At least we now know what it is, and how she can manage it.
Underfoot's personality continues to develop.
He is learning how to tell jokes appropriately, how to work the punch line, and how get others to laugh.
It is fun to watch.
Mama and the boys saw a random rainbow during the week.
They stopped so Mama could snap a picture on her phone. It is amazing how simple things can mean so much to a 5 and 7 year old.

Here are 2 pictures that don't have a story but happen every night at our house.
Underfoot picks out a book and reads on the top bunk.
Hurricane and Sweetheart read a book together. They usually laugh about the story they are reading.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Back to the Swing of Things....

We are back - to school, to work, to real life, and our normal activities like piano, soccer, mutual, and other commitments.

The boys started school on the 5th. Hurricane was so excited to start school that he was up at 5:30 am getting his treasure map done so he could play Legos before he left for school.

The treasure map is the morning routine in treasure map style.
Underfoot got up shortly there after around 6, and both boys were ready to go to school.
We even left earlier enough to walk to school. That hasn't happened since before Fall Break. Sweetheart on the other hand was so anxious to get back to work that he fell asleep about 4:30 am. He left for work around 8:30 am. By the time the day was done, all the boys were tired. For family home evening, we finished our caroling for the friends who had left town.

The 16-18 year old young men from our ward (another word for congregation) came to our home on Tuesday to learn how to cook breaded chicken. Sweetheart taught them how to do it. The boys loved using the tenderizing mallet.

I decided to host a clothing exchange for women. The point was for women to clean out their closets of things they don't use or wear anymore that are gently used (or not.) 
After the clothes were gathered, there was a "shopping" day. No money was exchanged. All the clothes that were leftover were donated. About 12-18 women participated.
I cleaned out my closet when the house filled with smoke, but I did clean out a drawer and reorganize it.

As a family we celebrated my Mom's 60th birthday! Because they are serving a mission, we went to dinner in her honor.
We even woke her up on FaceTime by singing Happy Birthday! She said she had a wonderful day and wanted to make her day an extra special day of service.
She got her wish!

Pack 791's Pine Wood Derby was Friday evening. Since we are getting a new building in Corona, the 2 wards bought a new 6 lane track. The new track was used. As a pack we also opened a division for parents to build a car and race. Six cars participated.
Our little car took 2nd place. It was built quickly, and  Underfoot named it Darth Mal because of the paint job. My goal this year was to have no obvious tears. I didn't witness any.

We went and saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Both boys sat and watched the show with great interest. 
No squirming until the last song for Hurricane. Hurricane decided to struggle with me before the show. He got a bonk on his nose that he felt needed to be bandaged.
We've been singing the songs ever since Saturday. They both played soccer games.

We met for the last time in the Rita Ranch building this past Sunday. This coming Sunday will start to meet in the chapel that is 4 minutes from our house. We think that is AMAZING! Our congregation will share the building with another so there will be 2 wards in the building. Last and not least, after meeting at 2 pm for almost 2+ years, our ward will meet at 8:30 am. We are so excited! 

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

No travel log. Nothing spectacular to report. We had a quiet 2 weeks at home with little responsibilities. What we did do was....

- Caroled to people in our neighborhood. We shared with them Mexican Hot Chocolate in a mix.

- We were invited to the Romney home on Christmas Eve for Clam Chowder and Green Chili Beef Soup. Christmas Pie tradition. The children shared a talent and the Nativity.
My talent was making dessert.
These are their family traditions. We shared with them the
We made Celie Hanscom's chocolate raspberry trifle.
 We had a lot of fun.

- Christmas day we enjoyed being together.
We continued in the Hallelujah Chorus tradition.

- Underfoot woke up in the morning with a bruised eye.
He has been very consistent in checking it daily. He didn't want to return to school with it.

- We spent New Years Eve with some friends in our congregation.
Digging the penny out of the flour.
He wrapped his lips around it. Do you see the penny?
We played the flour game and artillery Uno and ate lots of junk food. Hurricane found the fireworks the family had misplaced. We came home and took pictures before bed.


We had a sack-out party in the front room (aka: slumber party.) The blow up mattress that Mama and the boys were on deflated through the night, but none of them went to their own beds. They must have been very tired (and can sleep anywhere.)

- We played games as a family and with friends, including many rounds of Sorry. I had a lot of fun learning a new game, Castles of Burgundy.

- We pruned our trees and vines. We prepared for cold weather by putting lights under our citrus trees and sheets on top of them to keep them warm.
He even started a few on his own. It was a great time.
It looks like we got a little leaf damage but nothing serious. Those up north in the great white land of Idaho are accustomed to cold temperatures, but we aren't used to 24 degree weather!



We even got snow that stuck for a day.

- We have eaten a lot of tangerines and drank a lot of fresh squeezed orange juice from our trees. We've consumed just about all of our naval oranges, but the tangerine tree still has perhaps a hundred pieces of fruit left.

- We went bowling on New Year's day.
We also went to see a movie about Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

- The Morgan family came on their way back from Hawai'i. We made a German Chocolate Cake for supper. Yum!
We enjoyed a great dinner and time together!
Mama and Miss S. were roommates at Ricks College. It's been 20 years. Wow!

-  Mama repaired jeans and made lots of Monster Pants for Hurricane.
Note the monsters on his shoulders. How many monsters do you see?
- We took the International Harvester Scout for a couple spins.
- We cleaned out our garage and cleaned the whole house, so it is nice and clean!
- We made oatmeal cookies with cinnamon chips instead of chocolate chips.
They were surprisingly tasty.
- Mama and I have entered into a competition. I have to lose 15 pounds and stay there for a month. She has to lose 15 pounds. Whoever gets there first gets a prize. The stakes are high.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

12 Days of Christmas

Has it really been 3 weeks? In the last 3 weeks, we've celebrated the 12 days of Christmas over the course of the last few weeks.

12 - Hurricane is his name-o. Hurricane earns his pseudo name of Hurricane because he was all over the place. He has in the last 3 weeks pushed the emergency alarm at Wal-mart, unscrewed the face plate on so many things we can't count (electrical outlets, doors, toys), attempted to start a window washing business 3x times on his own (large windows are $3 and small windows are $1 - you provide the materials-- is the current business plan), made presents out of little pieces of paper using lots of tape, and taking a full container of glitter stripping down to an undershirt only and spreading glitter all over his body, our bedroom, the hallway, and their bedroom with complete innocence. These are the events we remember.

11 - Completion - No magical number 11 here just that Underfoot has completed all of his reading work for school and was so proud of himself. He had a class party and decorated an ice cream cone as a Christmas tree.
Underfoot wanted Hurricane to participate and asked if his teacher would have extra. They worked together and made trees. He is trying to find his sense of humor. He makes jokes and laughs at them all the time. He wants to be a very good boy and that everyone else is being very good. He "monitors and shares" Hurricane's behavior a lot.

10 - Hours of overtime per week. Sweetheart has continued in his overtime to meet the deadline. He finished this last week and believes that the team met the deadline.
9 - Ladies Dancing. We saw at least 9 ladies dancing as we took our boys to see Beauty and The Beast. The show was a surprise. Underfoot really enjoyed the show. Hurricane on the other hand talked loudly and asked multiple times how many songs to the end. We got in the car after the show, and Hurricane fell asleep.

8 - Days of Laundry - I finished all the laundry and ironing in 8 days from emptying all the closets and such from our smokey home. I said in the last email that we were going to Klitz the kitchen. We didn't get the kitchen painted yet. We need to clean out all the cupboards, nooks, crannies, and not have other things going on. The smoke smell has lessen, but it has gotten colder for here and we are such if the heat of spring will bring out the smell again. So painting is on the holiday list of chores.

7 - Oven Replacement Emails. The oven blew up just before Thanksgiving. Sweetheart figured out the new part and ordered it. The part didn't show up and didn't show up. I tried to call the company to find out what happened. The company doesn't take phone calls. I emailed. They said the part was on back order for them. So I called around here. There was no time frame for the part to be made let alone shipped. They said it might take 3-4 months. Well we started to look for a new oven and found one on Craig's List that would fit. We learned a lot about oven sizes and capabilities. We listed our old oven and part number for the replacement part on Craig's List, and magically the old oven went away.

I mentioned to my friend that we were nervous to start the new oven. She said to keep the fire department number handy as a joke. Sweetheart cleaned out the new oven and was going to try it out. Hurricane trying to be funny put a plastic place mat in the oven after Sweetheart finished. Sweetheart turned it on and presto we have smoke. So I should keep the fire department on one of my phone favorites. We have since used the oven with success and no new smoke.

6 - Minutes. Underfoot and Hurricane take piano. In Underfoot's class they had to compose their own song. He practiced his song the same way every time he practiced. Once he shared it with his class and the parents, the 1 minute 30 second song turned into about 4 1/2 minutes and then he played his other song. He took 6 minutes. The piano teacher and I chuckled as he kept going and going. Hurricane's song took him a total of 15 seconds. They each did a great job!


5 - Soccer Games and Pictures - Vail Soccer Club has games every weekend. The organizer has asked that the teams practice at least 2x a week. Underfoot had quite the learning curve and is finding some success. Hurricane is a dive in and make the goals. He likes to have the ball. I "coach" Hurricane's team. We took team pictures over 2 weekends because there are so many players and teams. The week of Underfoot's pictures there was to be a huge rain storm and games were canceled. The rain held off until after all the games who have happened. Underfoot still had pictures.

4 - Haircuts. All 4 of us got our hair cut. My boys asked for a faux hawk hair cut. I had flashbacks of when I tried to cut my brother, Aaron's, hair and royally messed his hair up. The hair cuts turnout ok. I've had to cut Hurricane's two times because he moves so much.

3 - Drama Performances. The boys participated in drama and each had a role in the perspective plays they were acted. Underfoot was in the role of Aladdin in Aladdin and the Magic Pickle Jar. Hurricane was the little boy who pointed out the truth in The Emperor and His New Hair. I also participated as an assistant for the club. I too had a role as a narrator. Sweetheart came home early from work to watch the show.
2 - Four Wheelers. We were invited by our adopted grandparents to the mine where Grandpa Steve works for the University.
We went on a mine tour with hard hats and lamps.
Later we rode their 4 wheelers.
We all had a really wonderful time!
1 - Kindergarten Music Program. Hurricane had his first school performance.
He has been practicing the songs everywhere. His class sang "Frosty the Snowman" so he was a snowman.
The performance was fun. He also had a day making a graham cracker house that was more candy than graham cracker.
Merry Christmas to each of you!

Monday, December 1, 2014

Thanksgiving

This week we enjoyed some time away in northern Arizona. We headed north on Monday afternoon and drove to Snowflake. We spent the night, went to the Snowflake temple on Tuesday, and visited the Petrified Forest National Park that takes in part of Route 66.
 
Lucas and Kirk enjoyed earning their Junior Ranger badges. 
We then drove to Pinetop where we stayed until Friday.

While in Pinetop we:
- went in the hot tub every day
- spent time playing games like Uno, Monopoly Junior, and building puzzles
 - enjoyed fabulously delicious food
- spent time talking about goals for the coming year

On our way home, we went to the LDS Mesa Temple to view the temple lights.
The lights were turned on Friday evening. We watched  a 3 minute video about the greatest Gift. #sharethegift


Our kitchen still has lingering smoke smells, so we bought Kiltz and will get started with that on Tuesday. It is a lot better than it was.

We spent Saturday attending a baptism, doing a little shopping, and putting our house back together. There is still a whole lot of work to be done. Wendy is overwhelmed at times. She has done probably 30 loads of laundry and ironed just about everything we own.