Rodeo Days

Many had President's Day off of school commemorating the birth of Washington and Lincoln. Here we get TWO days off for the rodeo at the end of the week. Rodeo Days are free days. No school for teachers or students, and the weather was warm (low 80s.) Sweetheart took the boys trampoline camping. They lasted for about 5 hours then came and crawled into their own beds for the duration of the night.

Sweetheart hosted the 16-18 year old young men in our home on Tuesday by letting them use our kitchen to hone their cutting skills and egg poaching skills. They enjoyed laughing and eating what they made.

I went to a continuing education class about the nutrition of the aging brain. The class talked about vitamins, supplements, and whole foods.

The presenter sited research studies about the different whole foods, herbs, and supplements he presented. Some is well researched and other doesn't have the research to prove that there is any benefit. I found it very interesting. Sweetheart cared for the boys while I was at the class. He said he knows why I'm tired at night.

I ran the Bountiful Baskets site for the first time in a long time. We worked around the house and are happy that the bees have found our aquaponics system. The trees are in full bloom and we are benefiting from their work.

Saturday night we hosted a game night for the same boys from Tuesday. It wasn't a church event just a place for young men to come and hang out. We played games, laughed, and ate yummy food. I won Apples to Apples with these words.

 Hurricane and Underfoot love game night because they get to watch a movie.

Be Well.

Valentine's Day

Kindergarten Round Up: Kindergarten Round Up is a school event when the coming in kindergarteners come to check out school. Hurricane has said that he isn't sure if he wants to go to kindergarten or not. He participated in the class and liked it. When I picked him up, I asked if he wanted to go. He said no. He will not be attending kindergarten. On our way out of the school, someone else asked if he were going to attend. He then said yes. We gathered all his information and registered. He now tells people that he is going to 2 schools for right now - Joy School and Kindergarten.

Window Decor Change: Hurricane had cut up snowflakes for our kitchen window. 

We replaced them this week with "stain glass" hearts. It took us a lot of time to cut them out, but Hurricane loves the change. 

Student of the Week: Underfoot was selected as student of the week. The PTA has a recognition evening. We attended the evening when the teacher's explanation for the nomination was read. She said that,

Underfoot always follows directions and tries his best. Underfoot goes above and beyond with everything that he does which makes him an amazing student. Underfoot is also a great friend to others in class and is always looking for ways to help others and make our school a better place. I know that Underfoot will go far in school with all these great traits.

Board of Review: Sweetheart presented one of his Scouts for his Eagle board of review this last week. This introduction is outside of the normal weekly activity and Sunday meetings. The young man met the requirements of the board and is now an Eagle Scout.

Etiquette Dinner: We were given a new idea to have an etiquette dinner for Valentine's Day. 

 This way we all can practice on our table manners.

We had a four course dinner - soup, salad, main course, and dessert.

We used our own asparagus that we grew. The boys had fun with the goldware and glasses. By dessert, the tired monkey hit, and the boys were ready to move on to bed.

We held the dinner the night before because Sweetheart went on a scouting ski trip on Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day: We had yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast in the shape of hearts.

There were extra so Sweetheart took them with him on the ski trip.

Ski Activity: The Scouts needed to complete their Snow Sports merit badge and went to the White Mountains to accomplish the task. Sweetheart agreed to go before a date was set because he wanted to go skiing and has had the goal to go to the White Mountains. The date was set for this last weekend. He accomplished his goals for an over night ski trip. He returned home late Saturday night after a full day on the mountain. He had a lot of fun. The Scout Master wife invited the boys and me to a party on Friday night.

Cleaning House: While Daddy was away, we worked. We deep cleaned the house except one room that looks like a bomb went off in it. The cleaning took us all day, and I thought we'd get the room of disaster as well. I think I don't always have appropriate expectations for what two little boys can do. We are all growing up and learning how to work together.

Birthday: My birthday was this last week. Many wonderful people remembered me, and I appreciated them remembering. We celebrated with nice dinner of steak and potatoes. My Aunt Karol took the old t-shirts I had and made me a beautiful quilt. She sent it for my birthday.

She made quilts for my boys as well. She has made 20 quilts. We are super lucky to be the recipient of her creativity and hard work. The week previous Grace, a neighbor,  made me a white cake with lemon curd and white icing. It was fantastic.Sweetheart remembered with a gift.

Be well.

Science Galore!

The Great Paper Airplane Project was the destination this past weekend! Sweetheart learned about a paper airplane throwing contest for children ages 6-18 from a co-worker held at the Air and Space Museum. Since Underfoot is 6, Sweetheart thought it would be great.

The contestant entrant was allowed to bring 4 family members, have lunch (hot dogs, chips, and lemonade) with their family, get a t-shirt, and throw an airplane for free - no entry fee. Underfoot threw his airplane and was done.

He is talking about doing it again next year. Hurricane and Underfoot learned to fold airplanes. If any piece of paper is left unclaimed it becomes an airplane.

Sweetheart loves airplanes. Our boys like airplanes. An airplane is awesome if it is taking me somewhere.

Mars International was one of the sponsors and brought a candy spinning wheel, a race car simulator, and a real race car.

 They boys loved the candy spinning wheel because they got 6 different types of candy each time they spun the wheel. So much easier than Halloween - no dressing up and no purchase necessary for Mom and Dad. Hurricane asked if the race car ran on M&M gas.

Science Fair: I volunteered to be a judge for science fair and judged 4th graders' work. The 4th and 5th grade students are required to participate in science fair. The Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade (K - 3) classes rooms do a project as a class. There is also an option for K-3 to do an individual project if they like. We didn't participate in a personal project. Underfoot's class' project studied if wearing a helmet was important. They used eggs to see what was best protected - no helmet, a hat (a piece of fabric wrapped around the egg), or a bubble wrap/paper towel wrapped egg. The conclusion was that wearing a helmet was best after the eggs in plastic baggies broke to bits from being dropped. His class was awarded full points for the process. I didn't judge his class project. Underfoot wants to do a project next year.

Blue and Gold: I have the assignment of the Cub Committee Chair in our congregation. Our Blue and Gold banquet was a dessert bar with cupcakes made by the cub scouts. Awards, a slideshow, and a speaker talked about how the boys are developing character traits through cub scouting. It was a nice evening. Underfoot and Hurricane did well as Sweetheart was with the Young Men of the ward.

Sweetheart and Underfoot: Both of them had their work/school reviews this last week. They both are doing well and progressing in their lines of work. Hurricane attended parent teacher conference with us. I didn't think he was paying any attention to what was being said. Mrs. Miller complimented Underfoot on something he was doing, and Hurricane turned to Underfoot saying, "That's awesome Underfoot!" It is amazing what children hear and absorb.

That night we had a fancy dinner. I made a rolled tenderloin roast. It was super yummy! So much so I took a picture of the meal.

The Letter F and The Number 8

Today's update is brought to you by the letter F and the number 8.

Highlights for January 20 - February 2

Family Trip to Gilbert Temple Open House: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is hosting an open house for a new temple built in Gilbert, Arizona. We decided to go as a family and invited our cousins and sister to go with us. At the temple, there is a video before a volunteer tour guide takes a group through to view the 4 story temple. Before entering the temple, little booties were put on each person's feet to help protect the white carpets through the building. Hurricane and Underfoot thought the booties were slippery on the marble floors. The building and interior are beautiful with stain glass, paintings, and the colors.

I decided to take the boys back again to see the temple on a 1/2 day the next week. We noticed the use of the agave plant throughout the flooring, stain glass, door knobs, hand railings, paintings, and even the water fall outside the temple. The agave has the older leaves on the outside to support the younger leaves on the inside. Similar to grandparents and parents supporting, teaching, and guiding their children as they grow up to support the next generation.

Hurricane's favorite rooms were the "baptize" room and "marriage" room.

Underfoot loved the 18 foot chandelier in Celestial room and the eternity mirrors (one mirror on this side, one mirror on that side of the room.)

The boys loved both adventures.

Flour Wars: Since we were visiting, we stayed for Christian's birthday party. He and his friends threw flour bombs at each other. A flour bomb is flour wrapped in nylons (double the nylons if you don't want to lose a lot of flour and have more "hits".) If you wear black the flour shows up of where you've been hit.

The party was a blast. Hurricane caught a bug and slept on on and off for the day. He was awake for the flour war and would go and get the bombs for a personal stash until he unleashed on a cousin or Auntie.

Hurricane's Birthday Present Flair: Hurricane has talked constantly about his birthday - every day since his last birthday party. He talks about what he'll give and who he'll invite to his next party. Since we only do birthday parties at ages 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20, this year might be hard for him to swallow. He was invited to a party and decided to give gum and ice cream. We arrived at the house and told the parent that the treat had to go into the freezer. The parent laughed. Mr. K-man, our neighbor, told his Mom that he liked Hurricane's present and hoped he would get that for his next birthday present from Hurricane.

Fever: Underfoot woke up super early one day. I thought he was being responsible until he asked to go back to bed just before leaving for school. After taking his soaring temperature, he stayed home from school. He slept on and off most the day. He loved his day off and especially liked being with his brother.

Fasting: Hurricane was at Mr. K-man's house and was hungry. He told the Mom that he was fasting but he needed something to eat. She texted me and asked if Hurricane was indeed fasting and if she should withhold food from him. I laughed out loud. He wasn't fasting but had a fast breakfast that he left in the car. We had been talking about fasting and how it helps us to come spiritually close to God. Sweetheart and I thought it was interesting how he interpreted the information.

Fred: Sweetheart has found that high school has an auto mechanics class. Fred, his commute car, has sprung a leak from the head gasket. Sweetheart made arrangements to take Fred to the high school and have the students repair it. Sweetheart needs to provide the parts. The students provide the labor and hopefully learn how to do something.

Family Search: This is a free website that helps with genealogy. A new feature on the website is that you can upload pictures of your family and then have a picture tree instead of just a faceless name tree. I have upload some pictures of my family members and love to see the picture tree. The other night Underfoot asked to see a picture of one our great-Grandfathers, John Scott. We looked up how many generations he was from Underfoot (6 generations) and what he looked like. Underfoot thought it was AWESOME! I do too. Thanks to the family members who have upload pictures I don't have. Anyone can join the website which is sponsored by the LDS church.
 
Fascinating Gem Show: Every year there is a gem show here. We went on Saturday, and it reminded me a lot of a pow wow mixed with a swap meet. The venders were from all over the world. There are dinosaur bones, geodes, Chinese market stuff, skulls, pearls, beads, petrified rocks, fossils, and much more. We didn't go to every tent and see everything. Our family doesn't know enough about geology to know how unique the differences are between the rocks and gems. Something new to learn.

Be Well.

Highlights January 6 - January 18

Highlights for the last 2 weeks:

Treasure Map: We created a treasure map for the boys. The map is the morning and evening routine. The maps are posted inside their door. The map has helped by minimizing the tears and uncertainty of what needs to be done next. The treasure is more tranquility for parents and boys.

Daily Jobs: In addition to treasure map, daily indoor and outdoor jobs are added. Some of the jobs are vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, weeding, picking up toys, cleaning out the chicken coop, and washing the back window. I help them accomplish the job. The eventual hope is they will learn how to do the job on their own. Underfoot has thrived with the new job schedule and is very responsible in accomplishing it. Hurricane likes the one on one attention but get distracted easily and needs to be redirected. They are doing appropriate things for their age.

Itzhak Perlman concert: The concert was a once in a life time for us. The music was amazing as we listened to him play his violin. He showed his personality as he took his violin from the concert mistress by checking it over. Perlman walks on crutches from the effects of polio. He then gave a hearty laugh. He plays a Stradivarius violin. At one point in the piece, he improvised. If he forgot or just does that during a concert, he chuckled, leaned forward and smiled at the front row as if to say, "See I messed up but watch what I can do." He didn't stop but continued with his playing. Sweetheart and I talked about that afterward about how he knew he made a mistake in his memorized 43 minute piece and smiled and carried forward. He didn't stop playing to have a pity party, cry, or quit. It reminded us about life and how we have trials and can continue forward even when we know it isn't perfect.

Pruning Trees/Vines: Yesterday we pruned our little orchard and vineyard. The work was exhausting. The boys carried limbs to the chipper and played. They so wanted to cut the trees. We tried to work together but listening to specific directions didn't work out so well.

Many times we mentioned how Grandpa Kirky has an orchard and loves to prune the trees. I told the boys my job was to pull the limbs too and when they grow up they can prune their own orchard. We are sore today from the squatting, lifted arms, and scratches on our arms. Next year we will all wear long sleeve shirts. Pruning makes such a difference to fruit output and makes the tree more beautiful. Again we were reminded of a lesson of how God prunes us by giving us trials to help us be our best. The part I think I forget is that it takes work - a lot of work to be the best we need to be.

Hurricane's Hearing: Hurricane had a follow up appointment for his hearing. He improved in some of the sounds - probably because he understood how the test was taken better. He does have a mild hearing loss in his left ear for high range. It is absolutely nothing to worry about. He doesn't need hearing aids. He will probably fail the school hearing test for that range. We'll monitor it every 6 months than move to every year to ensure consistency in his hearing. He'll need to marry an alto so he can hear her sing. :)

Pinewood Derby: I am the cub committee chair in our congregation. The pinewood derby can be an emotional nightmare for mothers, a competition for fathers, and a mixed bag for boys. We held ours at the firehouse and had all ranges of emotion. We only had tears from 2 boys that night that we know of. Not too bad with 20 cars running. The following week we had a committee meeting that discussed the highs, lows, and how to improve it. Next year it hopefully will be better.

Started Physical Therapy: I crashed on my bike in September of last year. My ankle has never really healed. I started physical therapy this week so that I can return to exercising. Sweetheart and the boys built me a rocker so I can do some of the PT work at home. The therapy will last for 4 weeks at 2 sessions a week. I should be running and biking again in that time frame.

Be Well.

On to 2014

On Monday we shared 5 of our ladies with some friends, bringing the flock down to 12 (from 17). I (Sweetheart) forgot to shut the door to the coop. Lindz, Wendy's friend, and her family came to stay with us Monday and Tuesday nights. They currently live in abroad. It was the first time that Wendy met Lindz's husband and their daughters.

We woke up on Tuesday morning to dead carcasses. 2 ladies survived the carnage. It was heart breaking. I spent the day shoveling dirt and doing tasks to get the trampoline put into the ground and set up. (After putting chicken parts and carcasses in the garbage...) At dusk, Hurricane came into our room, screaming "a chicky, a chicky, a chicky outside..." To our astonishment, a third chicken appeared from nowhere. We got her safely inside the coop. It was sad to loose the ladies, but how grateful we were that the third lady somehow survived. We don't know what attacked them, but we won't let that happen again.

Our neighbors hosted a New Year's Eve get-together.

They had food, fire, and conversation. The boys loved the sparklers that we lit.

We celebrated a New York midnight and went to bed shortly there after.

On New Year's morning, our neighbor hosted a Hot Chocolate Run. Her son wanted to run the 5K race in Phoenix. She put together a 5 year old length course for January 1, and our boys ran it for the hot chocolate. The girls joined us.

We followed the Christensen-Hoggan-Kirkham bowling tradition to bowl on New Year's day. The bowling allies open at noon here.

After the bowling we put together the trampoline and finally got the mat on, so that the boys could jump on it.

On Thursday I got the net up on the trampoline and did a few other odd jobs around the yard. I took the boys to the park and helped them practice with their new bikes. No training wheels. They both fell down a bunch, but by the end of the afternoon, both were feeling very confident.

On Friday we weren't feeling good, so we took it easy. I limited my outdoor activities to collapsing down four of our garden beds (the ones that were displaced by the trampoline.) The nuts had rusted quite a bit and getting them off required bolt cutters. Wendy updated our other family blog. She put up about 10+ posts.

Saturday we got coi fish and garden plants for the aquaponics system. We also got an automatic closer for the door into the chicken coop. I made some changes to the coop to make it easier to clean out. At the end of the day, 5 more ladies joined our group.

Be Well.

December 9

I've caught up on a few pictures from the past that might be fun to look at like riding a train, Thanksgiving 2012, tie dying, and our front door.

Both boys have finished their music lessons this year. They each had a "performance" of sorts at their teacher's home with their class. Underfoot's fingers are growing and not very strong yet. When he does finger strengthening exercises, he gets a penny per "run." He racked up quite the amount of money and then lost the motivation. Hurricane loves to sing and mimic everything that Underfoot does on the piano. They loved the little angel given to them from their teacher.

Hurricane has struggled this week with a cold. He shared it with me later this week. I've been eating vitamin C and drinking water. It is really hard to rest when little boys like to use my bed as a trampoline. As Hurricane has started to feel better, I've felt worse. This coming week I'm to have my tonsils removed. I called the doctor's office and the doctor's assistant said that as long as I don't have a fever and am hacking up a lung they will proceed with the surgery. I'm hoping to feel better and not more sick by Thursday.

The Joy School did a presentation tonight for Christmas. Hurricane was slotted to be Joseph but decided at the last second to be the start of Bethlehem. Underfoot stepped into the role of Joseph for Hurricane. Hurricane sang some of the songs and then was done. Underfoot sang every song with the class. Hurricane decided to go to the bathroom in the middle of the whole thing. He missed singing Jingle Bells- one of his favorites. He came back and asked the adults in the room to sing with him.

I passed the site coordination volunteering for Bountiful Baskets to someone else. So the news is that I will be a back up to run the site every once in a while and not every other weekend.

Sweetheart participated in a training call Trainer's EDGE (explain, demonstrate, guide, enable). It is a way to teach someone how to do a new task. Right after he left, I went to the car to go help with Bountiful Baskets. The car didn't start because a son was looking for glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth in the car the day before. He climbed in the car and turned on the interior lights and left a door ajar. After 18 hours, the battery was dead. A neighbor helped me out and loaned me a car for the day. He wrote the following:

"In what many scholars see as the final sign before the apocalypse, Mama drove a minivan on Sat Dec 8 2012.  The photo clearly shows the glory that is to be as Mama flinched from the beauty that is driving a minivan. Commentators are confused as to whether this was predicted by Nostradamus,  John the Apostle, or unknown ancient Mayan Calendarists. But all agree that this cannot be a good sign."

Be well.