Easter in Henrieville

Sunday we woke up and rushed to pack it all (The Bob L. family obviously has the brains in the family. They thought ahead and planned on staying one more night!) We rushed to church and enjoyed a yummy lunch afterward. Then the trek home. What a GREAT weekend! We sure are lucky for this opportunity! Thanks Aunt Sandy and Uncle Gary for arranging it!!! WE LOVE RUBY'S INN!!

Up for Auction...

Up for auction is a beautiful used BBQ. Two burners, propane BBQ. Works great - honest, it does. I just wanted a bigger BBQ. It's still in great shape, clean and usable today.
And it could be yours...

FOR FREE! (Yeah, Auction isn't the best word.)

I bought a new BBQ - it has FOUR burners AND a rotisserie. But let's not get side tracked. Now we have this lovely machine that needs a good home. And it's free! (I already mentioned that.) All you have to do is email, call or respond first and it's yours. A nice little blurb about how great I am would also help your cause. All For Free. There is a stipulation - I have to know you. And like you. And you will have to pick it up, unless I happen to be driving to your house.

So, any takers?

Terror at the Dentist.

Our trip to the dentist:


This is Jakey enjoying his cotton candy on Saturday night. Hope he enjoyed it, cause that's the last of that sweet snack!Monday was our six month check up at the dentist. I have always prided myself on my steller teeth. Hardly any cavities, no bridges, crowns etc. My perfect children have also had no cavities either. So I wasn't too worried about this visit. Besides, we brush morning and night, floss at least twice a week. I don't buy sugar drinks, soda or candy. (I am so boring.) I guess you could call me a tooth natzi.

Now, I come from a linage of extrodinary teeth. Most of my family members have minimal problems. Naturally, Jeff does. In fact, his teeth is sporting a few thousand dollars - most of which I have paid. I would assume my children follow this high-quality teeth quality from me.

NOT SO.
I was first - Dr. N (our longtime dentist) comented on my teeth. They looked great! I had obviously been flossing. :-)

Then Juliana. Great! No problems.



And then Jake.

Dr. N starts looking around in his mouth. Oh darn, he has a cavity. Because we had been there a long time, I headed up to the front desk to make his appointment. My Mom (who now works for Dr. N) runs back to get his chart and proceeds to schedule Jake for FOUR appointments.


"Oh, that's not necessary. He only has one cavity!"


No. I am informed (quite smugly from my mother, btw) Jake doesn't have one cavity.

HE HAS EIGHT!!!!!!!!
WHAT??????? EIGHT CAVITIES???
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? I can understand if the kid didn't brush. But we do! And we floss, don't drink juice ( I mentioned all this.) So, I curse the family name that I now hold and try to understand how this is all possible. I have been ensured that his disastrous cavity amount is all genetic. (Of course.)

Meanwhile, Jake can't play after school, he has to brush his teeth!

The Circus...Oh what fun...

Brilliant Idea #1: Take our kids to the circus.
Brilliant Idea #2: Take them at 7 PM.

Maybe we aren't so brilliant after all!

We thought it would be fun to take our sweet children to the circus. The last time we went to the circus was in Mexico (which, by the way, was completely humorous. Our favorite moment was when the workers pulled the cable to raise the net for the trapeze artists and hit the guy in front of us. He rubbed his head for a long time. I was thinking law suit, he was thinking he paid too much for the circus!) Anyway, back to THIS circus. We prepared the children - we would be purchasing NOTHING extra. No light up things, no rides on the elephant, no overpriced candy etc. This lasted all of three minutes until the cotton candy guy came. Jake actually brought his own money, so we had to say yes. We watch the rides in the center ring go on far longer than they should have. The show began. It seemed interesting, but I wouldn't know. I was sick. I ran to the ladies room SEVEN times in the first half. All I wanted to do was go home. I tried to convince the children, but they wouldn't go. And I wasn't sure I would make it to the car anyway.

Then the light swords came out! "MOM I WANT ONE OF THOSE!!!"
"No Jake."
WAHHH!!
I said nope.
More crying.

Intermission came. A SMART parent would say, "Oh, it's over!" But I didn't think about that. I was too busy running to the restroom. I finally thought of it when I noticed the people behind me saying to their non-suspecting children, "what a great circus!" By then, it was too late. They knew there would be more. But we had to wait 45 minutes while the circus charged parents ridiculous prices to ride the smelly elephant, camels and pony's.

At this point, Jake is BEGGING for a drink. Jeff went to take him to the drinking fountain...and came back with a soda, Butterfinger and licorice. I was too sick to argue his decision.

Finally, the show went on - but not for long! The show lasted about 15 minutes. The coolest part was the elephants. Everyone loves elephants! Well, except Addy. She kept pulling the hair on the lady in front of us.

See those empty seats? That tells you what kind of circus we went to... Those empty seats probably belonged to the smart parents who took their kids to Chuckee Cheese instead. It's much cheaper, just as many germs and kids seem happier there. But I don't recall any elephants...hmmm.

Finally the DA#$ circus was over. We exit the center, we lost Ya Ya's shoe, socks and hairbow because she didn't want to wear them. All three children are now crying (over tired, cold and didn't get a DA#$ sword). What a fabulous outing together as a family. Bet you wish you could have come!!!

PLAY TIME!

I took a lighting class on Saturday. Since I had to sit and listen, I can't say I learned a whole lot. I tried to take notes, but I dazed. (If it isn't "hand on", it isn't for me!) But I did learn a couple of things - to create a home studio, I have to purchase all of their (the company who taught the class) lighting equipment. Umm, No. I barely got the camera! So I rushed home and just played "studio" by hanging a backdrop, using lamps and natural lighting. I think I love B&W photos...

At one point, I gave the camera to Jeff to take my photo (I want my kids to remember they actually had a mother!) So he took over.

He kept looking at the viewfinder after every photo, "Hmm. Doesn't look like you."
Then he tells me to look to the side. Don't smile. Keep turning. And then (IN ALL SERIOUSNESS) "Ok. NOW we are getting somewhere!!)
Excuse me? I am NOT looking at the camera and I am NOT smiling and "NOW we are getting somewhere?!)
What a build up of my self esteem! ;-)

Don't you LOVE that chunk of bean up her nose?! I LOVE this photo!

Fancy Nancy and others..

Upon recommendation, I picked up a few of these books at the library today.I was laughing...outloud. They were so darn funny. I think I will buy some of these for Ya Ya's birthday. The illustrations are what make this book! If you have girls, you will LOVE these books! (I feel like a segment of Reading Rainbow!)

I love to read. And thankfully, my kids received that trait from me. Jeff is still working on "How to Win Friends and Influence People." It was a requirement for a class he took in college...almost 8 years ago. He just doesn't enjoy reading. But we all do. In fact, my kids really don't play with toys - they read books. Our books are trashed. Not that they abuse them, they just use them. We have a few personal favorites:



I am a SUCKER for rhyming books. I love them! This one is perfect!! I love the illustrations, the humor and the drama...of bath time. This book, unfortunately, is in the trash. Someone (nameless child, starts with a J and ends with an ake) had a temper tantrum and ripped it..page by page - knowing it was my favorite. He got in trouble...big time. He couldn't touch, read, smell or look at books for one week. And it was torture for him. But we will be buying it again. Only when he earns it back.This is another favorite. It now has a sequel - Pirates Don't Change Diapers. I don't think it's as cute, but worth the read.

So what are your favorite stories?

One More Post...

I just checked my brother Craig's blog. On Sunday, we played a game or two of Rock Band with the fam. (Did I say Sunday? It might have been...um....Monday. Yeah. That's it!)

Check out the last video of Karlos singing. It reminds me of a story: Dad was in a band back in high school. He played the drums. They told him that they were going to start practicing on Sundays.

He said, "You guys know that I can't practice on Sundays!"

"Yeah, we know... Sorry Karl!" That ended his drumming future!

Know I think I know why they started Mandatory Sunday Practices!!!

Check out the video here!

Love ya Dad! ROCK ON!

Going to the ball...

She's all ready to go to the ball! Such a princess. She told Aunt Karalee you can call her "Juliana or PRINCESS." Well, if the shoe fits (and it apparently does.) Don't you love the red face? She attempted to put on lipstick!

And for my bow making buddies...yep, I made this!
BTW - Clothes are SOOO overrated, aren't they? She was just-a-singing Primary songs when I snapped this photo.

Jake's first ski day!

I was so excited to get Jake up on skis! I decided to to take him up to Sundance to learn to ski. We went with some neighbors. We were going to pay for lift tickets, but they ended up just using the tow rope (FREE!) which was much better . (FREE!!)

At one point, Jake said, "I am just going to fall when I need to stop." But that's learning to fall - not ski! We had a wonderful time together. It was so much fun teaching him something that I am passionate about then seeing him get excited about it. We weren't there nearly long enough. He was starting to catch on when they closed the rope tow. A few more times on the rope tow, and we might just have it. But then I have to think of ways to actually pay for this fun sport! (Cring!)

Juliana's Leap Day!

When I said wild and crazy, I didn't mean this! ;-)

Leap Day!

I have been thinking a lot about Leap Day. It's a pretty cool day! How often do we get an EXTRA day?? (Ok, it's every four years.) But it is special, nonetheless.

I tried to think of something wild and crazy (within reason) for us to do on this extra day. Something no one in our family had done yet. Of course, I didn't think about it until it was 11 pm on February 28th - so I needed something fast, fun and memorable. It hit me:

YEP!! We were going to eat ice cream for EVERY MEAL!!!

(with that comment, Jake said, "shouldn't we eat something nutritious??...made my heart swell. He HAS learned something from me!) So all logic aside, we ate ice cream all day!! We had pancakes with ice cream for breakfast, ice cream sandwiches for lunch and ice cream for dinner. I am not going to lie - it was a little hard to break out and do something extraordinary. But I am so glad I did!! The kids are still talking about it!

Just to be fair...

And, because I am a fair person, I will post some cute photos of Juliana.

HAHA!! I LOVE this photo. She was done...totally done.

Jake again...

We had a small arguement one morning. In frusteration, he wrote this note and posted it on the door. See if you can dicifer! (Found at the end of the message.)

I always dreamed of having a cute little boy - the kind you see in Gap, Children's Place and Gymboree ads. As cute as Jake is, he has his own style. One that makes me want to post a sign, "DISCLAIMER. MOTHER DOES NOT APPROVE. "
I bought him SIX pairs of pants in October. I thought that six pairs would give him one to wear every day of the week without me having to wash any. Well, it is now February. FOUR months later. And he doesn't have a single, nice pair left. Notice the left knee. EVERY SINGLE PAIR IS RIPPED!! WHAT does this child do at school? It is always the left knee, not the right. And always a gash. I will not, refuse, to purchase any more pants. So I sewed them up. And they look terrible.

Notice the lovely boots? A nice hand-me-down from a neighbor. Great boots, fit fine and are nice. He, however, WILL NOT wear anything but those lovely boots. Wears them everywhere. This week the weather is quite nice - but we simply CAN'T live without the coat (that he constantly chews on) and those hidious gloves left over from when my brother's were little. My brother's call him Napolian. Not too far from the truth.

Ahhh... something nice to look at. Dig those teeth? Try nursing, it's wonderful. ;-)

Now the message:
Nobody come in! If you come in, I will kick you out.
Soooo funny. Made me laugh! NoBTE.

Jake's Photo Shoot

My Baby. Six years old. I just realized that this will probably be the last photo with all his darling pearly whites. We will soon loose that cute little boy look as he changes into an alien. :-)

Here are few Jake moments this past week:

Monday, Jake went to a friends house to go on a "hike" with other kids in the neighborhood. I dropped him off at three with his backpack, water bottle and snacks. I assumed he was under parental supervision since the boys' mother called to ask if Jake wanted to come. I was apparently wrong.

At 5:40, however, I received a call from 13-year-old Spencer. "Sister W.? Are you missing Jake?"
Me: "No. He's hiking with Dustin."
Spencer: "No. He is walking up and down the street. He's pretty freaked out."
Me: (Oh brother.) "Ok, can you sit with him? I will be up in a minute."

We live at the bottom of hills..after hills...after hills. I hopped in the car to go rescue my child. As I am driving up the hill, I come across the "hiking group." In a panic (that hit when they saw me, not before) "WE CAN'T FIND JAKE!"
Me: "Yes, I know. What happened?"
Them: "We don't know!!!"
Me: (You brats... you lost my baby.) "Well, I know where he is. Thanks for looking." (Said sarcastically, of course.)

So I continue to drive up the hill. As I crested the hill (about 20 feet from the search/resuce party) I found Jake sitting on a neighbor's lawn. SOBBING. It was a tragic mothering moment. Thankfully Spencer and Braxton were sitting with Jake trying to comfort him.

Come to find out, the hikers went in search of bears. Jake got pretty freaked out (largly in part by our "almost" bear encounter in Montana..see July blog) and left (first scouting mistake) the hiking group. He walked back down the street to Dustin's house. The mom told Jake the bear hunt wasn't real. So, he left civilization, heading into the "wilderness" to find the hikers. He couldn't, however, locate the group (thank the hills. If there was no hill, they would have easily found each other.) because they were down on the hill and he was up on the hill. Thankfully he had his backpack in case he got stuck in the "wilderness."

Aparently, we have a few scouting techniques to cover before our next adventure on the streets of PG.

We were talking about boyfriends/girlfriends. Jake informed us that he WILL NOT be getting a girlfriend for a long, long time. Not until he is seven. Great. Can't wait.

We had Parent/Teacher Conferences a few weeks ago. The second I sat down, Mrs. G handed me his packet of papers he has finished. I thanked her and noticed a yellow sticky note.

"Pushes in Line."

"What's this?" I ask.
"Oh, Jake has a problem with that."
And you needed a sticky note to tell me???
So now we have another problem to address. I guess it could be worse, "Swears in class", Wets his pants..."