Monday, July 30, 2012
Rock Stars
It's not a real visit to Grandpa and Grandma's until we've played with the air rockets and rocked out on Rock Band.
The Big Drive
I don't know why I've put off blogging about our drive out to Utah for so long - maybe it's a little PTSD. Okay, not really. It actually wasn't that bad. I wouldn't call it fun, exactly, but it wasn't that bad.
I know you're totally stoked about reading someone else's travelogue about driving 1500 miles across a lot of nothingness. So get ready. (Sarcasm is fun.)
I knew that the only way we would survive this trip was to be really prepared as far as keeping the kids entertained was concerned. Grandpa and Grandma Roper helped by sending us several new DVDs. I did a lot of research on Pinterest and asking friends for their suggestions. The kids told me they wanted to bring the Wii and have lots of new games. Unfortunately for them, the whole reason we were driving was because we wanted to save a bunch of money, not because we thought it would be a great bonding experience.
First, I made the boys lap trays out of dollar store cookie sheets, scrap fabric, old pillow stuffing, and dried beans. It probably cost me $5 for all three. Oh sure, I could show you a picture of how awesome they turned out, but that would require actually taking a picture of them. And since I'm in a rather comfortable recliner, that's not gonna happen. Maybe later.
Anywho, for these trays I made a lot of activities that included printing things on cardstock, laminating them, and then gluing magnets on the back. This included "Analog Angry Birds" (as opposed to the digital version), Super Mario Bros. Brawl characters, a train set for Cole, and goofy family pictures. The kids loved them.
Then I made Spencer and Josh binders full of laminated games and mazes, tic-tac-toe boards, etc. I also included lots of free worksheets I found online that I thought they would like. (They did.) At the front of the binders I put a laminated copy of a map that showed where we were going. I also included Crayola washable dry-erase markers with little fuzzy pom-poms on top as erasers so they could chart our progress. (Thanks, Pinterest!)
We left Lafayette around 6am Saturday morning. The kids were all pretty excited, but I think that's because they really had no idea just how long we were going to be in the car. A few days before I had worked for a couple of hours in boiling hot weather to clean the minivan. Within an hour of leaving Lafayette Cole had thrown his bag of cereal all over the back seat. Awesome, Cole. Thanks.
Tess liked the slinkies, as you can see.
We drove. We drove and drove and drove. We drove through some of Indiana. Then we drove through Illinois. We stopped for a break in Hannibal, Missouri, birth place of a certain Mr. Mark Twain. I had always wanted to go there. The museum and other sites were a bit pricey and would have taken a bit too much time, but we drove through the touristy areas and that satisfied me. :)
Then we drove some more. And more. I had wrapped each of the toys for the boys, and every once in a while I would let them open a new one. They liked them all, but the definite favorites were the Pokemon cards and the mini Pokemon figurines. The best things about these were 1) I had gotten them for ridiculously cheap on eBay, and 2) I had bought them in bulk and used them as rewards for good behavior during the entire trip. These worked really well to keep the whineys away.
We drove and drove some more. We stopped in a random town named Chillicothe for lunch, which will forever be known as the home of the "Bootery" to Lance and I. (It's a good place to buy boots, according to the sign we saw on the freeway.) We found a rather hot and non-shaded school park to have a picnic.
And then we drove.
We drove through Missouri, spent about 5 minutes in Iowa, and then finally entered Iowa. And then we drove some more. We watched lots of movies. We ate some snacks. A few of us even took naps, albeit too short.
Good heavens, Nebraska took forever. We were sure excited when we drove through Lincoln, just because it gave us something to look at. (Christy, I totally thought of you! I even sent you a message on Facebook, only to discover later that my phone doesn't like Facebook right now and never sent it. Stupid phone.)
We drove and drove. We yelled at the seemingly pointless construction projects that slowed us down. Stupid construction projects!!!
I thought about taking some pictures of the scenery, but really, who wants to see pictures of endless fields and rolling hills? The one random thing was that everything was a golden brown instead of green because of the drought. It was kind of like driving through parts of California.
We finally made it to Kearney, Nebraska, where we were staying for the night. I chose Kearney because it's basically in the middle of our trip and it's cheaper than staying somewhere bigger, like Grand Island.
It was around 7pm Indiana time. The kids were getting really antsy to get out of the car and were getting hungry. Lance and I decided that we didn't want fast food, but we didn't want to deal with the kids in a nice steak house or anything like that. What we needed was a Denney's or IHOP. (I know, we're so cool.) But we couldn't find a Denney's or IHOP, at least not along the main strip of restaurants just off of the freeway. So we decided to try a place call Perkin's Restaurant.
This was a mistake.
Going in, it looked fine. It was pretty full and smelled alright. We were quickly seated. And then we waited. And waited. And then we waited some more. Seriously, we waited a good 20 minutes before anyone even acknowledged our existence! And it's not like we were off in some far corner - we were right in the middle of the restaurant. FINALLY, a rather odd server (a young, rather flamboyant gentleman with acrylic nails) came to us. He was very apologetic about our wait and promised he'd take care of us. Even though the kids were kinda going crazy (Tess kept throwing things, Cole was crawling under the booth), I decided that it had just been a shift change or something No worries.
This was a mistake.
We gave the server our orders and waited for our food. And waited. And waited. We waited another good 20 minutes before our food came out. We watched several other tables who had been seated after us get their food. We saw our server chatting it up with the other waitresses. We changed diapers and tried to entertain the kids. And we waited.
FINALLY, our food came out. The kids were starving and joyously dug in.
It was gross.
Seriously, it's kinda hard to really, truly mess up pancakes, but they did. The food tasted as if it had been under the heat lamp for the past 20 minutes. It probably had been.
By this point Lance and I were pretty ticked. But we choked down our food, because, really, what were our options. The kids would have had a TOTAL MELTDOWN if we had decided to leave. It was late and we still needed to check into the hotel.
At one point the restaurant's manager came over and asked how we were doing. I gave her a rather chilly "Fine" and then pointedly asked if we could get the bill - quickly - as Cole was trying to climb over the booth walls. I'm sure she didn't know what had been going on, but quite frankly I didn't feel like filling her in on it. I just wanted to get the heck out of there.
To her credit, she quickly came back with the bill. We had it in our hands for about 30 seconds when the server came back, took it out of Lance's hands, and said that it had been taken care of. We were a little taken aback, but then thanked him and got out of dodge. No, we did not leave a tip.
The moral of the story? Is there one? Don't eat at Perkin's Restaurant at Kearney, NE, I guess.
Anywho, we checked into the Fairfield Marriott and Suites, which had wonderful customer service in comparison to other Kearney establishments that will not be named. We got to our room, changed into our swimming suits, and then threw all the kids into the pool. Well, Tess was in her little floaty-boat, but you know what I mean. The kids splashed and swam and played and got out most of their pent up energy. We finished swimming, got into jammies, and tried to get the kids to go to sleep. We were in a large suite with two queen beds, a sofa bed, and a pack and play for Tess. As expected, it took Cole forever to go to sleep, which was pretty frustrating. That night he woke me up several times when he fell out of bed or when he was cold because Josh kept stealing the covers. *sigh*
The next morning came early because Tess is an early riser. We got dressed and packed and headed down to the breakfast buffet. Spencer and Josh were pretty excited about getting choose what they got to eat. Cole just wanted to be naughty and run around. Tess just wanted to throw food. I had put all of the kids in their "Thing 1-4" shirts in the hopes that people would be distracted by this cuteness enough to perhaps overlook some of their naughty behavior. It worked, for the most part.
*Side note: they had Belgian waffle makers and batter, so I decided to make one for myself and Tess. The waffle maker must not have been greased enough, because when I opened it my waffle split in half and I had to shred it out in chunks with a fork, figuring it would taste fine. In fact, it was excellent - a bajillion times better than the dinner I had had the night before! This just goes to show that free meals don't always taste better. (I don't consider the hotel breakfast free, because I'm sure we paid for it in the room rate!)*
An hour later we were finally back on the road. Since it was a Sunday I decided we should have Portable Primary. We sang Primary songs, which Tess LOVED. (She applauded after each song.) We had a lesson about the Mormon Pioneers and talked about what Pioneer children did. I tried to get them to really understand what it would have been like, since we were driving through where the Pioneers went, but I don't know if they really got it. Time will tell.
We drove. And drove and drove and DROVE. Spencer asked if we were out of Nebraska approximately 397 times. No. Nebraska is LONG. Also, Nebraska is odd in that the entire state smells like cattle, but you very rarely see the cows. Odd.
Oh - I forgot to tell you two of the cool things we did in the car. The first was that I tied a string from the front of the car to the back, and put a bow on it for every 100 miles we had to go. I put a laminated picture of our car on a clothespin and every time we went 100 miles we would move it. The kids loved it. I also had clothespins with laminated pictures of the kids on them. (Each child had their face on 2 clothespins.) I put these on my visor. If the kids were naughty, we would pull a clothespin off. This was bad, because if you had a clothespin on the visor when when we stopped for gas then you could choose one treat that was a dollar or less. The boys definitely LOVED this, because we NEVER buy stuff at gas stations. It worked really well.
We finally broke through Nebraska and started our way through Wyoming. (Indian for "nothingness".) (Sorry, Wyomingans.) We drove and drove and stopped for lunch in Laramie. (I thought of you, Ginger. Isn't that where you and Loren went to school? Well, even if it wasn't, I still thought of you.)
We drove some more. Spencer asked if we were in Utah yet around 297 times. The Little America Travel Center had ads for literally hundreds of miles. Unfortunately, we weren't ready for a stop by the time we got to it, but maybe on the way home. We drove and drove and stopped in Evanston for one last pit stop. It was dinner time, but we didn't want to stop anywhere just for dinner. So we let the kids each choose a soda and one treat. I let Cole get a chocolate milk and some mini doughnuts, which he love but also put him into a crazy-sugar-induced state. (I know there are studies that say sugar doesn't put kids into crazy-sugar-induced states. These studies are stupid and wrong.) The child went nuts the last hour and a half of our trip, singing and shouting nonsense. It was actually pretty funny, especially when Tess mimicked him.
Oh - and another joy of the trip - Cole kept pulling down the top straps of his car seat. (No matter how tight I made the straps. The child is Houdini!) There was nothing we could do about it and nothing stopped him. So we finally just let it go. I know, this is terrible parenting, but I still haven't figured out how to stop him. Fortunately, he hasn't figured out how to undo the buckle, so he couldn't get out of the seat.
Around 7:15pm MST we pulled into Dad and Susie's house. Tess was EXHAUSTED and wanted nothing to do with Grandma, much to Grandma's dismay. We quickly put her to bed and unpacked, while the boys ran around like crazy banshees. They were SOOO happy to get out of that car!
And so were we.
I know you're totally stoked about reading someone else's travelogue about driving 1500 miles across a lot of nothingness. So get ready. (Sarcasm is fun.)
I knew that the only way we would survive this trip was to be really prepared as far as keeping the kids entertained was concerned. Grandpa and Grandma Roper helped by sending us several new DVDs. I did a lot of research on Pinterest and asking friends for their suggestions. The kids told me they wanted to bring the Wii and have lots of new games. Unfortunately for them, the whole reason we were driving was because we wanted to save a bunch of money, not because we thought it would be a great bonding experience.
First, I made the boys lap trays out of dollar store cookie sheets, scrap fabric, old pillow stuffing, and dried beans. It probably cost me $5 for all three. Oh sure, I could show you a picture of how awesome they turned out, but that would require actually taking a picture of them. And since I'm in a rather comfortable recliner, that's not gonna happen. Maybe later.
Anywho, for these trays I made a lot of activities that included printing things on cardstock, laminating them, and then gluing magnets on the back. This included "Analog Angry Birds" (as opposed to the digital version), Super Mario Bros. Brawl characters, a train set for Cole, and goofy family pictures. The kids loved them.
Then I made Spencer and Josh binders full of laminated games and mazes, tic-tac-toe boards, etc. I also included lots of free worksheets I found online that I thought they would like. (They did.) At the front of the binders I put a laminated copy of a map that showed where we were going. I also included Crayola washable dry-erase markers with little fuzzy pom-poms on top as erasers so they could chart our progress. (Thanks, Pinterest!)
We left Lafayette around 6am Saturday morning. The kids were all pretty excited, but I think that's because they really had no idea just how long we were going to be in the car. A few days before I had worked for a couple of hours in boiling hot weather to clean the minivan. Within an hour of leaving Lafayette Cole had thrown his bag of cereal all over the back seat. Awesome, Cole. Thanks.
Tess liked the slinkies, as you can see.
We drove. We drove and drove and drove. We drove through some of Indiana. Then we drove through Illinois. We stopped for a break in Hannibal, Missouri, birth place of a certain Mr. Mark Twain. I had always wanted to go there. The museum and other sites were a bit pricey and would have taken a bit too much time, but we drove through the touristy areas and that satisfied me. :)
Then we drove some more. And more. I had wrapped each of the toys for the boys, and every once in a while I would let them open a new one. They liked them all, but the definite favorites were the Pokemon cards and the mini Pokemon figurines. The best things about these were 1) I had gotten them for ridiculously cheap on eBay, and 2) I had bought them in bulk and used them as rewards for good behavior during the entire trip. These worked really well to keep the whineys away.
We drove and drove some more. We stopped in a random town named Chillicothe for lunch, which will forever be known as the home of the "Bootery" to Lance and I. (It's a good place to buy boots, according to the sign we saw on the freeway.) We found a rather hot and non-shaded school park to have a picnic.
And then we drove.
We drove through Missouri, spent about 5 minutes in Iowa, and then finally entered Iowa. And then we drove some more. We watched lots of movies. We ate some snacks. A few of us even took naps, albeit too short.
Good heavens, Nebraska took forever. We were sure excited when we drove through Lincoln, just because it gave us something to look at. (Christy, I totally thought of you! I even sent you a message on Facebook, only to discover later that my phone doesn't like Facebook right now and never sent it. Stupid phone.)
We drove and drove. We yelled at the seemingly pointless construction projects that slowed us down. Stupid construction projects!!!
I thought about taking some pictures of the scenery, but really, who wants to see pictures of endless fields and rolling hills? The one random thing was that everything was a golden brown instead of green because of the drought. It was kind of like driving through parts of California.
We finally made it to Kearney, Nebraska, where we were staying for the night. I chose Kearney because it's basically in the middle of our trip and it's cheaper than staying somewhere bigger, like Grand Island.
It was around 7pm Indiana time. The kids were getting really antsy to get out of the car and were getting hungry. Lance and I decided that we didn't want fast food, but we didn't want to deal with the kids in a nice steak house or anything like that. What we needed was a Denney's or IHOP. (I know, we're so cool.) But we couldn't find a Denney's or IHOP, at least not along the main strip of restaurants just off of the freeway. So we decided to try a place call Perkin's Restaurant.
This was a mistake.
Going in, it looked fine. It was pretty full and smelled alright. We were quickly seated. And then we waited. And waited. And then we waited some more. Seriously, we waited a good 20 minutes before anyone even acknowledged our existence! And it's not like we were off in some far corner - we were right in the middle of the restaurant. FINALLY, a rather odd server (a young, rather flamboyant gentleman with acrylic nails) came to us. He was very apologetic about our wait and promised he'd take care of us. Even though the kids were kinda going crazy (Tess kept throwing things, Cole was crawling under the booth), I decided that it had just been a shift change or something No worries.
This was a mistake.
We gave the server our orders and waited for our food. And waited. And waited. We waited another good 20 minutes before our food came out. We watched several other tables who had been seated after us get their food. We saw our server chatting it up with the other waitresses. We changed diapers and tried to entertain the kids. And we waited.
FINALLY, our food came out. The kids were starving and joyously dug in.
It was gross.
Seriously, it's kinda hard to really, truly mess up pancakes, but they did. The food tasted as if it had been under the heat lamp for the past 20 minutes. It probably had been.
By this point Lance and I were pretty ticked. But we choked down our food, because, really, what were our options. The kids would have had a TOTAL MELTDOWN if we had decided to leave. It was late and we still needed to check into the hotel.
At one point the restaurant's manager came over and asked how we were doing. I gave her a rather chilly "Fine" and then pointedly asked if we could get the bill - quickly - as Cole was trying to climb over the booth walls. I'm sure she didn't know what had been going on, but quite frankly I didn't feel like filling her in on it. I just wanted to get the heck out of there.
To her credit, she quickly came back with the bill. We had it in our hands for about 30 seconds when the server came back, took it out of Lance's hands, and said that it had been taken care of. We were a little taken aback, but then thanked him and got out of dodge. No, we did not leave a tip.
The moral of the story? Is there one? Don't eat at Perkin's Restaurant at Kearney, NE, I guess.
Anywho, we checked into the Fairfield Marriott and Suites, which had wonderful customer service in comparison to other Kearney establishments that will not be named. We got to our room, changed into our swimming suits, and then threw all the kids into the pool. Well, Tess was in her little floaty-boat, but you know what I mean. The kids splashed and swam and played and got out most of their pent up energy. We finished swimming, got into jammies, and tried to get the kids to go to sleep. We were in a large suite with two queen beds, a sofa bed, and a pack and play for Tess. As expected, it took Cole forever to go to sleep, which was pretty frustrating. That night he woke me up several times when he fell out of bed or when he was cold because Josh kept stealing the covers. *sigh*
The next morning came early because Tess is an early riser. We got dressed and packed and headed down to the breakfast buffet. Spencer and Josh were pretty excited about getting choose what they got to eat. Cole just wanted to be naughty and run around. Tess just wanted to throw food. I had put all of the kids in their "Thing 1-4" shirts in the hopes that people would be distracted by this cuteness enough to perhaps overlook some of their naughty behavior. It worked, for the most part.
*Side note: they had Belgian waffle makers and batter, so I decided to make one for myself and Tess. The waffle maker must not have been greased enough, because when I opened it my waffle split in half and I had to shred it out in chunks with a fork, figuring it would taste fine. In fact, it was excellent - a bajillion times better than the dinner I had had the night before! This just goes to show that free meals don't always taste better. (I don't consider the hotel breakfast free, because I'm sure we paid for it in the room rate!)*
An hour later we were finally back on the road. Since it was a Sunday I decided we should have Portable Primary. We sang Primary songs, which Tess LOVED. (She applauded after each song.) We had a lesson about the Mormon Pioneers and talked about what Pioneer children did. I tried to get them to really understand what it would have been like, since we were driving through where the Pioneers went, but I don't know if they really got it. Time will tell.
We drove. And drove and drove and DROVE. Spencer asked if we were out of Nebraska approximately 397 times. No. Nebraska is LONG. Also, Nebraska is odd in that the entire state smells like cattle, but you very rarely see the cows. Odd.
Oh - I forgot to tell you two of the cool things we did in the car. The first was that I tied a string from the front of the car to the back, and put a bow on it for every 100 miles we had to go. I put a laminated picture of our car on a clothespin and every time we went 100 miles we would move it. The kids loved it. I also had clothespins with laminated pictures of the kids on them. (Each child had their face on 2 clothespins.) I put these on my visor. If the kids were naughty, we would pull a clothespin off. This was bad, because if you had a clothespin on the visor when when we stopped for gas then you could choose one treat that was a dollar or less. The boys definitely LOVED this, because we NEVER buy stuff at gas stations. It worked really well.
We finally broke through Nebraska and started our way through Wyoming. (Indian for "nothingness".) (Sorry, Wyomingans.) We drove and drove and stopped for lunch in Laramie. (I thought of you, Ginger. Isn't that where you and Loren went to school? Well, even if it wasn't, I still thought of you.)
We drove some more. Spencer asked if we were in Utah yet around 297 times. The Little America Travel Center had ads for literally hundreds of miles. Unfortunately, we weren't ready for a stop by the time we got to it, but maybe on the way home. We drove and drove and stopped in Evanston for one last pit stop. It was dinner time, but we didn't want to stop anywhere just for dinner. So we let the kids each choose a soda and one treat. I let Cole get a chocolate milk and some mini doughnuts, which he love but also put him into a crazy-sugar-induced state. (I know there are studies that say sugar doesn't put kids into crazy-sugar-induced states. These studies are stupid and wrong.) The child went nuts the last hour and a half of our trip, singing and shouting nonsense. It was actually pretty funny, especially when Tess mimicked him.
Oh - and another joy of the trip - Cole kept pulling down the top straps of his car seat. (No matter how tight I made the straps. The child is Houdini!) There was nothing we could do about it and nothing stopped him. So we finally just let it go. I know, this is terrible parenting, but I still haven't figured out how to stop him. Fortunately, he hasn't figured out how to undo the buckle, so he couldn't get out of the seat.
Around 7:15pm MST we pulled into Dad and Susie's house. Tess was EXHAUSTED and wanted nothing to do with Grandma, much to Grandma's dismay. We quickly put her to bed and unpacked, while the boys ran around like crazy banshees. They were SOOO happy to get out of that car!
And so were we.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Here I Am!
But not for long! We are enjoying a long trip to Utah. I've been sleeping and eating and seeing lots of movies, hanging out with my family, and enjoying free babysitting. What I have not been doing is thinking about blogging. Maybe I will tomorrow. Maybe not. Who knows?
That's just one of the perks of being on vacation.
That's just one of the perks of being on vacation.
Friday, July 20, 2012
"Nurturing" My Children
Our family has started a new tradition: each night at dinner we read a new sentence from The Family: A Proclamation to the World and then discuss it. (I printed it off, cut it into strips, and put it in a jar, in case you're wondering.) ((Yes, ironically, there are fights over who gets to pick it and who gets to read it each night.))
Tonight's quote was "Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children."
We asked the kids what "nurture" means and they said they didn't know. We jokingly said it meant I had to beat them every night and be really mean.
Haha, so funny, sarcastic Spencer said.
No! No meany! teasing baby-voiced Josh exclaimed.
More noodles, please, said Cole.
Thhhhbbbtttt, said Tess, spewing food.
This evening during family prayer, Cole was not behaving. (Big surprise.) (Not.) He was in the kitchen and we were all in the living room calling for him. It quickly became evident that he had no intention of coming in peacefully.
I got up and, punching my fist into my palm, said "It's time to go nurture Cole."
"Nurture him HARD!!!" I heard Josh call.
I just about peed my pants, I wanted to laugh so much. (But it's hard to laugh when you're wrangling a toddler and trying to be appropriately reverent for family prayer.)
Tonight's quote was "Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children."
We asked the kids what "nurture" means and they said they didn't know. We jokingly said it meant I had to beat them every night and be really mean.
Haha, so funny, sarcastic Spencer said.
No! No meany! teasing baby-voiced Josh exclaimed.
More noodles, please, said Cole.
Thhhhbbbtttt, said Tess, spewing food.
This evening during family prayer, Cole was not behaving. (Big surprise.) (Not.) He was in the kitchen and we were all in the living room calling for him. It quickly became evident that he had no intention of coming in peacefully.
I got up and, punching my fist into my palm, said "It's time to go nurture Cole."
"Nurture him HARD!!!" I heard Josh call.
I just about peed my pants, I wanted to laugh so much. (But it's hard to laugh when you're wrangling a toddler and trying to be appropriately reverent for family prayer.)
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
A Raisin in The Sun
Did you read that book/play in high school? I did, although I only vaguely remember the plot. Something about an African American family trying to move out of their apartment and into a house to start a better life. Or something. I dunno. High school was a long time ago.
You know what else was a long time ago? The last time we got any substantial rain. Seriously, it's been weeks. Everything around here is brown and yucky, which is sad because Summer is my favorite time of year in Indiana because it's usually so lush and verdant.
And talk about HOT. So very hot. So hot that I can't in good conscience send my kids outside to play for any length of time. We're getting some major cabin fever around here, people.
And I think the cabin fever may be one of the reasons I have felt so out of sorts lately. I just don't know what to do with myself. Oh, I have a million and one things to do, I just don't want to do any of them. Or anything. I get distracted by little things and lose my train of thought to random tangents... okay, so not that unusual from my normal life. But it's more so now.
My brain feels like a raisin. A raisin in the sun. The hot, unrelenting sun.
Take, for example, my obsession this morning with raisin-filled cookies. I saw this post online about them and could not get them out of my head. They just sounded SO good to me!
But the last thing we need around here are cookies. And the last way I needed to spend my time was making cookies.
So I tried to get the cookies out of my brain and took the boys on a little field trip instead.
Today we headed to the local fire station. The firemen were really great at giving us a tour, especially because they didn't know we were coming. (Apparently the fireman I spoke to forgot to write it down on the calendar. Oops.)
But before we get to the tour, I must show you a picture of the giant and rather menacing bug that kept buzzing around our heads as we got out of the car. Dad, what is that? Yellow jacket? Wasp? Demon imp of insect satan? It was big and had a rather large, distinctly pointy stinger.
Anywho. The tour. The three firemen who were there were so nice and friendly! I think they were a bit bored today and so were only too happy to give an impromptu tour to a few moms and their crazy but cute children. They drove the firetruck out and let the kids each have a turn sitting at the wheel.
Spencer and Josh were quite excited about this.
So was my friend (and awesome visiting teaching companion!) Amanda!
But Cole wasn't. Nope, he wanted to be a punk, as per usual. The firemen got a kick out of him, though, because all he would ever say and/or yell was "NO!". I explained that Mr. Cole's middle name is Robert, which is after Lance's grandfather Robert Madsen, a.k.a. Grandpa Red. We should have thought more about this before naming Cole, because before Grandpa Red became a very respected fireman down in L.A., he was a bit of a hellion. (So much so that during WWII he joined the merchant marines while he was still underage, and even though everyone in town knew about it and knew he was underage, they happily let him enlist!) I guess Cole is just living up to his namesake.
See?!? Tangents!!
Anyway, we really enjoyed the tour and it was a nice way to pass the morning. At the end the firemen even took a picture of all of us.
Then they jokingly said that their fee would have to be paid in cookies, which totally brought the raisin-filled cookies back to mind. Great Ceasar's Ghost, I wanted some!
As we got in the minivan to go home Cole finally decided to put his fire hat on. Nice one, drunken Cole.
And just as I knew he would, when we got home all he could talk about was the fire station and the firemen, even though he acted so naughty and as if he didn't care during the entire tour. And then there was a cartoon with a fire truck on it and he just HAD to wear his hat while he watched it. It was pretty dang cute.
By this point I still really wanted those cookies. But I decided to find some other things to do instead in order to occupy my mind with something else. I cleaned the kitchen and worked on some stuff for our big trip. I tidied up rooms and then watched in dismay as Cole untidied them for me. I practiced the piano until Cole decided it was duet time. I cleaned fingerprints off of walls and appliances.
But I still wanted those cookies.
So then I decided to make the bleach-designed t-shirt I had been wanting to make for a while.
I think it turned out pretty well. This t-shirt had been bugging me because it was so plain. I tried wearing cute felt flower pins with it, but Tess kept pulling them off. So this was my solution to spiffy it up.
People, I BLEACHED A T-SHIRT and and I STILL WANTED THOSE COOKIES!!!
So I decided to give in and just make the blasted things.
I blame my cousin, Jen, of the famous Jen's Favorite Cookies, because that woman is always making cookies and always making me want to make cookies. I swear I was channeling her a little bit as I got to work. I may have even craved a Diet Dr. Pepper...
The cookies took a while to make, so I worked on other stuff around the house. I also had a pretty decent conversation with Tess.
Finally, the blessed things were done! And they were huge!
Tess was also impressed with their size.
Boy, were they good. Soft and spongey, not too sweet. All that I had been dreaming about all day. I only wish I had been a little more generous with the filling, but that's not a big deal.
So the lesson for the day? When you're feeling out of sorts and cabin bound, just make the dang raisin-filled cookies. You'll be glad you did.
You know what else was a long time ago? The last time we got any substantial rain. Seriously, it's been weeks. Everything around here is brown and yucky, which is sad because Summer is my favorite time of year in Indiana because it's usually so lush and verdant.
And talk about HOT. So very hot. So hot that I can't in good conscience send my kids outside to play for any length of time. We're getting some major cabin fever around here, people.
And I think the cabin fever may be one of the reasons I have felt so out of sorts lately. I just don't know what to do with myself. Oh, I have a million and one things to do, I just don't want to do any of them. Or anything. I get distracted by little things and lose my train of thought to random tangents... okay, so not that unusual from my normal life. But it's more so now.
My brain feels like a raisin. A raisin in the sun. The hot, unrelenting sun.
Take, for example, my obsession this morning with raisin-filled cookies. I saw this post online about them and could not get them out of my head. They just sounded SO good to me!
But the last thing we need around here are cookies. And the last way I needed to spend my time was making cookies.
So I tried to get the cookies out of my brain and took the boys on a little field trip instead.
Today we headed to the local fire station. The firemen were really great at giving us a tour, especially because they didn't know we were coming. (Apparently the fireman I spoke to forgot to write it down on the calendar. Oops.)
But before we get to the tour, I must show you a picture of the giant and rather menacing bug that kept buzzing around our heads as we got out of the car. Dad, what is that? Yellow jacket? Wasp? Demon imp of insect satan? It was big and had a rather large, distinctly pointy stinger.
Anywho. The tour. The three firemen who were there were so nice and friendly! I think they were a bit bored today and so were only too happy to give an impromptu tour to a few moms and their crazy but cute children. They drove the firetruck out and let the kids each have a turn sitting at the wheel.
Spencer and Josh were quite excited about this.
So was my friend (and awesome visiting teaching companion!) Amanda!
But Cole wasn't. Nope, he wanted to be a punk, as per usual. The firemen got a kick out of him, though, because all he would ever say and/or yell was "NO!". I explained that Mr. Cole's middle name is Robert, which is after Lance's grandfather Robert Madsen, a.k.a. Grandpa Red. We should have thought more about this before naming Cole, because before Grandpa Red became a very respected fireman down in L.A., he was a bit of a hellion. (So much so that during WWII he joined the merchant marines while he was still underage, and even though everyone in town knew about it and knew he was underage, they happily let him enlist!) I guess Cole is just living up to his namesake.
See?!? Tangents!!
Anyway, we really enjoyed the tour and it was a nice way to pass the morning. At the end the firemen even took a picture of all of us.
Then they jokingly said that their fee would have to be paid in cookies, which totally brought the raisin-filled cookies back to mind. Great Ceasar's Ghost, I wanted some!
As we got in the minivan to go home Cole finally decided to put his fire hat on. Nice one, drunken Cole.
And just as I knew he would, when we got home all he could talk about was the fire station and the firemen, even though he acted so naughty and as if he didn't care during the entire tour. And then there was a cartoon with a fire truck on it and he just HAD to wear his hat while he watched it. It was pretty dang cute.
By this point I still really wanted those cookies. But I decided to find some other things to do instead in order to occupy my mind with something else. I cleaned the kitchen and worked on some stuff for our big trip. I tidied up rooms and then watched in dismay as Cole untidied them for me. I practiced the piano until Cole decided it was duet time. I cleaned fingerprints off of walls and appliances.
But I still wanted those cookies.
So then I decided to make the bleach-designed t-shirt I had been wanting to make for a while.
I think it turned out pretty well. This t-shirt had been bugging me because it was so plain. I tried wearing cute felt flower pins with it, but Tess kept pulling them off. So this was my solution to spiffy it up.
People, I BLEACHED A T-SHIRT and and I STILL WANTED THOSE COOKIES!!!
So I decided to give in and just make the blasted things.
I blame my cousin, Jen, of the famous Jen's Favorite Cookies, because that woman is always making cookies and always making me want to make cookies. I swear I was channeling her a little bit as I got to work. I may have even craved a Diet Dr. Pepper...
The cookies took a while to make, so I worked on other stuff around the house. I also had a pretty decent conversation with Tess.
Finally, the blessed things were done! And they were huge!
Tess was also impressed with their size.
Boy, were they good. Soft and spongey, not too sweet. All that I had been dreaming about all day. I only wish I had been a little more generous with the filling, but that's not a big deal.
So the lesson for the day? When you're feeling out of sorts and cabin bound, just make the dang raisin-filled cookies. You'll be glad you did.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Catching On
Overheard in the basement earlier this afternoon:
*CRASH!!!**Waaaaahhh!!*Random boy fighting noises and yells*BANG!*
Although I thoroughly enjoy the fact that parts of my house are cleaner than they have been in weeks, it's heartening to know that they're finally catching on.
*CRASH!!!**Waaaaahhh!!*Random boy fighting noises and yells*BANG!*
Spencer: Shhhhh! Josh! Be quiet!
*More scuffling and fighting*
Spencer: If mom hears us fight she'll make us work!
Josh: Oh yeah.
*Silence*
Although I thoroughly enjoy the fact that parts of my house are cleaner than they have been in weeks, it's heartening to know that they're finally catching on.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Old Friends
I know I've told this story before, but I don't care.
As we were packing up all our earthly possessions, getting ready to move to Indiana, I clearly remember my dad telling me that the friends we made in graduate school would be friends we would have for life.
My dad was completely right on this one.
Although Lance and I are still in Indiana, most of our grad school friends have graduated and moved to various parts of the country. Fortunately, we all stay in pretty good contact through blogs and Facebook and such, but seeing them in person is always a treat.
Yesterday Ashley and Graham and their oldest daughter, Eden, stopped by for a quick visit since they were in town. We were so glad they did!! Even though we hadn't seen each other in person for years, it was as if no time had passed at all. We could have talked the night away, had we had the time.
Eden, who is, by the way, absolutely darling, played Wii and computer games with the boys while the adults chatted. It was very, very cute.
We tried getting a picture of all the kiddos, but this was the best I got. (Pesky Cole did not want to cooperate, and Tess kept trying to fall off the couch!) (Oh, and don't you love Spencer's black socks with shorts? Oy.)
We had Spencer take a picture of just the adults - oh, and Tess, who refused to be put down. Not bad, Spencer!
Thank you so much, Graham and Ashley, for taking the time to visit. We really enjoyed seeing you!
As we were packing up all our earthly possessions, getting ready to move to Indiana, I clearly remember my dad telling me that the friends we made in graduate school would be friends we would have for life.
My dad was completely right on this one.
Although Lance and I are still in Indiana, most of our grad school friends have graduated and moved to various parts of the country. Fortunately, we all stay in pretty good contact through blogs and Facebook and such, but seeing them in person is always a treat.
Yesterday Ashley and Graham and their oldest daughter, Eden, stopped by for a quick visit since they were in town. We were so glad they did!! Even though we hadn't seen each other in person for years, it was as if no time had passed at all. We could have talked the night away, had we had the time.
Eden, who is, by the way, absolutely darling, played Wii and computer games with the boys while the adults chatted. It was very, very cute.
We tried getting a picture of all the kiddos, but this was the best I got. (Pesky Cole did not want to cooperate, and Tess kept trying to fall off the couch!) (Oh, and don't you love Spencer's black socks with shorts? Oy.)
We had Spencer take a picture of just the adults - oh, and Tess, who refused to be put down. Not bad, Spencer!
Thank you so much, Graham and Ashley, for taking the time to visit. We really enjoyed seeing you!
Church Olympics
On Saturday night our ward had an Olympic-themed potluck picnic at Happy Hollow Park. It was so very well-organized and so very much fun! (Having have to plan at least 3,292 ward activities in my life, I truly appreciate a good ward activity. Especially one where I'm not in charge of anything. Seriously, Primary presidency, you guys rock. Thank you for all of your hard work!)
I took a couple of different things, but the most fun was the s'mores pops I made. Just marshmallows dipped in melted chocolate and covered with crushed graham crackers. So easy and actually really yummy! I was totally pandering to the kid audience - I knew they would love them. (And they did!)
For me, the highlight of the evening was the Primary Parade (as in the Parade of Nations). Our awesome bishop, Bishop Cramer, carried the torch and led all of the children around while the Olympic theme music played. Each class carried their own sign. It was so very, very cute! And the kids had a blast!
Josh and Spencer had a great time playing games like balloon volleyball and bobbing for apples and three-legged-races. Tess had a great time chewing on plastic cups.
And sitting in the Ream's camping chairs. Like a big girl!
Cole spent most of his time trying to get into trouble. He wanted to play in water he wasn't supposed to play in. He wanted to play in garbage. He wanted to run away into the creek bed and get lost. He wanted to steal the desserts.
But mostly, he wanted a water balloon. In this picture he's crying because he wanted a water balloon more than ANYTHING IN THE WORLD.
Tess and Lance were impressed by how much Cole wanted a water balloon.
And you know what? Some nice kids shared their water balloons with him. He was so happy! He promptly threw it on the ground a couple of times until it broke, which is exactly what he wanted.
The best part, however, was a few minutes later. Everyone was playing with water balloons, and Cole was in the thick of it, having fun. My good friend, Heather, and her husband were throwing a water balloon back and forth, getting farther and farther apart. Heather threw one pretty high and pretty far... and it landed and exploded right smack dab on Cole's head. Right while I was watching.
It was one of the most awesomely hilarious sights I have ever seen in me ENTIRE LIFE.
The only way it could have been better is if I had been recording it with my camera; something I will regret not doing until the end of my days. Fortunately, it is seared into my brain; I doubt I will ever forget the image.
Cole took it pretty well. No tears or anything! In fact, I think once he got over the surprise/shock of it all he enjoyed getting so wet.
The evening ended with a few tug-o-war contests. The funnest one to watch was the kiddos, even though at the end of one Josh fell down and almost broke his glasses.
It was a really fun evening. I hope our ward does something like this every year! (Just as long as I don't have to plan it...)
I took a couple of different things, but the most fun was the s'mores pops I made. Just marshmallows dipped in melted chocolate and covered with crushed graham crackers. So easy and actually really yummy! I was totally pandering to the kid audience - I knew they would love them. (And they did!)
For me, the highlight of the evening was the Primary Parade (as in the Parade of Nations). Our awesome bishop, Bishop Cramer, carried the torch and led all of the children around while the Olympic theme music played. Each class carried their own sign. It was so very, very cute! And the kids had a blast!
Getting ready for the parade to begin.
Joshie and the other CTR 5's in the Primary Parade.
At the end of the parade. Let the games begin!
Josh and Spencer had a great time playing games like balloon volleyball and bobbing for apples and three-legged-races. Tess had a great time chewing on plastic cups.
And sitting in the Ream's camping chairs. Like a big girl!
Cole spent most of his time trying to get into trouble. He wanted to play in water he wasn't supposed to play in. He wanted to play in garbage. He wanted to run away into the creek bed and get lost. He wanted to steal the desserts.
But mostly, he wanted a water balloon. In this picture he's crying because he wanted a water balloon more than ANYTHING IN THE WORLD.
Tess and Lance were impressed by how much Cole wanted a water balloon.
And you know what? Some nice kids shared their water balloons with him. He was so happy! He promptly threw it on the ground a couple of times until it broke, which is exactly what he wanted.
The best part, however, was a few minutes later. Everyone was playing with water balloons, and Cole was in the thick of it, having fun. My good friend, Heather, and her husband were throwing a water balloon back and forth, getting farther and farther apart. Heather threw one pretty high and pretty far... and it landed and exploded right smack dab on Cole's head. Right while I was watching.
It was one of the most awesomely hilarious sights I have ever seen in me ENTIRE LIFE.
The only way it could have been better is if I had been recording it with my camera; something I will regret not doing until the end of my days. Fortunately, it is seared into my brain; I doubt I will ever forget the image.
Cole took it pretty well. No tears or anything! In fact, I think once he got over the surprise/shock of it all he enjoyed getting so wet.
The evening ended with a few tug-o-war contests. The funnest one to watch was the kiddos, even though at the end of one Josh fell down and almost broke his glasses.
It was a really fun evening. I hope our ward does something like this every year! (Just as long as I don't have to plan it...)
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Monkies on the Bed
There's nothin' Tess likes better than jumping on Momma and Daddy's bed. If Cole is there, all the better. Man, I have cute kiddos!
BONSAI!!!
Timbeeeeeerrrrrr....
Those pigtails make her look like Little Cindy Lou Who.
I imagine this is similar to what an antelope sees right before the lion attacks.
Slave Labor
This morning I took my slaves out to the garden and forced them to pick zucchini, cucumbers, squash, cherry tomatoes, and green beans.
Okay, it was just Josh and Spencer. But after about 20 minutes Spencer was whining and crying and claiming that he was gonna die because it was soooo hot.
This fell on deaf ears.
"We aren't slaves!" he protested.
"You're right," I replied. "You get an allowance. And a house. And food and clothes and computer games. You are most definitely not slaves. Now pick those beans."
He did not like this. But he continued to pick.
It certainly would have been a lot quieter without the boys out there complaining. And although I can't say it would have been faster, it wouldn't have taken that much longer without them - they're not very good a picking beans. But I really felt like they needed to do something on a Saturday morning other than watch cartoons and play inside. I was hoping they might actually learn to enjoy gardening.
As we were out there I tried to explain to them why we needed to learn about gardening, about self-sufficiency, and about how awesome and miraculous gardening is.
"Do you remember how little the tomato plants were when we first got them? Look how big they are now! And remember the seeds that we planted? Now they're HUGE sunflowers! Isn't that cool?"
Josh thought it was cool. Spencer did not. (He was still pouting over the slavery conversation.)
After 45 minutes of wedding, stalking plants, and picking, we ended with a few pictures.
I have to remind myself that I when I was a kid, I hated gardening, too. And my dad would make me go out and pick beans and whatnot, and I felt picked on and whined and cried. (It must be pointed out that one year he grew cotton, just to see if he could, and he made my brother and I go out and pick it. Talk about slave labor...)
But I grew out of it. And now I love gardening. There's something very gratifying in being able to grow your own food. It's a lot of work. And I still have a lot to learn. But it's totally worth it.
Hooray for fresh produce!
I'm proud of my marigold hedge. It's cute. I'm not so fond of the sunflowers, though. They take up too much room. for a non-food plant. (Because let's be honest - am I really gonna harvest the seeds? No. The answer is no.) Next year? Sweet corn instead of sunflowers, for sure.
Also next year? My slaves will be out there helping me some more. Whether they like it or not.
Okay, it was just Josh and Spencer. But after about 20 minutes Spencer was whining and crying and claiming that he was gonna die because it was soooo hot.
This fell on deaf ears.
"We aren't slaves!" he protested.
"You're right," I replied. "You get an allowance. And a house. And food and clothes and computer games. You are most definitely not slaves. Now pick those beans."
He did not like this. But he continued to pick.
It certainly would have been a lot quieter without the boys out there complaining. And although I can't say it would have been faster, it wouldn't have taken that much longer without them - they're not very good a picking beans. But I really felt like they needed to do something on a Saturday morning other than watch cartoons and play inside. I was hoping they might actually learn to enjoy gardening.
As we were out there I tried to explain to them why we needed to learn about gardening, about self-sufficiency, and about how awesome and miraculous gardening is.
"Do you remember how little the tomato plants were when we first got them? Look how big they are now! And remember the seeds that we planted? Now they're HUGE sunflowers! Isn't that cool?"
Josh thought it was cool. Spencer did not. (He was still pouting over the slavery conversation.)
After 45 minutes of wedding, stalking plants, and picking, we ended with a few pictures.
I have to remind myself that I when I was a kid, I hated gardening, too. And my dad would make me go out and pick beans and whatnot, and I felt picked on and whined and cried. (It must be pointed out that one year he grew cotton, just to see if he could, and he made my brother and I go out and pick it. Talk about slave labor...)
But I grew out of it. And now I love gardening. There's something very gratifying in being able to grow your own food. It's a lot of work. And I still have a lot to learn. But it's totally worth it.
Hooray for fresh produce!
I'm proud of my marigold hedge. It's cute. I'm not so fond of the sunflowers, though. They take up too much room. for a non-food plant. (Because let's be honest - am I really gonna harvest the seeds? No. The answer is no.) Next year? Sweet corn instead of sunflowers, for sure.
Also next year? My slaves will be out there helping me some more. Whether they like it or not.
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