almost always about the kids

Something familiar and manic

2012-01-27T22:59:00.001-07:00

When you’ve moved 6 times in 11 years, it’s hard to refer to “all the old familiar places”. By the end of a stay, we usually have some affinity for some places, but it’s rare that anything is that well-worn.

So it was pleasantly odd when Marina was invited to a birthday party by someone from church – and the party was at the same place as last year, which Marina also attended. On the phone with the parent doing the inviting, Justin said things like, “Last year we brought a couple siblings. . .” and, “It’s at Monkey Mania, just like last year, right?”

This might sound trivial, but it’s these little things that make a location more of a home. It’s also a long-winded (for the internet) introduction to our second trip to Monkey Mania.

Certain parts have a low-budget feel to them, but that’s just a jaded adult’s opinion; the three older kids loved it last year, and all four loved it this year.

If there’s another birthday next January, we’ll be here for it. By the third time, this will almost feel like home. Just in time to move.

Good Green Day

2012-01-20T20:49:00.001-07:00

We’re jumping on the Groupon wagon. Balloon rides, restaurants, whatever: we’ll pay for it, if it’s 55% off and ending in 21 hours, 36 minutes, and 17 seconds. One recent purchase was to a fun center. Yes, that’s right. Fun center.

If you didn’t see that clip coming, you’re not an American.

Justin took Friday off, we had the kids cram an extra day of school in during the week, and at 1147am today, Justin and the three older ones took off for Tramway and Indian School.

The Hinkle Family Fun Center lived up to its name.

They started with laser tag. None of the kids had played laser tag before. Malachi understood the shooting rules quickly, but never did comprehend the “no running” rule.

Marina understood the shooting part, but preferred to shoot the inanimate targets for points, instead of going for people.

Elisha was the ninja. Justin would be in search of Malachi, when all of a sudden, his vest would indicate he had been hit. He’d whip around, looking for Malachi and Marina. After a second or two, he’d then look down to see Elisha, 9 inches away, a serious look on his face, continuing to blast Justin’s now inoperative vest.

After that, they did bumper cars. That was a lot of fun.

Next was “lazer [sic] frenzy”. This is a room like one of those hallways in which someone has to get from one end to the other to steal the big diamond or whatever, but there’s a bunch of lasers criss-crossing the path.

There’s a screen outside that allowed you to watch what was going on inside.

After that was a pretty high climbing wall outside. Although there’s lots that is nice about snow, being able to do a climbing wall outside in January was nice too.

While Malachi and Marina conquered the climbing wall, Justin took Elisha on the go karts.

After that, they all went on the bumper boats.

Not bad scenery.

Eventually, Cora woke up, so they all returned home to get her. They went back to the fun center. . .

. . .for about one more hour. They got in one more game of laser tag (which Cora enjoyed), one more time on the bumper cars (which Cora envied), one more time in the lazer frenzy (which Cora tried very hard to do), and a few minutes at Putt-Putt golf. Which ended up being chaos.

So overall, a lot of fun.

Natural sedation

2012-01-16T21:26:00.001-07:00

On a recent weekend, Malachi began crying, but couldn’t tell us why. 45 minutes later, he stopped crying and slept the rest of the afternoon. When he stopped crying, Elisha started. After 45 minutes, he stopped and fell asleep. No fever, and they were ok the next day. So not sure what they picked up, but it was a very quiet afternoon after the crying stopped.

Babies all gone

2012-01-14T21:32:00.001-07:00

Cora turned two at the end of December.

We went to the zoo, because Cora likes animals.

She got some presents.

…..three…..

2012-01-06T13:33:00.001-07:00

Climbed up on the sink to brush her teeth all by herself.

I’m still not sure how she gets up there as she is a tiny child, but I keep finding her up there.

Coming in a close second is her love for toothpaste. She runs around the house sucking it out of the tube. Thank goodness for flouride free.

4….

2012-01-05T21:14:00.001-07:00

This was a Cora & Elisha combined mess. They are too quick for me though and I couldn’t get a picture of them before they went off to their next destruction project.

And yes, I have had to scrub the couch clean.

Down to 5

2011-12-23T14:54:00.001-07:00

Oh yes she did. She took the plant out of the pot and ran around the kitchen with it.

I have no idea why.

The child who thinks she has nine lives.

2011-12-20T13:50:00.001-07:00

I’m not sure how to describe my youngest.

She is very needy.

She spends a lot of time at my feet crying to be carried.

And if she’s not in my arms, she’s punishing me.

After 11 years of marriage and five moves, we bought a new mattress. Not just any new mattress, but one that starts with temper, ends with pedic, and has a few $$$$ in between. (Best bed in the world by the way! I was having a little lower back pain sleeping on our old mattress if I slept on my side or tummy and that is totally gone now.)

Anyway, it arrived the week after Thanksgiving and within a week it looked like this.

Evidently that blank slate was too tempting for my little artist. It’s too bad that she’s not even old enough to be on the sweet side with her destructive capabilities like Malachi was.

Nope. Just plain old destruction.

On our brand spanking new bed.

Stay tuned, this series is not over. I have a few more pictures of what she’s been up to these past few weeks.

And, what I do not have pictures for somehow involves the potty. For example, the same morning she was an artist, she decided to help clean out the potty with a wipe. Oh yeah. She was elbow deep in the potty wiping it all up. I’m not sure why she was so surprised that she ended up in the tub with a quick and luke-warm bath?.?.

OR, I could tell you how our front hall got a little steam cleaning this past week. This impromptu cleaning occurred not because I enjoy it that much, but because our dear little took off her diaper and dropped a fresh one in the middle of the hallway.

And I think she’s down to six.

Head Wound

2011-12-16T15:01:00.001-07:00

For those that get our Christmas letter……

………..and if you do not, email this guy if you want to know what that is.

Sorry Justin, it’s just too neat not to post.

Remembering His Youth

2011-12-09T14:20:00.001-07:00

I’m not sure who took this, but Elisha must have been reminiscing about his 3 year old Sunday school year.

When I asked him about it later, he said he was remember his Sunday School teacher Ms. Valinda.

He loved that class. And her. She is the sweetest teacher and was able to get him to come out of his shell.

Poor little guy had to go and turn four.

Say “Monkey”

2011-12-07T10:05:00.001-07:00

We don’t say “cheese” around here, we say “monkey!”

I guess saying “monkey” makes a more natural smile than saying “cheese.” Or so I’ve read.

However, the kids have picked up the traditional “cheese.”

And Cora tried to dress up like Daddy one afternoon when Justin came home for lunch.

Cheeeeeeese!

She’s such a cutie.

But she did get lost when she tried to take it off.

To Think or Not to Think (of a Title)

2011-12-05T15:24:00.001-07:00

Wow, my last post was putting up the “Welcome Home” video.

I haven’t thought of blogging or titles or posts in a bit.

And, Justin has been happy enough to post about our trip. He likes blogging about something more than everyday life with the kids.

I’m sure some of you might be confused on how to tell the difference when Justin blogs and when I do. It’s actually really simple.

When I blog, I post pictures and make short comments about them, sometimes inserting sarcasm.

When Justin blogs, he mainly writes, using words longer than 5 letters and correct punctuation, sometimes adding pictures.

Anyway, how many of you caught the new title picture?

Those lovely pictures would be from our visit to the pumpkin patch. Yes, I’m going to play catch up so you may once again get your quota of photos.

That and not much else is going on here.

The patch we went to this year was more like an amusement park/center than just a plain old pumpkin patch. So, it was a bit pricey but we all had fun.

Elisha and Marina enjoyed the cow ride.

And Malachi enjoyed the simple maze.

The duck races were fun for all except Elisha, who wasn’t pumping correctly. He ended up spending the next 10 minutes throwing a fit over the outcome.

He calmed down by the time we hit the end of the petting zoo.

Which was good since next up was the pumpkin launcher and bounce houses. No pictures of those.

We moved on to a spider web rope maze.

Followed by some road bikes enjoyed by all of us.

After our legs were tired, everyone (except maybe the Muma) went down the slides.

And it’s lovely to watch your kids take out other adults.

Next up, the dreaded photo which no one wanted to cooperate for.

While I was trying to get everyone to smile, this was the best Justin could take. I’m thinking he wasn’t into it either since you can see people in the background, everyone is off center and it’s not at their level. Hmmmmmm.

Anyway, it was time for the corn maze.

The kids were NOT excited about the maze. Cora threw a fit (Justin is going back to pick her up) and Marina thought she was going to die she was walking so far. So, we ended up creating our own path out (not that hard when you visit on Oct 30th).

Then we spent a few minutes in the corn box…..

……picked out some pumpkins (not included in the admission)……….

……..and drove home.

Does anyone want to guess how much admission was?

Natural extremes…longest burger lines…days 8 & 9

2011-11-24T09:12:00.001-07:00

Our vacation ended, all we had left was our drive home. Since we reversed the order of our stops, we had two long days of driving from Yosemite to home. We picked a town roughly half-way – Kingman, AZ – that had a pool, as our place to stop at night. We packed up the van, said goodbye to our rented house and Yosemite, and headed home.

The only thing of note on the way home was our stop at lunch. We had heard from various Californians over the years that In & Out is the best fast-food burger ever. So we had to try it before leaving California. They were good. But we didn’t think that much better than Wendy’s, and we like Frosties.

The pool at the hotel was really nice: we all went swimming at night, and then Justin took the oldest three again in the morning, before we left.

The rest of the day after swimming in the morning was driving home. We stopped in Flagstaff for lunch, and then made excellent time, getting home for dinner, finishing at 2724.4 miles total for the trip.

Natural extremes…dirtiest snowman…day 7

2011-11-22T20:36:00.001-07:00

We decided to take it easy the last day in Yosemite. We went back to Yosemite Valley in the morning, walking to Mirror Lake. The walk was nice, all things considered. Mirror “Lake” was more like a tiny pond, but the best time to see water stuff in Yosemite is in the spring, so it’s not really fair to judge it in November.

Rather than go straight back to our house, we headed into a little village along the main route to pick up mouse traps. A day or two before, Erin found shredded napkins in the glovebox. Then she found mouse poo at various spots in the van. Then Justin found his iPod tape adapter thing with the cord chewed off. So it was war.

It took bit of driving and stops at two shops, but we finally got some basic mousetraps. We put peanut butter on both, put them both in the van, and waited. Justin checked them in a couple hours, and peanut butter was already gone from one. He put more on, and then moved them both to the spot where the one had been eaten from. A couple hours later, peanut butter was again gone, but no casualty in the trap. This time, Justin shoved a piece of 3 Musketeers candy bar onto the bait tab, so that it was almost attached. Then, he set the trap as tenuously as he could. A few hours later, when it was time for Malachi and Marina to go to bed, Malachi asked Justin to check the trap again. He did, and there it was: a cute, tiny, previously happy and healthy mouse. We don’t like killing things, but having mouse poo in Cora’s car seat and wondering when the mouse would chew through some critical wire in the engine were not things we wanted to deal with on our 16-hour drive home. Goodbye, mouse.

Between all the mouse fun, Justin took the three older kids out back to play in the snow while Cora and Erin napped (no, Erin is not pregnant). We have decided to save money and skip vacations for a few years; the kids are happy with a swimming pool and making snowmen. They’ve spent most of the vacation dragging their feet and whining. That afternoon, though, they were outside in the snow, never once complaining, not annoying each other, playing happily for a few hours. It’s nice to see famous stuff, but it may have to wait until they’re a little older.

Natural extremes…highest waterfall…day 6

2011-11-20T13:24:00.001-07:00

We had two full days in Yosemite, but weren’t sure what was open. So the first place we went was Yosemite Valley – the most visited tourist place – which we knew would have an open visitors’ center. They gave us a couple hikes that were ok for kids. We did one that morning to a waterfall, which was more than enough fun for us.

We headed back for lunch, and then went down to see the sequoias in Yosemite. We saw a lot more there than Sequoia National Park. It was also probably the most fun the kids had outside a pool. They spent the entire walk in playing in the snow. They spent the entire walk back – all downhill on slippery ice and snow – running and sliding.

Here’s the most famous view in Yosemite:

Natural extremes…biggest living thing…day 5

2011-11-18T20:19:00.001-07:00

After our short night, we had a quick breakfast in the room, loaded the car back up, figured out how to put snow chains on our van, and checked out.

After being overwhelmed by the redwoods on a previous vacation, we had high hopes for the sequoias. We were disappointed. We don’t want to read too much into this one experience, since there were many factors setting us up for disappointment: (1) we didn’t have much time at the Sequoia National Park; (2) we took a vacation with probably the worst ages of children for seeing something boring like trees; (3) we were operating on not much sleep; (4) we really wanted to get to our next destination at a reasonable hour, so our goal was just to get a couple pictures and get out of there.

We ended up stopping to see only one tree: General Sherman. It’s the biggest living thing in the world, measured by volume, so that’s something. But it was .4 miles from the parking lot, with Marina whining the whole way and Cora whining unless she was walking.

We also were a little worried about running out of gas. We entered the park with half a tank. After driving up a mountain for 20 miles, we had a quarter tank. The pass to the north was closed, which meant we had to return the way we came in. That meant downhill the whole way. If we had to continue going up, we may not have made it (there’s no gas stations in the park).

So one tree, plus a few random sequoias we saw on the drive through the park. The scenery is pretty great, but we ended up being there only about 13 hours, most of it in the dark. In hindsight, we would have skipped Sequoia, stopped much earlier in the evening at a much cheaper hotel, avoided the midnight ice mountain climb, and everyone would have been happy. But that’s hindsight. If you do have a choice, though, the redwoods in northern California were more impressive, more accessible, and more plentiful than the sequoias, based on our single experience with each.

The rest of the day went fine. Justin discovered that the 1130pm pass we hit the night before was the only one of the night; if we were 20 minutes later, we would have had to turn around, go back down the ice mountain, find another place to sleep, and likely get charged for our original reservation. That would have been a very bad night.

We arrived at our rented house in Yosemite around 530pm, just as it was getting dark. We unpacked, got kids fed and in bed, and crashed.

Natural extremes…lowest point…day 4

2011-11-16T18:56:00.001-07:00

We expected day 4 to be a driving day, but not quite the drive it ended up. Our plan was to leave promptly from Las Vegas, head north-west to the Yosemite entrance, and arrive at our rented house by bedtime. The one optional site we had on our route was Death Valley. It would add an hour of driving to our already long day, plus whatever time we stopped to see things. With the time change and kids still on Mountain time, we got out of Las Vegas pretty early and decided to see Death Valley.

Death Valley was not the parched desert we anticipated. There were no cow skulls baking in the sun, or broken-down wagons sinking in the sand. The part we drove through was an interesting and colorful variety of rock formations. The kids were more interested in building sacred religious monuments out of rocks.

On the way out, we stopped to get a couple pictures of some salt flats. It looked and felt like ground frozen solid with frost.

Death Valley was good to see, but we soon were through and on our way north. After a bit of driving, we came to Bishop, California. In Bishop, we saw a sign that said Highway 120 was closed. Highway 120 was our next turn, the one taking us into Yosemite. Not being familiar with the park or area, we hoped maybe not all of 120 was closed, or there was another entrance nearby, or something. After stopping in a gas station and calling the place we were headed, we had to face it: we weren’t getting to Yosemite that night.

We rearranged our itinerary to meet the snow’s inconvenient timing (120 had just closed the previous day). Instead of coming into the north of Yosemite and heading south to see the sequoias after, we would come in from the south and see the sequoias first, then head to Yosemite. The south entrance to Yosemite was open, and the drive to Sequoia National Park was a little over six hours from Bishop. The drive to the south entrance of Yosemite was a few hours longer, so we didn’t want to try to stick to our original plan (it was 6pm by this time).

After calling all the hotels and making the changes, we turned back south for the long drive. It was a little frustrating seeing our location on the GPS, seeing our destination just a little bit directly to the west of us, and then seeing our route all the way around the south of Sequoia National Park, since there’s no east entrance. There’s also no proper highway on that route, so it was 55 and 65 most of the way, slowing down through towns. But eventually we made it to the park, all the kids by that time asleep. The road quickly became a mountain climb, very twisty, gaining elevation rapidly. Even though we were at the end of a very long day, the drive just kept going: 20 miles doesn’t sound like much when you’ve covered hundreds already that day, but when you’re going 15 MPH, it’s painfully slow.

We thought we were doing well until we saw the signs: road construction ahead; road closed. We came to the road closure, saw three other cars waiting, and saw another sign saying the next pass through was at 1130pm. It was 1112pm, so we put it in park, turned off the engine, and dozed for a few minutes with the kids.

Just before 1130pm, a construction worker walked to each car, telling us all to follow him and that we would need to stop and put on snow chains after we pass through the construction. We made it through the construction; no one in front of us stopped to put on snow chains, and we were more than ready just to get to bed, so we didn’t either. The roads weren’t great, but we did fine without chains, although we did have to go pretty slowly.

Finally, finally, we reached our destination. Erin got the kids into bed while Justin brought in all our stuff from the van (we had to bring in all food scraps, or bears would break in). We all were awakened by Cora at first light, about five hours later.

Natural extremes (not naturally occurring)…biggest man-made lake…day 3

2011-11-14T20:25:00.001-07:00

We woke up to something we haven’t had for a while: significant snowfall. Although our current and previous locations get snow, it’s usually what we would call a “dusting”. Flagstaff went from nothing to a few inches overnight. Thankfully, they’re used to getting snow, so all the roads were clear.

We drove to our next stop, Hoover Dam, stopping only for gas and lunch in the car.

We took the power plant tour, since the longer one doesn’t allow little buggers. It was ok. We went down in an elevator to see some by-pass pipes, then up to see the turbines. Probably the most interesting thing was learning where the power goes: 56% goes to Southern California. Less than 1% goes to Las Vegas. We got some pictures from a little viewing area, then we walked out on the dam itself.

All the information we saw talked about managing the water and using the resulting electricity; the federal government seems to be ignoring the recent Transformers exposé. They were especially proud that the dam – by selling its electricity – has paid for its construction and continues to cover its operating costs. In government that’s something to brag about; in business, it’s called minimal competence.

Here’s the relatively new bridge, named after the Cardinals’ Tillman; you used to drive across the river on the dam itself.

From Hoover Dam, we continued into Las Vegas (well, Henderson). Malachi chose fish for dinner, since it’s his birthday, so we went to King’s Fish House. Next door was a Ben & Jerry’s place, so we went there for dessert. Then over to our hotel, where we checked-in and Malachi opened presents.

The boys ended the day by going to the Boise State v. UNLV game as Malachi’s birthday present. Justin asked a high school friend who lives in Las Vegas where was the best place to get tickets (scalper, school itself, etc.), but he did one better: he said he could easily get tickets through his work. So they met at the stadium and all watched BSU eventually dominate the Rebels. Being used to games in Ann Arbor and South Bend, UNLV has a different feel to it: the 30-member band and stadium that doesn’t go all the way around makes it feel like a high school game. All the manufactured noise and fireworks and beer seemed like a pro game. Malachi insisted on staying until the very end. His aunt’s legacy seems to have died out: we saw no flag girls.

Elisha isn’t much of a sports fan, but with free tickets, Justin asked if he wanted to come, too. He enjoyed the first half, just being out with the boys. Later in the third quarter, he fell asleep.

Natural extremes…biggest hole…day 2

2011-11-12T16:41:00.001-07:00

We’re used to getting late starts, since it takes a while to get four kids moving in the same direction. But moving from Mountain to Pacific time and having a baby who wakes everyone else up as soon as she’s up got us out the door early: even after a long breakfast, we were on the road to the Grand Canyon before 9 am local.

The drive wasn’t bad: standard northern Arizona/Colorado scenery. We came in the Grand Canyon from the east, stopping at the visitors’ center there, climbing a tower thing, and getting our first views of the Grand Canyon.

It’s almost too big. Maybe it’s like how so many people treat athletes or movie stars as objects: they’re too famous to consider them real people, so that’s how people can yell things from the stands or harass photographically in a way that they would never do to regular people. The Grand Canyon is hard to consider a real natural formation. There’s just too much. It’s a bit inaccessible perceptually. Maybe that sort of immensity needs focus to appreciate, and focus on scenery is one thing we cannot afford when we are making sure no child ends up falling off a cliff. The Grand Canyon isn’t something you can just glance at one or two moments every minute and expect to grasp it; maybe we’ll go back another time when we could do more than glance at it one or two moments every minute.

After the east side stuff, we followed the road along its South Rim, stopping once to take some more pictures, and then again at Angel Bright Trail to do what is for us a serious hike. We ended up hiking down into the Grand Canyon about 30 minutes, and then coming back up in twice that time. It was a nice trail, and gave us some great views, but Malachi is unable to exercise judgment, Marina has perfected the art of whining, and Cora was missing her nap. Erin had planned on hiking down for an hour. She was optimistic.

We drove back to the hotel, stopped at Chipotle for dinner, went to the pool, and called it a day.

Natural extremes…biggest hole…day 1

2011-11-10T22:25:00.001-07:00

Since Justin had all summer to plan a vacation, he found lots of things for us to see which are sort of in driving distance. Our general direction was west, to Yosemite. But our first stop along the way was in Flagstaff, Arizona. This is also an hour or so south of the Grand Canyon.

Our first day was just a driving day. We took a long lunch break at a rest stop, and still arrived in Flagstaff late afternoon. With too much time before dinner, Justin wanted to see downtown Flagstaff. We decided to walk there from our hotel, since we’d been in the car most of the day. That didn’t go over so well. Marina thought she was going to starve to death, Malachi was pouty because we moved our Chipotle night to the next night, and Cora wanted to both walk and be carried. We ended up making a quick walk to and through downtown, and then just stopping at a pizza place for dinner. We then spent a while in the outdoor pool and hot tub after dinner back at the hotel. With six people – five who need an actual bed – we can no longer stay in a regular hotel room. Thankfully we found places that have suites or better at all our stops. The hotel in Flagstaff was super-nice, and not that expensive. They even had a free made-to-order breakfast: omelets, pancakes, waffles, French toast, hash browns, bacon, sausage. It was probably into the 50s at night, but we still went swimming both nights, since the pool was heated.

Don’t Come Here For Your Farm Animals

2011-10-31T22:59:00.001-06:00

On the radio, a commercial we heard recently was refreshingly honest, even if only unintentionally. The commercial began by describing its current promotional scheme. It ended with a standard legal disclaimer. The great thing is, in between the two was the company’s slogan. And the commercial transitioned seamlessly from the company’s slogan to the legal disclaimer. So the commercial ended up sounding something like this:

“Come in to Fun Place X – if you do this or that, you’ll be eligible for A, B or C! Fun Place X: where everyone’s a winner! Some exceptions apply. See store for details. . . .”

Or maybe the ad writers are fans of Mr. Incredible and the placement of the slogan right before the legal disclaimer was intentional.

Choose your battles

2011-10-22T20:18:00.001-06:00

Scene: Elisha wakes up with a fever. Justin is trying to take his temperature while Erin readies the drugs. Elisha is not happy with any of it.

Erin – “Elisha, if you don’t open your mouth for dada, we have to stick the thermometer in your bum.”

Elisha – “Mmmm-mmmm” [saying no with his lips shut]

Justin – “ok, I’m giving you one more shot, and then I’ll have to do what mama said and stick it in your bum to get your temperature.”

Elisha – “Can I have one more shot?”

It ended up being 101.4. He had a busy morning the next morning, so he was worn down by lunch. Here’s what he looked like most of the afternoon.

The End of [Counting] Days

2011-10-16T21:27:00.001-06:00

This post is a few days later than I thought, but that’s because we’ve been busy as a family :)

Justin had agreed to call on Friday morning if he had actually landed in the US. The time he was supposed to call came and went, so I wasn’t sure what was going on.

Instead of first thing in the morning, I received a call mid-morning. He was in Minneapolis and only had a few minutes before the final leg of his journey home!

(When he landed in Baltimore, he just squeezed onto an earlier flight. He was the last one to board that plane so he really did not have time to check in here or with his office!)

After lunch, I told the kids we had to go to the airport to pick up “Mommy’s friend.” Malachi asked once who this friend was and I was able to distract him with a non-answering reply (thank you Justin for the coaching in that area).

The airport pick-up area was crowded so I sat the kids down with the DVD player intending to have them come watch when I saw Justin coming. But, I didn’t really see him until he was almost through the doors so we have this reaction instead:

Evidently our children our just as non-excitable as we are.

But, they are all very happy and when Malachi came up for air, his eyes were watering. At that time, Justin asked Malachi what we were doing at the airport when he replied “waiting for Mommy’s friend.”

(Later Malachi asked why I called Daddy my friend. I asked him if he thought Daddy was my friend. He said Daddy was my friend before we got married! Hmmmm, what is he now?)

Cora was the only one not to give Justin a big welcome at first.

But at the baggage claim, after she wiggled out of my arms, she soon found out that Daddy was pretty fun when he was tossing her in the air and bouncing her from bag to bag as they went by. Now she walks around the house yelling out “Muma!” followed by “Dada!”

And now we are home. Relaxing. With things back to normal. Sort of. I’m not sure how “normal” Justin thinks changing diapers are. Or breaking up fights between children.

But, it is our normal.

And I could even get used to my new muscle strapped husband. 191 days of lifting weights is very impressive. Very, very impressive.

Day 191

2011-10-13T14:04:00.001-06:00

We are still counting days.

I had a post all ready saying that “someone” was in the States and that we’d be picking him up later tonight, but that is not the case.

That “someone” is still in country K. He’s been out of country I and in country K for a while now.

And, until he leaves country K and arrives in the States to fly on commercial airlines, there is no definitive answer as to when he’ll be back.

But, we do have a new ETA and it’s not today.

I’m so, so, so glad the kids are still clueless.

Oh, and dear “someone”, I’d just like to reaffirm that child #3 is taken straight from your gene pool. He got his first bloody nose yesterday.

Of course, the fall face first into the bookshelf might have helped. And I’m not sure why Marina was wearing a gorilla costume at the time, especially when I told both of them to pick up.

Oh well. Back to counting.

Day 190

2011-10-12T13:43:00.001-06:00

Elisha is our thumb sucker. He always has been and he might be doing it until he is a teenager.

Marina was a thumb sucker too, but only when she had her lovey. We took Marina’s lovey away and now she sleeps without her thumb in her mouth.

Elisha’s lovey is his ear.

Except now, he’s learned some odd tricks that he can do with his ears.

And it starts off like this:

And ends like this:

That’s right. And he can do it on both sides at the same time.

I always knew my kids were special.

And if you think the outside looks bad, you should see the insides. There is waaaaaaay too much wax with no way to exit.

Day 189

2011-10-11T15:08:00.001-06:00

Do you ever have a brilliant idea of something fun to do and it turns out to be 4 hours of torture?

No?

Well, you must have very cooperative children.

Mine are somewhat cooperative. However, when they alternate who is being uncooperative, they are collectively being uncooperative.

Follow? I’m not sure I do, but no worries.

On Sunday there was an air show here. I thought it might be fun to go watch the planes do some fun tricks.

It started off with walking to the bus stop. Except we didn’t make it to the bus stop, someone instead directed us to a van that was already driving some people over to the other side of base. So, we just hopped in too.

He dropped us off near the entrance but said there was a quicker way on the other side. So, we followed the other party to the other side. Uh, not so. Not allowed. (Justin, it reminded me of all those times we’d go to visit some castle or large building in Europe, but pick the wrong direction to walk around to find the entrance.)

Now we walked back around to get to the original entrance. This whole time, Cora and Elisha are in the stroller and Malachi & Marina are walking. Everyone is doing well with all the extra walking and pushing.

We finally get in but we don’t stop to see anything since we were now right on time for the start of the show.

Seriously, the best part was when they started taking of to the score off Transformers. Air Force = Transformers. Remember that if you are ever in trouble.

I had the kids bring sunglasses and ear muffs for the younger two. The older two were instructions to cover their ears for all passovers.

However, the ear muffs set Cora off into a 15 minute screaming fit.

Which meant I could not cover my ears. I had wailing and jet engines assaulting my eardrums.

What was that? I didn’t hear you?

Marina and Elisha asked to leave about 5 minutes after it started.

So, if you are doing your math, Cora was crying and two kids kept asking to leave and it was so loud I thought my head was going to explode.

Making memories.

Eventually Cora calmed down and left her ear muffs on.

And Elisha and Marina were threatened with no dessert if they asked to leave again.

Yes, I bribe with food.

Malachi said he liked when two planes flew by and one was upside down. Marina liked it when they made a heart the best. Elisha said he liked seeing the big plane the best. And, I didn’t ask Cora.

After the Thunderbirds ended, we walked around some of the displays and then waited in line to go in a C-130J Super Hercules.

I did not know the line was to walk through up to the cockpit and then sit in it. This line took an hour.

An hour of holding a gymnastics bound 21 month old.

The older three were pretty well entertained by all the people and the airplane. Cora was not impressed and thought she could squirm of of my arms.

But, right as security was coming around telling everyone to leave, it was our turn to sit up front.

After Malachi sat down and started flipping switches, I had to loudly tell him not to touch anything. The pilot that was watching over everything then repeated not to touch anything except for the yoke.

To get these pictures, I did have to set Cora down, show went to the nearest switches and kept flipping.

Going insane.

So, we were all kicked out of the plane and made our way (the long way since we were not dropped off by a bus and did not know where they were to pick up) back to the buses.

And our public school deprived children were excited to be riding on a SCHOOL bus no less.

And again, since we were no picked up by a bus, we didn’t know what stop to get off of and had to walk a little extra on the way home.

So glad to get home.

And now I know why when I told Justin we were going to an air show, his return date magically jumped back a week.

Day 188

2011-10-10T14:45:00.001-06:00

I’ve been told it’s been a while since I last posted.

Honestly, I’m not in the mood for posting.

I know, I know. I should be all happy and shouting from the rooftops that Justin will be Stateside this week.

But, let’s see a show of hands who actually thinks 36 hours of travelling will go smoothly and he’ll arrive on time?

So, I’m just plugging away here, anticipating, trying not to let the kids know, and just generally anxious. This last week has been the worst of the whole deployment.

Worst.

I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m not telling the kids. Well, besides from the fact that time tables get changed around and there is no guarantee of arrival day, and the fact I’m already cranky with anticipation (hey hun, aren’t you glad to be coming home?), the kids turn into little monsters when they are anticipating anything.

Malachi turns into this little squirrel (and no, I’m not kidding):

Marina turns into even more of a little mommy. She carries Cora around everywhere trying to transfer her nerves to Cora. It’s odd.

Elisha just sticks his thumb in his mouth and screams “No! I don’t want to!” to everything that comes out of my mouth. It doesn’t even matter if I’m asking him if he wants a cookie, the second I start speaking he screams and runs away.

And Cora, because she is being abused by Marina, follows me around crying if I don’t carry her everywhere I’m going.

And that is why no one is finding out.

Anyway, I guess he’ll be home soon enough.

And he had better be home without any of that facial hair.

Seriously now, WHY?

Day 176

2011-09-28T14:47:00.001-06:00

Little Elisha had his first day of preschool this week.

It actually started while we were in MI/MD. But, since he was on the waiting list and we registered him right before we left, there wasn’t anything we could do but pay September’s fee an miss most of the month.

We had gone in the day before to get through the rest of the registration.

And, as we were posing, I asked him to smile and instead got this face…

And I thought he was only four.

After I signed him in, I told him it was time to go in his classroom and he tried to take off running.

Luckily this isn’t my first non-compliant child. I picked up this heavy, kicking, and whimpering 4 year old and walked into the room where his teachers were awaiting.

They were really nice in showing him what he needs to do first (find his name and put it in the pocket) and next (wash hands). After the teacher and I were finished helping him wash hands, we went out into the room where a bunch of stations are set up. By this time he was no longer clingy and was watching the birds so I said my goodbyes.

He didn’t acknowledge them, but at least he didn’t cry like his older sister did on her first day.

We picked up a cheap backpack from Hobby Lobby and I asked what he’d like on it.

He wanted an airplane and ran to get a crayon and scribbled an “airplane” on the pocket.

Last night I made his airplane backpack.

He had the biggest smile when he saw his airplane and his name on his bag (yes, I put his name on his bag but it’s not like he walks to school alone or is ever out of my site with it on).

He was a little more compliant today but I still had to help through the hand-washing.

And that’s it. Another in preschool which means I’ll be homeschooling three next year.

THAT is a frightening thought.

Day 174

2011-09-26T23:10:00.001-06:00

From Michigan, we went to West Virginia. Well, actually we just stayed over the border in Maryland.

And, my grandparents from Wisconsin also joined.

I didn’t take too many pictures though. The only picture I have of the house is a view from the inside.

We had a great house up on the hills and overlooking Deep Creek Lake.

We went to Deep Creek State Park one morning. They had a nice discovery center with some fish and a turtle and other outdoors type things. From there we walked down to the beach on Deep Creek Lake.

We left completely soaked. It was fairly cold out and the kids kept going in the water to warm up. (Remember that cold front that went through turning the weather from hot and humid into cold and rainy?)

I was cold watching everyone play. But, it was nice scenery and the trees were just starting to turn.

The kids really wanted to go back but they were having the Savage Man Triathlon that weekend.

So instead we went to see a local waterfall.

Marina is missing from these pictures because as soon as she heard “hiking” she started throwing a fit. She stayed back with great-grandma.

But, no worries, we also managed to go to Cooper’s Rock.

Where Aunt Kayla had Cora duty and Uncle Josh was sporting some baby bling.

The only other thing of note was their cousin’s birthday party. It was held at a family fun center with arcade games, inside bounce houses, inside carnival rides, larger outside carnival rides, climbing wall and bumper boats. It was a large place, but small scale. When we returned back to the rental house, Malachi turned to me and asked if it was all a dream. Evidentially we don’t usually have that much fun…

Day 165

2011-09-17T19:38:00.001-06:00

In addition to raspberry picking, we went to another orchard to do some peach picking.

Of course, this had to be the HOTTEST and muggiest day of the year.

Cora loved picking up ANY peach off the ground and putting it in the bucket. I think I picked out most of the moldy ones, but I’m not sure, she’s quick.

Elisha was a little grumpy from the heat. Very grumpy.

Marina was somewhat photogenic today. She’s such a sweetie :)

After picking peaches and a few raspberries from some bare raspberry bushes, we were tired and sweaty.

And of course, I did not get in a shower before the power went out from a wicked storm. So, so, so gross.

I took a bucket shower the next morning. If you haven’t taken one, they are fun. You grab a bucket, some water, a rag, a bar of soap and wash as quickly as possible with cold water hoping you get off all the soap.

Maybe it’s must be an “I grew up in the country” Michigan thing.

Day 164

2011-09-16T21:00:00.001-06:00

WARNING: Another picture heavy post.

There is a little known secret out on N. Territorial Rd (not sure if it’s Dexter or Chelsea out there); a raspberry farm. This raspberry farm had rows and rows of raspberry vines.

And NO ONE was there!

It’s probably because on those rows and rows of vines there were swarms and swarms mosquitoes.

But the raspberries were perfect.

Perfect!

We even showed Cora how to pick raspberries too.

She was very good at picking raspberries.

So good she ate all of her stash.

Then she went to the general stash and ate out of the collected pint containers.

Later that night when I tried giving her raspberries for dinner, she screamed and threw them all off of her tray.

She must have had A LOT!

Day 163

2011-09-15T18:05:00.001-06:00

WARNING: Picture heavy.

On one of our days in Michigan, we were invited to go to Greenfield Village with some of Malachi and Marina’s cousins.

This herd of cousins pretty much ran around in a disorganized and lawless manner the rest of the visit.

Not that my angels do anything like that.

But, in between the running and whining about being tired, we squeezed in a few fun events.

Like the carousel.

And the turn table and round house.

I told Malachi to ask the guy any questions about trains. Anything he wanted to know. Malachi asked “how do trains work?” Poor guy went into a whole overview on how a steam engine runs. I hope Malachi was listening!

And then onto the covered bridge.

Which included some duck feeding.

Followed by a meltdown.

I still can’t suck it in. Sigh.

But I did burn a few extra calories as I was babywearing Cora on my back so I carried Elisha on my front as we walked back to the gate.

And because I burned those few extra calories, I bought some fudge.

So, so good. I highly recommend the peanut chocolate. I think Elisha recommends the mint chocolate as I found the container for that in his sleeping bag and couple nights later.

Day 162

2011-09-14T18:04:00.001-06:00

Our wild child put himself in the cuffs.

Then he threw a tantrum because he couldn’t get them off and I was taking a picture instead of helping.

In case you were concerned, they came off during his tantrum thrashing.

Day 161

2011-09-13T18:45:00.001-06:00

That expensive tutor my husband hired makes fun stuff with the kids.

The other day, they made a World Fruit Pizza.

How’s that for a Geography Lesson?

Day 160

2011-09-12T21:36:00.001-06:00

While the older two were at the fair with Nanny and Granny, I was able to enjoy the passing storm.

There is nothing like a good Michigan thunderstorm.

Note: This is not the storm that knocked out the power for 40 hours.

Another Note: I think I have now gone the longest without sunlight. My vitamin D levels are low and my hair is crazy frizzy with the non-stop rain and humidity. Oh, to be in NM again and have nice hair….but dry skin. Oh well, that’s a much easier fix!

Day 159

2011-09-11T21:06:00.001-06:00

After the morning, I took the older three back to the fair to ride the rides.

Entrance was $20. Per person. And 4 year olds count as people. Breathe. Just once is ok. But seriously, $80 for the 4 of us to ride rides and that didn’t even include the entrance onto the fair grounds.

Anyway, our first stop was to a fun house. Elisha is 40 inches and a lot of kiddie rides have a minimum of 42 inches so I had to tag along on a lot of the rides.

Fun house = good.

Next up was the Ferris Wheel.

Ferris Wheel = fun.

While on the Ferris Wheel, Elisha saw another ride he wanted to go on.

It was a kiddie ride of giant bears that went in a circle. We wait in line and get in this circular seating area. In the middle was a wheel. That wheel has forever changed my life.

When I saw the wheel, I said “look Malachi, you can grab the wheel and twirl the bear.” And I showed him how.

I did not realize that a 7 year old could twirl a bear for so long and so fast and not get tired.

At first I thought it was fun. But then the ride started and we were going in a circle with Malachi spinning us around in fast circles.

Not so fun. I had to close my eyes.

And the ride would not stop. I turned my head for some fresh air.

And he keep us spinning and spinning and spinning. I threw my arms across the wheel (eyes still closed) and told him if he touched it again Mama was going to throw up.

For the next few minutes I had to field questions on why I didn’t feel well and when we could spin again.

And so, there go the days when I could spin around on rides and not even get dizzy. There go the days when I could sit and spin for hours. There go the days when I could be a passenger in the car and look at something besides the road in front.

I admit it, I now have a weak stomach. Or maybe I should say my equilibrium is so finely tuned, I can feel any motion that is not normal.

Bears = Not Fun

So we got off and I found some rides the kids could go on by themselves.

See, they are having so much fun now!

After a bit we went to where the older two could ride some of the older kid rides. 46 inches and up. They wouldn’t let kids on these even with adults.

So Elisha watched.

The older two found another ride they could both go on without me.

And Elisha watched again.

But this time I think he was glad to be on the ground.

Seeing as how my children look like dwarfs on this ride.

Still dwarfs as they go flying through the air (Marina has pink crocs on).

Marina did not want to go back on any of the older kid rides after this so we hit the kiddie rides again.

But Malachi kept begging and begging to go back on all of the ones that hurl your body through the air.

So I bribed Elisha with a lemonade and Marina was happy with the Fun House, which meant Malachi got what he wanted:

He would be the loan child screaming just to the right of the “R” in Skater.

(Notice: ALL dads on these rides with their kids. There are hardly any moms that get on these rides.)

And when he got off, he wanted to do it again.

After a few more rides, we went home and he and Marina were able to go back for a little more fun that night with Nanny and Granny.

Except it majorly stormed. They got soaked. And came home.

And that’s the end of the fair. Kids had fun. I will forever want to toss my cookies if my body even thinks it is going in a circle.

Day 155

2011-09-07T21:08:00.001-06:00

Well, one good thing about growing up in a farming community is the local fair that always sets up shop the last week in August every year.

This year the kids went to experience some of the quieter aspects of the fair.

You know, like giving some love to some farm animals that were recently auctioned off.

Or testing out the lawn and farm equipment.

The Black Box

2011-09-04T11:48:00.001-06:00

[A guest post by someone Erin met]

Every Muslim is supposed to show up at Mecca once in his life, people in certain situations excepted. After he’s made the trip, he earns the title “Haji”. It was natural then that outsiders would call Muslims – for my purposes, particularly Iraqis – Haji, whether they’ve made the pilgrimage to Mecca or not. And what flows even more easily is to call all small stores run by Iraqis “Haji shops”.

Haji shops might sell a variety of things, but one staple is DVDs. These are DVDs that would be illegal if sold in the US. But apparently they aren’t illegal in Iraq. These are DVDs that would be $18 in the US. Or the movies are still in theaters only. In Iraq they’re a dollar.

Consequently, there are boxes of DVDs sitting around. In a work office in the States, maybe someone has a bowl of candy or something on the counter. In Iraq, you can instead help yourself to a selection of Haji shop DVDs that people have bought, watched, and then donated to the office. I was flipping through one of these DVD boxes and saw “Riding in Cars with Boys”. I watched it tonight.

It’s a good movie, although not one to watch to feel better about life. The most compelling scene is when the heroin-addict father leaves his 6-year old son. The son worships his father, and the father adores his son. In the many foolish mistakes made to that point by all characters, the relationship between the father and son is the one pure glimmer that can’t be tarnished: between them – and despite whatever turmoil happens around them - is unmitigated joy and love.

But the father can’t kick heroin, and the mother can’t raise her son around an addict. So the father leaves. The scene starts with the son lying in bed, coloring. Then the father walks in to say goodnight. The son recognizes something is wrong, finds out the father is leaving, and begs to go with him. The father eventually physically pushes his son away and rushes out the door. The scene climaxes with the 6-year old wearing his pajamas, grabbing only his toothbrush as he runs out the door, chasing his father down the street, screaming for the father to take him with him. He stops in the middle of the street when it’s obvious he won’t catch his father. The scene ends as the son sobs against his closed bedroom door, still holding his toothbrush.

I’ve heard enough stories in my job to know that there is no one right answer for how a family is supposed to deal with the messy-ness of life. I don’t want the responsibility of sitting in judgment against a guy who gets addicted to a drug and then decides his wife is right: no father is better than a drug-addict father. Better he never get addicted? Sure. Better he get clean? Sure. But facts aren’t always so simple, especially when what someone else cavalierly bandies as “facts” you call “your life”.

Prices are beautiful because they’re simple. The Propensity to Truck and Barter used to mean trying to figure out how many pounds of lard or yards of fabric I needed to give you in order to get so many horseshoes or barrels or whatever. Prices provide a universal medium. It’s easy to count the costs when they’re given in numbers; maybe not so much when you’re dealing with unknown quantities and unknowable future values.

I think the father counted the cost. I think the mother counted the cost. They didn’t have the benefit of prices: if they knew the cost to their family of living with an addict would be X, but living without an addict would be less than X, then they could just point to the figures and no one could argue with them. But they did the best they could with the facts and future that they faced at the time.

Now I’m five months removed from the day I physically pushed my family away to get on a plane. Did I know what I was getting into? Intellectually, yes. But did I really know the cost? The 4-year old now says things like, “He’s not coming home. All the daddies never come home.” The 1-year old – if she were laying down memories – would have more memories of me inside a computer screen than inside the house.

Websites keep track of how many people have been killed in Iraq. They even track things neglected in past wars, such as brain injuries and suicides. And now people are looking at how messed up the kids involved get.

I’m sure the people making the decisions consider potential casualties when making decisions. But what about suicides, divorces, strained relationships? What about that 6-year old, sobbing against the bedroom door – even if it is for only six or nine or twelve months? The guy next to me on the flight over was in his 22nd year on the job and 11th time making that flight. Some of his trips were for 6 months. One was 15 months. He was also on his second wife, who happened to be going to law school. He said he liked to kid her that she’s going to law school so she would be able to do their divorce herself. Does doing this eleven times make jokes like that funny? Maybe that’s too much, asking the people who make the decisions to account for things like that; I don’t know. Maybe they have already accounted for things like that, or want to think they have.

So there’s a cost. If you don’t have the money to go to Mecca – if it would create a hardship for your family – you are forbidden to go. Sometimes I think a permanent national draft would force a more complete accounting of costs. Either way, we do the best we can.

Day 148

2011-08-31T22:58:00.001-06:00

Peek!

I’m going to do something very fun!

Like go down a slide.

On my tummy!

Wheeeeeeee!

Let’s do it again!

Day 146

2011-08-29T23:11:00.001-06:00

Little Cora isn’t so little anymore.

She's actually starting to grow some hair…THAT OTHERS CAN SEE!

However, if one more person calls her a boy, I might have to go out and get her ears pierced.

Maybe.

She’s my little tomboy.

She loves to wiggle nonstop.

And explore.

And chase cats. Even if they run under decks.

She also doesn’t like anyone cancelled her exploration trips.

So much so that she ignores her travel agent.

Seriously, what is up with her hair? Do they make Rogaine for babies?

Day 143

2011-08-26T20:21:00.001-06:00

Some days, Marina does not like the camera.

To the extent that it is painful.

Day 142

2011-08-25T12:05:00.001-06:00

Drama Camp

Drama camp was back in July. They spent a week learning about different aspects of putting on a production (made clay pots for props, practiced using a mic, etc).

The play was made easy since there was a narrator. The kids just learned where they had to be at certain times and when to use certain gestures. Only a few kids had any lines, and those were one-liners.

The kids did the blind man event. Below, Malachi is one of the Pharisees who are quizzing him on being healed.

And of course, my children who haven’t seen rain in a long time were most excited about the rainbow visible during/after some rain that started while everyone was having post-production snacks in the courtyard.

And Justin was worried about Malachi wearing make-up for any dance stuff. Who knew drama camp would be his first introduction?

Day 135

2011-08-18T21:03:00.001-06:00

Hmmmm, those drama camp pictures are not on my computer, but these of Cora are (and from July).

Usually when I go in to get her, I’m greeted with this face.

And then she pops right up.

Like the pillow? It’s her Daddy pillow. I already posted on how the support group took pictures and gave us iron-on somethings to put on pillowcases.

I took Cora’s and made a tiny pillow out of it.

Aren’t they cute?

Usually it’s the first thing she chucks out of her crib when I put her down.

Maybe by the time he’s back she’ll leave it in.

But, I can usually get her to give “Daddy” a hug.

Cora has also learned another neat trick.

I have found her down to her onesie a few nights so I now pin her zipper shut with those giant baby-safe safety pins.

It’s either that, or I’ll be finding her walking around her room instead of sleeping.

I’ve learned from experience that once my kids hit 18 months, they figure out how to climb out of the crib.

Pinned into a sleepsack, she cannot raise her leg high enough to vault herself over the side.

And I have absolutely no doubt she would. But then again, maybe that pillow would be useful for something and soften her landing.

Day ???

2011-08-17T20:06:00.001-06:00

(Ummmmm, Justin, would you be a dear and count to see what day we are on? I left my calendar in NM. TIA!)

Like that?

NM = New Mexico

TIA = Thanks In Advance

I learned the first in grade school. The second comes from good ole’ facebook.

It has to be from facebook since I’ve never written a text.

I know, I know. But we have a pay-as-you-go cell phone and we don’t “go” that much.

It’s also called budgeting. I’d rather get pizza once a week.

Anyway, to the point of this post.

We are in MI (not to be confused with MN or MO).

I had a lovely time packing up during our double camp week. Malachi had soccer from 9-11:30 and Marina had dance from 9-12:30.

And I bet you’re jealous that you can’t be in two places at once too huh? Or, maybe I knew dance camp starts on time while soccer camp starts 15 min late.

We also finished up swim lessons, registered Elisha for preschool (so far, their public education stops at preschool and my husband pays big bucks for a private tutor, lol, if only), returned almost all of our library books (Justin, will you remind later to give them a call and pay for the ones Marina lost?), had the oil changed on the car, had the exterminator visit (since finding a black widow and cockroach OUTSIDE were making me edgy) and I’m sure a lot else.

Hey, packing for 5 people who wouldn’t be home for 6 weeks on top of all of that was a breeze.

Especially since I carted my children off to a neighbor’s house the day before we left so I could CLEAN without them around to destroy and dirty everything the second it looked shiny.

Ahhhhh, I can’t wait to go back to that clean house. Those few seconds where we walk in the door and everything is vacuumed and put away will be glorious. And then I’ll have to unload the car.

One note I will mention, do not let your 4 year old eat new food the day before a big journey. My neighbor fed us some very tasty Puerto Rican food. However, 20 minutes AFTER Cora fell asleep for her nap in the car, Elisha told me he had to go potty. In a higher pitched voice. While trying to grab…you know. And then he said it again a few seconds later in an even higher pitched voice.

So, I had to pull over on the side of the freeway and pull out our portable potty and pray that no big semi would sideswipe us. I should of been praying for a normal bowel movement.

Oh sweet mother, that child released the stinkiest contents (EVER) into a scented plastic bag. I tied up that bag and started driving again. Five minutes later I pulled out another scented bag to put the first in to help with the odor. 10 minutes later I pulled out yet another scented bag to help with the odor. 30 minutes after our stop, we stop again at a rest stop to get it OUT OF THE CAR.

Yes, it was that bad. So bad I had to blog about it.

Anyway, it took us three days and two nights to travel across NM, TX, OK, MO, IL, IN and KY.

We spent a few days in KY with all of Justin’s family. Amazingly I don’t have a single picture.

I’m not sure what I was doing, maybe getting some sun by the pool.

And now we are in MI.

And we’ll be here until the middle of September.

Although, I’m not sure if Marina will ever want to come back.

You see, MI has these pests called mosquitoes. We haven’t seen any of these for the past 3 years. Not since we left IN.

She came up to me today with a very irritated look exclaiming that a mosquito bit her on her bum. Then she grimaced and itched and itched. Then she practically yelled that she never wants to live in MI again.

To give her a little credit, her bites do swell up into welts. She now has a 2 inch wide itchy spot on her bum.

The poor, poor girl is going to get eaten alive.

So, that’s where we’ve disappeared too for the past 2-3 weeks. I do realize that I never posted pictures of drama camp so I’ll dig those up.

And I’ll need to take pictures of the kids playing with cousins since my ramblings are a little incoherent.

But hey, Cora went the whole day today without sticking her hands in the potty. THAT is an accomplishment!

Day 115

2011-07-29T14:17:00.001-06:00

Guest post by Cora.

Instructions on how to get by child locks for other 18 months olds.

1) Find a cabinet you want to get into.

2)Pull open and stick your skinny arm through the opening.

3)Pull down on that silly white thing.

4)As you pull down on that silly white thing, open the door.

5)Look around to see if anyone is watching.

6)If so, pretend to be silly and cute.

If not, proceed to pull everything out of the cabinet opening what you can.

Feel free to leave a review if this was helpful to you.

Day 114

2011-07-28T23:01:00.001-06:00

Cora.

What can I say about that girl?

She has no fear.

Since our last swim lessons landed her in my lap for 1 FULL hour, I decided to sign up for a parent-tot class to cut that down to 1/2 hour while the other kids are in lessons.

The girl has NO fear. And swim lessons aren’t helping.

She enjoys jumping in any time she can. This also translates to her now launching herself off of any stool or bench she can climb up on when I’m within a 5 foot radius.

She keeps me on my toes.

She also likes to do belly flops in the bathtub now.

Yes, 18 month olds can do belly flops.

But, I don’t have any pictures of her fearlessness.

I don’t have a picture of some shopping she did a week ago.

While picking through the fruit and vegetable isles, I turn around to find Cora munching on this:

She bit the top off of an avocado while I wasn’t looking. I hadn’t even put any in the cart, she pulled it off of the display.

Silly girl. She is a bottomless pit.

Day 113

2011-07-26T15:29:00.001-06:00

So, before I post any pics of drama camp (yes, I PAID someone to teach my older two how to be more dramatic), I have a random post.

I get a lot of forwards from a lot of different people. A lot have to do with things that I need to check out on snoopes. Some is propaganda. Some involve poems that if you forward on, you’ll know you are equally loved back.

blah, blah, blah. I hardly ever forward anything on. I’ll admit, I think most people know me better (and the internet) and only send the funnier ones my way now.

So I’m not complaining.

But, since I have a blog, I thought I’d share an interesting site that was just forwarded to me from my Aunt. My Aunt Nancy to be more specific.

She forwarded on a site about a mom with young children. (Note: this mommy blogger sometimes uses colorful language so it is not PG. And I wouldn’t even check the comments, her readers leave unedited comments.)

Evidently my Aunt thought this site reminded her of some of the antics my siblings and I pulled on our parents. And, being an avid reader of this blog, she knows my kids are pulling the same antics on me. Because whiles Aunts get to snicker as they watch their loved ones tortured by miniature versions of themselves, Mamas are sending silent death glares at their children conveying the message “I can’t wait until you have one (or four) exactly like you.”

Not that I send death glares. I just pray that my children will grow up to find a loving spouse and have children. I don’t specify what kind. Bahahaha.

Anyway, the day I read this, Elisha declared he didn’t like pizza, didn’t like bananas, and didn’t like carrots. He only liked Fruit Snacks.

Well now.

If you remember the last post (I wrote), he just turned four (or fournery as it’s been called). And I really don’t care what he likes, but if he wants his fruit snacks he has to eat the food on his plate before him.

So there.

Now you know why my kids are such good eaters. They don’t get an ounce of sugar until they finish their plate. And if they don’t finish lunch, we save the plate for dinner!

Yes, we are that mean.

Anyway, I think the site is hilarious. Cora tried eating a french fry off of the floor at McD’s last week. Try, she actually got it in her mouth and started chewing before I made her spit it out on my hand. And, you’d have to read a few posts down on her blog to know what I’m referring to…

One Question Too Few

2011-07-25T15:02:00.003-06:00

[A guest post, not by Erin]

You may not know the name John Henry Wigmore. But you should, if only for his statement that “Cross-examination is the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth”.

Cross-examination is nothing more than pointing out the weaknesses in a story. Making public what the witness does not want known. Sometimes it’s a dramatic Matlock “you’re the real killer, aren’t you?” moment. (And by sometimes, I mean only on Matlock.) Usually it’s just pointing out that the person is really good friends with the bad guy, so of course he would say nice exculpatory things; or pointing out that this witness is saying X now, but in the past he’s said things that sound a bit like non-X.

In any case, if Wigmore is correct, we learn the truth not when we see the good things, but when we see the problems. This is obvious any time you listen to a politician. When a politician wants to convince a person, he tells him all the great things that will happen if the politician gets his way: this person will get a job, or that program will help lots of people, or whatever. If we’re ever told the cost, it’s in some dollar amount that is so huge that it’s meaningless to us. We rarely hear from a politician that this road will be fixed but there won’t be as many police patrolling your neighborhoods, or prescription drugs are now covered but you’ll pay an extra $453 when you file your taxes. I recently read an article about how much it would cost per life saved to require back-up cameras on cars; it was something like $2.5M. Whether that cost is worth it is an interesting question, and maybe the only question, but it’s not the one that gets discussed politically. Instead we hear about how dangerous cars in reverse are and how much safer our driveways would be if we forced everyone to have a back-up camera. All true, but not cross-examined-true.

Yahoo is changing its email. Here is the page you must traverse before actually getting to your Yahoo email:

This is the full page; it’s difficult to see as a picture on a blog. But you can tell it has positives. In shades of the Enlightenment, “the best. . .ever” probably is synonymous with “the most current.” I am also told that I will love it, a strength of affection usually not bestowed by me on my email. It’s also faster, safer, and easier.

Yahoo makes it obvious how I sign up for all these great improvements, with a big gold button. But what if I’m suspicious? What if I’m the sort of person that thinks that naming it the Patriot Act is just an obtuse sales pitch to overcome an inadequate product? Maybe it’s hard to see what my options are on the full-sized picture, so here it is, cropped to the relevant section.

There it is, the last link in the two paragraphs of text. I can continue to Yahoo “Classic” if I want. At least Yahoo didn’t try to emulate the namers of the Patriot Act and call it Yahoo “Obsolete” or Yahoo “for Communist Losers” or something like that.

Despite all the text on the page, I really don’t see what I want to see: what am I losing by switching? What is inferior about the new one?

I didn’t send my dad a father’s day card. So to make up for it, I instead wish to recount two significant fatherly failures of his from my childhood.

The first began when I was mad about something. I don’t know how old I was – maybe 5? – but I took my anger out on an Olan Mills family portrait on my parents’ bedroom wall. This is the kind of picture that is designed to look sort of like an oil painting (it’s from the 1980s; don’t judge) – canvas stretched over a wood frame, no outer frame or glass. I took a blue pen and drew a few small scribbles on family members’ faces. Eventually – maybe a few days later – it was discovered, and I was in big trouble. I remember one of the punishments was having to walk into my dad’s study and apologize. I think the theory behind that was it was an expensive picture ($40 sticks in my head, although I can’t be sure that’s correct), and – as the wage-earner – damaging something expensive meant dishonoring his efforts to earn that money. I wasn’t told this; I surmise it based on my confident guess that the family portrait collection would be significantly smaller were my dad solely responsible for it.

In any case, I remember walking into his study, him working at his large roll-top desk, and forcing out a sincere “I’m sorry” through my sobs. His response still sounds harsh to me: “You better be.” I was able to repair the picture pretty well I think, using “skin color” crayon (again from the 1980s; don’t judge). But that harsh response has stuck with me.

The other memory of my dad doing wrong was at a family meal. It was a typical meal with six children: chaos. Someone was probably whining, someone else was singing loudly, maybe someone was trying to annoy someone else, etc. After a short time of this, something set my dad off and he slammed his hand down on the table, yelling something like, “Can’t I have dinner with some peace and quiet for once!” While we weren’t exactly well-behaved, I thought and still think it was an over-reaction, a loss of temper. (It did get us quiet that night.)

And that’s it. 33 years and I remember two things. Were there other things he did wrong that are merely not stored in my memories? Probably. Were there other things he did wrong that I simply don’t know about? Of course. But a basic rule of cross-examination is not to ask a question to which you don’t know how to handle the answer*. I can’t ask about those other things. All I can do is cross-examine with the two discrediting facts I have.

How many people can recall only two mistakes their fathers made? In a typical day, I usually have to go back only a few hours to find two mistakes. In a typical meal with only four kids, I’ll lose my patience at least twice. My mistakes my children remember will be much worse than unduly harsh words or tempers. I hope I don’t end up more of a liability than an asset in their lives, but some days I wonder.

Maybe “no one is good”. But if the Big Man had been born in the 20th century instead of the 1st**, I wonder if he would have ended that saying with, “. . . but Nanny comes pretty close, at least as a father.” If anyone disagrees with me, he’ll have to do his own cross-examination, since mine would be wholly insufficient.

Happy Belated Father’s Day.

__________________________________________________

* The rule often repeated is “don’t ask a question to which you don’t know the answer.” That’s an overly broad rule. You can ask a question when you don’t know whether the person will say “yes” or “no”, as long as you know what you’ll do with either answer.

** Yes, I know it wouldn’t be the 20th century if he weren’t born in the 1st.

Day 109

2011-07-22T23:33:00.001-06:00

Elisha recently had his birthday.

We started off with a trip to Chuck E Cs. Malachi and Marina were at drama camp, so it was fun to hang out with Elisha (and Cora) for a bit.

After we picked up Malachi & Marina, we went back home for a quick lunch. Elisha requested ravioli, broccoli & strawberries.

And then cake!

Moving on to presents!

Having his party at lunch worked out well since we could open presents on Skype with Daddy. Also, Cora was too tired to stay up for cake (no extra mess!).

Happy Birthday Elisha!

Day 108

2011-07-22T00:17:00.001-06:00

Soccer camp.

Malachi L O V E D his week of soccer camp. He had a lot of fun learning a bunch of new moves (above: practicing a controlled let down of the ball – have no clue of the name) and playing in a lot of games.

It ran from 9-11:30 every morning for a week.

Some days we drove back to the house (25 min door to door each way).

Other days we stayed and watched (and I use that term loosely).

Marina and Elisha spent a lot of time coloring. There was a playground right next to the park, but after 30 minutes everyone was too hot to continue playing in the sun.

Cora spent a lot of time wandering away.

Her favorite was trying to escape into the parking lot.

But again, Malachi had a blast. We are about to pay for him to go for another week the 1st week of August. This will take the place of Fall soccer since we’ll be travelling around too much to sign him up.

Note: They had crazy hair day too. Malachi said everyone else said he had the craziest. It is now completely buzzed.

Day 107

2011-07-21T00:38:00.001-06:00

Staying busy.

That’s the motto around here.

We’ve had VBS, swim lessons, soccer camp, dance lessons, and swim lessons again.

Right now Malachi & Marina are having fun at drama camp through our church. Their big production is Friday night.

Next week we have some down time, just swim & dance lessons in the afternoon.

The week after, swim lessons continued, but dance camp and soccer camp at the same time.

Busy much?

So much so Elisha couldn’t resist taking a nap the other day.

Poor little guy is exhausted.

The rest of us are enjoying the time flying by in this busy summer. There’s not much else to do except fight and miss daddy when you are stuck at home all day!

That, and Cora won’t stop playing in the potty. Malachi left the door open for her the other day. Grrrrr. 3rd time this week I’ve cleaned up potty water and a dirty little girl.

Day 103

2011-07-17T14:49:00.001-06:00

Dance.

During Marina’s dance season last year, I stood and watched her with three other children. During that time, I continually asked Malachi if he’d like to do ballet too instead on waiting for an hour.

His response was always “no.”

Then we went to the recital and he saw all of the guys dancing.

He also saw gymnastics.

Anytime Malachi can run around doing crazy stuff, he’ll be first in line.

So now he isn’t waiting on Marina for a whole hour.

Marina has Tap for 30 minutes.

Marina & Malachi have Ballet for 30 minutes.

Then we quickly go eat somewhere for an hour before Malachi has Gymnastics for 60 minutes.

So now I’m waiting for Malachi with 3 kids for an hour in addition to Marina’s hour.

I’m not sure I planned that very well.

But, they both really enjoy their lessons so it’s all good.

Day 102

2011-07-16T14:57:00.001-06:00

S’mores anyone?

How about a s’mores smeared apple?

Day 100

2011-07-14T14:39:00.001-06:00

(Side note: Day 100! Yeah. If he is only scheduled to be gone 179 days in the books, we should be more than halfway. But alas, they do not count travel time to and from. They sent him a week early and from word of mouth, it takes even longer to catch a flight back unless you are very proactive. But still, 100 down!)

Transition----------

Cora loves to be underfoot while I make any meal. Or, if she’s not underfoot, she’s trying to sneak food out of the pantry.

Usually it’s just the cereal she gets into.

I guess she had a sweet tooth the other day.

And, I may have moved her to her high chair with that Red Vine and continued on with dinner because she was quiet and OUT OF THE WAY.

Just maybe.

Day 98

2011-07-12T21:22:00.001-06:00

Cora is at a stage that I absolutely love (as long as she’s not screeching).

She gets so excited about so many little things and it feels great to see everything through the fresh eyes of an 18 month old.

We went to the zoo and while the other kids looked at animals and whined (ok, maybe that was just Elisha), Cora pointed and made deep growling sounds at every new animal she saw.

Her growls are perfect. Perfectly adorable.

Day 97 The Pool Part 4

2011-07-11T14:37:00.001-06:00

Malachi loves his lessons. They moved him up a group so we switched Marina and Malachi to the half hour before Elisha for the second week.

He spends most of his time under water and splashing.

But he will always pose for a picture.

I’m not sure he can really do any strokes, but he stays above the water and he likes diving for toys.

Day 96 The Pool Part 3

2011-07-10T12:55:00.001-06:00

Marina is a water rat. She LOVES the water.

And she LOVES making new friends. Although, she has since switched classes and is no longer distracted by other little girls.

So far she is learning to float on her back.

Although, I don’t give much credence to floating on your back. If there is one thing I failed in as a swimmer, it is floating on my back. Can’t do it. Couldn’t do it for a million bucks. I know, I know, I could win events, but I couldn’t float.

Anyway, floating is overrated.

But she is doing a good job learning to doggy paddle and how to kick around with a life jacket on (kickboard during lessons).

Day 94

2011-07-08T14:10:00.001-06:00

Life is a funny thing….don’t you think?

It’s a beautiful gift. Yet some people make every horrible decision or mistake they could possible want and completely ruin their life. Most of the time affecting others too.

It’s a treasure meant to be shared and enjoyed. Yet some people would rather destroy in hopes or more gain, usually tearing apart families and countries.

It’s a journey meant to be taken one step at a time with the end as something to look forward to. Yet some people would rather hinder another’s journey and take away their hope.

I would rather focus on the positive.

I would rather focus on the hope at the end.

As we celebrated our 11th anniversary apart, I would still rather see the joy amidst chaos and the possibilities that any sinner could choose at any given moment.

I confess it is hard to do all of this, especially when your supposedly scholarly, desk jockey of a husband spends more time in harm’s way than behind a desk.

For him and the situations he is in so frequently, there is a real possibility that the unthinkable may happen.

But all I can do is pray. Pray for him. Pray for the city in which he resides. Pray for the possibilities and choices others make in their lives.

And pray that he will come home so we may celebrate our 12th anniversary.

Day 93 The Pool Part 2

2011-07-07T14:31:00.001-06:00

I was a little worried about Elisha doing swim lessons.

Elisha is an introvert and basically does not like people.

So, putting him in the water with a teacher he’s never met, around kids he’s never met, and expect him to stay was a crapshoot.

Luckily I mixed up Marina’s and Elisha’s classes the first day so Marina breezed through Elisha’s class and Elisha was envious that he was the only one not getting in.

So, he hopped right in the next day and did a great job!

Even next to all of the criers!

Day 92 The Pool Part 1

2011-07-06T13:49:00.001-06:00

Since we have free access to a nice outdoor swimming pool, I thought it’d be good for the kids to learn how to stay afloat.

Taking four kids swimming is a feat in itself.

Bringing four kids home from the pool is a miracle.

Malachi, Marina & Elisha each have a lesson. Luckily, Malachi and Marina go at the same time and Elisha is right after them so we are only at the pool for an hour.

Although, an hour at the pool with Cora is an adventure.

As you can see, my two on the go children even have the same pose while Marina is just chillin’.

Cora has a fun game where she lays (lies?) on the bench and then pulls herself along.

Working that upper body.

Malachi saw her doing this and since he is forever “monkey” in “monkey see, monkey do,” he started doing the same thing.

Although he also gave a lesson in friction while doing so.

You can’t say he doesn’t learn anything during school.

Day 91

2011-07-05T13:29:00.001-06:00

Day 77

2011-06-21T10:27:00.001-06:00

I don’t have time to post anything right now. So, you are stuck with another boring and LOOOONG video.

haha

Yes, Cora screeches ALL the time. Elisha is ALWAYS shoving stuff in her face or on her head. AND, Malachi likes to tease.

Day 70 The Dancing Team

2011-06-14T22:49:00.001-06:00

Marina recently had her recital.

Her dance school is so big and has so many different classes and teams that they rent the Civic Theater at the Convention Center.

Rehearsals were on the morning of the show.

They school performed over two days. Marina’s class went Sunday night.

At the actual performance, cameras are not allowed.

But we did get a picture of her ~~with her hair gelled and face painted~~ all dolled up.

Malachi even let me put some gel in his hair.

Then he put his hat on for the rest of the night.

After the performance, we had to go to the corral and pick up our children. Everything was official with our neon yellow parent wrist bands we were given.

And yes, I completely forgot about the flowers. Ooops.

After that, we went and sat down to watch the rest of the performance. In total it was 3.5 hours long (short?).

And, since I don’t have a video of the performance, I’ll leave you with a video of Marina practicing.

With Cora.

And a surprise guest.

And that would be why Malachi is joining Marina for ballet. He was also signed up for jazz, but after watching the gymnastics at the recital, he wanted to switch (he has 30 min ballet and 1 hr gymnastics).

Marina received a letter in the mail a few days later. Her instructors want her to be on their Baby Dolls dancing team. While I’m proud of her for doing such a good job, I’m not sure our pocketbook can handle the extra $$$ required for dance teams. Plus, they have extra practices to learn ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop and a little gymnastics. Do these people not realize that she “gracefully” falls out of her chair 3 times a week while eating?

But, I gave in and made the deposit for her dance camp at the beginning of August.

I guess we’ll see how she likes 3 days of 4 hrs of dancing.

Maybe she’ll change her mind?

Day 69

2011-06-13T15:44:00.001-06:00

Well, I’ve been trying to upload a video onto blogger.

At first my file format was wrong. It took me a few days to figure that out.

Now, I think it’s just too big.

While I’ve been trying to figure this out, I haven’t posted. No, I am not a total slacker!

(Partial slacker……)

Anyway, when I have the answer I’ll be able to bore you and Justin with some videos.

Until then, I’ll update with other news :)

And you thought you were going to get out of a long post. Ha!

1) We have a new cousin in the family!

This is especially exciting since we grew up without any cousins. Cousins almost has a mystical image in my head. Best friends forever. Children frolicking in the dewy meadow. Laughter. Rainbows. Bubbles.

Ummm, you get the picture.

Anyway, true to my partial slackerness, little Larson was born in May to Brooke, Josh & big sis Avery and I’m just now posting his arrival.

He is so loved already (seriously, what older sister is NOT excited about a baby?)! We will eventually meet him.

And even though this little bundle of joy is so cute, I feel no desire to have more kids.

Four no more.

That was Justin’s chant while I was pregnant with Cora. (See Justin, I told you if you planted an idea in my head long enough I’d go with it.)

2) My dear Elisha is a funny little fellow. I was closing our pantry the other night when I noticed that all of our cereals were missing. When I asked out loud where they went (not really asking anyone, just an incredulous “where did the cereals go?”), Elisha went tearing out of the house and into the garage. He took them all in the van for a little afternoon snack. I do keep the car locked in the summer so the kids don’t accidently lock themselves in a hot car, but the older ones know where the keys are.

I’m not sure I like that they keep getting smarter as they older. But at least no one started the car. Yet.

3)Cora has an addiction. Her addiction is to the kids’ bathroom. In there, she likes opening up the toilet lid and (I’m not sure, I really don’t want to fill in the blank to this one). She loves grabbing everyone’s toothbrushes and walking around the house brushing her teeth with them. She loves putting the top of the kids’ toothpaste in her mouth (perfect size for choking). And, when I’ve hidden all of those, she loves to grab the kids’ toothpaste and walk around the house sucking out the toothpaste like it’s a bottle.

Any ideas on that? If I put the tops on, the older kids leave them off. If I hide all of the tops, she sucks on the toothpaste instead. There is no way I can win this one.

Again, why are they getting older and smarter? It’s not like I can file everyone into the bathroom and brush their teeth anymore. They brush their own teeth at random parts in the morning when they’ve finally been bothered by me asking so many times “have you brushed teeth?”

4)The other night Cora lost Elisha’s toothbrush. No big deal, we picked out a new one. During the evening I discovered it and put it on the kitchen table. During breakfast the next morning, Elisha decided he didn’t want to give up his new toothbrush so he instead hid his old one. In the milk. The just opened gallon of milk. Malachi & Marina & I had a nice conversation about the difference in family germs (which are ok since we play with each other and share anyway) and stranger germs. So, drinking the rest was ok since it was family germs. I may have opened a new gallon for myself.

5)Last week, Marina started screaming her head off in her room. Nothing new. Malachi went to ask what happened and all I hear is “I’m not joking” in between her sobs. She came screaming down the hallway trying to rip the skin off her chest. I calmly ask her what happened and she said she swallowed a penny. I do believe she thought she was going to die. Anyway, I explained to her that it was fine and we’d just have to smash up her pooh for a couple of days to check and make sure it came out. She stopped crying and said “that’s all?” That was the last of the screaming.

6)Back to the penny. Wondering why a 6 year old would swallow a penny, I asked why she had a penny in her mouth. She repeatedly said “I don’t know.” After two hours of randomly asking her I gave up and I asked her why she swallowed the penny. She replied “because it was in my mouth.” Grrrrrr.

7)Back to the penny. Yes it did make it’s way out. I’m not sure if you were wondering about that or not.

Anyway, I’m sure you are now cross-eyed from reading so much.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have a video to bore you with instead.

Day 65

2011-06-09T14:58:00.001-06:00

Here is Cora.

Again.

She is sporting some awesome WAHM wares.

Mine to be exact.

And that necklace is supposed to help with her crankiness.

It’s a Baltic Amber teething necklace.

What do you think? I still think she is a little angry.

And of course, my favorite shot of the summer so far:

She looks like she has been sitting there for a while, just chillin’ and watching something.

Oh how pictures can be deceiving.

She took off after these two a moment later.

And that was it for the peaceful moment.

Back to that WAHM thing, if you are looking for any nice personalized items for kids or adults (yes, I have a commercial machine that will take care of school, sports, or business orders for polos, athletic wear or even hats), let me know!

I’ve been working on some cute stuff.

Like those? They are my own designs (digital embroidery files). I’m to sell them on a website soon. They keep selling on Etsy, so I know it’ll be good extra income for not too much extra work! (The numbers/letters with crown are mine, number with bow is mine, and the Flag with the fraying star is mine too.)

The ribbon flower is someone else’s design, still my work. Same with the BOWS saying.

Made the skirts.

Did not make the shorts.

More of my designs that I stitched out for demos.

I’m working on a “Momma’s Lil Firecracker” right now too.

This is the part where I was going to tell you everything I can do and so on, but you get the picture.

I’ve asked people how they get all of their business and they say referrals from friends and family. We move too often for referrals from friends to work, so I’ll try the referrals from family.

So, if you need a gift (baby bibs, towels monogrammed, bags monogrammed, etc) or an item (apparel), you’ll get a family discount and hopefully I’ll get my name out there!

Anyway, I don’t need to be super busy, but I do need to pay off my fancy machine.

Day 63

2011-06-07T15:25:00.001-06:00

So, since Justin sent out a picture of his orange sky, I thought I’d send ours out too.

We used to have a nice view of the mountains.

But, because of some little fire in AZ, it is extremely hazy and smells like smoke. They are advising anyone with asthma or underlying medical conditions to stay inside.

I went for a jog this morning and felt like I was inhaling smoke from a fire the whole time.

It’s crazy how many natural disasters there have been recently.

And no, my lens does not need to be cleaned. Of the 5 pictures I took, those specks (of ash) are in different spots in each one.

Day 56

2011-05-31T14:36:00.001-06:00

Well, she may think she’s a big girl, but she still needs a nap.

No, I don’t randomly wake my children up to take pictures.

We had to leave for dance, so I thought I get a precious picture of how sweet and innocent she can actually look.

Because she does not look this way when she is awake.

When she is awake, her eyes are always roaming the room to see what looks the most interesting to play with (whether or not she should be playing with that).

Sweet, sweet Cora.

Day 55

2011-05-30T13:41:00.001-06:00

Little Miss Independence likes to feed herself now.

She thinks she is a big girl already.

Quite messy, don’t you think?

I love that look. I get that quite a lot. It is the “I told you I could do this so leave me alone” look.

I might have given it from time to time too. Justin, what do you think?

But, sometimes she does give up and tries for the easy route.

And when that doesn’t work, she lets me feed her a few bites again.

Cora and Elisha are night & day. Elisha wouldn’t even pick up a spoon for the longest time. Cora screams if I (or anyone else) tries to feed her from a spoon.

She is going to be running circles around Elisha here pretty soon.

Elisha had the perfect personality of a last born. Cora has more of a personality of a first born.

Oh well, I said we were done with babies.

I just didn’t know she wouldn’t even give me a moment to say goodbye.

Day 54

2011-05-29T15:05:00.001-06:00

Cora loves to mimic what everyone else does.

Plus, chalk is just so much fun.

She has colored on the sidewalk, car, house, herself, and me. Plus, she always tries to take a few bites before coloring. Yum.

Elisha has just recently (since Justin left) taken an interest in coloring and writing his name. He is doing a pretty good job for just learning.

Here, he is adding some hair to a picture for (of?) me.

Day 52 (or tooth)

2011-05-27T15:29:00.001-06:00

Marina has had a loose tooth for a while.

At the beginning of May, we started to see her permanent tooth coming in:

Yesterday, it looked like this:

It was pretty much hanging on by a thread, so I did what any good Mommy would do when you are Skyping with your husband and there is nothing left to chat about: I focused my attention on that tooth.

And Justin did what any good Daddy would do: take action shots.

And Marina did what any good little girl would do: showed off the loss of her first tooth.

Marina was very excited, especially since she was finally able to use her tooth pillow last night.

And Justin, the only place I could find to safely save that tooth (Marina requested all of her baby teeth saved) was some little box that has your cross necklace in it. Just don’t be surprised the next time you open it up and find a score of baby teeth.

Day 51

2011-05-26T21:01:00.001-06:00

Did you see that? Day 51. We are 1/4 the way through this long business trip.

Goodbye freshman, hello sophomore.

It should be easier by now, don’t you think?

I think not.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There is a certain little boy who is very much missing his Daddy, and who has developed an out-of-control attitude.

And, he would be age 7.

That’s important to note, because the other day he ran out of the house and wouldn’t come back in.

Seriously now, even though I can chase him down at the playground, that’s a bit different than chasing down a boy who is screaming his little head off tearing away from you in whichever direction he can.

Only at the threat of me calling the police did he come back into the house. I do believe that he will eventually try to call my bluff, and I will be calling. Justin has emailed several numbers so I am prepared.

He has also started talking back and sticking out his tongue anytime I say anything.

Let’s just say he has been spending a lot of time in his room, alone.

I, have been taking a lot of deep breathes and talking in that quiet controlled voice that adults know as “on the brink” but he still thinks of as “she’s not riled up enough yet.”

I’m not sure if he is going to make it through the summer.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Elisha has also been acting out. Pretty much all of the toys are up and out of his reach since he dumps out his room when he gets upset. (He also takes off his clothes and pees on the floor, but that may be another story.)

So, toys are up and out of the way, but Cora is always an easy second target.

At this point, I said his name in the way Mommies do that imply if he does what he is thinking about, he will get in trouble.

He got the hint.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Marina hasn’t really been giving any trouble at all. She has handled everything really well and doesn’t feel the need to act out to express her feelings.

She even finished school ahead of schedule.

She might overplay with Cora, but she’s always been overly motherly to her younger siblings.

Her dream is to get married and have babies.

Or it was.

I was cutting up some chicken the other day when she came in and started watching me pull off the fat. She said that was gross and that we shouldn’t eat chicken anymore. I told her I thought it was gross when I was younger too, but when you are a Mommy, you have to make chicken for you kids to grow big and strong.

And, dreams crushed. She said she wasn’t going to have kids so she didn’t have to make chicken.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Then there is this trouble maker.

I bought her an amber teething necklace in hopes it would help with her teething pain. 8 new teeth have emerged since Justin left.

But no, she is still a cranky little child.

However, she does have very kissable cheeks and even though she tries to run away from me when it’s bath time, I can still catch her.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Only 156 more days to go.

Day 49

2011-05-24T15:06:00.001-06:00

Today during quiet time, I did all of my phone talking.

I called the storage place where Justin’s car was and have them get it out.

I called the Service garage where we’ll be taking that car since he found a leak while he was getting it ready for storage.

I called a company about a certain size hoop I’m looking at for my embroidery machine.

I received a call from two of Justin’s coworkers about help driving around an extra car and babysitting.

And I called our cell phone company to get a new number since we moved to a new area (ummmm, 10 months ago).

Yes, we have a cell phone.

Yes, we still don’t use it.

Today while I was searching for something on it, I came across the inbox. I did not know our cell phone could get text messages. (Please don’t send me any, I don’t know how to return them.)

Anyway, while deleting them (Justin, you had a lot from work), I found this little gem:

I hate u u liar jerk your heartless how could u

From: 15742764260

Time:

THU 21:38

03/27/2008

Hmmm, we would have been in South Bend then and that is a South bend number.

I’m just wondering who did what?

Day 48 – When Trouble Hits

2011-05-23T14:54:00.001-06:00

Cora is 16 months. Some days she thinks she is 16. She screams. She throws fits. She rolls on the floor.

And she thinks she owns our house.

Justin picked a grand time to leave.

I cannot turn my back on her for one minute without her getting into something and making a mess.

Which means I cannot get one mess cleaned up before she moves on to the next mess.

I don’t know what goes through her little head.

I do know she is always hungry.

Ooops, Muma caught me!

Watch Muma, I’m putting the top back on!

Don’t mind that I got out the flakey cereal first and didn’t like that!

I can’t get this top on!

Oh well! I might as well have more :)

The fact that she is a climber makes it all the more chaotic!

Oops! Caught again!

Well, I might as well make a mess while I’m still up here!

Don’t you just love that look on her face! She knows she is causing trouble!

She does this so often, she goes straight to Marina & Malachi when they rush to get her off.

We’ve tried putting the chairs on top of the table.

Marina dropped one on herself when prepping for dinner.

That girl can milk any injury.

We tried putting the chair away from the table. Our kitchen chairs have nice little steps….

…which makes it easier for her to climb up on the counter.

Now we just float the chairs in the middle of the room. And, when Cora can’t climb up on one, she gets mad enough to tip it over.

And she’s only 16 months (going on 16).

Day 47

2011-05-22T15:29:00.001-06:00

We like sand around here. It’s a must when you grow up in a state that has some body of water within a six mile radius of where you are.

In case you don’t know, I’m talking about Meeechigan. Or as the English kept pronouncing it: Mitchigan.

Great Times, Great Lakes. Yes, that is the actual slogan.

Anyway, we like sand. We had a sandbox in Indiana. We bought one in Idaho.

And now we have a sandbox here.

Our sandboxes are never grand. They can’t be when you know you aren’t going to drag sand all over the country with you.

$15 plastic pool – check

$20 in sand – check

Hours of fun – priceless

(Or maybe that should read: Hours spent washing sand out of hair – too many.)

Ummmm, so maybe I’m a little deprived on sleep.

Ahywho, Malachi, Marina & Elisha wasted no time hopping in and playing.

Cora watched. She didn’t want to touch the sand so she threw everyone’s shoes in.

When she was tired of that, she came over to me and started whining.

Ok, let’s redo that picture. Suck it in girl!

Having four kids (some larger than average) has done a number on my once rock hard abs (so not joking on my pre-kids six-pack). Being that I once-upon-a-very-long-time-ago went to college for Athletic Medicine, I had an idea about how to fix it.

It’s called the Tupler Technique

You see, my tummy is like the one on the left; split with no muscle holding my gut in (guys with beer guts get this too). Strengthening my transverse muscle will help hold everything in again.

It’s an 18 week program. So far I’ve started week one three times.

I mean seriously now, who has time to do ab work in the morning, afternoon and at night?

I guess I had better find the time since I spent $**.** on the package.

Right?

Where was this post going?

Oh yeah, I was taking a picture of Cora when my belly got in the way.

Anyway, she got bored at my feet and went off to climb something.

That girl will climb anything she can swing her leg up on. I’m glad she’s so short because I’m sure she’d be out of her crib by now (Malachi & Marina figured out how to climb out around 18 months).

Anyway, in my next post, I promise to divulge the details on the destructive capabilities of a 16 month old girl.

I cannot promise that I won’t go off in a tangent.

Did you know that in geometry, the tangent line (or simply the tangent) to a curve at a given point is the straight line that “just touches” the curve at that point.

I was pretty good at that geometry stuff. Visualizing any spatial orientation was a snap. (Note: I was not good at Statistics. Or writing. But you all know that by now.)

Anyway, it is not a snap for my dear Malachi. We are briefly touching on geometry right now in math and that kid cannot visualize an object and tell me how many faces it has.

NOT FOR THE LIFE OF HIM!

Dearest husband, except for his big blue eyes and darker skin tone, this child mirrors you in every action (physical and mental).

Oh yeah, and that’s the post on our new sandbox.

Day 45 - Little Miss

2011-05-20T14:08:00.001-06:00

Marina’s ($90) costume finally arrived.

It’s a load of blue sequins, tulle and flash.

And there were a bunch of happy little girls in that classroom yesterday.

Technically they are going to have white ruffle socks and white tap shoes (I can’t remember what I bought). We were instructed on hair style (I get to go buy some gel), placement of all three bows (one in low ponytail and one on each tap shoe) and make-up.

That’s right. My little 6 year old will be wearing more make-up in one day than I have in the past (cough, cough), let’s just say “few” years.

I think I might be able to skimp and use the studio’s stuff. Otherwise they were talking about brown this and foundation that and brushing something on. Yikes!

We signed Marina up for the summer session. It’s a quick six weeks and she’s moved up a couple of classes.

I asked Elisha if he wanted to dance. He said “NO!”

So instead, Marina’s other male sibling signed up for some classes. Black ballet shoes are on order!

Day 44

2011-05-19T13:39:00.001-06:00

AWANA has ended for the kids here.

Their ceremony was in the first week on May.

Marina had a blast the whole year. And, even though they started in October, she finished her book and her frequent flyer cards.

She received the highest reward (certificate with crooked printing – LOVE church functions!) and was very proud of herself. She did a great job!

Except…..she is totally growing up on me! When I was looking for her “cleaning the toilet” picture, I came across her two year old little chubby toddler body. Now she has thinned out completely. (Seriously, she just had her check-up and was only 7 more pounds than Elisha. But, maybe that’s because Elisha keeps eating junk.)

Anyway…

Malachi also did a great job. He didn’t get to his frequent flyer cards this year, but I think that’s because no one else in his class did either. He seems to need motivation.

He did receive his Sparky plaque along with one other boy.

And, everyone is preregistered for next year. Malachi, Marina, AND Elisha. We weren’t able to convince Elisha to go to Cubbies this year, but next year he is taking a leap and going to preschool, so why not toss him in Cubbies too.

Poor kid. Or maybe poor teachers. Hahahahaha!

Day 43

2011-05-18T12:23:00.001-06:00

Post especially for Justin.

Honey, here is the new tire I had to get (and wait for while they serviced the car) all because the item we ran over put a hole larger than 1/4 inch in our 15 mo old tire.

Honey, here is the Monk’s bench all nicely restored. The last time you saw this, it was blotchy with water marks all thanks to that tiny piece of ice. At least you were home for that.

Well, sort of.

And….

….honey, this is what a bathtub looks like when you scrub the dirt away (left side clean, right side not). Pouring bleach on everything may kill germs, but it doesn’t make it clean. I know we’ve had this discussion before, but I thought a picture might help.

Day 42

2011-05-17T12:46:00.001-06:00

So, Easter might have been last month too.

I’m behind, sue me.

I have my own lawyer.

Anyway, there is nothing like realizing you need to prepare for holiday traditions late the night before and without your spouse.

Fun times here.

We managed though.

As per tradition, the kids received a book and 1 piece of chocolate in their baskets (which I hid only after they woke up – ooops).

There were also some pencils and a magnifying glass too. Target anyone?

Books last longer than candy. Plus, we are usually still working on Halloween candy so we skip the excess of chocolate eggs and marshmallow chicks (which are just gross).

Malachi was completely stumped. Yeah! I told him his basket was in Cora’s room and after about 10 minutes he finally thought to look UNDER the stuffed animals.

There are no pictures of Elisha finding his basket because he didn’t WANT to.

You really can’t make that boy do anything.

And, we hunted for eggs too. They were filled with stickers and change. Malachi and Marina wasted no time competing.

Cora even found some eggs too. And, thanks to our church (they also did an egg hunt with the kids during service), she knew how to open them.

Actually, I think her teachers were quite surprised that she could open any. They told me they didn’t think a 15 mo old could open the eggs, but she did.

And they also said she snuck a few jelly beans.

I bet she did.

Every time I go to pick her up, they tell me something new she got into or climbed on or whatever. Yeah, I know, she’s a menace!

Anyway, after some coaxing (and banning Malachi and Marina from one corner of the yard), Elisha searched for eggs.

And, being the mean Mommy that I am, we read Benjamin’s Box with the Resurrection Eggs they had just scavenged before I let them go through the rest of their eggs (actually, the practical reason behind it is that all of the pieces would get lost if they dumped out their eggs all at one time).

That was our Easter. Happy belated Resurrection Day!

Day 40

2011-05-15T20:11:00.001-06:00

This is Elisha.

He has a problem.

He likes sweets. So much so that he gets out of bed in the middle of the night to raid the refrigerator and pantry.

Sometimes he gets lucky and scores big.

Sometimes his tiny little hands can’t manage.

But that doesn’t deter him. He’ll finish off anything.

We tried rigging some contraption to keep him out of the cupboards.

But he has figured out how to open that.

And sticks are way too fun for everyone else.

Now we lock him in his room. I only resorted to that after he ate all of Marina’s leftover birthday cake.

He can still get out of his room if he finds a key (I have to give one to Malachi so he can get out and go potty).

It is a little concerning. This started around Christmas and escalated quite a bit. He tries a lot of foods and we’ll see bites out of bread and open yogurt, but it is only the sweets the he devours.

He had a urine test at the Dr. There was no sugar detected so that’s good. She’s going to check with an endocrinologist to see if there is anything else we should test for. She said some kids have wild spikes in blood sugar and maybe that is causing the late night/early morning cravings.

I guess we’ll just have to see.

Until then, I have to lock the boys’ in their room every night :(

Because some of the stuff he tries is dangerous.

(We mistakenly thought he couldn’t get to any candy on TOP of the fridge.)

Day 39

2011-05-14T13:07:00.001-06:00

Ummm, I think these were for a post I was going to do before Justin left.

Obviously.

But Cora likes to “help.”

Marina liked to “help” too.

Potty cleaning was fun for her (May ‘07 post).

That was not fun for me.

Here we go again.

Oh, and do you notice that can of beans on the counter in the first picture? Well, Justin likes to pick up random things when he goes to the grocery store. It used to irritate me. Now I don’t mind. When a we need items for any food drive, I know we have a stash in the pantry that is just waiting for a new home.

I’m not sure how happy all of the hungry people are though. I’m not sure who finds canned beets all that appealing.

The one in the picture above is an Organic Three Bean Salad, or something of the like.

And it is no longer in our pantry. A group came around a couple of weeks ago :)

Day 38

2011-05-13T14:27:00.001-06:00

Hmmm, I’m going to start off saying that I will always be behind in posting, so I won’t specify which days I recap.

That and I don’t like to post important info like birthdays over the internet.

So, lets just Marina’s birthday was last month.

And she wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese.

So, we all went to Chuck E Cheese.

Which means the tiniest form of trouble tagged along too.

(Handmade outfit right there too!)

Only Daddy was missing :(

So, we splurged and bought one of those birthday packages.

It came with pizza and tokens and balloons…

…..and a dance with Chuck E.

Marina picked out a princess cake and also opened her presents there too. She and Justin went to Toys R Us before he left and he helped her pick out some toys.

Day 29 except it’s a recap of Day 14

2011-05-04T22:07:00.001-06:00

We just recently joined a homeschool field trip group and our first field trip was to a goat farm.

We drove about an hour east and waaaaaaay out in the middle of nowhere and ended up at a farm on the windiest of all days.

1 of the first activities was feeding the kids. Malachi & Marina took a bottle & enjoyed holding for the goat to empty. Elisha wouldn’t touch the bottle.

Did you think I meant my human children? Ha! Those bottomless pits eat enough without getting snacks all day long.

Baby goats (for those of you who don’t have an overabundance of children’s farm books) are also called kids. Ahem.

Anyway…

After that, the kids were shown how to milk the nannies.

Hahahahaha. No, not that Nanny (Justin how did your Dad get the nickname Nanny?).

A female goat is referred to as “nanny.” Although, Wikipedia says goat breeders prefer the term “doe.” Not as much fun if you ask me.

Anywho, Malachi and Marina both helped milk.

The farm also had a turkey, chickens, A LOOOOOT of goats, a 6 week old foal, horses, a cow and Jake the Bull.

Jake the Bull kept coming over and trying play with all of us.

Jake the Bull is very big.

And sort of scary when he comes towards you to nudge you with his tiny horned head.

Day 28 except this is a recap of Day 11

2011-05-03T23:06:00.001-06:00

The weekend before Easter, our housing office had an Easter brunch and egg hunt.

We went first for some pancakes.

Next the Easter Bunny showed up.

Marina’s friend (well, her Mama) wanted her picture taken with Marina so we appeased the white bunny.

All of this was followed by an Easter egg hunt.

Malachi knew exactly what to do and took off running.

Marina needed no prodding and she took off too!

Elisha took one look at all of the kids running by him, sat down, and started bawling. Poor guy. I don’t think he likes people.

We had a fun morning. But, even with hats everyone had red noses. I guess when you live at 5,000 feet you have to start applying the sunscreen earlier.

Day 17

2011-04-22T22:01:00.002-06:00

I mentioned in my last post that Elisha had a stomach bug. After everything came up, it turned toward the other end. We had a lot of misses those couple of days. It was almost like we owned a dog that was not trained (and now I will confirm we will not have indoor pets).

Anyway, a couple of days ago, Elisha came up to me making a noise. When he got done, he said it was a squirty bum noise.

I really don't know what to do with this child. He is entralled with any type of bodily noise or fluid and thinks it is all hilarious.

Anyway, here is a video for Justin documenting our 3rd born and his "funny" sense of humor.

Day 16

2011-04-22T00:47:00.006-06:00

AWANA

AWANA is something Justin usually takes the kids to.

We started attending when I asked him to take the kids for my birthday a year ago. One night and the kids were hooked.

Since then, Justin still takes the kids to AWANA. When we moved here he started a new routine since AWANA is 20 minutes away. Justin would takes the kids to AWANA, go grocery shopping, pick the kids up.

It was the perfect night for me :)

Now is a whole different story. We rush dinner, rush out the door, drop two kids off at the church, return home, give two kids bath and put them to bed, wait for the babysitter, go pick up two kids, return home and pay the babysitter.

Fun times.

Our first AWANA night without Justin was just dandy. I pull Elisha out of the car and headed around to the other side to get Cora. As I open her door, I hear a big splashing sound on the pavement.

I dislike vomit very much. And there was Elisha puking his little tummy out in the parking lot. I’d move him to a dry spot and he’d puke more. That went on for 5 minutes and there wasn’t a dry spot left on our side of the car.

Not only that, but Malachi and Marina were not understanding the fact that “THEY NEEDED TO STAY IN THEIR CARSEATS AND NOT GET CORA OUT OF HERS!!!!!”

Anyway, we made it home and Elisha slept on our bathroom floor. The child does not understand the concept of heading to the toilet though to empty his tummy.

I had some clean sheets on the floor waiting to be put on my bed but I hadn’t gotten to since I was cleaning up everything else. Elisha took the pleasure of walking out of the bathroom to dirty those.

We both slept with minimal blankets that night.

Anywho, the next week was the Grand Prix.

There were quite a few very well made cars. I'm not sure if a child's hand even touched those. Don't worry, Malachi and Marina had very distinct designs :)

I’ve included a little video for Justin (read Justin! this will be boring for most of you) on that. It is very shaky. Cora kept trying to slap the camera out of my hands. Plus, right before Justin left the camera "broke". It works, but the screen has to be turned around and upside down and pushed back into the camera. Confused? I am too.

Last night was AWANA. Dropped the kids off and got a flat on the way home.

Sigh.

Sigh. Sigh. Sigh

The spare is on the van and I suppose I will be getting it fixed here soon.

There are only two more AWANA nights left.

I wonder what will happen next.

Day 9

2011-04-14T20:58:00.001-06:00

Not too much is going on here on the homefront.

Cora is starting to act like a little person. She cries and throws a fit when she doesn’t get what she wants.

She also talks back a lot. It’s a good thing that she can only “say” about 5 words. Otherwise, that little girl would be in A LOT of trouble.

Speaking of “saying” stuff. I need to watch what I say around the kids. The other day I told Elisha to wash his hands after he went potty because we didn’t want to “eat with pooh-pooh fingers.” After a few seconds, I realized how that sounded and that I should probably NOT say stuff like that around my cheeky 7 year old. I slyly glance his way and his is staring straight at me giggling his little head off. Oops.

The kids get their own inspiration from somewhere. I walked into a conversation the three older ones were having during lunch. Actually, I walked into Elisha standing on his chair, pointing his bum towards the table, holding one cheek and making tooting sounds while pulling one cheek back. All I can say is at least he was fully clothed.

Anyway, back to Little Miss Attitude.

She’s trouble.

We planted some herbs in some plastic containers the other day (so tired of the store not having the ones I want) and Cora was the only one who insisted on playing with the dirt and in the dirt and tried eating the dirt.

But, at least we get to see Dada a lot.

Even if he is just computer Dada for a while.

We still love him.

Day 6 – A new rock.

2011-04-11T13:28:00.001-06:00

Hmmmm, I’m not sure how long the day counting is going to last, I already had to go look at the calendar. And it’s only been 6 days.

Wait, glass half-full…it’s already been 6 days!!! Almost a week! Only 30 more weeks to go!!!

Sure.

Justin has arrived at his destination and we’ve already Skyped with him. Malachi has played Chess on the internet with him while they were talking and so far so good.

If you haven’t gotten any updates (you are not on his mailing list) and would like them, just send him an email to have him add you. He’s also created a photo album of some of his travels and the boxcar he is living in already.

Here, things are going well. I’m still skipping the sickness and will post about before Justin left.

Now you are getting the idea of how far behind I usually post.

Anyway, in Idaho we liked to go to Boise to climb up to Table Rock. It was a decent little hike with great views at the end.

The weekend before Justin left, we drove an hour out of town and climbed Tent Rocks.

Whew! I have never been so flabby in my life and climbing that made me realize that (someday) I need to start exercising (grandparents – now is a good time to reserve a night for skyping with the kids).

Justin’s coworkers had made the hike a few weeks before and raved about the views.

When you first get out of the car, you see looming hills. And, if you really pay attention, you see people at the top.

So off we went.

The path was pretty much just sand. Marina and Elisha, who refuse to wear socks most of the time, regretted their decision after about 5 minutes of walking.

And, being the concerned parents we are, we let Marina take off her shoes so she would quit whining and continued to walk. She did don her shoes once the scrambling began.

After about an hour of weaving through the canyon and making the steep (and sometimes narrow) trek up, we almost made it to the top.

While Malachi and I continued on the path a little further up, Marina revolted. Justin said she turned around and starting walking down the path saying she was done and going home (or something like that – maybe Justin can comment on her exact words and attitude).

Eventually Justin convinced her to wait. She and Elisha played in the sand/dirt next to the edge.

Malachi and I made it to the end of the path.

If you don’t like heights, I wouldn’t go all the way to the edge. The last little bit is just a 10 foot wide walkway to the very edge of the rocks.

And it’s a long way down.

But the views are awesome!

Justin made the trek to the edge when Malachi & I got back. Instead of waiting, I slowly made our way down the hill. Quite a few people were surprised to see a lady with 4 young children coming down. It was a hard climb to the average person. There were a couple of steep spots where you had to use your hands and a lot of giants steps (not for those with bad knees). The last 1/3 of the hike going up was a giant stairmaster.

Going down was a lot quicker.

And Justin is already talking about going back.

Day 4

2011-04-09T16:54:00.001-06:00

Sooo, since I’m still traumatized by all the vomiting that took place on Day 1, I’m going to backtrack and post some pictures of before Justin left.

Take that as a warning of when I get back to the rest of Day 1.

Anyway, I wanted family pictures before Justin took off so I badgered my coupon loving sister-in-law and she sent me a coupon for Penneys.

They tend not to send them to me after we move. Go figure. I’m sure they have my address now.

Everyone was due for pictures. Malachi needed he 7 year pictures (even though his birthday was in November) and Cora needed her 9 month & 12 month pictures (even though she is now 15 months). Marina will need her 6 year pictures and just to skip an extra trip, these will also count for Elisha’s 4 year pictures. We even had a family picture done so everyone is covered in one trip. Never done that before.

We ended up taking the pictures on Tuesday. Yes, the day before Justin left. But, what can I say? Procrastination is a long word.

Also before Justin left, I took time off from my shop. That worked out really well since I decided to make the girls some dresses.

I took Marina to the fabric store and she picked out a very colorful fabric. She also picked out a blue to match.

(It’s ok if you don’t like the colors. Justin isn’t fond of the blue circles with the colorful pattern. But, it’s Marina’s creation so I think it doesn’t look too bad.)

I also made Cora’s similar but with a different color for her straps and at the bottom.

Actually, her whole dress is different but you can do that when you don’t have a pattern and are just making it up :)

Plus, I made them matching hair clips (or bands in Cora’s case).

Cora refused to pose nicely with Marina so you get some attitude picture. I also made her dress so it could be a tunic and then a shirt later. How cool is that? I had Marina try it on and it was just a little too snug. I’m guessing it 12 months to 4T!

Anyway, Marina loves her dress so I’m happy.

And, if you want to see how the pictures turned out, go here.

I forgot to practice smiling beforehand which me I forgot to stick my jaw out which means I have a fat face this year……I might not be updating our family picture….sigh.

Anyway, I won’t have any to mail out until April 14th so everyone will get their copy at the end of April.

Although I can’t remember who like individual and who likes just the family picture anymore.

Day 1

2011-04-06T11:34:00.001-06:00

Well, if there is one good thing about a 6 month business trip, it is that I won’t be thinking of any titles during the next 207 days.

Justin packed up yesterday and mailed his trunk.

The rest of his gear lined our hallway last night. (Guns are delivered to the airport.)

And, this morning was the big day. We’ve known this was coming for a while. We got the word he’d be leaving in August.

So, a looooooong time.

To the airport we went. We got gate passes so we could walk back past security and prolong the goodbye a little bit.

Don’t worry, Cora kept us distracted by running off every chance she could get and Elisha just ran around like a crazy person.

But eventually we had to say goodbye. Elisha didn’t want to say goodbye and instead kept trying to hide.

But, we watched Justin’s plane take off and then we went home.

Back to our routines.

I’m on my second load of laundry. The dishwasher is unloaded. The kitchen is clean from our ant invasion this morning. And, even though I just changed Cora’s diaper, she is standing next to me whining.

The next 6 months are going to be a joy (insert sarcasm).

The kids do have their Daddy pillows. (Justin & Malachi shaved heads last night.) I’m not sure if I should turn Cora’s pillowcase into a small pillow or a blanket.

And, of course we have our countdown until Daddy gets back.

Justin thought a jar of M&Ms would be good.

207 M&Ms

I really don’t think this shows the timeline very well.

And, hopefully no one sneaks any.

And that’s it. Justin thought that he’d be able to contact us in a week – maybe.

Some of you might be worried about the fact that I just announced that my husband was gone OVER THE INTERNET. Well, there is practically no crime in our neighborhood and we live in a gated community. The guards at our gate have guns and are authorized to use them. The main reason we chose to live on base – safest place to be while Justin is gone.

And gone he is.

Childhood, summarized

2011-04-05T00:16:00.001-06:00

A short while ago, Marina learned to ride a bike without training wheels. While the previous post ably describes that occasion, one detail was left out.

Before she could a bike without training wheels on her own, Marina often saw Malachi biking without training wheels and wanted to try it. Justin did his fatherly duty and held her bike while she practiced, so she wouldn’t fall over. They did more than a few laps around the circle in front of our house that way.

As Marina was biking around the circle the day she rode by herself, supremely pleased with her accomplishment, Justin walked out to video her. When she saw Justin, she exclaimed, with that sublime smile on her face,

“Look dada; I don’t need you any more.”

What’s so exciting?

2011-03-24T14:09:00.001-06:00

So if you haven’t already read my ramblings last night, well, you are not missing much.

But, if you check my sidebar, I deactivated my twitter.

Cool, huh?

I’m not sure when I last used it and I don’t check it to keep updated on anyone else so it is gone. One less thing to have my info out there on!

And because I have no little sidebar to keep you entertained with my stories, I’ll add a little tidbit that I thought was a little too racey to put on Facebook.

Elisha: My bum has an itch.

Me: We can put some stuff on it.

Elisha: I’m itching it. It’s lovely.

Yes, he called itching his bum lovely. I’m not sure what to do with that child.

Unrelated, Justin comes home tonight! He was gone for 12 days and we talked to him briefly for about 5 minutes on two separate occasions. A training trip for him. A training trip for us.

He leaves on April 6th for his 200 day trip.

I’m not sure there is anything I could be looking forward to less. Well, I guess I’m glad I’m not pregnant again. I’m DONE with that. Yippie!

Cora is just starting to “say” a few words. She says “sz” for shoes, “de'” for drink (along with flipping her wrist for the baby sign) and “ta” for toes.

Justin missed all of that these past 12 days. She’s been saying “Dada” for a while. But, she’s understanding a lot more and talks in completely unintelligible sentences and repeats sounds after us now.

What is he going to miss in 200 days? Birthdays. Anniversaries. More first words. Soccer games. Ballet recitals. First days of preschool.

So, I’m sure these next 10 days are going to fly by.

Fly by.

Daddy time & diapers

2011-03-24T02:24:00.001-06:00

Again, I’m pretty sure these were taken a month or two ago.

It is a crazy time around here right now.

The fact that it is 2am and I’m writing this should indicate just how busy things are.

Anyway, Cora loves Daddy time.

Daddy took Cora outside to play and she came in with a scraped up nose (it’s long since healed). Evidently Marina had something to do with the whole accident.

As you can see, she was in the middle of her diaper change. Since she keeps going under all of our sinks and taking out all of our soaps and spare toothbrushes, I finally just gave her some.

She likes to brush her teeth while I change her diaper.

Anyway, since she does sneak into the bathrooms to go under the sinks (I’m so glad I don’t wear make-up), unroll whole rolls of toilet paper, and splash in yellow potty water that her siblings have forgotten to flush, I try to keep most of the doors around here closed.

Hmmmm. There might be a pint-sized reason as to why I’m so busy.

Back to the diaper change.

For the 4th, I decided to cloth diaper. It all came down to how tired I was paying for diapers and wipes.

Plus, I learned that baby diapers have dioxins in them. It’s one of the most hazardous chemicals out there.

Soooo, since I’m all against putting unnatural stuff next to (or on) my kids’ skin to be absorbed, I found a steal on some cloth diapers.

And they turned out to be really easy to use.

I have a version called a hybrid (nope, not talking about cars here, diapers). I can either snap in the cloth soaker pad or stick in an all natural disposable “traditional” insert.

I think it works great since if she is just wet, I switch out the soakers. If it’s more than that, I change the whole thing.

I didn’t try the disposable part until she developed a wicked diaper rash. It was right when she turned one (new fruit? or maybe that thai food?) so her pediatrician wrote a prescription for a special blend of diaper cream.

The one downside to cloth diapers is how you take care of them. Vasoline is a big no-no since it will adhere to the cloth and make it less absorbable.

So, with her fancy rash cream, I pulled out the biosoakers (throw-away inserts) that I won online and gave them a try.

They worked great! I bought a case of them from Costco and they have come in handy for when her diaper rash flares up or when we travel.

I also think cloth diapers are 1000 times cuter than disposable diapers. They even come in hook & loop (velcro is trademarked) and snaps.

Back when Malachi was born, I didn’t even look at cloth as an option.

1) there weren’t as many fancy, cute and custom brands as there are now

2) I didn’t want to deal with pooh

Well, if you have kids, you know that you’ll eventually have a pooh explosion or they go exploring. So the pooh thing wasn’t that big of a deal.

And do you know what? She hasn’t had ONE pooh leakage since we started. THAT is the best thing ever.

Oh, and I still don’t like to deal with scraping pooh off diapers so I stick a flushable liner on top. It helps her feel dry and it “catches” everything so I can just dump it in the toilet and quickly move on to the next catastrophe occurring in our house.

Since switching to cloth diapers, we’ve also switched to cloth wipes. That was very easy since I’m already washing everything together.

But, did you know there is also family cloth out there? That would be cloth wipes for everyone in your household. No more toilet paper. Hmmmmm, we haven’t made that switch yet.

And (guys, you really want to stop reading here if you haven’t already zoned out) there is also something called Mama Cloth for when Aunt Flo visits. No more buying pads. I was never a pad type of person so I said adios to the tampons and bought a menstural cup (seriously, I thought I told all with a Y chromosome to stop reading). It is awesome. Simple to use. Cost $35 dollars but you pay it once and it lasts for 5+ years. And, no chemicals leaching from tampons into your system which means NO CRAMPS. Crazy I tell you, but I haven’t had cramps since I started using mine.

Anywho. That’s what you get when I type up a blog post at 2am. I will take all questions and concerns at a more decent hour.

Miss Cora

2011-03-17T14:45:00.001-06:00

Cora is a wiggly baby. Back when Malachi & Marina took swimming lessons, I was able to hold almost 2-year-old Elisha in my lap the whole time.

Miss Cora wouldn’t last a minute.

She has the twist and dislocate shoulder thing down.

She knows how to lean one way or the other so you HAVE to hold her a different way.

Wiggly should be her middle name.

But she can be pretty cute too.

Especially when she takes apart all of her sibling’s creations.

A little boy, and his trains.

2011-03-11T21:53:00.001-07:00

Malachi may have been our most challenging infant, but Elisha has to be our most challenging three year old.

When he gets upset, he throws stuff. Not just light things, but heavy toys.

He goes on a rampage and destroys whatever he can. Sometimes he takes his clothes off and urinates. But, anytime he tries that, I reply that I will spank him if there are no undies on his bum.

I do not like cleaning up pee.

Is it just me, or are my children crazy?

Anyway, he can also be sweet.

Stubborn too. Most days he dresses himself and loves to put on his shirts backwards. He refuses to change anything around.

But, he can also be sweet.

He loves playing with his trains.

LOVES them.

(Although his has been know to tear apart a perfectly built set in under two minutes during a fit.)

He knows all of their names and will direct them around the track with a very fun storyline.