Camp Zarahemla

Today is going to be a busy, busy day. We've got a full day of school lessons, plus we need to catch up on two Science lessons (We're learning about light, and yesterday the kids and I crammed into my tiny bedroom closet to shine a flashlight on a mirror and some tin foil) and a Language Arts lesson. We might save one of the Science lessons for Friday when Brian might be home - I dunno.

So it's 7:13. The kids alarm will go off at 7:30, so I've got to get this post done quick!

Last weekend everyone in my family who lives in the Tri-Cities (except Dave and Sara, who had to work, although technically they live in Connel) headed to Camp Zarahemla near Naches, Washington for a fabulous weekend of sledding on ice packed snow, slipping and bumping our heads, eating lots of cake (oh, that was just me), eating lots of yummy other foods, playing games, running around the lodge like crazy huligans (that was the kids), and enjoying a heaping amount of fun and frivolity.

Here's the pictures to prove I'm not lying:

Ethan and Asher's birthday cake

Ethan going to bed

Crazy Brian and slightly shocked and amazed Alyssa

Asher and Marcus' matching pajamas

No, I am not hiding from the camera. I'm laughing hysterically after trying to sit on the corner of my parents blow up bed with a glass of water and sliding completely off, splashing my water across the floor.

Brennan

Ethan

Nathan and Eliza

Megan

So pretty

So pretty - Merian and Alyssa

Ma and Pa (affectionately known as Mom and Dad)

Brian's balancing skeelz

Aren't I cool?

Kenna and Merian

Marcus

The kids making Apple Jacks necklaces

Megan and Marcus

Michael and Ethan

Playing "Love Your Neighbor"

It's currently 7:48. I wasn't nearly quick enough. Alyssa got out of bed at 7:24, and apparently the alarm wasn't set, because the boys are still sleeping. Time to get a move on!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

I promise that today was a lot more fun and exciting than I make it out to be. I'm just incredibly tired, so I'm in documenting mode.


Today Ethan began his birthday celebrations with a waffle breakfast. We had school like normal, which Alyssa wasn't happy with, and Brian's mom (who has become our Reading Specialist since Alyssa will read to her more willingly than Brian or me) came over to read with Alyssa while Ethan and I made his birthday brownies.

We were going to turn them into an ice cream brownie mountain, but because of the events of the evening, we opted to leave the mountain of ice cream we made this afternoon as is and eat the brownies straight from the pan. My sister-in-law, Tallia, came over with her kids so she could check out our school curriculum, and the kids played outside for a couple of hours.

We then headed to Red Robin for dinner, where Marcus threw up. We're thinking it was because he was coughing pretty hard from his cold. I really hope he doesn't have the flu. I was just saying this afternoon that we've made it through the whole winter without the flu in our house. I even knocked on wood! Ask Tallia - she was there. Luckily - Can you use the word "luckily" when you're talking about your child throwing up in a restaurant? - the puking happened just after we all finished our meals, so we quickly cleaned up, paid the bill, and got out of there.

We had our parents over for the birthday party, though Brian's dad couldn't come because of an incredibly sore back. Alyssa was in charge of decorations, and I must say she did an incredible job. Ethan got a Transformer, a little walking dinosaur, and something he's been asking for for a long time: a scooter. Or as he says it, "A hooter!"

All in all it was a pretty good day. I think Ethan felt special, which is the most important thing. He kept walking around today saying, "It's my birthday...It's my birthday...It's my birthday..." You get the gist.

So I will sum it up by saying just how much we love Ethan. He is such a joy to have in our family. He is such a good boy. He is a gentleman. He is so thoughtful. He loves to help me cook, and he even likes to help do the dishes. He is loving being a Sunbeam and being able to go to Primary. He is full of love and hugs and kisses. He is just so sweet. Out of all the horrible pregnancies I've had, Ethan's was the worst - hands down, worst - pregnancy of them all, and he was worth every miserable pukey second of it. I love him tons.

Edited to Add: Marcus is doing wonderfully this morning. Last night he had a fever and a cough, but he's back to his normal self right now. Alyssa was explaining her decorating of Ethan's chair to me over breakfast: "I wanted to add this in the back and around here, but I thought that it would be too flashy, and cover up his sign."

To Say it Bluntly, Earthquakes Stink

Last week Brian and I were talking about...well, I guess about how big the world is despite all the technological adavancements that bring us closer together. I think we actually weren't talking about that, but then we kind of jumped to the subject, and I saw a news article headline about there being an earthquake in Haiti. I didn't read the article, or really read the headline too closely, because at the time I didn't realize just how horrible this earthquake was. I pointed to the headline and said, "See? These people just had an earthquake. People probably died, homes were destroyed, and we're still living a perfectly normal life over here."

"Yeah, all they get is a fifteen minute headline, and it's over for us," Brian agreed.

Our perspective has obviously changed since last week. I now realize just how much damage this earthquake caused, how many lives were destroyed because of it. Even now, though, I've been taking the same stance that Alyssa takes when it comes to scary parts in movies. If I don't see it, I don't have to think about it. I don't want to see the pictures of the mass graves they're digging and throwing bodies into. I don't want to see pictures of the babies that have lost their mothers. It hurts too much to even think about it. I can't imagine - don't want to imagine what it would be like to have one quick event destroy everything truly important in my life.

One thing I forced myself to realize this morning is that these people need help. They're getting some help, but it's obviously been slow in coming, and it's going to be a long, hard process to put everything back together again. I've been reading the articles on what the LDS Humanitarian Services are doing to aid everyone in Haiti. Like always, they are doing great things. And like always, "100 percent of all donations are distributed directly to those in need." (from the Humanitarian General Fund) Hint, hint: donations can be made here.

It amazes me that all of the missionaries serving in Haiti are safe, and that all of the LDS chapels are undamaged. I don't believe that this happened because we're so righteous that we're always preserved, but because the Lord knew that help would be needed. I'm sure those missionaries are working like crazy right now, and seven chapels are being used to house over 4,000 people. It's amazing to see the little bits of good that can come from something so horrible.

I pray that the people of Haiti can be comforted at this time, and that they can find peace in the middle of all the chaos.

Getting an A+ in Blogology 101

About a week or two ago, my good friend Kim dedicated a post to something she caled, "Blogology." I'll link to it in a little bit, if she doesn't mind. For some reason it has affected me a lot more than I think she meant it to. In it she talks about the way we bloggers sometimes judge ourselves on the number of comments we receive on our posts and how that can have an effect on our self esteem. If we don't get a lot of comments, we wonder if people really care about what we say, we wonder if we really do have friends, and we wonder why the heck we're blogging anyway. Even if we really are blogging for ourselves, to preserve our thoughts and memories, we still want to stay connected to our friends, and giving and getting those comments are a huge bonus when it comes to blogging fun. She also lists many reasons why we sometimes don't comment, and I'm guilty of all of them. (And probably a few more!)

I don't remember if Kim officially challenged us to comment more or not, but I read her post as a personal challenge to me to comment on everyone's posts consistently. I admit I have missed commenting on a few posts these last couple of weeks, but overall I've been doing pretty good. Through this, I have learned that it really doesn't take any more time out of my day. It only takes a few seconds to leave a comment, and the kids and dishes will still be there, waiting for me when I'm done. I've also learned that commenting all the time adds a whole new level of fun to blogging. I feel closer to my friends than I did when I would just read a post and move on. I miss the ones I'm not around more, too, which I guess isn't a great thing, but at least were staying connected.

So if you're wondering why I all of a sudden like you more than I used to and comment on every single post you make...no, I am not stalking you. I'm just trying to be a little bit more friendly. I'm also starting to post on people's blogs that I've been lurking on for various amounts of time, and that's fun, too.

Hey Good Lookin' - What's Cookin'?

Brian and Marcus are in the kitchen making Carmelita bars. While they've been in there I've been referred to as, "Marmo" by both of them, and as "your mither" by Brian. They both also did a dance in the kitchen to turn the oven on. I don't know if it worked. Hopefully those bars will be done soon.

FYI Breakfast-Wise

Malt-o-Meal's Blueberry Muffintops cereal really does taste like blueberry muffins. It's incredibly yummy, and this is coming from someone who doesn't like cereal.

Storybook Treasury

Brian's parents gave us the Scholastic Storybook Treasury for Christmas. We got it out tonight for the first time, and we loved it. It's a compliation of 100 books, where the pictures from the books are (slightly) animated, and the story is read aloud. Tonight the kids watched Chrysanthemum, Rapunzel, The Elves and the Shoemaker, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and a whole bunch of others. We don't have television, so we basically watch things on Playhouse Disney online and DVD's, and we try (emphasis on try) to watch movies only on weekends. The kids loved these stories, and I felt good about letting them watch them (and will probably watch them whenever they want, even during the week) because 1) they're good stories and extremely well put together, 2) they have the words printed at the bottom of the screen so Alyssa can read along if she wants, and 3) there's so many of them, that it's going to take a long while until we can get sick from watching them too many times.

So thank you, Grandma and Grandpa - the kids love it!

Here It Is

All of these pictures were taken from the house's real estate listing. I didn't think to take pictures myself.


So this is the wonderfully fabulous house we made an offer on yesterday. Our real estate agent called this morning to tell us that the sellers accepted our offer, but because it's a short sale it now has to be approved by the bank. Hopefully that will all go through as well. I am incredibly excited. I keep dancing spontaneously and shouting "Woohoo!" Being LDS, I'm constantly tempted to say that I feel blessed, but thinking that also makes me feel like we must have done something wonderful to deserve to have found such a great house. To tell you the truth, I think we just got lucky. What I really feel is spoiled, but hopefully in a good way. It's more than we deserve, and I'm so excited!


The house is in Pasco, pretty close to where the new church building is being built. It's super close to both my sister and my brother, so that will make getting together really easy. It has 5 bedrooms, with a bonus room upstairs that we're going to use as a school room. (See? Spoiled.) The bonus room has a tiny little door that goes into an attic space, and that door makes me want to decorate with an Alice in Wonderland theme. The bedroom that's downstairs we're planning on using as a toy room, and even after everyone in our family is assigned a bedroom, there's one left over for a craft room for me, split with an office space for Brian. That just makes me want to dance right there.


The kitchen and breakfast nook is open to the family room, which is exactly what we wanted. There is tons of counter space and cupboard space, and the walk in pantry is huge.


Here's another view of the kitchen. See all the shiny-ness? Isn't it pretty? I am absolutely in love with this house. If everything goes through, we could be moved by March. So we're crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.

Here's the floor plan. The only changes I see that were made is that the downstairs "den/bedroom" is swapped with the back Garage, and there's a few closets that are in different places.

Laundry, Toe Flaps, Wahoo

I started this post earlier tonight, just after we put the kids to bed, but I only wrote one sentence, then stopped. I wrote one sentence, and didn't know what else to say, so I just stopped. Then I folded today's laundry, and had a bowl of ice cream, because it's been a while since I've had a bowl of ice cream...and I really wanted it. I had a scoop each of Tillamook Mint Chocolate Chip, Dreyers Double Churned Strawberry, and Premium Quality Brand Fried Ice Cream. I watched a few clips of Glee while I ate said ice cream, and I've just got to say that I think Jane Lynch is the most hilarious woman on the face of the earth. Just hilarious.

So then I took the laundry upstairs and put Alyssa's clothes in her dresser and Ethan's clothes in his dresser and, yes, Marcus' clothes in his dresser. Alyssa was still awake and while I was tossing her underwear in the drawer I heard her whisper, quite loudly, "Mom!" Not knowing at the time that she was awake, and thinking it might have been the squeaking of the drawer, I went ahead and put her socks in the next drawer, and there it was again: "Mom!"

Upon investigating the loud whispers, I found out that she had a dead flap of skin on her big toe, and she wanted me to get the clippers to clip it off. No big deal, I thought, so I told her to come with me to get things taken care of, and that is when I found out that she had gotten in trouble multiple times already by Brian for repeatedly getting out of bed. Ooops. I didn't know this history, because I had been downstairs folding laundry and joyously eating ice cream, but I already said that.

So I clipped off the offending chunk of flappy skin and sent her off to bed...finished putting away the laundry...brushed my teeth...and as I was brushing my teeth I thought of when we went camping with Katie and Reuben a little after Ethan was born, and Katie and I went up to the bathrooms together to brush our teeth, and Katie had a Sonicare toothbrush which she was afraid to take out of her bag since she was embarrassed for having a fancy toothbrush, and I had a Sonicare toothbrush that I was afraid to take out of my bag since it would take exactly two minutes according to Sonicare to brush my teeth, and I wasn't sure that Katie wanted to wait that long, and to make a long story short, we both took out our matching toothbrushes and had a good laugh about them. After thinking of this story I also thought back to earlier this evening and thought, "Why didn't I finish that post? What's my problem?"

So maybe it's because it doesn't feel quite real, or maybe it's because writing it down in words almost cheapens the magic. I don't know. I'm not going to finish the post. I'm not going to elaborate. But I will tell you this: The sentence I wrote, when I started the whole thing was, "Tonight Brian and I met with our Realtor to sign a whole ton of papers to make an offer on a house."

The Box Man

When my brother, David, was little, whenever he would see a UPS truck, he's unjokingly say, "It's the PU man!" and we all got a good laugh out of that. He was also the one who lost his pamphlet when we visited the Ice Harbor Dam, and he kept yelling, "Where's my dam book?" and "I lost my dam book!" But that's beside the point.

Anyway, while Ethan was finishing his lunch and I was washing up the dishes, he yelled to me, "Mom! Someone's here! It's the box man!" So I looked outside and saw the UPS truck at the neighbors house.

Back to School

A little bit before Christmas we started a different schedule by having a day devoted to Science and History and a day devoted to Language Arts, with the rest of the days devoted to Phonics and Math. It worked better than trying to do one lesson from each every day, because if things got busy or out of hand, we'd miss Language Arts or Science or History, and after a while we'd notice that it had been a few days or a week without studying any of those.

So today, our first day back from Christmas vacation, we're starting with a Language Arts day. It's rainy and cold outside, and it's a perfect day to cuddle up on the couch and finish reading Winnie the Pooh.