Taneal's Viola Concert

When Taneal started the 5th grade she was given the opportunity to pick a string instrument and have free lessons at her elementary school twice a week. She chose the viola. And I was a happy mom because of her decision. She had been leaning towards the violin, but when she heard all the instruments played, she decided she liked the sound of the viola better. It plays about an octave lower than the violin and doesn't screech nearly as much. And considering I was 9 months pregnant with FIVE loud children, my nerves were to the point that having a nice sounding instrument that didn't screech much, was good. Very good.

She started out playing the instrument without the bow. She learned to pluck. And as soon as she got somewhat good at plucking, around Christmas time, they handed over the bow. By this point she knew how to play pretty decent. Because it was a viola, we had happy sounds in our home. I was also no longer pregnant. Amazing how that changes things.

By the end of the school year, Taneal could play amazingly well. She plays songs, can do scales, and sounds really well. It is awesome to me to see my little baby girl grow up and be so talented.

 It did take some serious dedication. She had to be at the school at 7am on Mondays and Thursdays. If she missed a class, she couldn't come back without a written note. And if she missed more than two classes, they would kick her out of the program. Put that threat on top of the cost of a viola, and Taneal missed only two classes this whole year. On days she didn't feel well or if we had a serious family trip  (like to the zoo or ice cream factory), I would have her go to orchestra practice and then pick her up before school started.

 It was pretty cool seeing Taneal in concert. Gathered for the concert were children from all the elementary schools in the school district. They sounded great.

I am excited that Taneal is going to be playing the viola as her elective in 6th grade. Considering how much she learned this year with lessons only twice a week, I can't imagine how much she will improve with daily lessons. Yes, I realize they are from the school which definitely isn't as good as private lessons, but with the talent that girl already has, she will be impressive to say the least.

Snow Princesses

I live in a place where it doesn't snow. Okay, maybe sometimes. But not really enough to count. My poor children don't really know what snow looks like, only from pictures.

And on that note, we have had some very fun cousins in town staying with us. Camie has had the time of her life with Cowgirl (her blog name). They decided to put on their swim suits and get in the tub.

And look at what they did.




Camie kept calling themselves "snow princesses". Cowgirl just sort of looked at Camie funny because she comes from a place where they have snow.









Glad they are having fun.


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Take Me Out to the Ball Game

I haven't been to a professional ball game since high school. That has been a long time. We have some family in town visiting and so for one of our activities we went downtown to watch a ball game.





It was fun. I'm not really a sports fan, so I really didn't care about the game most of the time. It was fun when all the bases were loaded and the team didn't have any outs. We still didn't score but had fun watching it.





My kids were kind of cute. Right after we got there and took our seats in the bleachers, Spencer asked Troy, "why are we here?". Troy pointed to the baseball diamond and explained that we were there to watch a baseball game.





Our seats were pretty high up. We were at the very top. I was surprised at how well we could see. Taneal was funny. She commented that she felt like the seats needed seat belts because we were up so high. I was surprised at how steep a pitch the stadium had.





We got home pretty late. And Spencer's birthday was the next day so the kids stayed up late making him birthday cards. It was pretty cute. I finally told then to close shop after midnight because I was tired and had to get up the next morning at 5am to go swimming.

That Summer of Seals is going to kill me. Working out at 5:30am zaps my energy.

Oh yah. This post is about the baseball game.





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Spencer turns 5

My little man is 5!!!!

He wanted a Scooby Doo birthday party.

 And we were so blessed to have family visiting from out-of-state. What a fun birthday.

 See how happy everyone was?

We had hamburgers and hotdogs, because that is what Scooby Doo likes.

Silly kids. There was a silly bug in the air. Everyone eating and having fun.

Spencer was very excited about his cake.

Who wouldn't be with Scooby Doo and the gang on it?

Isn't Hubba squeezable? His is pointing to Spencer showing whose special day it was.

I can't resist posting this picture. Isn't Troy hilarious?

Blowing out the candles

Spencer is the center of attention. What more could a kid ask for?

Okay, maybe rainbow cake. Isn't that groovy? I tell you I LOVE that new blog I found. Some of the coolest ideas. Simple to make. Great reactions. Spencer thought it was awesome. And that was my goal. Make the birthday boy happy and it makes it all so worth it.

Present time. I love what Hubba got him. He realized it was Spencer's birthday, so he ran up to the playroom, found a cool toy, and wrapped it and regifted it to Spencer. Spencer looked quite perplexed when he opened it. And Nathan exclaimed, "Now we have TWO of those!"

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Summer of Seals Begins

I want to get into shape. I don't want to look pregnant when I am not. And, I think I want a challenge.
I signed up for the Summer of Seals exercise program.

It requires swimming 500 meters. Take a ten minute break. Then you do as many push-ups as you can for two minutes. Then as many sit-ups as you can for two minutes. Followed by pull-ups for two minutes. Take a ten minute break and then run a mile and a half.

Ummm. . .

So I can run.

Yah, can't swim. Can't do a single pull-up. Push-ups? I can do the girly kind, but those don't count. And who are we kidding on the sit-ups? My muscles are so shot from having babies. And I have a weird tail bone so it kinda hurts too.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

I went to the pool yesterday to try to swim. I about left in tears. I got into the water and started doing freestyle. Holy Cow! How the heck do my kids do that? I have watched them for four years now and they swim very well. I have encouraged them, pushed them. And I now hold them at a very high esteem because they do what I cannot do myself. I hear if I keep it up in about three weeks I may get that breathing thing down. Who would have ever thought the simple act of breathing could be so dang hard?

And what was even more intimidating was the head swim coach of my children's swim team was swimming in the lane next to me. Watching me. Seeing me not able to swim. And she was so nice and offered tips to me. I didn't realize you weren't supposed to bend your knees. I had no idea that I was doing the butterfly kick on my backstroke when ya aren't supposed to.

I seriously don't know how to swim and I am supposed to be able to swim 500 meters in 12 weeks from now. The coach suggested fins so that it will automatically correct my legs. I tried to today and it really worked. My other friend said about two years ago she couldn't swim and so she told me how she learned to breathe. It took her three weeks to figure it out to where it wasn't a problem. I tried her little technique this morning and it sorta worked. I swam better this morning than I did yesterday. If I do little improvements, maybe, with some Divine intervention, I will be able to do this Summer of Seals challenge.

I got a bar for pull-ups and hung it in my pantry door so I can practice all day long. I can now jump to one pull-up.

Spencer sits on my legs for the sit-ups. I can do it but can't keep my hands on my head like the rules of the Summer of Seals challenge says we are supposed to. I'll get better.

And the push-ups? I can now do the girly ones. The regular ones will come, right? As long as I keep trying?

I am hoping.

Did I mention every muscle in my body is screaming at me right now? I am walking around like a grandma. I hurt.

I can run. I have four strikes against me but at least it isn't five. And just think how ripped I will be at the end of the summer.

There are also bonus points for weight loss. Hmmm. That's enticing. Exercising four times a week will be hard. But the pool opens at 5:30am. I can do that.

Still can't believe I signed up for it. But I'm excited for the challenge. Something to look forward to.

I'll let you know how it is going. In fact, if I can figure out this swimming, it will deserve a lengthy post all to itself. Because that will be a miracle.

Happy Summer of Seals.

Aiming to Please

I have been trying to potty train Nathan for a good year now. I have been so unbelievably unsuccessful. I have gotten that kid to do everything there is to do on the toilet and he still refuses to give up the diapers.

Stubborn kid.

Saturday I took all the kids with me to the swim meet. Evan needed to do a few things before we could leave to go out of town. The kids all like the swim meet, it is fun so I didn't mind taking SIX kids to a swim meet by myself at 6:30 in the morning and then hanging out in the scorching heat.

Maybe I minded a little.

Well, Nathan decided he didn't want to be there. And that was that. He cried and he threw himself on the ground and then cried some more and pretty much intentionally made a scene. He is two. He can do that.

So I called Evan and told him our arrangement just wasn't working out. Could he please please please come get Nathan? A few minutes later Evan came and got that boy and the two of them got to hang out the rest of the day.

When I came home eight hours later drenched in sweat, Nathan had a surprise for me.

He decided he was ready to wear big boy underwear like his dad and poop in the potty, like his dad.

Have I ever mentioned how much Nathan likes his dad? The kid idolizes that man. He will do anything for his dad. And Evan knocked out in a few hours what I had been trying to do for a year.

Go Evan! And way to go Nathan.

We left for my parents and Nathan stayed dry the whole time. He did have an accident in the car on the way home because we couldn't pull over fast enough. I am so impressed. We even went to the park today (okay, it was really just swim practice and they have a park by the pool. But it sounds better if I say i took him to play at the park, right?) and he used the bathroom there. He tells me when he needs to go.

Want to hear a little funny? He thinks he has to poop every tine he pees. So he sits on the toilet pushing and grunting until finally something comes out. Several times today he made the comment that his bum hurt. The poor kid is going to end up with hemroids at this pace!

5th Grade Graduation

She did it. She went and grew up on me. And so stinkin fast.

Taneal had her 5th grade graduation party during school last week and it was so much fun.

I got to go up to the school for it and take some fun pictures. I also got to write the checks to pay for it (I'm the sucker that agreed to be the PTO treasurer).



They served all the 5th graders pizza and lemonade for lunch followed by an ice cream sundae bar. Then they moved from the cafe to the gym and played games, had a photo booth, and some dancing. Each child got a pair of sunglasses and it was dj'd by their music teacher. They all got memory books and a DVD with tons of fun pictures put to music. It was a great party and the kids had so much fun.

Name That Car

About a year ago Taneal started asking me about cars as we drove around town: "Is that an expensive car? What kind of car is that? Is that a very good car? Is that kind of car very popular?"

Usually my response was, "I don't know".

I can recognize what a Honda is because I have driven one. And I know what a minivan is because I have driven one of those. I know that Hundais are cheep cars. Mercedes are expensive. Above that I'm pretty much clueless. Poor girl asking the least knowledgeable person about cars. And we didn't do much driving with evan in the car, so she couldn't learn much from him.






This last weekend we took a road trip to my parents. We were in the car for several hours and taneal was in the front seat keeping evan awake while I was in the back with the little kids trying to keep them happy. Taneal and Evan got to talking about cars and Evan asked her if she could name any car on the road. Taneal confidently said she was pretty sure she knew the maker of any car on the road. And so she immediately started naming all the cars coming and going down the interstate for a good 5 minutes.

Evan's response, "wow. You really do know your cars".

She got them all correct.

Go Taneal.

Funny how when they find an interest in something how suddenly their capacity to learn increases. She took my little piddly knowledge of cars and flew with it.

Crickets

I have this little fear of crickets. I don't know why. I have a sneaking suspicion. I was about 6 when my family moved to Texas. I was warned from my knowledgeable Yankee 1st grade friends that I was going to have to learn a new language. That scared me. And then we moved to the mighty state and I learned otherwise. But what I also learned was that Texas has bugs. Big ones, little ones, black ones and harry ones. Some were even green. And they were all over the place.


The ones I was most afraid of were the black crickets. Sometimes they were so thick that the entire wall of the school was covered, you could not see the brick underneath. It looked like the wall was moving because of the thousands of crickets. Parking lots were a sea of crickets. It wasn't like that every year, but one year it was literally that bad. You could not take a step without smashing several crickets in the process.

The year I remember it being that bad I was probably seven or eight. I woke in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. as I entered the bathroom, there in the middle of the floor was a HUGE black cricket ready to jump at any movement. I was afraid. I had to use the bathroom so bad, but there i stood frozen, unable to move or that cricket surely would in my direction. I don't know how long I stood there before I eventually peed my pants. Probably a good hour. I didnt dare wake my parents, I knew they wouldn't understand my fear.

The reason I tell this story is to preface what happened today. Here I am again at my parents home out in the country with a lot of crickets. And toads and spiders and bugs. I also have a crawling baby that will put ANYTHING in his mouth. And that is just what he did.

He found a dead, smashed cricket and put that nasty thing into his mouth. I am so grossed out even thinking about it. I saw him doing it but couldn't get to him fast enough. Kind of like those moments when everything suddenly is in slow motion. My stomach turned as I stuck my finger in his mouth and scooped that nastiness from there. I touched a cricket. I am afraid of crickets. And my baby tried to eat one. I shudder at the thought. I am repulsed. Grossed out. Disgusted.

And the story doesn't quite end there. I put Gavin down and as I was relating the story to evan I noticed Gavin chewing on something. I went over to him, ran my scooped shaped finger through his mouth, and found that he had been chewing on a . . .

Cricket leg.

This is the point where if I was a vomiter, I would have just thrown up.

Quite simply disgusting.

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Tooti

The most frequent word that comes out of my two-year-old's mouth is "toot". Throughout the day he announces, "I tooted!", whether he did or not. Every sentence contains the word "toot" in phrases like these: "I want a tooti bite", "momma, you're a tooti", I want to go for a drive tooti", "there is a tooti spider outside",  "tooti water", etc.

I was appalled at the grocery store the other day when in Nathan's loudest voice, pointed to a grandma-aged lady and said, "You're a tooti!" If you can imagine the look that lady gave me. I felt about five inches tall.

Last Sunday I walked into Nathan's Nursery class and several of the other children were using the same phrase. The children thought it was so funny and tried to use it in every possible way. Evan is one of the teachers in that class and he thought it was funny. Sorry to Brooke and Cali's mom. What can I say? Maybe he is starting a new slang?

He isn't really doing it in a "potty talk" sort of way most of the time. It is almost like a fun sounding word that he uses to be silly or to rhyme with. Almost in the place where you might use the word "cutie". It is kind of strange, but then again we are talking about Nathan here. He is one of those little boys that is a handful, but is going to be the most fun teenager and adult ever. We just have to survive the "tooti" moments (and quite a few other) for now.

Contagious Smiles

Many of you who live in this area and attend the same elementary school as my children probably recognize this man. His name is Richard. And the only reason I know that is because I stopped him the other day and asked him if I could get his picture.

The reason I wanted his picture is because of that smile that you see spread across his face. Every morning and afternoon as I pass him taking my kids to and from school, this man smiles and waves. I thought he was just being friendly to me because, well, I waved back. And because I am an awesome person.  But the more I paid attention the more I realized that his smiles and waves weren't just for me. He was smiling and waving at every single car that passed by him. I also noticed that almost every single car that passed him was waving back with full smiles on their faces. The guy was just plain friendly and everyone noticed. I even caught my children making comments about how they really liked him. And they had never even talked to him, they just liked how friendly he was.

Because I have made hundreds of trips to and from the school I began to observe other crossing guards. None of the other crossing guards smiled so freely. In fact, one of them I think it is her mission to scowl. And so I made it my mission to smile and wave at her very excitedly each time I passed her. She tried to avoid looking at me, but I stared at her until she HAD to look my way and then I smiled and waved and she did the same in return, sometimes. After about two months of this little game I played with her, she started smiling and waving at me unsolicited. She still ignored all the rest of the cars. It was fun to try to spread some joy and to play my little experiment and game at her expense.

My kids are now riding the bus so I am not passing the crossing guards as often. But I still think about them and about how smiles and happiness can be so contagious. Who knows if Richard is having a bad day? I imagine he has them because none of us are without trials. But from his smiles and waves you would never know. I'm sure even when he is having a rough day, he brightens many others through his simple gestures as he stands on the corner helping the children along their way to school safely.

Shoes

These shoes are only three months old. I bought them at Kohls and paid a little more that I normally would, around $25. They were cute and I figured if I spent a little more on a name brand then maybe they would last a little longer and the feet using them wouldn't stink quite so bad.

WRONG!

Danielle has this knack for wearing out her shoes. I buy her a new pair or two every few months and this is what they always end up looking like. She has some tennis shoes but she really prefers the ballet slipper style. I have asked her to walk on the bottoms of her feet and not drag her toes, and she really frustrated-like tells me she does not drag her toes. Seriously, she tells me, she isn't dragging those toes.

But every pair looks like these.

Getting Mad

Keeping a home cleaned and tidied with 8 people residing in it, most of them under the age of 11, is really, REALLY difficult. And when my house is messy, there is something that goes off in my brain that makes me want to clean it. And clean it RIGHT NOW! I can't cook in a mseey kitchen. I can't read bedtime stories to my children when their rooms are messy. I have to have my bed made before I can climb into it, so if that means making it right before I go to bed, it still has to be done. Nobody else in my home seems to see things that way. They could form paths through the chaos and be fine with it. They have no problem using a dirty bathroom and then not even flushing after themselves.

And so we have jobs. We have three jobs that we alternate between the three girls and change monthly. I pretty much keep it done during the day and they make sure it is all tidied before they go to bed at night. The first is dishes and tidting up the kitchen. The second is the kitchen table and tile floors in the kitchen area. And the third job is the stairs, hallway, and kids bathroom. It isn't too bad. The biggest challenge is the stairs. Anything that needs to go upstairs gets put on the bottom of the stairs. Anything that needs to go down gets put at the top of the stairs. That is why that job is equal to dishes. This month Danielle has the stairs and hallway. She gets quite frustrated when anything is put on the bottom of the stairs. And so she left this note last night that I discovered this morning and couldn't stop chuckling. It is exactly how I fell about the whole house and the cleaning I do only lasting maybe five minutes.

Medical Journal Tip

I think sometimes the doctors think I am strange. But I can't remember without this little book. I bought it at Office Max (you have to put the tabs on the pages yourself). And it keeps me sane.

This is my medical journal. I have a section for each person in my family. A section that lists all the names and addresses of every doctor we have ever been to. With the flip of a page I can tell you when my child last went to the doctor, why I took them, what the diagnosis was, if any prescriptions were written and the dosage, if any shots were received, and the person's weight and height.

Camie had enlarged tonsils. I was able to tell the specialist that she had strep throat three times in the last year and exactly when. I knew when the last time I did dentist appointments.  It comes in really handy with so many children to keep track of. Sometimes I forget which child had which ailment. This book helps me remember. I keep the insurance cards in the front pocket so that I have to take it with me to the doctor. And while I am sitting in the waiting room, I make the date entry, why I am there, and which doctor we will be seeing. When I get to the car before I drive away, I write down what the doctor said. It only takes a few moments, but it has saved me many times.

 I keep a hard copy because I used to keep a digital copy and then my computer crashed and I lost it all.

I was only embarrassed once that I kept this journal. It was back when Spencer was having all those problems with his eye and the doctor really didn't know what that thing was on his eye and we had to have surgery. It was at a follow-up visit that the doctor was trying to remember what prescriptions he had given to Spencer, was waiting on his computer to boot-up, and I pulled out my medical journal and had the information for him right there. Then he started to read what I had wrote of my interpretation of what the doctor had told me. I was embarrassed a lot, until the doctor told me what a great idea it was to keep track of all the medical happenings of my family.

My personal medical section is quite lengthy because I seem to always be pregnant and putting on weight. That's not something I want to share with just anyone, but it is pretty cool to go back and see that I usually loose weight in the first trimester and end up taking Zofran and then the weight comes on after that. And to see what was normal for real instead of what my mind made up. Can be pretty cool..

Anyways, thought I would share. It has been very helpful for me.

Swimteam

In this neck of the woods our children do swim team. You don't have to try out for it, you just have to know how to swim the length of the pool unassisted. Each swim meet you compete against your own time and the top 3 fastest swimmers get the team points. So it is competitive, but only if you want it to be. Camie and Taneal are the only ones that have ever scored their team points. And when they do win points, it is a big deal because it is so hard to do. When there are 75+ swimmers in your age group and you are in the top 3, you should be impressed with yourself.

With swim team comes a whole lot of commitment. The swimmers practice Tuesday through Friday for an hour. Well, I have four swimmers and only two in the same age group. That means we practice for 3 hours each evening. Yes, each child only swims for an hour, but the family is hanging out at the pool for three. This is a picture of Gavin watching the swimmers. It isn't so bad hanging at the pool because they kids get to play at the park with their friends for two hours in addition to their hour in the pool. The only hard part, okay, one of the hard parts, is supper. How do you feed a crew of children when you aren't home? And eating out every night isn't an option.I have to be on top of things and pack a supper. Things like pizza rolls, taquitos, sandwiches are at the top. It is quite the family commitment, but so worth it. The kids absolutely love swimming and then playing at the park every night for 8 weeks.  And it is fun for me to see them improve their swimming skills and them being pleased with beating their own time at the meets on Saturdays.

This is where we will be through the month of May and June. My kids swimming their hearts out and me sweating my guts out, with a baby and five other kids and a cooler it tow.

Gavin is Crawling

My little baby has been crawling for about two weeks now. I knew it was going to happen any day. The baby is so stinkin strong! He has been able to get up on his hands and knees in the crawling position before he could even sit up. He figured out how to scoot and that lasted for maybe a week tops before it turned into outright crawling. He still isn't very fast, and I find that so irrisitably cute. But yesterday he pulled himself to the standing position on the couch. HE IS ONLY 7 MONTHS! His balance still isn't there, so he toppled over pretty quick. But I was still amazed and still am amazed at what my not so little baby is capable of doing at such a young age. My earliest crawler was 9 month! I hope he crawls for a while, I'm not ready for him to start walking.

Gavin's new Facial Expression

So not a good picture, but it sort of shows Gavin's new expression. He saves this expression for Evan mostly. It is what he does right beofre he cries. It is almost like he is trying to supress a cry.  It is so cute to see him make this face.