I'm Dreaming of a ....

Since I spent most of my growing up in San Diego I have never been too attached to the idea of 4 seasons. The 5 years experiencing them in my youth while living in Chicago, taught me that it's not all it's cracked up to be. Those dreamy photos of parents and children playfully jumping in a pile of fallen leaves with cute sweaters and scarfs leave out the cold reality. The beautiful fall colors last a fleeting few weeks and those leaves that fall need to be raked and bagged. Then you are left with only barren branches as a back drop for next 5 months while you scrape your icy wind shield and shovel the driveway-- right before it snows again. Really folks, we all know snow only has 3 good days, the first one of the season, Christmas morning, and the kind that get you out of school for an unexpected holiday. And all I learned in Chicago, was only reaffirmed in adulthood during my years in Utah, and especially Montana.

And so, I am not so naïve as to romanticize a real winter. But there are times like today listening to the kids sing Winter Wonderland while driving home from school amidst abundant sunshine, desert landscaping, and an urge to turn on the cool air, that gave me a fleeting twinge of longing. It occurred to me recently that the kids have rarely experienced a “traditional” climate. Most of our vacations are spent visiting our families in Las Vegas, and San Diego. Which is probably good, since I don't think our little desert offspring would appreciate it too much. Although, they do love to visit their cousin Alexis in the winter, but she lives in the mountains and has the baddest sled hill in her backyard, that hardly makes for an unbiased assessment.

So I was thinking, what if there were some new altered snow that wasn't cold or wet, but still had the snowball packability. I'm thinking a cross between moon sand and those little teeny tiny packaging Styrofoam balls you can't shake off your hand. I mean, we can grow seedless grapes, can't we engineer coldless, wetless snow? I guess it's too much to hope for, the simpler solution to my reverie would be to drive up to Flagstaff for the day and remind myself exactly what I'm not missing.

We have a Pool!

We came home last night from our Thanksgiving trip to lake side property. JJ walked out back to check the temperature outside and found our sprinklers going full blast and inches of water covering our entire lawn.  Our sunken trampoline was completely submerged and the hatch door was floating open. Exactly  how long they had been going we'll never know but long enough to fill the trampoline pit, our lawn, and pool up in the surrounding rocks. He had to turn the water main off to get them to stop spraying.  Considering they were set to come on at 5am and we came home at midnight-- well --you do the math--I try not to think about which day on our four day holiday the malfunction might have happened.

  I just wish I hadn't been too tired and cold last night to try and snap photos in the dark. We were pleasantly surprised this morning when we woke up and found  the water had soaked into the lawn and is slowly going down underneath the tramploline.

So everyone who wanted us to put in a swimming pool in our backyard, come on over we've got one now!

What? No?   ....We can take the cover off!

Our wall is still soaked from back spray, even 10 hours after turning them off.

The sad thing is after two years not having winter grass. I decided we weren't going one more year without grass during the season the kids are actually outside to enjoy it.   I am ashamed to admit, with it being late in the season, a broken lawn mower and busy schedules- I hired a couple of guys to over seed for us. Unfortunately they weren't the sharpest tools in the shed. A week later, while checking the watering schedule, we found they set it to a 7 day interval schedule not 7 day daily schedule. Our new seedlings had been watered once in the week after they were planted. No wonder we had to chase literally 40 pigeons out of our yard every half hour --the seeds were easy pickings. And although the sprinklers were working fine the days before our trip, some mystery malfunction must have caused them to stay on and so...

 our poor grass seed has been starved, eaten, probably frozen with this cold spell, and now drowned in it's first two weeks of life. It will be a miracle if it survives. I fear we will have a third year devoid of luscious grass for the kids to frolic on. 

But at least we have a pool for them to swim in for the next week.

Halloween Mayhem

 With the Church Halloween party hours away on Saturday night,  the kids had their costumes ready, but JJ and I didn't. After a fruitless ransacking of our closet and under the influence of last minute costume panic, we mistakenly decided to take a family outing to Easly's Costume Shop. An hour meandering the aisles of admittedly great props and every imaginable disguise, still only confirmed what I had already known, we were way too cheap to purchase so much as a fake eyelash from that place. But what I wasn't prepared for, were all the bona fide law enforcement officers directing traffic in the parking lot.  Appearantly the most pressing task for the police in central Phoenix was ensuring each costume shopper would be able to find a parking space. I also didn't expect Party City to have a line of 30 people waiting outside the door to get in.  Did you know those little maximum capacity signs are actually legit? We drove by that line and kept on going... next door.... to Wally World. I couldn't believe it, from 7th ave to 75th we ended up grabbing a couple cheap wigs and some halloween candy from Wal Mart. We raced home with just enough time to get ready and gather the van full of stuff we were bringing to help set up the party. I tried not to think about what we had accomplished in well over 2 hours could easily have been done in a 15 minute trip to the Wal Mart a mile from our house. And the worst part is I didn't have time to take any nice pictures of the kids in their costumes. This is what I did manage to snap in a few free minutes during the party.

Harry Potter

I love the blood red scar Jordan drew in the middle of his forehead. 

You can barely see them in the picture, but he looked so cute in glasses. Good thing too, since he has our DNA we will most likely be needing them in the future.

Ginny Weasley

Harry with his hippie father. JJ's costume turned out quite convincing.

Me, not so much, but it was better than nothing.

The Hogwarts attendees with their rock star sister.



-I think Isabel should really dye her hair that color

Happy Belated Halloween Everyone! 

Big Mouths, Big Ears

Ever since we discovered that Juarez, Mexico is the #1 murder capital of the world, we half jest that JJ is risking life and limb when he goes there for his work trips. Of course, we discovered this only after his first trip in which he forgot his map and drove all around the city asking for directions and acquiring many strange looks but thankfully no bullets. Since then each trip has been met with some trepidation and conversations joking about him coming back alive. While, I can't remember ever specifically talking to the kids about how dangerous Juarez is, it's become recently apparent how much they've been listening. When I got off the phone with JJ last night and told the kids he was on his way home, Elayna responded with glee “Oh yay, Daddy didn't die!” Then this morning, Jordan came into our room and asked JJ if he got shot.

Oh dear, we are such bad parents!

Deep Thoughts by Jordan

I realized Jordan has been a bit underrepresented in our blog so far. So I thought I would take the opportunity to write down some favorite quotes and conversations we've had recently. He is quite verbally inclined and I am often surprised at the thoughtful observations and questions he makes daily.

One Sunday I asked him to get his clothes on for church and he sighed dramatically and lamented,

“I wish today was Labor Day.”

(me) “ Labor Day?”

(Jordan) “Yeah, you know... like it's Sunday but,we don't have to go to church.”

He was definitely too young to grasp the irony of asking for a Labor Day for Sunday-- the day of rest from your labors.

The other day I was dishing out food for lunch and he said,

“Be sure and get me a vegetable with a tail on it.”

(me) “yeah sure honey, ( I thought he was being silly)

(Jordan) “You know why, Mom?”

(me) “No”

(Jordan) “You know, because... Veggie Tales”

I tried to explain it was a homophone, that it was actually spelled differently and meant stories about vegetables. To which he replied,

“Then why didn't they just call them Veggie Stories?”

(probably because they more preoccupied with linguistical flow rather than children visioning thier food with tails)

A couple days ago, we were driving in the car and he asked,

“Mom do small trees grow up to be Big Palm trees?”

to which I explained only if it started as a small palm tree, just like he wouldn't grow up to be Laney. Which must have led to a leap in logic about a recent discovery we learned and he said,

“Mom, you know how babies have lots more bones than grown-ups, where do they go? Do they just disappear and go to Jesus or something?”

I love this kid!

Spooktacular Slumber Party

Since Laney Turned 7 on 10-10-10

Here's three 10's Celebrating Elayna

10 things I love about Her

   Her Million Dollar Giggle

Can produce any “lost” object within a matter of seconds

Loves games-- (like me)

 Gets giddy about programming and soldering (like Daddy)

Transitions from tears to laughter instantaneously

A motherer

Enjoys sorting and matching socks

Only houses lucky thoughts

Understands not only how to take apart, but also reassemble

 Fills our home with sunshine and silliness everyday!

Her name has also provided us with a gold mine of nicknames, here are

10  Aliases for her

Laney

Lane

Fast Lane

Lane Brain

Brainy Laney

Laney Luck

Laniac

Zaney Laney

Laney Bug

Laney Lou

And Finally...

 This year Laney wanted a "Halloween Birthday." It turned out to be quite a convenient theme. I'm thinking, a Halloween Birthday every year sounds perfect. Seriously, with just some face paint, hair color, and spooky music, I probably could have had them count beans the whole time and they still would've had fun. 

  
 10 highlights from her party this last weekend...

1. Decorations

2.  The Birthday Girl

3.  The Family Room Web

I decided to try the spider web game. I played this once as a kid and loved it, and I've always wanted to try it. You wrap individual strings all around the room and each kids follows their own to a prize at the end. Turned out to be slightly laborious to make and untangle- but the kids had fun, I think it took them at least a half hour to untangle their string, but they all stuck with it.

(It was quite entertaining to watch them work through it, see video at end of the post) 

4.  Their Trick or Treat Bags

5.  Dancing To Ghost Busters

6. Opening presents...

 thanks for the gifts-- she loves them!

7.  Bacci Bean Bag Toss

I have a funny story about little Pumpkin Face

When I told them we were going to paint faces she said.

 "My mom already told me we would get our faces painted.

She knows everything,

the Past, Future and the Present."

 Appearantly she does!

8.  Black Bottom Cupcakes-- a life savor

because everyone knows I can't decorate a party cake to save my life!

 

We started the movie pretty late, so there were some casualties

Even the birthday girl passed out in the end

 

9.  The die hards Celebrating!

 

10.  Birthday Friends!

Thanks for Coming!

Here is a video of some of the party in action.

I just love the kids dancing-- their individual personalities are priceless!

Skeletons, Spiders, and Cobwebs Oh My!

I am ashamed to admit, I have been a pretty bad mom when it comes to decorating for the holidays. I like holidays, I really do, but I think I don't appreciate spending money on something that will spend 90 % of it's life packed in a box in the attic (never mind the boxes I have that spend 100% of their time packed away, I'll deal with that hypocrisy at another time).

Don't get me wrong, we have a Christmas tree and some decorations, probably far less than the average person. But as far as Halloween goes, it has been reduced to some pumpkin candles, placemats, and a couple of prizes we won at a ward Halloween party. I think last year I didn't even get out the 5 things we had. It could be because we were sick all that month, or it could be that Halloween tends to catch me by surprise here in Phoenix largely because it comes at a time of triple digits and when I still sweat making the bed.

But this year it finally hit home how much I have deprived my kids of some of the joys of the holidays when I saw how excited they got making Halloween decorations for their room. Isabel acted like I had just given her lifetime supply of chocolate merely because I sat down and helped her cut out letters that spelled "Happy Halloween".

This is how their room turned out...

The last straw however, was when I entered the girl's room and found Isabel spreading out fluff from pillow batting to try and make it into spiderweb. While I gave her snaps for creativity, I felt pretty pathetic and promised to take her to the store. I was no expert in Halloween décor, but was pretty sure a couple bucks would buy her more fake web than she would need, and look like web instead of spider clouds.

So come Monday, we were on a mission to liven up our house with symbols of death, abandonment, and neglect. We got some web- in TWO colors no less-, spiders, and some orange lights for the window. Then they batted those long eye lashes at me, and convinced me to buy a sound activated poster of a skeleton emerging from a haunted door with flashing red eyes. Hanging this on our front door has brought a whole new meaning to our door mat that says “Welcome Friends.”

Our Screaming Door

Video -- Enjoying the door

The Final Product

(It's still not much but it made them happy)

 

The kids had a blast and I thought to myself who knew hanging fake versions of nasty secretions I tend to avoid, 8 legged creatures I abhor, and an ominous greeter from one of my nightmares, could be so much fun. Halloween is such a strange holiday.

The Flying Walkie Talkie

A week ago from Wednesday, we had, what we refer to as the Flying Walkie Talkie incident. It all started when Laney and her friends tied plastic bags to the arms of her stuffed monkey and were "parachuting" him over the second story wall above our entry way. On the tragic final decent, a walkie talkie perched on the wall, was inadvertently knocked off with it and plummeted down as the  dangerous companion to "chatty" the monkey. Elayna looking up to soften the fall of her beloved Chatty, got more than she bargained for directly into her mouth. From my perspective all I saw was Chatty with it's parachutes hit Laney in the face, along with a "chink sound." The next thing I knew, Laney was holding her mouth wailing and blood was pouring out into her hand. As we rush into the bathroom I couldn't help but feel a little frustrated and confused at first, as I  thought "what the heck did they tie to that monkey?"  As I helped to rinse her mouth out, between gasping sobs, I heard something about a walkie talkie, and turned around to see it on the floor beside a mangled Chatty. Then I realized what happened. Suddenly the severity of the situation became clear and I remembered the "chink" sound. Her hand opened up to reveal a large piece of one of her teeth. I desparately tried to get her to open up long enough to determine which tooth it was, and my worst fears were confirmed. It was one of her front permanent teeth.

A myriad of thoughts flooded my brain. I saw her fat bloody lip, and imagined how it must have felt to catch a descending walkie talkie with one's teeth from 15 feet below-- poor little Laney. Then I thought about her busted smile, but quickly comforted myself that modern dentistry could fix anything and her beautiful smile would be restored. Then I remembered, we didn't have dental insurance and I thought "oh, **** this is going to be expensive!"

The bleeding subsided fairly quickly and her lip didn't look like it need stitches. Being after 5:00 pm I knew we weren't going to the dentist that night. We reviewed some online information and were reassured it was a fairly common break and quite fixable. Still, we mourned the fact this was a defining  moment in her eating habits. She would need to be careful the rest of her life.

As the trauma subsided and she perked up we reflected on how the stars aligned freakishly, turning  a potential bump on the head into a cosmetic job.

The combination of her lip and broken tooth made her look like we abused her and I have to admit I am grateful it wasn't the normal face hit the pavement story. Because when asked how it happened, the humor of the story deflected what might have been "Do I need to call CPS?" thoughts.

We had to be telling the truth, because honestly, who breaks their teeth from a flying walkie talkie?

That Fateful Night

I called around the next morning to some places with many good reviews and found a cosmetic denist reffered by a hygentist over the dentist she currently worked for. I took that as a good recommendation. They couldn't get her in for a week. By then her lip had healed, which I'm sure that made the office visit more comfortable for her.

Off to the Dentist

A little Nervous-- You and me Both, babe!

The Damages

After he talked about what he was going to do to fix it (basically shape the missing piece and bond it to the tooth), the hygentist came in with the invoice. I braced myself for the worst. I looked down at the price at the bottom and about died.... thankfully from relief.  $315!!!  She asked me if that was okay, and I casually said yes, resisting the urge to say "are you sure that's right? "  Inside I thought "oh hallelujah! Where do I sign?"

He did a great job, You can't even tell, and it looks and feels just like her other tooth!

 It's amazing what an hour and a few hundred dollars can get you! Her ancestors would have been at higher risk for survival thousands of years ago and here she is, smiling and laughing like nothing ever happened.

 Oh the joys of modern dentistry!

Pirate Birthday Part 2-- Man Overboard

Saturday night After dropping off Isabel's friends, we headed back to the Lake to spend part two of her birthday weekend together with Laney and Jordan.

It had been months since we'd been out as a  family and even longer since we'd  stayed overnight. Our last family experience, we spent the day as a "dead animal" on the lake with a broken motor and no wind. Even the birds were circling us.

 It was nice to be back, and the winds were great the next morning.

We coasted back by IHIA island 

just as the sun went down.

The Next Morning

JJ decided it was time to teach the kids

the "Man Over Board" drill.

Throwing the "Man" overboard

Isabel worked the sail lines

Keeping their eyes on the man

Rescue Complete- nice work

It took a couple times to smooth out the operation. The 3rd time I jumped in as the man. After the intial "deer in the headlights," they got to work!

One

Two

Three!

I was looking at this picture of their little feet hanging down, and realizing they aren't so little any more. When I carry them up to bed sometimes, I wonder how their legs got to be so long, it seems like they were babies yesterday. It's wonderful to watch them grow and realize how capable they are and what a help they can be. If we ever really do have a "man overboard," I know our little rescue team will be there.