holland's prayer for the best

sunday, our family talked a lot about healthy eating. veggies, and all the sort.

monday, we planted the summer garden for fhe.

that night, dinner prep time was tight. i wasn't feeling all that great and tim was doing all he could just to keep things rolling. he made an easy meal so i could lay down but he could keep moving.

we ended up having beanie-weenies (my least fav of tim's menu, i have to admit) which is those sweetened beans and hotdogs cut up and ruffle chips.

tim apologized for the unhealthy food but he does like it so it's okay.

as holland gave the prayer, instead of saying "bless it to be healthy for us," he sincerely asked "please bless it to not be too unhealthy for us."

johnny's bubble in his ear

a few weeks ago, johnny's ear drum burst. he didn't complain until really late at night. by the time i got him into the doctors' early the next morning, it was too late. we ended up giving him bubblegum flavored antibiotics. johnny loved it and always talked about his bubblegum medicine.

last sunday night was again long with pain in the ear, even though the medicine was long gone.

so monday morning i got another appointment. after pain meds, he seemed to have forgotten it all, but tim still thought i should take him in. so i did.

turned out, he now had a blister bubble growing on his ear drum. the p.a., bill guaze, was very impressed johnny wasn't complaining more, as i guess it is very painful.

johnny was paying attention more than i thought he was, and after the appointment said he was sad the bubble meds gave him a bubble in his ear. i tried to tell him bubble meds didn't give him the bubble but he doesn't believe me.

when we bought the ($62!!!!!) meds for the blister, johnny asked to know what it was called.

i said, "cefdinir."

he looked alarmed and asked, "does that mean dinner will come out of my ear now?"

mary does not like the rain

you know your baby girl is a true south arizonan when she (mary, 23 months) screams in terror as raindrops fall on the hood of her hoodie.

oh, oregon! how i miss you and your amazing rainy days!

tee's flying tomato

we've outgrown our huge big reddish van. well, espcially with the foster kids, we were way pushing it with kids doubling up or just taking two cars.

so soon we will have to sell it. i won't be sad, i never liked it. but i won't like the next car either. i'll have to wait until all the kids grow up and leave to get a car i like and i'm not in a hurry for that!

the dark red color reminds me of a red fruit roll-up. tee always made me feel better about it because he named the car, "the flying tomato."

no, he doesn't like tomatoes but that's not why he named it that. he was just trying to make it a fun car and it worked. thanks, tee!

john and his directions

everytime johnny and i and anybody else are driving around town for whatever, johnny always notices which way i am driving. sometimes, most times, he will ask to go home the "sneaky way" (which means through the neighboring neighborhood, which is a windy road,) or the "spider house way" (which is through the neighborhood just north of us, that at one time had a house put up a fake giant spider for halloween a few years back), or the bumpy-straight way (which is the street by his school with two speed bumps then a straight street to the main street,) or the traffic way (which is the freeway.)

he just notices things and is observant when driving.

sometimes when i drive home, i will steal a drive behind the corner gas station. all the little stores are vacant because of poor economy so it is an empty little drivethru but i rarely go that way unless i am worried about leaving the other kids (are old enough) at home too long while dropping tee off or something like that.

one time, johnny was in the car when i opted for the short cut way. a train that runs diagonally had all the cars backed up for a ways and my other kids where at home. i felt justified. i told johnny it was a shortcut when he pointed out that wasn't the ususal way.

the next time, tim was driving with us as passengers. he pulled into the corner gas station to get some gas on the way home. (it is not the gas station i normally go to but tim was for convinience that day.)

johnny exclaimed, "dad! you're taking the short cut!"

benson is good with the math

i put the baby's carseat in the crib so as to have most stuff ready for when the time comes. benson questions,

"doesn't that go in the car?"

"yes, but we don't need it yet and there isn't room anyway." (we intend to get a 15 passenger eventually but i really don't want to send any money to a car payment right now so waiting until it really hurts to not have one.)( we have a 12 passenger one right now.)

then, he asks so sincerely... .."so, who are we going to get rid of?"

john's determination of santa's naughty list

"paul's on the naughty list, right?" he demands to know.

why, i ask.

"he won't do what i tell him to do."

that's his determination for paul (3) or anybody else does something that johnny (4) doesn't like - he's on the naughty list.

johnny's rationalization on the resturant star

johnny loves to notice things when we are driving 'round doing our errands. of all my kids, he is the best of knowing where we are and how to get to places. he just has a knack with directions and details like that.

one of the places we pass by is a carl's junior resturant. he once asked why we never eat there. i todl him because they have very offensive commercials so we don't like them. (although, i must admit, we haven't seen any commercials  lately so i don't know what is out there now.) he accepted that.

then the next day, he said,

"we don't watch sponge bob because he is naughty, right?"

correct.

indicating to the carl's jr, he said, "they're naughty, too!

correct.

after that, it's always been "sponge bob is so naughty" ever time we drive by. i thought he was doing it because he was associating the two of them together.

then i realized he was thinking it was one in the same becuase carl's jr has that star. i tried to explain to him that sponge bob was a square and that the star was different. i think he knows there is also a star fish on the program so it didn't matter to him. the star was a difinite sign that resturant was naughty.

oh well!

funny boy. i hope i haven't tainted the entire ocean life forms for him!

elisa's got gold on her teeth

they're braces, gold colored, not gold plated or anything like that. you can't really tell they aren't silver, like normal, but supposedly they blend in better so don't shine so much. she got them early this month.

she's awfully good about her hygiene and didn't have any issues with the pain. a little too easy for me, i even froget she has them on most times. she is younger than lots but her mouth was ready for it and she was wanting them so much.

she always has been a little more on the grownup side than kid side. guess that's what happens when your number one to turn to to help out with the young kids.

tee is growning up

tee's thinking about shaving. a little "whoa-ed" by it. he's now taller than me, as well. and, my mom said, that boy has muscles under his sleeves.

NOOOOOOOOOOO! my wittle baby!

ruthie's birthday party

i always mess up with the timing of ruthie's party because it is so close to tim's and christmas. her's is the 3rd of jan. she turned 9.

so i really wanted this year to be on time with it all.

still a little crunched with it, but i did get in two parties for her.

one was with gracie, her cousin. i like friends and family separate so my girls can really focus on their guests and so that there isn't that awkward school friends/ church friends/ family don't know each other feeling. i know, it's just me.

ruthie loves owls so they made owl pictures, owl braclets, and had owl cupcakes.

then, on saturday, ruth had two school friends over. they make owl jars, had a treasure hunt, and made owl pizza. and the owl cupcakes.

it was really fun. i love giving my kids their special time, and i love that tim supports me in being crazy with the girls.:)

jacob and his love for basketball

jacob's in basket ball this season. and he loves it. therefore, we suddenly have a huge bargaining chip with him. he doesn't want to do his homework? but doesn't he want to go to basketball practice? so he better hurry!

he's pretty good, too. the first few games, he was incrediably shy about getting into the game, hanging back a bit and even putting his hands into his pockets.

but, after i finally realized i should just have him wear shorts without pockets (even though they are orange and not red so don't match as well, sigh!), he has really learned to keep his hands poised to block the ball or catch it if it comes near him. he guards his guy really well, too! go jacob!

love that sports can totally build social skills and confidence!

elisa's birthday party

elisa invited 3 school friends for a saturday party. (yes, i like the small parites, too many people and it's hard to really pay attention to everybody.) she turned 11 on the 31st of jan.

only 2 could come but the third (summer) did drop off a present for elisa anyway. too sweet.

the other two girls are not members of our church so don't go to achievement days (or activity days?). so they were just in paradise with our party activities.

elisa decided on a monkey theme party. we glued monkey faces on aprons that i had presewn. we sewed sock monkeys (also preprepped.) and had root beer floats. (elisa doesn't do cake because of frosting issues even though i keep telling her i can make her homemade frosting. i think it's just an excuse to be different.)

the two girls couldn't do anything without a lot of help (never sewed and not to much experience with crafts) so it went slower than i had anticipated and we didn't get to our clever treasure hunt. but elisa was still so very pleased her friends thought it all was so fun. and they all really loved their insanely crooked-face sock monkeys. first inventions are always so treasurable!

very impressed that our church exposes our daughters to these kind of things early and they will have skills to do silly things, like make monkey aprons, later on in life! happy birthday!

johnny's diamond in the sky

johnny says to me, as we are driving home from dropping off the kids at school,

"look, mommy! there's a diamond in the sky!"

i look, smiling as i am sure he means something shiny in the sky, such as a hot air balloon. i can't spot it so i ask where.

he points (we were at a red light at that moment.)

i look and see it. nothing shiny but indeed a diamond...a diamond shape right above the traffic light. perhaps for the emergency crews to signal a green light?

yeah, i guess diamonds for him and me are different.

cross country tee

tee's cross country season is over. he averaged 3rd in his school, and about 5th or 6th per race. his fastest time is 9:15 for the lenghth but i don't know the lenghth. he runs faster than the fastest girl in any school. i told him that once and he said, yeah, well, no offense, but girls just don't know how to run fast."

i think he just can't admit he can run fast.  he always gets on himself for not coming in earlier.

i know some other kids are faster, but i'm still proud!

he is excited to continue it in high school.