One year!

One year ago today I started this ol' blog. And this is my 201st post (I think). So I should probably have something really amazing to say, but I don't. Just a rundown of my last few days.

Friday night Brett and I went on a date and played raquetball. It was SOO much fun, but I am a total pansy. My arm was so tired in no time. I never actually beat Brett, but one game I gave him a fairly good run. (Of course, he was playing left-handed, but that's a trifling detail.)

Saturday I took the kids to Lowe's and they got to hammer together some wood and made a truck. They really enjoyed it (especially Jethro) and they were so cute in their aprons and goggles with their little hammers.

On Monday we set up the little kids' tent in the front room, built a fire in the fireplace, and had tin foil dinners for dinner (cooked in the oven because the fire wasn't making enough coals fast enough). The kids started out the night sleeping in the tent, but couldn't keep from playing so had to get transferred to their own beds. The pictures are of Ethne being a monster and scaring the kids inside the tent. She had a ball doing this.

Yesterday I went over to a friend's house and let the kids play, and then came home to pick up Jethro from school. When we had picked him up and were home, getting out of the car, this lady came up to me and begged for a ride to the Food Stamp Office because if she didn't get there with this thing they needed before 4:00 they were going to tear up her application (which I don't buy, but if it were me, I wouldn't have wanted to go back on the bus the next day or whatever---it's freezing cold.), so I took her there. We had an interesting conversation about how you can be any age and go to Purdue (she didn't know that) and how she thought if you wanted to go to school and better yourself you shouldn't have to pay anything, the government should pay it for you. Hmm, wouldn't that be nice.

Anyway, I got home and started making dinner because the missionaries were coming over, and I was a little behind after taking the lady (and of course, Ethne had slept on the way there and back, so her nap was way too short, so she was crying and screaming if I wasn't holding her). I thought about calling Brett to see if he could come home early to help, but then I decided not to. The missionaries called and said they'd be a little late, so I managed to get all the food ready in time and most stuff cleaned up (Jethro vacuumed the living room--YAY for useful children!!), and then the missionaries showed up, but Brett wasn't home yet, so they had to wait in the car. I called him and he was still at work!! He NEVER stays that late, he always gets hungry and comes home, but of course, picked today to stay late. Anyway, we eventually did eat and it was good.

This morning I took the kids to Chic-Fil-A for breakfast because they're giving a free breakfast entree to everyone every Wednesday morning until the middle of June. This was awesome of course, and the kids played for a long time on the play place.

The other exciting thing for today was that Hazel started a little ballet class!!!!! She was pretty excited and I was very excited for her, and it was really fun. When I told her in the morning what exciting thing she got to do, Jethro said, "I wish I could be in a dance class. But not a gentleman dance class, a COOL dance class." I assured him that he could TEACH classes on how to dance cool (the kid is amazing).

Anyway, that's how my life has been going.

Conversations

A conversation with Jethro about names:
I was slicing olives, so the kids kept coming in to snitch some, and I told them that I have a grandma who's name is Olive. Jethro said, "Why did she choose that name?" And I said, "She didn't choose it. Her parents named her that when she was a baby. Just like I named you Jethro when you were a baby."
"Oh."
"Are you glad I named you Jethro?"
"Well, yeah, it's okay.....but I wish you would have picked Speedy. Or Flash."

A conversation with the missionaries about my husband:
--Hi, is your husband home?
--No, he's at work.
--Oh, we saw two vehicles?
--He took his motorcycle today.
--He has a MOTORCYCLE?!!!
--Yes.
--When did he get it?
--In the fall, but it's been in the garage, taken apart for the last little while, so he could play with it that way. Now he put it back together, so he rode it today.
--He takes things apart and puts them back together?
--Yes, it's the joy in his life, actually.
--He's really handy, isn't he?
--Yes.
--Is there anything he can't do?
Pause. --I'm sure there is, but I can't think of anything at the moment.

A conversation with my brother-in-law Blake about his new girlfriend.
--So we've seen each other pretty much every night for the last nine nights.
--Wow, nine nights and you still like her? That's a good sign.
--Yeah.
--But I don't get to see her tonight, because her BFF has to have some time with her.
Laughing my head off --Did you just say BFF? HAHA!
--And I don't get to see her tomorrow night either because her sister's husband is going somewhere, so she's going to visit her sister.
--Too bad.
--But it's okay, because I'm actually kind of sick.
--That is too bad.
--Yeah, I'm pretty positive she gave it to me. I guess I should've tried harder to keep her from giving it to me.
(suspiciously)--Tried HARDER?
--Yeah, she's really fun to kiss.
--That's what I thought.

philisophical question for the day

So, obviously there are different ways of doing things, but my question is, can they be equal, or is one way always actually better than the other ways? Take for a simple example, going to school. People do it in many different ways. Even the people that are devoted to graduating, doing well, etc. One person may study to absorb, understand, and liken as much of the information as he can, in other words, do his best. Another person may study to get the grade, remember for the test, or do what needs to be done to get by. A person can do very well by this method--I know because I did it. I have lots of "school" skills--I could always study the night before and do really really well on a test. And I always knew just how much effort I had to put into something to get an A. (This reminds me of how we'd show my dad a report card and he'd look at the 97% or whatever, and he'd ask what percent we needed for the A, and we'd say 94%, and he'd say, Why did you bother with the other 3%? Now this was in jest, but it's the kind of thing I totally get.)
So you'd think that it's the person who really did their best that is the 'better' way, right? But what if the get-by person actually gets better grades than the person who did their best? Is it still the better way?
But anyway, it's not really school that I care about, or was thinking about when I started on this thread.
So I do know that everyone is different and comes from a different place. So different ways of doing things should be equally valid, maybe. Except mainly everyone is trying to become better--trying to reach perfection, if you will. So perfection is a point say up high, and everyone starts funneling toward it, and as they go higher into the funnel they get more and more alike. So, then maybe some ways are better--they are the higher, more perfect ways. Then again, if everyone is different, maybe there are different ways of being perfect. Except I don't really buy that exactly.
Take me for example, I'm sitting here writing random, non-understandable junk when I should be mopping my kitchen floor. My mother would NEVER be on the computer wasting time when there was a floor to mop. In fact, my mother would have mopped the floor six hours ago if this were her house. To tell the whole truth, she probably would have mopped the kitchen floor about four times between now and the last time I mopped it. But then, maybe she actually mops too much--I mean, there has to be a point where there's actually too much mopping, at the expense of other things. Perhaps I'm not so far wrong to spend my time in other good pursuits. Or perhaps both ways are just as good. So, maybe I am just rambling all this because I'm trying to figure out if I can excuse my unmopped floor by arguing that there are separate but equal ways of doing things.

Another question of a non-philisophical nature. Why do all of the pants of all of your kids get holes in the knees at the SAME time??

Many topics.

So I decided I need to really REALLY exercise. I would say exercise more, but that would lead to the wrong idea that I actually exercise at all, which is untrue. But I can feel my muscles start to atophy, and I probably can't throw a football across my backyard (okay, I really HOPE I can, since my backyard is pretty small), but anyway--back to the point--I just don't find my Cindy Crawford workout video at all exciting and I don't like jogging and with three kids I don't know how to do anything more fun. Brett said I need to buck up and do it anyway, cause it's not like most people really find exercise fun. But I do find lots of exercise fun---sports, swimming, dancing, hiking, it's just hard to do those things right now. So. Anyone want to go play raquetball with me every morning?

I'm probably on this rampage right now only because I just spent the entire weekend curled up reading the Twilight series, and so didn't move or walk or do anything to get any energy out so I was feeling like a convalescent by the time I was done. The first night I finished Twilight at midnight or so and then, because the dumb thing has a chapter of the next book in the first one I got the next book out and started reading it and read till 3:45 when Brett woke up and realized I was still reading and yelled at me to get in the bed right then. Ooops. It's not my fault! I take no responsibility for my poor behavior--I blame it all on my genes. My dad stayed up reading whole nights when he read the Work and the Glory books--then went to work, then came home and slept on the couch.
Anyway, my opinion on the books is fairly low. They do (obviously) keep you turning the pages, but I simply canNOT sympathize with someone who can't figure out who she's in love with. The whole last book was Bella saying "oh, I'm breaking everybody's hearts but can't seem to stop myself, wah-wah-wah" over and over. Get a grip. Anyway. Oh, and the talk about immortality made me think of the book Tuck Everlasting (which is a PHENOMENAL book), and the talk about the vampires extra senses made me think of X-Men, and there was a vampire book by Robin McKinley that came out only a few years ago that was much the same too. (Not that I'm saying no author should ever write a book that's similar to another--otherwise there'd never be any new books, I'm just noting that all of these things came to mind.)

Anyway, if you want to read a TRULY good fantasy novel, read The Perilous Gard. THAT is worth reading over and over and over!
So, last week there was snow, and today was soooooo WARM! It was awesome! It was Jethro's first day back to school and so I took the kids in the stroller to pick him up, and we stayed and played on the playground for a while. Jethro pretended to be a pirate, and he started chasing me and Hazel, and then Hazel and Jethro became pirates and ganged up on me, and I really had to actually run fast to get away from the two of them--Jethro was SOOOO mad. He kept screaming, "That's no fair!!!! You can't run at top speed!!!" And I was like, "But I have to run at top speed or you would get me!" Anyway, it did much good for my lazy self. Jethro finally grabbed me at the end, and then Hazel came barreling into me and we all fell over and I was laughing so hard I couldn't even get up. So so so fun.

Hazel is so clutzy--seriously it is amazing. One of the nursery workers was saying how he was going to miss Hazel, how she's always happy and then his wife mentioned, "and she's such a great colorer--she has such amazing fine motor skills," and Brett's like, "Yeah, too bad she doesn't have any gross motor skills." hee hee. But he told me about this conversation at dinner time, and then he was talking on the phone with his parents later, and during the time he was on the phone she fell over or ran into something about 4 times. We laughed so hard every time. That girl really needs to learn to watch wear she's going. :)

Ethne has been SOOOOO ornery lately. It's not really her fault, since I think two or three teeth have been coming in at once, but really, she's been a bear. Last night she was being a little bit nicer, and giving Brett a few half-smiles, and Brett and I were shocked and decided it was like seeing the sun after 40 days and 40 nights of rain. Poor girl.
I made chore charts for the kids and it has seriously been FANTASTIC!!! I can't figure out why I didn't do this sooner. Hazel and Jethro have been making their beds everyday, their clothes actually go where they're supposed to go, Jethro sweeps under the table every day, has done dishes almost every day, they set the table, and Hazel has started putting her dishes in the dishwasher WITHOUT being told. It's AWESOME! Who knew that all I had to do was print out a silly little paper. Jethro says I should make one for me, and maybe that would be a good idea, then again, it would probably only help if my mom was checking it.

Hmm, what else is new? My little sister Lindsay, who's turning 19 in a month, just got braces. She SAYS it's because she's always wanted them (her teeth are not crooked, well maybe on the bottom a little, but not noticeably), but I know that it's because she thinks that way no one will ask her out for the next 18 months, thus making it a lot simpler to wait for her man while he's gone. Don't deny it Lindsay. You know it's true. ;)

One more story. This morning when I was still in bed, Jethro and Hazel came in to ask if they could watch a movie (what do they think I'm going to say---no, I think I'll get out of my warm cozy bed and actually take care of you--ha!) and when they were walking out, they started arguing about who got to choose the movie, and Hazel started getting upset and I heard Jethro explaining to her about Choosing the right, how that means doing what Jesus would do--I can't really remember if he was trying to persuade her to let him pick, or if he was letting her pick to set the example--but I thought it was so sweet! He just got his CTR ring from church yesterday, so I was so impressed.

Well, that's all, folks.

Writing.

First, I just have to say that Kami's case of morning sickness was the most contagious I've ever heard of. She had it, then Leo, then Ethne, then Jethro. Okay, so it was really the flu (although Kami really is pregnant and had been sick due to that.) So our New Year's festivities were not quite as festive as they could have been. But we still had fun. A nice couple in Kami's ward had a little party at their house, and as they are from Europe and had just had a visit from their French parents, they shared real European cheese with us. Brett was in HEAVEN. I think his resolve to move to Switzerland was completely solidified.

When we got home, we had a leak in a pipe, so the carpet in our hallway was soaked, but Brett fixed the leak, and we kept vacuuming up the water with our shop vac, and it's all good. It felt nice just to put the kids to bed and watch a movie. We watched Stardust, which was very good.

So, I think I already mentioned how Jethro has started writing by sound now. It is really so exciting to me, though I realize it's probably one of those things that's not as exciting to everyone else as it is to me. In fact, I can imagine that it really won't be JUST as exciting when the next kids start doing it (makes you think about how the firsts in a family may get different treatment--high expectations, lots of attention etc.). Anyway. It is fun stuff, so here's some examples. This above, "I love mom" was the first thing Jethro started writing all on his own after his name. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!





Do you know what this says? Tales of the Sea. He has the V in 'of' mixed up, but it's pretty cool, nonetheless.

And, this one--- My mom is the nicest girl. Awwwwwww again!!!!!!! And I didn't even tell him to write that. Okay, maybe I did. I can't seem to remember exactly....


And here is a book he wrote and illustrated all by himself. It was a month or so ago, so I did the writing for him, but I only wrote exactly what he said. The concept is all his. I don't know if you can easily see the words, so I'll write them for you.
Cover page: Mice Hide, Cat Purr by Jethro J Bell
Illustrated by Jethro J Bell


The cat chased the mice. The mice hid behind the tree. (His mice are very good, don't you think? The shape of their heads is excellent.)

The farmer found the mice and put them in a place to live with lots of cheese. (I think the farmer is so cool looking.)

The mice were happy with all of the cheese. There were three loaves of cheese. (I like his word choice there--loaves.) :)


The mice were settling in at night to go to sleep and they had to be really quiet because the cat was by their cage, but the mice did not get harmed. (Getting more verbose--I specifically remember talking about how wordy kindergarteners are in one of my speech path classes. They'll go on and on and on and on and their sentences will be forever long.)


The mice were sound asleep and the cat was too. It was almost dawn and the mice were actually awake but the cat wasn't.
(The End)

Great story, isn't it? I'm so proud. ;)

And a few pieces of artwork by Hazel. Remember the Christmas presents I made for my sister's family? How I cut out a picture of their faces and glued them on a canvas and painted their bodies? Anyway, as I was working feverishly on them one day, trying to finish so I could mail them in time for Christmas, Hazel came in and asked if she could use some of my papers, then my scissors, then my glue. These are what she made.

Uncle Tim:

Miriam, and Aunt Andrea. Awesome.

And a little something about Ethne, so she's not left out. When all my kids were born, my mom made them quilts. They all love them and sleep with them every night. They're all tied, and when Jethro was little, when we put him to bed he would grab one of the patches of yarn and rub it between his fingers and thumb. Every night--like a little comfort routine. Anyway, he doesn't do it anymore, but the other night I noticed Ethne doing it too! Very interesting, isn't it. I thought so too.

Live from Chicago

I am here in Chicago, visiting my lovely sister Kami. Kami is puking about every twenty minutes. It makes ME never want to be pregnant again, and I don't even get morning sickness!

But we have been having fun and laughing and doing crazy things like quadrupling a batch of chocolate pancakes because of a small issue with calculating a measurement of baking soda. Good times. Luckily, the pancakes are very delicious. With whipped cream and strawberries they are superb. Good thing since she'll have some in her freezer for quite some time. :)

My sister Lindsay told me a funny story. She's been at home from school for Christmas break, and one night when she came in, Ethan said, "Get out of here. You don't live here anymore. You're not allowed here." And she said, "I have doughnuts," and he said, "I accept you." Ha ha.

Speaking of my sister Lindsay, how many of you think she will wait for her misionare? I was talking to a missionary at church yesterday who goes home in about two months and it came up that his female friend dear johned him about nine months into the mission. He said it's okay--it was actually the most liberating day of his whole mission (but really, what else could he say?). Anyway, he claims that 98% of missionaries with a girlfriend get dear johned. So I was trying to think if that was consistent with my own experiences. I know my brother got dear johned, Kerry's husband dear janed a girl to marry Kerry, but my sister Andrea married the guy she dated before he left on his mission (though they didn't write each other while he was on his mission), and Ginger was still available when Loren came home. So if you had a missionary relationship, tell me if waiting worked or not waiting worked out for you. (I know, I know, you're not supposed to confess that you were "waiting", but you know what I mean.)



We started talking last night about how a guy in Brett's lab is going to get some mice with no immune system who live in a sterile environment to do experimentation on soon, and so the famous mouse with a human ear on it came up. You have seen this picture, right? Pretty nasty.

Hmm. Those are my thoughts for now. Have a nice day.

festivities

A chicken I made for Hazel. Here's the instructions.

A monster I made for Jethro. Here's the link (although I don't think the link goes to the beginning.)
What I made for my sister Megan and her family.


Funny kids.

Family Pictures through the Years

Notice how none of them were taken when I'm pregnant. I'm clever that way. :)

My weekend.

Well, I'm back. I got as far as the title and then had to go clean up and bathe a VERY poopy little baby, but at least I did my damsel in distress yell so well that Brett helped clean all the little spots on the carpet. I guess too many grapes at once wasn't such a fabulous idea. Hmm. And then, Hazel (who was very tired and whiny so she got sent to her bed where she fell asleep) woke up because she had wet the bed (I was afraid that would happen), so I changed her sheets and we got Jethro in his p.j.'s and prayers said and off to bed. So.

But that's not really the parts of my weekend I was going to share. On Friday night we had our ward Christmas dinner/party. (There's Jethro on Santa's knee--you can see that he paint all over his face from the kid's table where they were doing face painting and other stuff. He did it himself. :) ) When we got home, there were a couple packages from grandparents, so we took out the presents and put them under the tree. Then, after the kids went to bed I opened them all up. I just can't wait. Brett shakes his head at me, but I was very glad I did, because they each had some p.j.s, and usually I have a tradition of giving p.j.s on Christmas Eve (my family did this too) but this year I had some for Jethro from a garage sale earlier, but not the girls. I looked at Once Upon a Child, but there wasn't anything great in Hazel's size, and both girls already have a lot of p.j.s for their current size, so I just thought I'd forgo the tradition for this year, since I didn't want to buy new when they weren't really necessary--but turns out I didn't have to! So I took their p.j.s out and rewrapped them individually for Christmas Eve. Yay.
Here are some Christmas Eve jammies pictures from last year and the year before. That's my brother Ethan and sister Lindsay in the middle one.


Then on Saturday morning I went to a baptism to play the piano, and I actually got a little bit misty when the mom was giving her talk about baptism and she said how she was packing her son's bag today with all the things he'd need, and how it reminded her of packing a bag 8 years ago before he was born. Then I started thinking about how in a short two and a half years MY son will be getting baptized! It's pretty unbelievable. It makes me think I need to teach, teach, teach him. But he is already a very good kid. What a lucky mom I am.

Then I came home --and though I had been feeling chipper all morning, I started feeling a tad bit sick. I ate lunch, and then Brett took Jethro and Hazel to the library, and I stayed home because Ethne was still napping. There was a lot of things I should have been doing, (dishes, folding laundry, etc.) but I decided I would take a quick nap on the couch to hopefully feel better. Well, I slept a little bit, but then someone came to my door, so I hopped up really quick, answered the door, chat chat chat, and then when they left I suddenly felt AWFUL---soooo terrible. So I went to the bathroom and was hoping to maybe thow up so that perhaps it would make me feel a little better. Well, gradually my vision started clouding and I felt like I might die (not literally, I just felt really sick), and then I guess I fainted because I was on the floor and my head hurt from smacking it on the tub. It was so weird. I sat up and I broke into a sweat immediately, but after sitting for a little bit, I gradually started feeling better.

Ethne had woken up when the people came to the door, though, so I was quite worried that I wouldn't be able to do anything, and I wondered if I should phone the library and tell Brett to come home right away. Fortunately, he walked in the door right then, and I told him what had happened. He said I looked as white as a ghost, and he was a wonderful guy and let me lounge on the couch the rest of the day while he took care of everything. Actually, Ethne was pretty feverish too--she had gotten her 12-month immunizations the week before and the doctor told me she might have a fever reaction in a week. So, I laid on the couch and she laid on me, and I got to just pat her back and rub her forehead for a while. It was quite nice, since normally she would never do that.

Anyway, I felt better and though I was worried about whether I would be sick the next day or not, I pretty much was good after that. Except for a tender head.

So, today was our special Christmas program in church, with lots of hymns and musical numbers. It was planned for last week, but switched to this week because of church being cancelled for snow last week. (Which is why I was pretty worried about being sick--I could've called someone to play the organ, but that would have been VERY mean!) I even played one hymn sans-practice because the ward choir had too few people there to sing, so we did it for the congregation. Luckily it was an easy hymn and it sounded about the same as the other hymns that I had practiced (which is good or bad depending on how you look at it ;) ).

But the highlight was definitely when this guy in our ward with a P*H*E*N*O*M*E*N*A*L voice sang 'O Holy Night' (which is one of my favorite songs). His voice is amazing. He is somebody who doesn't use a microphone and it actually really fills up the whole room (many people don't use a mike when they should). And I thought that all my humiliations and embarrasments of playing the organ were all worth it because I was sitting right in front (and a little to the side) of him. Man. It really made me wish I had an incredible voice exactly like his (except that would be a little weird, because I'm not a man (at least I could have inherited a little of my mom's voice, which is also amazing and beautiful, but I didn't, so I'll have to settle for inheriting a bit of her fantabulous good looks. ;) )). Anyway, that song is awesome. Some of my favorite lines:

Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

Anyway. Moving on. I got to go to primary today to play the piano, and it was really fun because I like primary and because Hazel got to come visit with all the other nursery kids who will be the new Sunbeams in January. She's excited. She LOVES nursery, but we're trying to psych her up for being in Primary where Jethro is and everything.

And I got to wear my new black dress! So, I'll post a picture per request. (I know they aren't that great, I'm tossing around the idea of getting nice pictures taken with the girls with all of us in our black dresses, cause that would be fun!) I felt very stylish, but apparently I had misunderstood when I said that Brett didn't like the neck but liked the rest, because he said it looked like I was walking around in a bathrobe. Hmmm. How very honest you are, honey. Oh well. At least when he tells me I'm beautiful I know he really means it. :)

Anyway, have a very very Merry Christmas!!!!

4 more days!

Yesterday Jethro's class had a little program, and he was soooo excited for it, and for me to come to his school to watch him sing. I was quite excited too--unfortunately I got there about two minutes late and they were already through about five of their 10 songs. Oh well. He was so cute standing there singing so well, and he waved at me when I came in. I just love that kid. He's getting so grown up and he's so nice and thoughtful. Doubly sad was that Brett had stolen the camera so I didn't get to take a picture of him. :(

I'm very excited for Christmas! We're all done shopping for the kids (quote from Brett: "My favorite part about Christmas is test-driving their toys to make sure they're good." Like last year when he opened up Jethro's remote-control car and played with it for a couple hours on Christmas Eve) and I'm just finishing up making some cute little things for them, but every day I ask Brett if we can just open the presents tonight. He doesn't ever buy it. Spoil sport.