Phoenix Zoo

We went to the zoo with Kenneth's sister and Brother-in-law and their family. It was Christian's birthday and I thought that would be much fun.  However, his busy schedule wouldn't allow it.  Christian and Truman had a leadership conference at the high school.

Abby in front of the African Savanna.

Rebekah and the komodo dragon.

Hazel at the elephant enclosure.

And Nate, also elephant.

Addison looking out a faux tree, with a real cracker.

Sydney and the spider monkeys.

Madam Secretary

Abby and her friends decided to run for student council, but they didn't want to run against each other so they all chose different offices.  Abby decided to run for secretary.  She had a great speech and an awesome poster.  The day after the election she called me from school and reported that she didn't win.  Sadly disappointed.  When she got home I remembered to ask about the friends, no one of them got elected.  Resilient as ever "It's ok mom.  We started a club called 'people who didn't win'."  Now they all have to run against each other for class representative...

Blender Burn Up

Situation #1.  I have a personal problem with bananas. Sunday mornings when there are bananas in the house, Kenneth and the kids make banana milkshakes.   I can see why people would like them, but I can't eat them.   YUCK!

Situation #2.  I have a personal problem with blenders.  I burn them up faster than normal people.

Situation #3.  I am frustrated enough by situation 2 that last July (2010)  when I burned up another,  I researched a good blender.  Cooks Illustrated called it their best buy blender.  I bought one and smelled ozone 2 months later.  I called them and they said it was covered by a 1 year warrantee.  All I had to do was ship it to them and they would repair it or send me another one.  The shipping was almost half the price of the blender.  I got a new one in the mail from them 2 months later.

Situation #4.  Banana milkshakes Aug 21st got the better of the blender just 2 months after the warrantee was up.

Situation #5.  I am at costco and see a manly looking Cuisinart blender (we [I say "we" now because it wasn't me this time] haven't burned up this brand yet).  It has bigger jar and 700 Watts of power and a smoothie setting.   I make an observation to Kenneth that it is sad to have no blender and the one at Costco looks promising.

Situation #6.  It was my birthday and I was lucky to receive a cool Cuisinart blender, but the one in my lap is only 600 Watts.

Solution #1. The next day I sneak out to exchange the blender.  The very manly blender I desire is not there! I knew better.  Every time I see something at Costco that I really want and don't buy, it isn't there when I go back.  The nice guy checks in the computer and it doesn't exist.  I tell him my story and he looks again and discovers that it is only available online.  "maybe someone bought it online and then didn't like it and returned it to the store so we only had the one to sell. sorry..."

Solution #2.  I come home and find the 7oo Watt at Costco.com , darn it was more expensive than the one  at the store.  I looked it up on Amazon.com and it was the same price but with no tax. I checked for other deals while I was at it and found the "Ninja" blender.  There it was refurbished, in my price range and with 1000 Watts power.

Now: I checked the tracking number and it left New Jersey Friday.  I am anxious to see a demonstration of its 6 blade ninja technology.  Perhaps I will buy some bananas...

The Name Game

Legos are "IN", again.

For a long time the legos were in use daily.  Then the boys got busy and the legos were forgotten in their room somewhere.  A few months ago we moved the bin to Nate's room.  He was having a hard time keeping them in a useable mess, so we got 2 sets of Rubbermaid drawers and the legos were sorted.  The idea was that if they were sorted the drawers wouldn't have to be dumped on the floor.  Mostly what happened was that the legos were dumped, the drawers were left out, Nate's room was a really big mess, and no one was really playing with the legos.  I removed the legos to the living room.  I believe that the best description of the new lego status can only be described as MANIA.  All day. Everyday. Everybody.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I think I might be grown up.

I baked my own cake this year.  (Not because no one loves me, because the kids made me dinner in restaurant style the night before.  Then I slept in on my birthday and woke to find hot waffles ready.  Then Kenneth made me dinner after church.  It was curry, yum!)

I called my parents, instead of them calling me. (Not because I thought that they had forgotten me but because it was a good time for me to talk, and I was so grateful that they had me and raised me.  I thought maybe I should tell them so.)

I am old enough that I don't get all the candles.  (Kenneth made the candles binary to reflect my age.)

 Yummy, chocolate and peanut butter in an ice cream.  I think that my all time favorite ice cream (meaning the one that I can remember eating) was at Baskin and Robbins it was dark chocolate with peanut butter swirl.  My second favorite was a dove icecream bar that had pomegranate ice cream in a dark chocolate coating.  And 3rd favorite was a good quality orange sherbet with good quality chocolate bits in it.

 Hugs from the "little kids" and a popcorn popper.

 Hugs from the "big kids" and a new blender (they owed me see the post about blender burn up).

The Tooth Fairy Strikes Hard

Hazel has been wiggling teeth since she was 3.  She has been insisting that the teeth are so loose that Kenneth should pull them since she was 4. She has spent nearly all of her 5th year unfulfilled.  Until today!

Hazel, Nate and Lili (our friend from across the street) were out back "swimming" in the wading pool.  I hear screaming and I see blood as Hazel slides in to the kitchen with water pouring off her.  She is babbling and crying as she gets a wad of tissues and stuffs her mouth full.  Fully hysterical, she crys and dances.  I wrap her in a towel and sit her on a stool.  "What happened, are you hurt?" She nods. "Did you fall in the pool?" negative. "Did you loose a tooth?" She pulls all the bloody tissues from her mouth and wails "Ohh, Gross!  That is disgusting!"
"Hazel, you lost a tooth"
"I know!  Gross!"
"How did it happen?"
"Alls I did was bite a tennis ball"
"Were you playing Puppy?" (A common occurrence)
"No"
"What were you doing?"
"Biting a tennis ball"
"Why?"
"I lost my tooth!"
"Hmm.  Hey where is the tooth?  Did you swallow it?"
"Gross, NO! It's in here, you find it" and she hands me the slobbery bloody wad of tissue to look through.
Now it is my turn to say gross!  At least she has stopped crying, and her mind has cleared.  She puts the tiny tooth in a baggie under her pillow and checks every 10 minutes to see if the tooth fairy has come yet!

First day of school 2011

 I am walking the Elementary school kids out the door and I see the boys on the couch.  This was a big contrast to Nate and Hazel who were up and dressed at 6AM.

 Notice the neon green socks...

 Rebekah's rubberband art hair.

 Hazel a bit embarrassed at the requirement that she wear the tag around her neck stating which bus she rides.

 4 kids off.

 Sydney on her way out the door full of confidence and spunk.

 And wearing great socks!

 Christian is looking really tall these days don't you think?

And Truman.  A bit apprehensive about his first day at high school.  Luckily he has 3 band classes in his schedule.

Ready for another school year

Hazel and her friend folded all her new underwear today.  She told me that there is no way that she could go back to school with "messy unders".

Nate and Rebekah have each made 4 batches of strawberry freezer jam. (see photo below)

We have an appointment Monday to make our traditional multi-colored bread for first day of school sandwiches.

And most importantly: The deep freezer is nearly full of baggies of cookies.  For the last 2 weeks, someone has made at least 1 batch of cookies each day.  Everyone gets to try one or two and then all the cookies go into the freezer for school lunches.

We are ready for school!

Ode to Motherhood

Truman made this pan of shortbread.

Abby Mowed the Lawn

I

"heart"

M

O

M

Christian

Which is my best side?