Gaul Gossip

"Free" Living

2011-04-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today started our journey to gluten free, dairy free, egg free living for Phineas. I was told there is a huge learning curve to this new life. This can be seen in my first attempt at "free" bread.

I know. Yikes! Fresh out the oven, it wasn't too bad. Okay, it had the texture of a sponge, a really dense sponge. But butter on anything can make a vast improvement. Now all it is good for is bread crumbs. Which is great - we are having meat loaf this week and spaghetti with meatballs next week.

I did succeed in making "free" chocolate cupcakes from a GF cake mix. Phin's going to take these to his Easter party on Thursday. It's fun to send stuff that he can eat and that everyone else will enjoy too. If anyone is interested, I replaced the egg with applesauce (2 TBS for each egg) and the sour cream with soured potato milk, then cut back the water to 3/4 C. They turned out really good. Even Adam said they were good.

Phin did really well today. He was excited to eat his Cocoa Pebbles with his "special" milk. I tried to toast "the bread", but butter couldn't save it a second time. For lunch/dinner he had peanut butter sandwiches (thank you Mette for the bread) and then he enjoyed a chocolate cupcake as a treat. Tomorrow we will try "free" chicken nuggets for lunch and the meat loaf for dinner.

And although this post sounds nice and cheery, making these changes has been anything but. Adam and I were grumpy and grouchy and everything got on our nerves today. We took a walk to clear our heads (and cleaned the kitchen together) and that helped a lot. Deciding to do this now is not convenient either. We are going to relative's houses for Easter and then we have a week and a half trip to Portland. Trying to eat "free" when you are not at home is a challenge. But I really think this will help Phin. So I'll do it and enjoy it.

Medical Madness

2011-04-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

When it comes to the mysteries of medicine, the internet can be a blessing - and a curse. How many hours have you spent on WebMD when you or your child was sick? It's the old "is it serious enough to call the doctor?" question. So you type in the symptoms and it tells you "yes, you need to call the doctor" or "no, just get extra rest and drink lots of fluids." Great! The internet just saved me a $65 office visit.

For me, though, the internet has been a curse the past little while. Our little Colin will be six months old next Friday. As of yet he does not roll over or bear any weight on his arms or legs. As I mentioned before he has constant fluid in his ears and is not verbalizing as much as he should be. He's also had respiratory infections or problems from the time he was two months old. So I started searching and have nearly sent myself (as well as my wonderful pediatric nurse) to the loony bin.

"What could it be?" I kept asking myself. Cerebral palsy? Ataxia? Spinal Muscular Atrophy? Pretty soon I was reading blogs and looking at pictures of wonderful children who couldn't even hold their own heads up and the incredible parents who care for them day after day. I was so scared. I called my pediatrician - "Let's do an ultrasound to see if there's brain damage. Or how about blood work to see if his CPK levels are high. They do genetic testing in Spokane, you know. We could overnight the sample there." Finally, Adam and my pediatrician told me I had to stop. Colin has a well-child visit at the beginning of May. Two weeks is not going to make a difference either way, they told me.

And they are right. So, I've let it go (as much as a mother can). I still try to get him to stand up on my lap and with some massage we've actually achieved a five second stand. But until the first of May I am just going to enjoy my baby.

Just for reference to how insane this week has been, we've already seen the naturopathic doctor (Phin is allergic to everything I feed him apparently), the chiropractor, the audiologist, the urologist (Colin is having surgery on his testicle), the pediatrician (George has strep throat) and the speech therapist. We're looking forward to seeing the developmental specialist and the optometrist before the week is over. I am thinking we probably should have put more money in our flex spending account, hmm?

Little Big Blessings

2011-04-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I stop and think of how good I have it. Since it is spring break, a friend with kiddos similar in age to mine asked if I'd like to spend some time together. The plan was to go to the library and then head to the park for a picnic lunch and outside play. It was supposed to be 61 degrees today.

The weather man lied and it was cold, windy and raining. So we opted for the indoor play place at Burger King. How great is it that I can take my kids to lunch at the drop of a hat? We don't do it all the time, of course, but it's definitely a blessing that the option is open to us. We are so fortunate.

Later, while looking over my calendar for the month, I noticed at least 7 appointments this month where I will need someone to watch one or more of my brood. Seven! So I sent an email to our Relief Society sisters and BAM! within an hour three of the seven are taken care of. Isn't that awesome?! I love Relief Society.

Little big blessings all day long and waffles with crisp bacon for dinner. Plus Adam did the dishes! How can I not be happy with a day like today?

Running Away or My Husband is Awesomer than Your Husband

2011-04-03T21:10:00.000-07:00

Four kids under the age of 6 one of which has been congested, coughing and basically unhealthy more of his life than he's been healthy, and another who should have come with "DIFFICULT" tattooed to his behind. I've been sleep deprived for six months and had a doctor's appointment every week for the past two months. I'm really concerned about Colin's health but have given the "wait and see" diagnosis from the doctor. I was yelling at everyone and crying at the drop of a hat. So Adam made me run away.

He gave me all of his blow money from the past few months and told me to go away for the weekend, stay in a hotel, eat out, sleep in, do whatever I wanted to do (within reason since I would still have to take Colin with me). So I found a deal at a hotel in Spokane and Thursday afternoon, I ran away from home. It was so nice. I read a book that did not have pictures, I slept until 8:30, coaxing Colin to sleep with my finger in his mouth for the last two hours, and I went to a museum without worrying about anything being broken.

I had written "The Plan" a couple of weeks ago when Adam stayed home from work because I physically and mentally could not take care of the kids one day. Here was the plan:

1. Get 7 hours of sleep, be in bed by 9:30 pm

2. Take my vitamins

3. Drink more water and eat healthy (no treats until after dinner)

4. Move each day, exercising for at least 20 minutes

5. 15 minutes of scriptures, 15 minutes of journal (blogging counts)

6. Pray on my knees, morning and night

7. Go "to work" three days a week to get household "stuff" done, don't let "work" interfere with family time.

I was going to do this for 14 days. It lasted about 5 days. But after my weekend away, I'm starting again with new determination and a grown up "sticker" chart to reward myself for the days that I stick to the plan. I guess I never gave up the need for gold stars.

So here's to being happy. Or at least having the energy to act happy. Goodnight.

The same -- but different

2011-03-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

So as mentioned in the last post, Phineas and I took a road trip to Spokane at the beginning of the month. Here we are at Red Robin. He just had to have his picture taken with the carousel horse.

There we found out that he has a mild to moderate hearing loss in both ears. His loss is similar to George's in that he cannot hear higher frequency sounds. The ENT and audiologist were shocked that he can speak as well as he can. After hearing that he needed aids, I felt guilty for not catching it before now. I've always considered Phineas my "challenging" child, and here he was compensating for not being able to hear well for four years. What a strong kid. He has definitely shown that he can adapt well to nearly anything (except being told no). And because of that, I know that he has incredible potential. I have no doubt that whatever he decides to do in life, he will accomplish it. He's one of my heros.

Here he is with his new aids (he picked purple and blue ear molds and loves them):

He's been good about wearing them most of the time, only requiring short breaks here and there. They have a clip that attaches them to his shirt, so even if he takes them out, they are not going anywhere. His adjustment has been quicker than I thought it would be.

At the park with his rock "baby"

Although we went through this with George and much of it is the same (cost, doctors visits, audiograms, school IEPs, etc.) some of it is different. There wasn't that wonder in George's eyes when we put his hearing aids on for the first time. With Phineas, we had a hard time keeping him quiet to try and test him with the aids in the sound booth. It was like, "hey, I can hear myself! I think I'll just keep talking, making noises, whatever." With George it has been the way of life. Wake up, get dressed, put on the aids. He takes care of them himself and except for changing the batteries or occasionally clearing out any moisture, I don't even touch his aids anymore. With Phineas, I have to remember to put them in a safe place when he is not wearing them, check the batteries, put them in his ears, watch that he is not taking them out. I've also seen the benefit of them almost immediately. He is more precise in saying his words (the blended "L" sound making an pretty consistent appearance, as in "bLue" "famiLy" and "pLease") since he put them on two days ago. He will start speech therapy again next month and I think this time will get so much more out of it. We are excited to see his progress and amazed at his ability to "make things work" up until now. What a trooper.

And speaking of troopers, had to share this photo of Colin, who was just so tired.

Poor kid has had a cough or congestion for 3 months. Older boys keep bringing home stuff and he gets it all. Thank heavens for nebulizers and albuterol.

Random Update

2011-03-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

I've got to be better at this blogging thing. Yes, now I have four very active little boys and everything else in my life has been on hold, so why should blogging be any different?

So Colin is growing up. What a good baby. I'll nurse him, put him down totally awake, say "sleepy night night" and not hear a peep out of him until about five hours later. He's very patient and hardly ever gets cranky. Love, love this kid.

Thanksgiving was good, spent at home with friends because there was terrible snow in the passes. Christmas we made it to Boise and loved every minute of it!

Adam and I got a big screen TV for Christmas and a Roku box. Now the boys don't know how we ever survived without "the magic movie box", even threatening not to go to Grandma and Pop Pop's anymore because they don't have one. It was definitely an upgrade from the 15 year old TV that was missing some shades of yellow and blue so that if a scene was in the snow, you really couldn't tell what was going on.

We are in the middle of birthday season. We told the boys that they could pick one fun activity to do on their birthday. Phin wanted to go swimming and was insisting that I open the pool, in January. So we called around to the local clubs and found one that offered a family pass for $23. We went there and the pool was closed. So we called the other club to see if they would price match (never hurts to ask). They said better than that, they would treat our family to free swimming for Phin's birthday. Boy was he happy. We had an absolute blast and three very tired boys.

He also wanted a Dora cake. George almost had a heart attack because "Dora is for girls." But that's what Phin wanted --

For Spencer's birthday we went swimming again and had a blast. No pictures because the camera was on the fritz. But here is a picture of his cake. Went pretty simple. He's so laid back, he was just happy there was cake.

We went winter camping for the first time up at Camp Zarahemla. We had a nice cabin there that took about 7 hours to warm up. The boys were sleeping in their snow clothes it was so cold. And did I mention that Colin DOES NOT like the cold. At all. He was awake most of the night even after being bundled up and sleeping with me. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We got to camp Z and set up in Cabin 3. Really small with no table to eat at, but warmed up nicely. I unpacked while Adam took the boys to the restroom (that was like 1/4 mile away). George came back without Dad and then Dad came back with Spencer and no Phin. Phin had wandered off. Luckily we found him quickly and set strict limits on where he could go. The caretakers mentioned that Cabin 4 was available and bigger than 3. So we packed up and moved over. As we were moving, Spencer found himslef alone in the cabin and decided to check out the gas stove. Burned fingers. Thank goodness for snow right outside. Just got settled when it was time to heat up dinner (wished the cabin heated up as well) and then get ready for bed. Adam took the boys to the bathroom in the truck, not wanting to loose anyone in the dark. When they got back, Spencer fell out of the truck right on his face. Yikes! Blood everywhere and a big gash on his lip. It needed stitches, but we were about 45 miles from the nearest hospital, it was 9:30 at night and snowing. So we got the bleeding to stop, and with help from the caretakers and their popsicles were able to stick it out through the night. Poor Spencer kept waking up telling me his fingers and head hurt. Note to self: always take children's Tylenol and Benedryl. No sleep was had by mom that night. At this point, camping was no fun at all. But with the rising of the sun, we found a new love for being away from it all.

The binky helped him from biting his lip and making it bleed again and again.

Five new inches of snow had fallen and we went sledding. When I say we, I mean me and the kids. Yes, I got on the sled and then after a few times remembered why I don't sled. It's hard on an old body. The boys just loved walking around and eating snow too. We'll probably go back next year but remember to ask them to turn on the heat before we leave our house.

Then came the week of medical mishaps. Tuesday, I took Colin to the doctor because he's been coughing and wheezing for it felt like months. They checked him out, took a nose swab and sent us home with an antibiotic. We picked up the boys from school and as I call Phineas to lunch I find him in the den with hearing aid battery stickers all over his pants. "Where are the batteries, Phin?" "In my tummy." Yikes. Thoughts of mercury poisoning go through my head, I called poison control. They wanted to make sure that none were stuck in his esophagus, so they told me to have him eat and drink and see how he did. He did fine, so I was told to just let them pass, but to get an Xray to make sure that none were caught up anywhere.

Yes there are five hearing aid batteries making their way through Phin's tummy.

The next day was our trip to Spokane. Phin had been referred to the audiologist at his four year checkup. They couldn't get a good test here and the screening showed hearing loss, so we scheduled a sedated test in Spokane. Road trip! We got to the ENT, he cleaned out Phin's ears (could have grown potatoes in there I guess), and then the audiologist took him to see if she could get a behavioral test before we sedated him. She did a great job and we ended up not needing to sedate him. He has a mild to moderate loss in both ears and will be getting hearing aids on Wednesday. He was so excited and to tell the truth so were Adam and I (after swallowing the $4500 price tag). We are hoping that lots of Phin's behavior has been because he can't hear us. The ENT said to give it a year and if we haven't seen any changes in his behavior he would be shocked. So two boys in hearing aids with speech therapy and IEP's at school. We are having Spencer and Colin retested. Spencer speaks so well, however, that I have no worries about him. Colin, you never know. It could be that the 25% chance of genetic hearing loss should have been 25% hearing just fine. Hey, one out of four ain't bad.

We took the Xray after getting home from Spokane. Then we got the test results for Colin. RSV -- off to the doctor's office for a breathing treatment on Thursday and then a doctors appointment for me on Friday. And, no, it was not to the psychotherapists office. The next week I talked to the doctors office so many times following up on Phin and Colin that they almost didn't need to ask my name anymore. This past Friday when I went in for well child exams for Spencer (perfect health) and Colin (possible undescended testicle) I asked if they had missed me. So now it's back to the doctor for an ultrasound on Colin and possible follow up. Our flexible spending account didn't even last until May. I'll be sure to put in more next year. With four growing and active boys, it seems the wise thing to do.

Baby Boo

2010-10-25T20:37:00.001-07:00

Though everything indicates that Baby Boo was right on time, it's hard on the psyche when you think you are going to have a baby around the 11th of October and then he doesn't actually show up until the 22nd. But he is here! He was born Friday morning at 10:18 a.m. (my dad wonders why I couldn't hold off for 4 minutes so he could have been born at 10:22 on 10/22). The home birth was a wonderful experience. I woke up at 3:00 and counted contractions until 4. Then I woke up Adam and we came downstairs and got everything ready. The boys got up at 7 and when Adam told them I was going to have the baby, Phin gave me the thumbs up and said, "Good job, Mom." I stayed pretty still while Adam got the kids breakfast and off to friends who took them to school and into their homes. My midwives came, enjoyed breakfast and got everything else ready. It was pretty nice to just relax (between contractions) and watch everyone else running around. I started to walk around about 8:30 and less than two hours later there he was. It was perfect and went faster than I thought it would. Here is the first picture of him. Still getting his color, but very healthy.

This is my great midwife, Dr. Frazier, weighing our new baby boy. 7 lbs. 8 oz.

The new family photo. The boys were excited to see their new baby brother. We were still calling him Boo until Friday night, when Adam and I agreed upon Colin Adam Gaul. We still have to remind each other not to call him Boo. All three of them love to hold the baby and can't wait for him to wake up. I tried to tell them that new babies sleep a lot, but they still insist on placing cars and trains on him when he's fast asleep hoping he'll wake up and play.

Spencer seems to be adjusting fairly well to not being the baby. He always asks about the "bee bee" and wants to hold him and share his drinks and food with Colin. What a cutie!

What a blessing each of our children has been to our lives. I feel so grateful to have four healthy, happy boys. I marvel at the things they do and teach me everyday. I am also grateful to know that they are mine for eternity, if I live worthy of it. I can't think of anyone I'd like to spend eternity with more than this wonderful little family that Adam and I have created. Adam is wonderful, coaching me through the labor, helping me to keep confidence in myself that I could do it. He's taken over Mom duties for the week and does it better than I do. I love him so much. Thanks, Ad, for being my strength and example always.

So here we are, a family of six and I am loving every minute of it!

Bad Mom and Heavenly Protection

2010-09-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

Have to write about my scare of the day. George and Spencer were playing out back "building a space ship" according to George. Spencer was helping with the decor by piling dead grass on the "wings". George came inside and I continued to check on Spencer every few minutes. Our back has been broken for a few weeks. I propped it up to keep the kiddos corralled, but a big wind storm blew it over.

At one point I couldn't see Spencer and as George was going outside, I asked him to check. He went the other direction and I went out the back door to find Spencer. That's when I heard the first honk. I ran around the pool, hoping to see Spencer near where I had last spotted him running with his big Tonka dump truck. No Spencer. Then I hear the second honk. I run around the house to see a car in the middle of the road, Spencer crawling onto the curb, my neighbor picking him up and his dump truck stuck under a parked truck on the other side of the road.

My heart racing, I ran to grab him (thank goodness for my neighbor), waved a thank you to the lady in the car and went to retrieve the dump truck. That's when the police officer approached me.

"Had an escapee?"

I explained that I he had been in the backyard and I had just seen him back there a couple of minutes ago. The officer asked for my I.D. and for Spencer's name. I gave him both and told him that I really had seen him in the backyard two minutes ago.

"I think it was more than two minutes," he said. And he was probably right. Spencer was heading away from the open gate the last I saw him, I was busy making dinner and didn't think he was going to pass the blown down fence on the other side. I may have been three or four minutes. But it could have been the last three or four minutes of my little buddy's life.

I cried for the next half hour until Adam got home. The first thing he did was screw the blown down fence into place. It won't open now, but at least I won't have to worry when the kids are out back. I was just waiting for CPS to knock on my door. I am so thankful that Spencer was protected. And not just this time. This is his fourth time venturing out in the road, always when I have stopped watching him for more than a minute. I think today was Heavenly Father saying "Okay, I've warned you, now the police have warned you. Get it right or it might not work out so well next time. You're not being a very good steward. Now, stop cooking and watch out for your kid!"

No excuses. I will do better - anticipate the worst and hope for the best. My kids might never see the front yard again.

Construction

2010-09-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Adam is working overtime tonight, so I don't have anyone telling me to go to bed. Thought it might be good to catch up on the blog.

As some of you know, we moved into a new-to-us house in January. In April the remodel began. We planned on combining two bedrooms and a bathroom to make our master suite. Over the next several months we removed a bearing wall (thanks to engineer Allen for helping us "suspend" the roof), ripped down the other walls leading to the baby's room and an extra small room that had been set up as a sort of sitting room, moved tons of insulation (I know insulation doesn't weight that much, but Adam has shoveled his way to the east coast and back with as much as he has moved up in the ceiling), redid plumbing and electrical, rebuilt two walls, gutted the bathroom and rebuilt the shower, installed can lighting in my new walk-in closet and put "exploratory" holes all over my dining room wall.

Here are some before pictures:

This is the ceiling of my bedroom. The big beam running from the top left hand corner down to the right is what is helping to support the roof since we took down the bearing wall. It also helps that we are building another wall just three feet from there. No worries on the roof caving in... this thing is solid.

Here is the wall of my bedroom. Adam had to put in extra supports in the walls to hold up the new beam. Can I just say the remodel takes twice as long because you have to destroy stuff before you can put up new stuff. Adam has become the master of destruction. Anybody need to borrow a crowbar or a maul ax?

Looking into my new bathroom. You can see the new Pex plumbing for the shower. There were only a few leaks while we were testing to make sure everything was hooked up all right.

THE MAN. Did I tell you he has spent every weekend for the past month working on this. And that means working from 8:30 in the morning until around 7:30 to 8:00 at night. He is standing in front of the wall that will lead from our bedroom into the closet (on the right) and the bathroom (on the left).

As of today the sheet rock has been hung and taped and the first layer of mud put on to try and patch up the mess we had to make above. We are on a time crunch now because I don't really want to have a baby in the tiny room we are living in now. I keep giving Adam and his AWESOME dad a count down -- only five more weeks, guys! Hopefully I will be sleeping in my new master suite and bathing in my newly tiled shower by the end of the month. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Summer Randomness

2010-09-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

Summer is officially over. But I thought I would post some random summer pictures just so I remember how great it was.

Spencer has discovered the greatness of farmer's market corn. He's also graduated to the table and out of the highchair.

As mentioned in the last post we went to the Seattle for the weekend in July and of course had to go to the Pacific Science Center. We really could spend the entire day there, but four hours was enough for me. It also helps that with our $35 pass to our local "science center" we get in free over in Seattle. SWEET!

Spencer is a budding musician.

George thought this was awesome. "Just like Harry Potter, Mom!"

Spencer's not afraid of anything - - bring on the T-rex!

I think Phin is supposed to be a circus bear. In any case, you can't help but want to hug him.

We've also spent the summer doing the normal things. This is movie night, our new Tuesday night tradition. Had those boys a bowl of popcorn and pop in a Scooby-Doo movie and they won't move for an hour and a half.

George dressed himself for church the other day. He did loose the cap and the boy scout bandana right before we went in. I do kind of like the orange and blue plaid with the black and white shiny vest. Sassy!

Adam reads "special stories" to the boys every night. It is usually from the Book or Mormon or Old Testament readers. This night must have been special because they were reading from the Book of Mormon coloring book. Adam and George have added all sorts of commentary to the pictures, including blood on Laban's sword after Nephi has killed him and something about "Give us the drugs, Laban," when they are asking for the gold plates. I just like to sit and listen to Adam's version of the story. It makes it new again.

Finally, (drum roll please) George lost his first tooth! I thought he was too young, but one day it was loose. We ate pizza for dinner one night and after he was done eating I noticed his tooth was gone.

"Where's your tooth?"

"I don't know"

"You must have eaten it."

So George wrote a letter to the tooth fairy: "Dear Tooth Fairy, I ate my tooth. From George Gaul" Luckily the tooth fairy was a good sport and left a dollar in exchange for the note.

Summer has been great, but can you blame me for relishing in Tuesday and Thursday mornings when George has Kindergarten and Phin has preschool and it's just me and Spencer for two hours?

Day Out With Thomas

2010-08-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

Well, it won't become a family tradition, but we did spend a day out with Thomas the Tank Engine back in July. We planned a trip to Seattle the same weekend, so it didn't feel too out of the way. All the boys were excited but I think the eight train tables and the puppet show were the highlights. In the end we had to drag them to see the actual Thomas the Train because "someone" had put a bounce house right in the way.

Phin was in Thomas heaven.

They had a Punch and Judy puppet show. The boys loved it!

Riding with Thomas. They advertised a 20 minute "ride with Thomas". It was 8 minutes up, sit and wait for 4 minutes and then 8 minutes back. The coaches were old and hot. As adults we were like "what a waste", but the boys didn't care.

Last stop of the day, meeting Thomas. This was the best shot I got, even if the "professional" photographer's arm is in the way.

Yes, Phin, it's Thomas.

Spencer, pointing to Thomas on the tablecloth.

If you want a review of the day, it was okay. The train ride was actually the lamest part of the whole deal. Not really worth what we paid or the three hour drive. The boys have nearly as much fun playing with the train table at the Barns and Noble.

Angels

2010-07-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

I know all of you have gone to church some Sundays and spent so much time out in the hall that you wondered, "Why do I even come?" That was today. Adam threw his back out on Friday fixing the toilet. Some little hands had flushed the toilet paper roll holder down the toilet. Usually Adam is the one to take the boys out if they are being disruptive at church. But since he couldn't do that today, the job fell on me. And boy was it a toughy today, starting as soon as we pulled into the parking lot.

So after our family saga was played out in front of the entire ward during sacrament meeting, I found myself crying in the bathroom hoping no one would talk to me so that I could pull it together long enough to do sharing time in Primary.

Can I just say, my ward is full of angels? Some came and helped me when I had two boys out in the foyer crying. Others came and took the crying baby from my arms so that I could get my stuff together - both literally and emotionally. One of our bishopric members gave Adam a hug and both of us heard a lot of "We've been there, we know what it's like." After church, another person came and brought brownies. Each act of kindness brought new tears of gratitude. Heavenly Father was saying, "You're not alone. Others have made it, you will too." Boy I needed that. To all of you angels in the Sunset ward - THANK YOU! It doesn't seem to be enough, but I hope I will remember this day and when I see a mom frazzled beyond belief, I want to step in and say - Let me help, I've been there.

Mom Thoughts

2010-07-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

The past two weeks have been HARD. And it's all because I'm a mom. All you moms out there tell me this:

Do two shoes ever get put away in the same place?
Are all children able to repeat the same phrase over and over at least 50 times in a row?
Can you ever change the subject with your small child when in the state mentioned above?
Will getting out the door ever be pleasant - or timely?
Do your children think that as soon as they ask for something - crackers, chocolate milk, etc. that it should magically appear within seconds?
Does there ever come a time where you do not have to repeat a request/question/demand more than three times before getting any kind of a response (besides the phrase being repeated 50 times)?
Is potty training a nightmare for everyone?
Do you ever just want to scream as loud as your kids, right in their face, just like they do to you?
Can this miserable job of being a mom really be the biggest blessing of your life?
Is the laundry ever "done"?

I love my little Phin and I know that somewhere in heaven my mom is laughing her head off when she sees the things that he does and how he can spin me like a top. "No" is the answer to everything. He will say he wants one thing and as soon as you give it (or don't give it) he all of a sudden has changed his mind. And not once but multiple times during the day. Often, by the end of the day he has completely worn me out. I just want to lie down and sleep for 14 hours without hearing the pitter patter of little feet coming into my room.

On Thursday, I broke. I literally broke. This has never happened to me before. I'm sure a great deal is due to pregnancy hormones. We were playing on my bed, me and the three boys. Suddenly, the wrestling turned a little too rough and someone was pulling my hair. "Get off, get off, get off," I repeated. In the end there were two bigger boys flying off of me and me screaming at the top of my lungs, "GET OFF OF ME!!!" And then I broke. I started to cry, along with the two little ones. Phin, who got the full force of my wrath and little Spencer who doesn't like loud noises.

I tried to go for a "time out", but none of our door have locks. So I ended up bawling with two boys on my lap bawling too and George hiding out in his room, hoping to escape any punishment. Then I couldn't stop. I tried and I tried to get it together, but it was like my body was resisting every effort. Thinking if I went on as normal I would feel normal again, I went out to the van to get my gym bag. When the sliding door wouldn't close, I gave it a "little" help. I could hear the pieces falling on the ground and then the door wouldn't close. Now, I'm a total mess. I call Adam, sounding, I'm sure, like someone has died. Sobbing, I tell him about my morning. He realizes that I am totally unable to function and arranges to come home. I cry for the next two hours - getting up enough courage in the meantime to call my dear friend to come and get my kids because I know the first little tiff could put all of us in serious danger. Adam came home and I slept for the next three hours. But it really took me about 24 hours to regroup.

I only share this, because I know there are other moms out there like me who think that they are failing at every turn - or at least flailing at every turn. Moms can get broken. Moms need time to repair. Moms need daily maintenance, or at least weekly maintenance, in order to keep functioning. Take care of yourselves, moms. And know that you are not in this alone. Heavenly Father, the perfect parent, sends his angles to watch over you.

Identity Crisis vs. Imagination: You Decide

2010-05-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

So for the past couple of weeks George has taken on a new persona every few days. At first, he was obsessed with the movie "Up" and was a Junior Wilderness Explorer. He wanted to know if we had any badges. I didn't think so, but then it struck me that we had saved Adam's old scouting stuff. So we dug it out of the dress up box and, low and behold, the badge belt became the badge sash. We had a bandana and cap and with his backpack packed full of atlases and scriptures he was ready to go. Unfortunately, I only got a picture of him in the cap, but Spencer got to play wilderness explorer too, so just imagine George in this outfit.

After the wilderness explorer phase came the strange "girl" phase. George found a mullet wig in the dress up clothes. But to him, a five year old, it's not a mullet, it's a girl wig. So on it went and now he was a girl named Kaitlyn (it's a made up persona, so I don't know how to spell her name). It was fine when we were home or at the playground and I even let him wear it to the gym, but I started to worry when it was time for school. Should I call his teacher and tell her she had a new student? Should I call the school counselor? Luckily, "Kaitlyn" informed me that you can't wear wigs to school. Whew! Here is a picture of "Kaitlyn" dressed up as Wolverine. (Yes he still acted like a boy, so no worries.)

He would also dress up as "Kaitlyn the Wilderness Explorer" and "Kaitlyn the Superhero". So Kaitlyn was pretty much George in a wig dressing up as other imaginary people.

Kaitlyn has not been around very much lately. It's just been George. Which is great. Because I adore George.

***

To continue with the Kaitlyn bit, George has insisted that the new baby be a girl. He wants a sister so badly. And of course her name would be Kaitlyn. I've asked him what would happen if it was a boy.

George: "I don't want a boy. I want a sister!"

Me: "But it might be a boy. What should we call him?"

George: "If it's a boy, we should call him something funny, like Boo. I want it to be a girl baby though because I love girls and I hate boys. We don't need any more boy babies."

Much to George's disappointment, we will be having another boy baby. We haven't decided on a name, so I guess for now we will just call him Boo.

Birthdays

2010-05-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

It's been nice having all of our birthdays at the beginning of the year. My birthday is in December. Phineas is in January, Spencer in February, George in April and Adam in May. It makes the first part of the year lots of fun and clears up summer and fall for, well, summer and fall things.

My birthday first: Went to Tony Romas, the temple and got a new Flip video camera. Okay, it's been months and I'm still trying to figure out how to add video to this blog.

Phin's Birthday:

A Thomas book from Grandma and Pop Pop

A tool kit from George and Spencer

And "Mood it mood it" (a.k.a. Madagascar 2) from Mom and Dad

Plus a special trip to McDonalds. This was the day we moved into our new house, so Phin kind of got jipped on a cake. I don't think he minded. Now he's three. What a big boy. He's in speech therapy and doing fantastic. He loves to go and play with Kris.

Spencer's birthday:

I know the first birthday is usually a big deal, but I figure, he won't remember, so we kept it low key. Just our family, cupcakes in cones and presents that everyone enjoyed.

He got a bubble maker (hours of fun, okay about one hour, before it broke) and a fun book that reads to you. He wasn't walking at the time, but within four weeks he was all over the place. Now I have to chase him down to put him in the car.

George's Birthday:

We had a Chinese birthday party with a couple of friends (for any of you that know the real story, don't feel like going through the pain all over again). George had a blast. We made Chinese drums and had some fireworks. We played Dragon Tag (just tag with a cool name) and had some good cake with Happy Birthday George written in Chinese. He got a coloring tablet, a light up frisbee and a "Super Hero Starter Kit" complete with mask, wrist guards and cape (thanks to my great friends Ramie and Tina for helping me out).

The Chinese theme continues today. He "writes" in Chinese on the back of his school papers. He knows all about the Great Wall and the clay army. He has a guide book for China and talks about going there almost every day. We have a friend who does a good deal of business in China and has the Rosetta stone software that has helped him with his Chinese. He has promised to let us borrow it when he is finished and George can hardly wait.

Adam's birthday was as uneventful as mine. We were actually camping at the time, which would have been fun except for the 60 mph wind gusts and the rain. Here is a cute picture though, before all you know what broke loose.

We celebrated the next weekend at Monterosso's, our favorite Italian restaurant. It was for Mother's Day as well, but we didn't actually exchange birthday/Mother's Day gifts until the weekend after that. It was more of a "birthday month", which Adam loved.

Now we have a problem. Something that is going to totally mess up my birthdays-at-the-beginning-of-the-year thing. A baby due in October. October! What am I supposed to do with that? I guess it could be the beginning of our holiday season. Birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthday, Birthday, Birthday, Birthday, Birthday. Come to think of it, this is great. Now our celebration season can last from the first part of October until the 1st of May. SWEET!

Thanksgiving, Christmas & Birthdays

2010-03-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

So we have had a VERY busy winter. Soon after taking the photos in the previous post Adam received an offer for a permanent position with CH2M Hill. We had been house hunting and had found one that we liked. Okay, so now we have officially found EVERYTHING on Craigslist. It was a converted duplex with tons of space. But more on the house in the next post. With trying to get everything squared away with the house, the holidays, packing up and moving, I haven't had time to post. So here goes the update.

THANKSGIVING:

We went to Boise for Thanksgiving and enjoyed a great holiday with Adam's family. Both Evelyn and Gideon celebrated their 2nd birthday during November, so we had two birthday parties on top of the Thanksgiving bash. Adam's parents were in Atlanta visiting their son James and his family. George and Phin were disappointed to get to Grandmom and Pop pop's house and have it be empty.

George liked this game, but I think Evelyn has a sour face because he's not playing it "right".

Yum! Turkey. This was right before Fay almost set the house on fire when she forgot to take the candied yams out of the oven above. The marshmallows were totally roasted. It smelled just like camping.

Spencer before he learned to crawl on all fours. The hardwood floor is ideal for army scooting.
Fay looking all sweet and wonderful -- which she is. She is also pregnant here but didn't tell anyone until three weeks ago. With Evelyn's reaction to Fay holding Tank, I think Fay better get ready for some sibling rivalry.

"Bring on the Turkey!"

The food was delicious as always (especially Brandon's gravy). Like I said, we also celebrated two birthdays while we were there. Evelyn invited us all to Monkey Business, an indoor playground with an incredibly big slide. Even I was scared going down it.

Then we had fun at the house with Gideon and family. It was a house full of boys with George (4) Phin (almost 3) Gideon (2) Spencer (10 months) and Tank (6 months).

CHRISTMAS!!

Who doesn't look forward to Christmas? Upon arriving home from Idaho we went out and bought a Christmas tree. We wanted to cut one down, but you have to travel like 1 1/2 hours to get to any worthwhile trees. Next year, we might just get a permit in Oregon and pick it up on our way home from Thanksgiving. They have great trees in Oregon (not to mention, no sales tax). We decorated our little house, hung the stockings with care and made our Christmas lists. George wanted four things: (1) a Diego backpack (2) a Harry Potter Scene It game (3) a Twilight Scene It game, and (4) a Harry Potter wand. Okay, so Santa only came through on #4, but, a Twilight Scene It game? For a 4 year old? He hasn't even seen the movie. All in all I think the boys enjoyed their Christmas. I know I had a wonderful time savoring every one of my Andes mints. Plus I got a cool Flip video camera that I will be downloading video's from in future posts.

Sorry, don't know why the pictures are all fuzzy. Pretend you don't have your glasses on, then they'll seem normal.

Christmas morning--

Spencer loves his horse -- now if he could just stay on it.

They joy of headlamps. The boys wanted to play chase in the dark for the rest of the morning. By the way, they are also sporting the pajama bottoms I made for them. I figure I'll take advantage of their lack of fashion while they are young and make them wear cheesy pajamas at Christmas. It won't last long.

Yeah! Harry Potter! I think he's on page 3. No really the kid can read like a maniac. He sits down each Sunday with the comics and reads almost every word (except for Doonsbury, where even I don't know half the words).

Phin and his trains. He loved this gift. He still packs up his trains into "Daddy Thomas" (shown open on the floor) and puts them under his bed. This after refusing to let him sleep with them under his pillow.

We'd never even seen the movie, but now it is one of our favorites. George can do a perfect impersonation of Russell, "My knee hurts!"

The Harry Potter wand as promised. And the glasses to match. He wore those everyday until they inevitably broke.

Adam's parents opening their 65th and 63rd presents. Man, for people who you think have everything, they sure get a lot of loot at Christmas.

Me and my honey on Christmas morning. Adam's parents got us these hats that say "Shut up, big mouth." I don't know if it was a message from them to us or a message that we should give to each other. In any case, I like the hats.

So that brings us to the end of 2009. I'll start on 2010 next week. Right now it's my bedtime (9:00).

Playing in the leaves

2009-11-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

Just some fun fall pictures. Enjoy!

Couponing Revisited

2009-11-04T20:36:00.001-08:00

Okay, I'll admit it. I am now addicted to couponing. This afternoon I almost called a babysitter to sit with my kids while I went grocery shopping before all the good stuff was gone. Today was my best shopping trip ever!

Here is a list of what I got:

10 boxes of cereal (the boys just love Cocoa Puffs)

9 cans of Progresso soup

2 Cottenelle flushable wipe refills

1 Lipton soup mix

1 box of Kleenex

4 Progresso broths

4 Yoplait Yo-plus 4-packs

3 Danimal 4-packs

2 Healthy Choice frozen entrees

6 Betty Crocker boxed potatoes (au gratin, you know)

4 cans of frosting

Bananas

2 lbs. of baby carrots and

1 gallon of milk

Grand total = $20.24

Yes, it was awesome! I did have a $10 gift certificate from a newspaper subscription special, but everything else was coupons and specials. I'm going back on Friday to get more Kleenex. I'll get 30 boxes for about $10 and then $15 of free groceries. Whoot - whoot!

The Flu

2009-11-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

Isn't it convenient that they come out with the swine flu vaccine after most of America has already had it? We had our turn last week. George started it on Sunday night. Phin followed during my primary presidency meeting on Tuesday morning and Spencer chimed in on Thursday afternoon. I basically had a mild case all week long and I'm still fighting the runny nose and coughing even now, a week later. I wished I could be like the boys and just sleep for three days straight. Wait isn't that the dream of every adult at some point. Heck, you don't even have to be sick to wish for that one.

This was how our week looked:

In this next one George is trying to smile. Even when he's sick he's cute!

We are all well now. Adam was very blessed and escaped unscathed. He was a trooper helping with the boys every night and making sure I got plenty of rest. He even went in late one day to make sure I could sleep in. I love that man!

Halloween

2009-11-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

Oh the fun of Halloween! Whoever invented a holiday where people give you free candy is okay in my book. The boys made out like bandits at the trunk-or-treat. There must have been four wards there. We walked around getting candy for nearly 40 minutes. It was HUGE!!

George was a cowboy (thank you, my boy, for choosing a cheap and easy costume). Phin wanted to be a frog (like last year) and then Tigger (another costume we have on hand) but finally decided on a pirate. Again, with a two dollar sword from Goodwill and party favors from a recent birthday party, the pirate was a snap. I should mention that Phin is crying in the picture because I lashed his saber to his side and he wanted to carry it. Which really means I ended up carrying it all night.

Spencer was the duck (like every previous sibling). He was still getting over the flu, hence the binkie and the sad look on his face. Poor kid.

Travels

2009-10-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

I just downloaded all the pictures from my camera, so here is a long blog that is mostly pictures. This first batch of pictures is when we climbed Badger Mountain in August. The boys were troopers, walking the whole way up (about 1.5 miles). They call it a mountain, but it's more of a hill that sits on the west side of Richland. From the top you can see all of the Tri-cities and on a clear day you can see where the three rivers intersect as well as the Cascades far in the distance. They boys ran down, and I ran with them since Adam had the baby on his back. It was great fun and we'll probably make it a summer tradition. Note to self: bring toilet paper next time. (Ever notice how your kids have to go #2 at the most inconvenient times?)

Next we went to the fair - meaning me and the boys. Yes, I was a brave mama and took all three boys to the county fair by myself. Thank you to all the nice people on the bus (yes, we took the bus) and at the fair grounds who helped us out. The boys were excited to ride the bus, especially Phin. We looked at the animals, petted the bunnies, ate cotton candy and pizza, watched a lady do tricks with a lasso, got freebies at the commercial barn, got our free cowboy hats and almost rode the ponies (a fight broke out right before they were to get in line, so we had to get back in the stroller -- so sad.) I actually saw another lady there pushing a double stroller with an infant on her back. It was like seeing a mirror image and we stopped and gave each other pats on the back for being such good moms to take our kids to the fair alone. A bus ride home made it easy to get them to leave all of the excitement. I was pooped but we had a blast. Will I do it again? We'll see.

Next it was off to Seattle for the weekend. Our friends KC and Jessica put us up for the weekend, got us a sweet deal on some City Passes, treated us to German Pancakes and "Special Drink" on Saturday morning and enlightened us with their talks on Sunday. Jessica and her two kids, Julia and Scott also came with us on the first day. We had a blast. The first stop was the Science Center (after a delay at the ferry where we checked out the Naval Museum). We spent the entire afternoon there (after a jaunt through Pike's Market). The kids loved it and George still tells me he wants to go back to Seattle so that we can go to the Science Center. He even drew a couple of pictures for me to show me what fun it would be to go to the Science Center again.

The next day we went to the aquarium where Phin got to see the octopus that he had been looking forward to for the whole trip. He was fascinated with them before we went, and who can blame him. An animal the size of a small horse being able to fit through a hole the size of a quarter. Amazing!!! And check out this way cool video. Anyway, the boys loved the aquarium as well and wanted to sit forever in the dome watching the sharks and sting rays and fish.

We also went to the Experience Music Project where the boys got to play the drums, mix music and watch videos on a two story screen. Just a word of warning, this is more for older kids. Ours thought it was okay, but really wanted to go to the Science Center again.

Of course we had to go to the Space Needle. It was a good day and you could see probably 30 miles in every direction. Again, not that cool for kids (they can't really figure out how to use those telescope things, although they insist on you holding them up so they can "pretend" to use it) but a must when you visit Seattle. Don't worry, Phin was never in any danger of falling off the top, it just looks like it.

This was on the monorail on our way home after three days of fun. Isn't having a good time exhausting?

For the Labor Day weekend we went to Boise to see Adam's family. We were able to get the whole family together for a trip to the zoo on Labor Day. We always have a great time there (especially with Mom and Dad feeding us so well.)

To finish things off, this past weekend we made our way to the Country Mercantile for the Fall Festival. It was COLD but fun. They had a corn maze, huge hay bale pyramids, a carousel, bouncy houses, and the best salsa in the world (at least that comes from a store). They also had these very talented teens who played the xylophones. Incredible! They didn't even have music. They had all the pieces memorized.

Okay, so now you are up to date on the Gaul family and our travel. Things should be pretty quiet here, travel-wise, for the next little while. Snow in the passes makes driving next to impossible. That's okay, we don't mind being locked into our little heaven here in Richland where we are experiencing all four seasons, NOT shoveling snow and loving the fall colors.

More Love and Logic

2009-09-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

The last time I wrote about love and logic, I was completely against it. But a friend commented that she knows people who swear by it, it just takes practice. Knowing that this friend would never steer me wrong, I decided to try it again.

And, miracle of miracles -- IT WORKED! Most of the time...

For example, I hauled all three children to the copy and binding store to get our family calendar bound. We had been practicing the "Uh-oh" song at home and it had started to stop Phin in his tracks. But would it work outside the house? I told the boys they could walk around, but that they couldn't run; running is for outside. Phin, of course, began to run around the displays of paper. "Uh-oh," I sang. And he stopped! I walked toward him saying, "So sad, looks like you need to come and sit with mommy for a little bit." And he stayed put! He didn't run off, throwing a mischevious grin over his shoulder. He came with me calmly, sat by my feet for a few minutes and then, when let go, walked. We had to practice not running about three times in the 20 minutes we were there, but I left there relaxed, calm and not at all frustrated with this little boy who had been running me ragged.

Another example: George was playing outside in the dirt when I called him in for dinner. "No, I want to keep playing," he told me. "Okay," I said, "But dinner time is now. Do you want to keep playing or eat dinner."

"Keep playing," he said.

So we ate without him. He came strolling in as we were cleaning up and told me he was hungry and wanted to eat.

"Oh, George. I'm so sorry," I said. "Dinner is over."

"But I'm hungry," he cried, not believing that I would actually refuse him food.

"I know, I'm sorry."

He cried and whined, but then realized that I was serious and that he had chosen to play instead. The real kicker came when Grandmom and Poppop showed up that night with ice cream.

"Only kids who ate dinner get to have ice cream," Grandmom said. And so poor George watched while we all ate ice cream without him.

It sounds cruel, but George has not missed dinner since. And he eats what we are having, knowing that there will not be another option.

We have also used love and logic in helping them to clean up their toys. "Pick up the toys you would like to keep," we say. And after 10 minutes, I pick up any toys left out and they go into my room. I thought this was backfiring on me one week, because they were not picking up any of their toys. They would simply move onto the next box of toys that they hadn't played with in a while, when the other toys disappeared into my room. After about three days they each had one Matchbox car left to play with. Everything else was in my room. What was I going to do with all these toys. I didn't think I could make them earn them all back. The I had a stroke of genius.

I set up a "toy store" in the boys room, labeling each of the toys with a "price". One chore for this toy, two chores for that toy. I gave the boys chores on pieces of paper and had them shop. Any toy that they didn't buy went to Goodwill or was donated to the nursery at church. It cut down on the toys, got the ones I had out of my room and made the boys work for the ones they wanted to keep. It was great. I think I'll do it at least twice a year.

So, it works ... most of the time. I still have questions (like how do I give a consequence to one boy that affects the whole family?) and we still have our hard days (did I mention we got kicked out of the library recently?) but all in all it makes parenting a lot more fun and less stressful. I'm not so exhausted at the end of the day. That's not to say that by the time the weekend comes I'm not ready for a little me time. Adam knows that Friday dinner is bound to be difficult (it's hard to practice everyday and not kind of slack toward the end of the week, right?) But he handles it like a champ and I love him for it. So we will keep practicing, singing "Uh-oh", and giving away chores like candy. The greatest thing is, I haven't had to clean the toilet myself for weeks!

Couponing

2009-09-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

There is a woman in our ward who can buy $200 worth of groceries for $30, I swear. She does it all by couponing. When Adam heard about the miracle of clipping coupons and told me about it, I was all for giving it a try. So I went out and bought my binder with my plastic baseball card sleeves to hold my coupons and sharpened my scissors. I got two Sunday newspapers and printed more coupons online. I clipped and organized for at least three days. I made my list and hit the supermarket.

The first deal was the Kraft deal. If you bought $25 worth of qualifying Kraft products you would get $5 off your next purchase and a $20 check in the mail. So the groceries were FREE. However, I found that a lot of the "qualifying" items were things that we didn't need. But I had to buy $25 worth, so I loaded up on the grated mozzarella cheese - after all you can always freeze it.

The second deal was to buy 10 Kellogg's items and get a $10 rebate check. So I loaded up on the cereal and the Pop Tarts and the Yogos (really just candy disguised as a nutritious yogurt covered fruit snack).

The final deal was if you bought four "qualifying" General Mills items, you would get a free gallon of milk on your next visit. So I piled in the General Mills items. So, with my cart full of sugar cereals, crackers and mozzarella cheese, I made my way to the check out. I had a coupon for nearly everything in my basket and I was confident that I was going to be able to whip out two $20 bills and pay for it all. Then I was going to get all that money back and free milk.

Then there was the coupons themselves. 55 cents off TWO. $1 off SIX. 60 cents off ONE 15 oz. box. I had to read and reread all of them. Did my purchase match, was it the right size, the right brand? Oh the detail! I nearly started hyperventilating before I even made it to the checkout.

And here were the other problems. I was so worried about getting $25 of Kraft stuff that I way over bought. I mean, were they counting the regular price, the sale price or the price I actually paid with my coupon? I didn't know, so I just piled in the qualifying purchases, hoping it would hit $25. I did okay on the Kelloggs, but you needed an "original store receipt" to claim both your Kraft and Kellogg rebates! Oh, no, they only would give me one, what was I going to do? So I had to go back and have the store manager print me a "report receipt" from the computer. As for the free milk, I was so confused with buying the Kelloggs cereals and other products, trying to make sure that I had ten, that I only bought 3 qualifying GM cereals and thus lost out on the milk deal. I walked out of there in a daze, my head spinning.

Basically, I came home, having spent our entire weeks grocery budget on cereal, crackers, macaroni and cheese and shredded mozzarella. The store receipt said I saved over $100. But I felt like a total looser and that I had wasted my time and my family's money. I still had to go to a different store the next day and buy meat, bread, eggs and MILK because there was no way I was paying the other supermarket's inflated prices.

The lesson I take away from this - clip and stock up if it's a good deal, but don't count on getting the food you actually need this week from coupons. I'm going back to my old grocery store where everything is on sale compared to the "coupon friendly" supermarket. I spend less and I get what I need for my family. There's so many other things that cause stress in my life, I don't need to add grocery shopping.

House Hunting

2009-09-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

I have a friend who hates to house hunt. She hates shopping too, and house hunting is major shopping. Adam has gotten a permanent position here in Richland, so we have begun the house hunt.

I swear we have looked at more than 30 houses. Old houses, new houses, houses that don't have all the walls up yet and houses that have too many walls. I mean, why take 2000 square feet and then divide it up into a bunch of little boxy rooms? It's been like any other house hunt. You love the yard, but don't care for the house. You love the house, but the schools leave something to be desired. You love the school, but can't afford the house. You walk into the house and wonder if they are serious about selling it. One of the last houses I looked at had growling animals in cages in dark rooms and a basement where the only light came from an aquarium holding a large snake. Yikes!

Then you think you've found it: a house in your price range with (almost) everything. This one has the square footage we want, a large yard on a cul de sac with a pool and a park right across the street. However, no storage, it's a split entry and the driveway goes down from the street so you have to get a running start up the hill and there's the chance for flooding if it rains too much. Little things, I know, but enough to delay a decision and someone else snatches it up. The housing slump has not hit Richland. Most houses are sold within 60 days. That puts a lot of pressure on a buyer. I'm not sure I can make a life decision in 60 days, but I guess I'll have to.

It's such a huge decision, you know. I mean, our children will grow up in this house. These will be the schools that will teach all of them. This neighborhood will be ours. I'll have to navigate stairs for the next 20 years. What will the ward be like?

So the search continues. One thing I do know. The Lord knows what an important decision this is, and the home that we are supposed to have will be there when we need it and we will know that it's ours.

Trains

2009-09-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

Yard sales have become a family tradition. If I ask George what he would rather do on Saturday morning, watch cartoons or go to a yard sale, the yard sale will invariably win out. I don't know if you would consider it cheap or thrifty, but we have even started to look for Christmas gifts at yard sales. We've found some great treasures on our Saturday morning outings, not a few of which are trains.

Phin loves trains, and when you can get a whole set for $5, we love trains too.

As you can see, it's a family affair. Even Spencer is into it. Phin, our little engineer is never happier than when he is playing with his trains. Except for maybe if you throw in a popsicle with the trains. Then it's heaven.

Where to begin...

2009-08-04T20:36:00.000-07:00

Not that something exciting has happened or bad, I just haven't written in a while. The first part of this post is called "Fun With Creepy Crawlies". We talked about bugs and did some "bug" projects. The first was these cool "bug glasses". You'll notice that George had to take off his Harry Potter glasses in order to put on the bug ones.

Next we got some worms and checked them out up close. Our cute neighbors came over to help out with the project. I think I could have gotten a good two hours of entertainment out of those 20 worms.

This is Edvin, the youngest of the Khripchenko bunch. George loves to chase him around and shoot him. Then Edvin plays dead. Edvin also enjoys a good shouting match with Phin.
This is Julia, our great babysitter. It's wonderful having her right next door to watch the boys whenever. The boys love her and she's making bank on us since we use her at least once a week. I don't know what I am going to do when school starts.
Phin was very cautious and careful with the worms.

George was a little more -- expressive -- with the worms. He kept holding them up and saying "ooooooo" over and over again.

We've had all kinds of activities these past few weeks. Adam's Mom and Dad came over during the 24th of July and we went to the boat races. Basically, it's NASCAR on water. And from what we hear, the Saturday evening crowd has NASCAR written all over them. We enjoyed the more "tame" trials and Adam, his parents and the older boys got to tour the pits. Sorry, no pictures of the boats, just this cute little ditty of our favorite older couple.

We also did some "garage sale"ing and I picked up some new winter hats for the family.

Spencer, as you can see, is not impressed. But the older boys were happy with their new duds. Too bad it was 98 degrees outside or I think George would have kept his on. The visit with Mom and Dad was great. After the boat races me and the boys went to the stake 24th of July celebration. Big thanks to the Erickson's for taking care of Spencer while I went around with George and Phin (forgot the stroller). Next was Art in the Park. Note to self, leave the menfolk at home and just go with Mama. We had a great time, but didn't get to see half of what was there. Dad declared it a great success, mainly because Mama didn't buy anything. Adam spent the time calling realtors to see if anyone was available to take us house hunting, while the boys played in the dirt around a tree. Poor kids.

We did get to go house hunting and our finds are in another post to come. Too bad we didn't find anything really promising when Mom and Dad were here. We have found some things since, but like I said, for another post.

On Monday my friends from Seattle (actually, they are from Salt Lake, but live in Seattle now) passed through and we had a great afternoon and evening together. Their son Scott was my new best friend instantly. It's nice when kids are fooled into thinking I'm a nice lady. KC and Jessica, we are excited to see you next weekend!!

Tuesday we had our new friends the Homers over for dinner and Adam and Brandon planned the Elder's quorum activity to be held this Friday. I'll let you know how it goes. Should be a lot of fun. On Thursday we tried to beat the heat at the river, really the only time you can go to the river because it is so COLD. But when it's 104 and there is no shade in sight, it's easy to take a dip in the chilly waters.

Yes, this is Spencer. The only hat anyone had on them was for a 3-year-old girl. But it kept the sign out of his eyes. That's my great friend Ramie (the one who surrogate mothered for me at the stake activity on the 24h of July). She is so good with my kids and has the patience of a saint. God bless you Raime!
George and Phin spent as much time on the "beach" as they did in the water. It was basically a mud pit, but they had a ball. After, we all had to take a bath and I caught this cute one on my camera phone.

Does it get any cuter than this? When things get tough and I want to run away (not far, just to the library for some peace and quiet) I look at this picture and remember what a blessing each and everyone of my children is. I wouldn't trade any of them for anything.

Later that night we went to Harry Potter, leaving Phin and Spencer with a babysitter and taking George with us. He was so excited. We enjoyed the movie, but I was a little worried that George would get scared during the cave scene, when the dead guys start crowding the island. It was Adam and a friend that went with us that got the most scared. Adam jumped out of his seat and clung onto George, who was cool as a cucumber. No nightmares or anything. We are definitely ready for number 7 and I have a mind to re-read the book just to be sure I'm ready.

Anyway, the August post is coming soon, just to get you all up to date. Here's some teaser titles so you know what you have to look forward to:

House Hunting

Trains

Couponing

More Love and Logic

As my friend Michelle says -- Peace out!

Trying to Stay Cool (a.k.a. Water and more Water

2009-07-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Our week was spent trying to stay cool. We had three 100 degree plus days here this week. It was like walking into an oven when you went outside. So we spent nearly every day at the splash park in Kennewick or the wading pool in Richland or, the big treat of the week, the Surf n' Splash Water Park in Lake Moses. We went there on Saturday and it probably would have been worth the 1 1/2 hour drive if our kids were older. But they were happy just playing in the wading pool or floating in the lazy river. Next time we will go over to Hermiston (only 40 minutes away) and play there.

I also got our first utility bill this week and opened it with hesitant fingers. I imagined huge charges since we are running two to three air conditioning units, ceiling and floor fans nearly twenty-four-seven. But it wasn't so bad. Actually around $60 less than what we had budgeted for. Can I get a whoot-whoot!

To top off the week we had a water incident at home. This time in the bathroom. Adam was gone home teaching after church and I was home with the boys preparing dinner. As I finished feeding the baby, I noticed that Phin was extremely quiet. BAD SIGN. So I went upstairs just in time to see the toilet overflowing onto the floor. I rushed to turn off the water and realized that Phin had proceeded to flush an ENTIRE ROLL of toilet paper down the toilet. Our last roll of toilet paper, might I add. So I'm digging wet toilet paper out of the toilet and plunging the rest. I got the toilet to flush and then proceeded to get out five towels to mop up the floor. Phin was to help me with this project as it was his mess. He proceeded to cry. I left him to do what he could and went downstairs to check on dinner and start the grill. When I went back upstairs, George had messed his pants and was crying because his bum was also wet as he was sitting on the recently overflowed toilet. And here I was at a loss as to what to use to wipe his little bottom. So Phin and George crying in the bathroom, baby crying downstairs (because he thinks he is starving and must have cereal RIGHT THIS INSTANT!), mom nearly crying all over the place. But I kept my cool, improvised with some tissues, sent George to get dressed and went downstairs to get a laundry basket for all the wet towels. And in the basement, I find another flood. There is something wrong with our drain (could it be the roll of toilet paper, hmm?). So now I have a flooded basement, three crying children, a wet bathroom floor, no toilet paper and a possibly burnt dinner. Did I mention that Adam was home teaching? Yeah, always happens when you are trying to be righteous. I think it's a test of faith.

Luckily the rest of the night went off without a hitch, unless you consider Phin whining through dinner and eventually being put to bed at a quarter to seven a hitch. I personally see an early bed time as a blessing. Then, as I was cleaning up dinner (did I mention that Adam also had a priesthood meeting tonight?) I saw this:

This is George reading to Spencer from the Friend. He was having a regular singing time with Spencer. It was so great! George helped his teacher out today during sharing time by reading 3 Nephi 18:21 "Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed." He only needed help with a couple of the words. What a smart kid. See the Lord does bless you, you just have to endure to the end.

My 24 Obsession and My Husband

2009-07-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

So I've spent a lot of time this week watching 24. Jack Bauer is THE MAN. Every time I think, "There is no way for Jack to get out of this one," he does. Like when he killed a guy by biting into his jugular. Not pretty, but effective. George watches with me sometimes, although we usually watch after the boys have gone to bed. So this week, George has switched off between being Harry Potter and being Jack Bauer. The only difference is Jack doesn't have glasses and carries a plastic gun from the dollar store and Harry wears glasses and carries a purple pen for a wand. (Sorry to those of you who bought him the nice wands for Christmas, the pen still wins out every time.)

The ritual has been put the boys to bed, pop popcorn or make up some yummy chocolate milk, then sit and watch Jack while Adam rubs my feet. Does life get any better? Adam stayed up until after midnight on Thursday night watching 3 episodes in a row. He was really sad when Phin came in at 5:50 the next morning. We are currently watching season six and are more than half way through. It becomes almost like the Twilight books, I just can't stop until I'm finished. So hopefully we can finish this week and start talking to each other again at night.

Speaking of not talking to your spouse, Adam took me out on a date on Friday night. We went to this great Italian restaurant set up in a 1940's dining car. The atmosphere was great and the food spectacular. It's called Montorosso's and is hidden behind the Chapala's Express on Lee if you are interested. Anyway, while we were there I noticed a couple sitting a couple of tables away from us. The wife had actually pulled out a book and was reading during dessert! I thought how terrible that must make her husband feel. It's like she is saying, "You are so boring, I had to bring a book. I'm really just here for the free food." Adam and I saw another couple like this when we were engaged. This was at the Rodizio's Grill in Salt Lake. This married couple sat together for over 30 minutes and didn't even make eye contact. How sad! I wonder if this is a syndrome of empty nesters - the kids are gone, so we have nothing more to talk about.

Adam and I are determined not to become like this. We keep up on current events and try to read interesting things so that we can talk about them later. If all else fails we go to the old back ups, like, if you could have one super power, what would it be? Goofy things like that. But, hey, it keeps us talking, and not always about the kids. If anyone has other suggestions, send 'em our way.

On another topic, we went to the wading pool on Saturday. This isn't a small plastic wading pool from Wal-mart. This thing is about 50 feet across and 18" deep, perfect for the little ones who can't swim. It was the first time we had been there and decided it was a must since just walking outside made you sweat buckets. Adam played with the boys in the water while I soaked my feet with Spencer cradled between my knees. Pretty soon Adam had a whole slew of kids playing with him. Boys and girls splashing him, trying to tackle him, throwing beach balls at each other. It was so cool to watch. Adam was having as good of a time as the kids. When I told him it was almost time to go home, it was like he was one of the kids, begging for fifteen more minutes. One woman there, a single mom, really appreciated what Adam did. Her 8 year old twins and nine year old daughter don't get much time with their father and just having Adam play with them for that hour really meant a lot. She said they would be there again in two weeks and would love to see us there. It's nice to be married to a man who makes a difference just because it is in his nature to love people. He's a great example to our kids. And to me.

Cowboys

2009-07-05T10:15:00.000-07:00

Yeehaw! Last weekend we went to Boise for Alix's wedding. It was so nice and Alix and A.J. looked great. I'm totally jealous that they went to Disney World for their honeymoon.

Prior to our trip, the boys and I had been talking about cowboys, what they wear, what they do and singing cowboy songs. So it was a big treat when the boys got to ride Grandmom and Poppop's new horses.

Adam and I took advantage of the grandparents to go on a date to see Transformers 2. It was so lame! Please don't waste your money. It was long and there wasn't enough story to string all the explosions together.

As always, our travel turned into more of an adventure than we had counted on when the truck almost blew a tire outside of Hermiston, OR. The spare was bad too, so we dropped it at the local Wal-mart and made it home only 2 hours later than scheduled. Monday, we went back to Hermiston, hung out at the McDonalds with a bomp playplace while the truck got fixed and then came back home. Did I mention that Adam's Corolla had broken down on Thursday? So with a new timing belt, water pump and four new truck tires we spent over $1000 in one day on crappy car repairs. I wasn't the happiest buckaroo, but I have recovered and convinced Adam to repost the truck on Craig's list. Anyone looking for a new rig? I have to recover my $1000 somehow.

Love and Logic?

2009-07-05T09:29:00.000-07:00

So I checked out Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood from the library. I'm always looking for ways to improve my parenting skills. A friend had recommended this series and said it worked wonders with her daughter who was always dawdling in the mornings. The philosophy is really about letting our children experience the natural consequences of their choices. You climb on slippery rocks, you fall in the river and get wet. It sounds good enough, and I believe I practice this most of the time. The book also talks about giving your children choices, or "making deposits" in their "feel confident about myself" account so that later you can make "withdrawals" when they don't get a choice and, according to the authors, they will pretty much do as you ask because you have made so many "deposits" throughout the day. So I tried it -- "Do you want juice or milk for breakfast?" "Do you want your sneakers or sandals?" "Do you want to set the plates or the silverware?" Feeling I had been generous throughout the day I assumed my children would do as I asked them when I told them it was time for a bath. Even in this I gave them a choice, "Do you want to get undressed in your room or in the bathroom?" "Our room!" they chorused together and then proceeded to run all over the house, giggling, and not getting undressed. So I followed the book -- "If you don't get undressed for a bath, you'll have to go straight to bed, no stories or songs." Okay, so maybe not a natural consequence, but the best I could come up with after a long day. Looking back, the best natural consequence would be to have put them in the tub fully clothed, which I have done before. But on with the results of my experiment.

They didn't get undressed, so we said prayers and they were put to bed at 7:30 fully clothed, no bath, no teeth brushing, stories or songs. I went downstairs and made a phone call or two, then went back up around 9:00 after putting Spencer to bed to check on the sweet things. George had proceeded to tear down and break the blackout shade we have in their room (because the sun insists on coming up at 4:30 am). I was so angry, but I followed the book, staying calm and saying "That is a bummer. Now you are going to have to pay for that with chores or with your favorite toy, Mr. Bear." "I'll do chores mom, I'm sorry." I jimmy rigged the shade to make it through the night and left thinking, this just might work. The next day, it was like pulling teeth to get George to do the chores to pay for the shade. Those things are $30! First was laundry. George knows how to fold his clothes, but apparently this was just too much. He cried and pouted, and yelled "I need help" for about an hour. Finally I said, "If you don't want to do chores, then you will have to pay with Mr. Bear." And he did, handed him over and then went about his day. I was the one that felt awful. I took away his lovey! All for a shade - what a terrible mom. For the rest of the morning, I continued to try the Love and Logic way, but I found I wasn't able to make any "withdrawals". Obviously my children had not read the book.

"Great," I thought, "my children are going to end up kicking dogs or mass murderers just like the little boy in the book whose mom didn't use Love and Logic (pg. 41-42)." I ended up following the hate and frustration way for early childhood. So I quit. I went back to the old ways of time outs and lots of praise for good behavior. And I realized that sometimes the "natural consequence" of bad behavior is a grouchy mom who isn't very much fun to be around.

I love my kids. Sometimes I don't like them - and that's okay. But for the most part I get to enjoy sweet things like this.

And this, where I need to ask George what his name is - Harry, George, or some other name, like Tom.

Or when Phin says "Hi, mom!" ten times at the dinner table. I love it.

I figure the best way to be a parent is to listen to the Spirit, fill your own spiritual reservoir and love them as much as you can. And take a break when you need to. Even just going to Wal-mart without children can be a rejuvenating experience.

2009-07-05T09:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July!! We had a great day yesterday starting with spending the day with our neighbors. They are such a great family. They invited us to Fishhook park, a nice place on the river with lots of shade and a nice inlet where the kids can play in the water and swim. It reminded me a little of Black Canyon Dam. The boys had a blast. They really enjoyed playing with all of the kids there. In addition to our neighbor's children, her sister, brother and nephew were there with their kids. It was a party. They were so kind, sharing their food with us (those Ukranians sure can cook). Natasha, the mom, watched Spencer while we played in the water with all the bigger kids. It felt like family. Later we drove home and watched some 24 (season 6) and then I took the older boys to see the "River of Fire" while Adam stayed home with Spencer; actually while Adam watched 24 without me and Spencer slept.

This is before the action. Can't you feel the brotherly love?

Pretty good, but not as good as Idaho Falls I think.

I've been reading "The 5000 Year Leap" (thank you Glenn Beck) and it has really helped me to develop a greater appreciation for this country and all of our blessings of freedom. I had an idea before how amazing the Constitution is, but reading this book has brought a whole new perspective on just what a miracle this country is. I really am grateful for the liberty we enjoy and thankful for the men and women who have fought and are still fighting to protect that freedom everyday. God bless you.

2009-06-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

We have pictures!! These first ones were taken at the "Playground of Dreams". The whole community got together and built this in five days. It's huge, has a section for toddlers and only one entrance. So you can take your kids there and let them run wild, and sit near the entrance on some benches just for moms. The boys love it. There's lots of shade and a splash park right next to it.

The aforementioned splash park. It's so nice on hot days and you don't have to worry about drowning.

The "Playground of Dreams" is about 15 minutes from our house. Not far, but then we have this beauty within walking distance.

Don't ask me how he got on top of this rock. I think there were some grade schoolers that couldn't get up there. He needed help down though. There's a new rule: No climbing on the BIG rocks.

Of course the traditional Saturday yard sales are in full swing. We needed to find a computer desk since the 4 ft. table Adam's mom and dad gave us was sagging in the middle. Who knew that an eMac was so heavy. We were successful, but more than that, the boys found these treasures:

$1 for the HUGE truck and trailer that Phin insisted on playing with in the car.$.50 for the binoculars so that George could go "exploring".

And now for some really cute videos. In the first one, if you can't hear it, Spencer is laughing hysterically every time he hits himself in the face with his toy. My kids are weird.

And in this one, Phin sings his favorite Primary song.

In any case. We are having a blast here in Richland. We are heading over to Boise tomorrow for Alix's wedding on Friday. It will be good to see all the folks there. Plus, you just have to love weddings with the flowers, music and free cake.

Our First Post

2009-06-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our family blog! We are finally on line and excited to keep you, our family and friends, up to date on what we are doing here in beautiful Eastern Washington. Since we have moved "so far away" we want to make sure you feel like we are still "close to home". We are figuring out a way to get our pictures from our phones onto our blog. This picture of George is from Grandmom and Pop pop's house but I thought it showed the love we have for all of you. We miss you and can't wait to start sharing our new life with you.