FHE Fire

For FHE tonight I used the Mormonad from the April 2008 New Era. Only LeRoy and I elaborated on it a little more and made an object lesson out of it. We actually started a fire in the back yard with a propane torch representing the things that heat up an argument or take away from the positive spirit in our home and the water hose representing the cooling down process or keeping the spirit. We actually burned a picture of our new house to try and leave an impression with each of us that we are destroying the spirit in our home when we argue, call each other names, etc.

We also used the Mormonad from May 2008 and a scripture in Ephesians: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God."

Then we had another framed picture of our house and talked about apologizing and forgiving.

Rather than putting our fire out with the hose we just talked about it and then roasted marshmallows for dessert. Nathan didn't like the stickiness but he sure liked watching Derek burn them to a black crisp treat.

The kids also loved it that we let them take over the fire and hang out for about an hour after FHE, serenaded by the crickets and frogs. Levi was enjoying it until he was bit by a red ant . . . on his belly. He jumped around trying to get the ant off of him, ended up burning the 'sucker' in the fire and danced around squealing that it was burning him. The bite immediately went red but after about an hour he was ok, except for the fact that every little itch on his body made him think he was being attacked by ants. Nothing like living in the country!

Turtle Bike Ride

I hit an ambitious moment Sunday afternoon and went on a bike ride. Due to the fact that the seat on my bike has been lowered to accomodate the short Justin legs that ride it, my knees were killing me after only about 10 minutes. Not to mention the fact that my seat end has not been on a bike in probably a year and wasn't handling it well. So I turned around, headed home and found this only a short distance from our house:

He was quickly trying to cross the street when I happened upon him, literally. I almost ran over him with my bike.

The kids were thrilled, begging to keep him. Nathan's reaction was to go nose to nose with the turtle, pretend to bite him and say "yummy breakfast". I don't know where he got that! I have never served turtle for breakfast.

Kids

This morning Erika was very helpful getting the house ready to turn over to the decorators; dusting, cleaning her room to a spectacular un-Erika like state, cleaning the mudroom, taking out garbage and cleaning the upstairs bathroom. She also got all of her stuff packed for girlscamp and was cheerful doing all of it. So when she asked if she could go to Ali's to paint the ceiling I willingly said yes (though keeping her busy would have been even more helpful but I didn't want to push my luck.)

At Ali's house they are painting part of the basement that was unfinished. When they showed up at our house a couple of hours later this is what walked through the door. Seriously girls, did you get any on the ceiling??

The boys (Derek and Justin) have been a completely different story. By 3:00 I was ready to blow my top after spending the day doing stupid jobs that I normally ignore but that have to be done before the homeshow. All they had accomplished was cleaning their bedroom and they proudly came upstairs gloating that it was done . . . 5 hours after they started!!!! I had assumed (yes, we see what that made me) that they were doing all that was on the list; the bathroom, family room downstairs and dusted. When I went to check it I nearly bit a hole in my tongue not yelling out "my #$%^&# boys, what in the #$%^& have you been doing!!". Instead I reminded them of the job list, walked upstairs to the medicine cabinet and took pills. Herbs actually, but whatever, I should have taken them this morning!

I think the boys could tell that I was holding my breath and pretty much doing all I could not to yell so they managed to get the rest of the jobs done in 1/2 hour. Was that really so hard?!!!?!?!? Why can't the job be done without mom turning into a volcano on the verge of erupting before they do what they are asked??

Now I am finished cleaning my house. If the decorators see something that needs to be done (like mopping the kitchen floor) they can do it themselves. I'm so tired of caring about this homeshow and just want to live in our house without the worry of impressing every Tom, Dick and Harry (or Sally, Judy, Betty) that comes to the door. My latest quote that I love and really do want to live by is from "Yours, Mine and Ours":

"a home should be for free expression, not for public impression."

On another note: My Arms Are Still Burning!

Grass!

Our family spent about 8 hours in the sun yesterday laying down sod and working on the yard. The 83 degree weather was perfect . . . for major sunburns and heat stroke . . . and for the yard work.

The difference that grass makes is like putting carpet in a home. Now it is starting to really look like a yard. Bushes also made it look so much homier and better. However, laying sod is HARD work. Mostly just heavy work, lots of lifting and pounding.

Last night Derek started throwing up and most of us noticed our sunburns. I couldn't sleep well because of a throbbing headache throughout my entire head and I couldn't find a comfortable position that didn't cause pain on my lobster red arms. This morning I feel very dizzy, still have the throbbing headache, have heat coming off of my arms like an oven and that is just me.

At least Hryum has no side effects from yesterdays work. He slept in the house in his swing most of the day. Nathan just has the tips of his ears burned. Each of the other kids has some kind of burn or headache and LeRoy is just tan. Of course he has a terrible back ache from all the lifting.

The lesson: sunscreen needs to be applied more than once for an 8 hour job in the sun (or for some should have been applied in the first place), we should have been drinking more water throughout the day, and hats would probably have helped.

Homeshow Preview

I got a call this morning at 8am telling me that the mayor and city/chamber members will be walking through our house at 8am tomorrow! So then I went on the website to see if they have put up a picture of our house and this is what I found . . .

That is my house and I wish that's what the landscaping looked like. The guys are just now putting in the sprinkler system and we have piles and piles and piles of sod on the driveway - all free sod from the elementary school that is expanding the playground.

I wish I could see the circular part of the landscaping so that I knew how to make it look. I'm not very good at the imagining up part.

Derek & Justin who??

Do I really have 6 kids? Some days I feel like I only have 4. Derek and Justin are always at the Anderson's house. They are the family that had us over for FHE the first week we were here and they have 5 boys, no girls. The mom is like the perfect, cheerful, happy to make cookies and play games all day stay home mom - kinda like the one I used to dream of being.

So with baseball for Derek, scouts for Justin and time spent at the Anderson's and outside . . . I really don't get to take too many pictures of these two.

But they are still mine and they do sleep at our house.

Here is a little adventure they had playing in the irrigation ditch by our house when we actually had a couple of warm days.

The Hat Hottie

Erika is suddenly into hats. She also is doing this "Charlie's Angels" pose thing as she sneaks around every corner, door and room in the house. We are constantly seeing her sneak around with her 'gun' saying "pop, pop" as she protects us from all the imaginary bad guys that Nathan tells her are there.

Rock Stars

Obviously Levi is feeling better. Or he has just really lost his marbles and is having an identity crisis. Maybe he really is just a normal 16 year old boy. Whatever the case, he provides wonderful entertainment!

Nathan wanted to be just like Levi. Here's the result of that . . .

This all began with Levi just letting me know today that he is in desperate need of a haircut.

Nathan's Nickel

Nathan swallowed a nickle the other day. LeRoy was with him and I was in the other room. I could tell when Nathan's cry was different and LeRoy yelled for me that something was wrong. It reminded me of the tone in LeRoy's voice when he called out for me at Breckenridge and he had sliced his thumb breaking into a window and ended up with 20 stitches in his thumb.

I quickly ran to the kitchen where they were just in time to see Nathan forcefully puke all over the kitchen floor (thanks for missing the carpet!). As LeRoy comforted Nathan and I cleaned up the mess Nathan kept asking for his nickel. I picked it up with a paper towel, sprayed it with cleaner, washed it off and handed it back to him - hopefully with a lesson learned. Everybody else was grossed out with the fact that I gave him his nickel back.

Now Nathan randomly announces to us that he "choked penny".

This is the 3rd time we have had to do a modified, instinct heimlich on our kids due to swallowed money. It's an adrenalin experience for sure!

Levi Funnies

I have missed Levi during the last week!! He was gone with the orchestra to Disneyland, Wicked, the ocean, anywhere the orchestra wandered. I forgot how much this kid makes me laugh and how he provides such a comfortable, inviting, fun feeling into our home.

I didn't get to see him until 5am after he got home because we were gone when he got home, he was gone when we got home and we all just went to bed at different times. When Nathan fell out of bed Levi came upstairs to lay with him because he wasn't sleeping anyway - because of an ear infection. He didn't want to wake me up about it but because he heard me up anyway he came upstairs. When Levi says he is hurting or sick I take it seriously because he so seldom says anything. Jump forward to Sunday morning: he has a terrible ear infection and cold.

Yesterday he went with Chad to Idaho Falls for Chad's birthday and they ate lunch at Sizzler. He brought home a big container of Hibatchi sauce that he convinced the waitress to give him. Talk about make my heart melt. Not the hibatchi sauce but the fact that even when he is out on the town with his best friend he remembers his mommy.

Late Tuesday night (11:30) I was stretching on the ball in my room and Levi was hanging around with me. He pulled the small ball filled with sand (8lb) and held it behind his back, squated down with legs spread wide, in going-to-the-bathroom position, let out a big grunt and dropped the ball between his legs. I laughed so hard I fell off the ball.

I had a CD on that included a song from "Country Does Disney" and the song was "Kiss the Girl" from Little Mermaid - country style. Levi commented that is doesn't make a song better just to do it country style. I suggested maybe it would be better done rock style with electric guitar. He stands up (in his pajamas mind you), jumps into rock star stance, and while jamming on his imaginary electric guitar and head banging in his raspy rock star voice bellows out: Now you see her, sitting there across the way, she don't got a lot to say but there's something about her . . . . Kiss the girl". Though I had a great laugh, his Rock Star does Disney performance left his infected head hurting even worse.

Levi quotes:

Arriving home from the Dr. office, walking in with a rather resigned forlorn pace: "The Dr. said to just dig a hole and bury myself, it's not worth living through".

Said in his sick scratchy voice while flexing and admiring his muscles: "I make any shirt look like a muscle shirt with these guns".

After hiring Erika to kill his fish, with a sad, wishful, regretful voice singing: "Lonely, I'm mister lonely, aint got nobody since I killed you".