Graduations 2012

Before the last trimester at Madison High started, Erika only had one required class left to take.  Rather than spend a full trimester and five classes finishing the year she decided to transfer to Central High and do the block course in two weeks to finish and graduate.  In four days she finished all of the required work, took the two tests and the final and was done.  A week later, on March 8th, they called to let her know her diploma was ready.  She had no desire to cross stage, wear a gown, send out invitations, none of the hoopla that goes with a typical American graduation.

Without even a glance back at high school she is moving on to ISU with a major in Psychology.

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Vivien was taking a Child Development class and for 4 weeks of the class they did a preschool for local kids.  Hyrum got to go to preschool for 4 weeks and he loved it.  Actually, he would tell us every morning that he didn't want to go but every day when I picked him up he would tell me the songs he sang, the stories they told, the activities they did and the treats they had.  After the first day he told us that a girl had kissed him on the cheek and he was embarrassed that the teachers thought it was cute.  Every day I got an update on whether or not "that girl" was in class.  She never did kiss him again but I think he was watching out for her and stayed away from her.

Vivien had to do a portfolio for the class and chose to do it on Hyrum.  That meant we got to have some cute preschool pictures of him and a description of his class time and what he learned there.  He liked to brag to Nathan that Vivien was one of his teachers.


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Nathan's kindergarten class had a final program with a circus theme and a graduation after.  Nathan was one of the fierce lions who jumped and rolled through a big ring of fire (hula hoop with streamers).  I wondered why he wouldn't smile through any of the songs and looked like he was about to cry when they gave him his diploma.  After it was over he ran over to me in near tears, threw his papers to me and ran off to the bathroom.  He had to go through the whole program!  After he got back we were able to get a couple of pictures with him smiling instead of concentrating on not wetting his pants.  

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Vivien's graduation came all too fast!  Though we were so ready for school to be over, we were not ready for our time together to be over.  She did get to experience an American graduation, silly cap and all.

Her favorite teacher (total sarcasm), Mrs. Ashton. American History was a tough class!

Final pictures with some of the other exchange students and the host mom

There could be several reasons for these pictures:

1 - the water fountain was spiked

2 - the school is really scary between the hours of 10pm and 3am

3 - Mrs. Ashton was chasing them down for another essay or political cartoon

4 - Vivien and Solver were super hyper that night

Anything is possible at a senior all night party.

Smoothies

These have been a great to have as a quick breakfast when we're on the run, a light lunch during the summer heat,
or an evening snack as we wind down for bed.  

The kids like to help pack the greek yogurt (frozen into 1 TBSP dollops), juice ("muffins" frozen in mini muffin pan) and fruits for smoothies.  It is so much cheaper (and healthier) than buying them from Jamba or buying the prepackaged ones at the store.  Each time we bag them up we use different fruits depending on what is available and on sale.   One baggie makes enough for two small ones or one large one.

Even Hyrum knows how to grab a baggie from the freezer, dump it in the blender, add the water and make his own,
though he likes to have a "big person" in the kitchen with him because the blender is "loud". 

The Proof is in the Picture

I love it when I download the pictures from my camera to my computer.  I usually have some

surprise photos that tattle on my kids.  

When I woke up to see every other key on the piano taped down I was a little irritated.  I have to admit it did take skill to do that with my head asleep on the other side of the wall but Justin does have plenty of skill.   Erika took the blackmail photos of the piano, which didn't really work in her behalf since I liked the pictures 

  

I did not like the sticky tape residue left on the keys.

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One late night in April, Derek went to bed to find this note and knife on his bed.

The note says "Merry Christmas! Luv ya Brudduh!  Levi"

We have no idea what prompted him to give this to Derek and I was fine with it until I saw the late night pictures of Derek looking like he was about to stab the camera with it.  I'm glad Justin felt so safe with his brother making stabs at him and swinging a knife around in his excitement.  

I did find humor in the picture as I looked at the background images on the wall.  A poster size picture of Enos praying, two pictures of Christ, a picture of a temple, and a picture with the scriptures referring to the Armor of God.  I like to pretend that this isn't Derek being threatening but it's his stripling warrior pose.

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Before Erika got an iPod that could take pictures, my camera was overloaded with pictures 

of Bret and Erika together.  

They are so cute!

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And my favorite

I have no idea who took it or why this picture was taken but it is a mother's dream 

to have a picture of her four year old using his special middle finger.

Jedi Nathan is Six!

April 7, 2012

Bret and Erika introduced Nathan to Star Wars.  He was immediately hooked.  He watched each video at least a bazillion times, could quote movie lines, knew who had what color lightsaber, and often played out his favorite roles.  Picking a theme to plan his birthday party was a no-brainer.  

We ate foods named after some of our favorite, and not so favorite, characters. 

Womprat on a Stick, Leia Rolls, Fett's Fruit Salad, Vader Veggies with Droid Dip, Hutt Dogs, Jabba Jigglers, 

Wookiee Fries, Yoda Soda, and Jedi Juice

Using cheap bed sheets, I made robes for Jedi training. 

Each person was given a challenge card and the real fun began. 

The kids loved saving Princess Leia as they attacked Darth Vader and the storm troopers with silly string. Next they did Yoda Skill training.  They had to pick a card and do what it said with Yoda sitting in the hood of their robe.  The goal was to not drop Yoda.  My favorite was "Dance Like a Wookiee".  After they had all the right moves it was time to rescue Han Solo from his frozen state.  Unfortunately, one team tore his legs off and the other team dislocated his head. Not sure we could consider that a rescue.  We each made a blue lightsaber for our last challenge which was to destroy the Death Star.  They geared up for their final battle by beating each other up with their new lightsaber/swimming noodles.
 

Destroying the Death Star

With all that training the older kids wanted to test their skills and took off around the block. On bikes. In their robes.

Holding lightsabers.  Try that Darth Vader!

It's always a challenge to come up with a cake that Nathan will eat.  He would prefer a fruit or veggie tray instead.  But, he was thrilled with his lightsaber cake.  Even though I used sponge cake rolled up with strawberries in it and the fondant was easy to peel off he didn't eat more than a couple of bites.  Still, he talked about it for days.  That makes it worth it.

The monkey around his neck was a gift from Vivien.  He loves that noisy thing!  Every night I make sure to take it off his bed after he is asleep because he has a tendency to roll over onto it during the night.  Waking up to that is a bit scary. 

MISSING

One very oversized cat

Goes by the name Harrison or Mačka

Sleeps belly up for most of the day

Loves human attention

Will only drink out of the bathroom sink

Harrison is a very scheduled cat.  He comes in at 6:30 when I'm making breakfast and pigs out like he hasn't eaten in days, meows by the bathroom until someone turns on the tap in the sink for him to get a drink, sleeps belly up in random places around the house, eats around 10 and 11 and 12, sleeps, goes out around 2 but comes back in rather quickly to eat again, sleeps on someone's bed until dinner time, eats, meows by bathroom, wanders in and out of the house until 10ish, eats, goes out for the night.  Repeat the next day.  He's pretty lazy but he NEVER misses his breakfast. 

The morning that he did not show up for breakfast or lunch and still wasn't around after church at 4:30 left us very worried about him. We spent almost two hours calling for him, checking the roadside for him, wandering the fields and ditch banks and neighbors yards looking for him.  Nothing.

We reminisced for the next while about what a great, lazy cat he was and all the funny places and positions that he would sleep in. We teared up a bit remembering how good he was to let kids cuddle and play with him and how many nights he took charge of the bed time routine.

  

We gathered around the computer to look at pictures of him.  We downloaded the most recent ones from the camera which happened to be taken the night before.

 

Nathan prayed that if he was alive he would find his way home or if he wasn't that he would be happy in heaven while he waited for us to get there.

We were finally accepting the fact that he was just gone when he wandered in around 9 pm as if nothing was different.  What a punk!!  He was a little impatient with all the hands on attention, squirming out of the many hugs and kisses he was getting.  It was one of those times that I really wished I could speak cat.  Where had he been???  He had to be somewhere that he could eat food because he wasn't acting hungry.  He doesn't eat the mice, birds or bunnies that he kills so we knew he was either being fed by humans or stealing out of another pets bowl.  And knowing his sleep schedule he was probably bearing his belly side to some neighbor with happy kids begging to keep him or a lonely senior citizen glad for the company. 

He got a good lecture from Nathan about not wandering off and an abundance of loving attention afterward. 

Harrison must have been worn out from his adventures because he spent all of Monday sleeping in Vivien's empty bedroom where it was cool and quiet.

  

By Tuesday he was back to his normal schedule.  Our family is complete again as he wanders out with the kids to play, sleeps wherever he wants to and shows up right on time for breakfast.

Boxing

After Tae Kwan Do class Nathan is usually a little wound up and needs to get a few more kicks and hits out of his system.  That finally motivated LeRoy and Derek to clear a spot in the garage, climb in the attic, set a sturdy bolt and hang the punching bag that we inherited from my brother (or stole after he left home depending on who you hear the story from).  

The boys really like having the punching bag hanging there.  Derek ended up with a few bag burns and sore muscles after a few days of bag beating. I've thought of going out there and punching it myself a few times.  I briefly attended a summer fitness class where we did bag workouts and I found out that it's a good way to get rid of some pent up anxiety, tension, stress, anger.  Not a bad thing to have hanging around a house full of Edwards boys.

Bye, Bye Blue Hair

May  7, 2012

When we scheduled a time for Erika and Bret to get their wedding announcement pictures taken Erika decided she was done with blue hair.

The blue would not let go they had to strip it twice and color it twice.  After four hours she had the color she wanted.  Or close to it.  Because of stripping it there was an orange hue to the whole thing but Erika liked the strawberry blond look that it gave her.

So Pretty!
(The pout face was for an "I miss Bret" picture)

The Vegetable Thief

My vegetables are constantly running low.  I can leave the refrigerator stocked with two containers of cherry tomatoes and the next time I return there is only one container left, if I'm lucky.  I can slice up two cucumber for dinner and before we can all sit down to the table half of them are missing.  Baby carrots disappear at an alarming rate. I can't say that I mind having this problem.

The thief:

I have caught him sitting in front of the TV munching away on baby carrots and tomatoes.  He will hide in the pantry eating his stolen vegetables.  This time I found him sitting outside on the swing enjoying a moment to himself enjoying a cool breeze along with the vegetables.

As we planned our garden this year we let the kids decide what they would plant.  Nathan did not even hesitate.  He wanted an apple tree and a tomato tree.  The apple trees are yet to be planted but we did get his tomato "tree".  I knew that the chance of me eating any tomatoes off of Nathan's plant was extremely slim so I picked up a second one.  Hyrum has claimed it as his.  I still might not get any tomatoes this summer.

Nathan was so excited to pick and eat his first tomatoes!  He checks several times a day to see if there are any that have changed to the perfect red.

The wind has knocked the plants over a couple of times and while I was standing them back up and showing the boys how to water them I caught myself talking to the plants.  Nathan and Hyrum giggled and asked me why I was talking to a plant and I explained that plants grow better if they have sunshine, water, and love; that it has been proven in experiments that plants who have good music played for them grow better than plants that have hard, bad music played for them.  Later that afternoon Hyrum informed me that he sang two nice songs to his tomato plant and he didn't even say "guns" in his songs.  Nathan always remembers his watering days and he also talks to his plant, especially the little green tomatoes, encouraging them to grow so he can eat them.

This is not a new thing with Nathan.  He has been eating fruits and vegetables from the time he was 4 months old.  His first fruit was a plum that my dad gave him at a family reunion and at 5 months he started gnawing on carrot and celery sticks to comfort his teething gums.  When he was 16 months old he walked to the back of our half acre lot and plucked a zucchini from the garden, dragged it back up to the house, and proceeded to eat a vegetable that was nearly as tall as he was.

The Sock Box

was overflowing!

The match makers sounded like they were in a serious game of Socky Go Fish.  Do you have a Keds L with a blue toe? No, do you have a solid white calf length.  Yes!  Do you have a grey toe, grey heal?  (In unison)  WE ALL HAVE THOSE!  

Haircut?

Yes, Please!

Hyrum insists that he do his own hair and he likes the messy look. I even caught him trying to use Erika's hairspray because he didn't want it "to move".  And another time he used hand soap because he couldn't find the gel.  He can spend quite a bit of time in front of that mirror.