GUESS WHO'S HERE, Will, who is now 11, (almost 12), and I saw Ellie's post so I wanted to make a post too, sooooooooooooooooo, yeah. Well yeah, um, Ellie is animating things now, Ivan is SUPPOSED to be potty training, Josie is doing dance, and I am doing... school, but anyways, anyways.... um, Havagoodday :D
HEY EVERYBODY!
Ellie here! I'm eleven now and have to decided to start working on the blog because my parents have not been doing a very good job. ;D
So anyway, stay tuned for more posts from your friend (Who is no longer 5), ELLIE!
So today is March 14th, 2016, and we just got back to school from Spring Break. Speaking of Spring Break, we had a lot of fun as a family! Dad took William, Josie, Ivan, and me to the La Verkin Creek, and we all got to hang out with relatives. There is one confession to make, and that confession is that we mostly just spent our break in front of the TV.
Ivan is now ALMOST 18 months. He has been actually TALKING! Like A LOT! Some of it is jibberish, but it's fun when he says something correct. He can do most of the animal noises, some animal names, hug, sweet, uh-uh, no, and more. He can also almost say all of our names, saying "Dayee, Mommy, Eyee, Dodo, and Wi. Not exactly right, but close. His favorite games are "1, 2, 3, GO! (which he'll actually say 1, 2, 3, go! So cute)" and "Peekaboo". He'll even participate in family prayer, folding his arms (in his own sort of cute way) and saying a garbled up "Amen" at the end. Yup, we're positive! We love our baby! I almost hope he'll never grow up!
Josie is 4 (turning 5 in May) and is in preschool. She's learning her letters, shapes, patterns, numbers, and so forth. She is most definitely one of the smartest. Hopefully she'll be just as smart as me someday!
William is 8 (turning 9 in June) and is in 3rd Grade. He is energetic and smart and gaining more boy power every day. (Ivan is as well!) He is mostly well behaved, even though he can be whiny at times.
I, ME, AND MYSELF am 11 (turning 12 in DECEMBER. I don't wanna wait that long) and in 5th grade. I rock and am growing older every day. I'm awesome-funky-weird and I am SO EXCITED to finally be writing on this thing! It must be weird for some of you, reading about cute little me, and then all of a sudden, that "little girl" is writing on the blog! Crazy right?
I'm signing off soon, but before I do, It's PIE DAY!! OK, so maybe it's actually PI day but same thing! Dad got us pie to eat as well as PIE YOGURT. Yum!
Ta Ta for now! -Ellie
It's Preservation Week
We decided that it is finally time to resurrect this blog. We have recently enjoyed showing the kids old videos of themselves, reading about old escapades, and playing the "pour water on our heads" game. It's time to continue in this tradition. I won't try to back track and record everything I missed, but I will try to post up some things from when we were MIA.
But for now, this week. Wow. Let's see, I am working on a teacher appreciation door for Ellie's Teacher Mrs. Byrd, or should I say Inspector Byrd. The theme is Spring. What actually came to mind was "Go, Go, Gadget Springs!" and so Inspector Byrd was born. Mrs. Byrd has a detective theme in her classroom and I think it goes really well with that. I'm painting a giant picture of her dressed up as Inspector Gadget, springing out of some flowers.
Ellie is going to the district science fair!!! She won in the 4th grade at La Verkin Elementary and so we are headed to St. George. She made a homopolar motor. Say that five times fast! Copper wire spins around a AA battery attached to some strong magnets. We shaped the wire to look like a dancer. Ellie and I came up with the name of "The Tiny Dancers of Science" together. Anyone remember Bill Nye? Come on don't be shy... She is excited. There is $50 on the line.
Friday is Fathers & Sons. Nate is kind of in charge. It's out at White Rocks. He got in trouble for planning it on the same weekend that MANDY IS GETTING MARRIED!!!!! I pretty much told him he can't stay overnight. Let's hope that the cows won't escape while he's away, or he'll owe his dad some steak.
On Saturday, MANDY IS GETTING MARRIED!!!!! We are all so EXCITED. There are not enough capital letters and exclamation marks in the world to express our excitement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And of course every single day this week we must feed Ivan. Every two hours......without fail......or there will be cries that rattle the eardrums. He loves to grunt. We all love him dearly.
Seriously. Who is responsible this?
My children and I just finished ducluttering throwing away a small mountain of garbage out of our van. Then you would not believe the carpet of crumbs on the floor of the car. Really gross. I know. Sorry.
Then as I vacuumed I noticed all sorts of lovely stains, sticky patches, splotches, caked in mud/dust/dirt stuck to the carpeted car floor. (Yuck. Again sorry.) And I moaned to myself that if I wanted my car truly clean, I would have to spend hours scrubbing carpet, seats, and every other surface. And it lead me to think that if the floors of the car were laminate we wouldn't have this problem. Brilliant. Just mop it clean and your done! It's a heck of a lot harder to cake nastiness into laminate than it is into carpet. Why aren't they laminating any cars? Especially, SUV's, Vans, Jeeps, and Trucks. Any vehicle that endures muddy outings or worse.....children. I would totally buy a laminated car. Please someone make one.
Yes I know I should have bought some plastic mats that I could have just removed from my van and hosed down with soap and water, but it's too late now.....The damage is done. And besides, the mats can't cover everything. There are always gaps, where lovely liquids, dirt, and crumbs can seep into. A complete, smooth, laminate surface is the way to go.
Then I walked back into my house. Yuck. Does cleaning ever end?
Being pregnant is hard sometimes.
I had an amazing experience this morning (late morning, not early...).
Let me start at the beginning. Towards the beginning of this past spring, probably a month after my last post, I decided to plant some 4 o'clocks. They are like little mini flower bushes. Supposedly they like to bloom at 4 o'clock. Anyway, I decided to take the risk of planting using seeds rather than a little plant purchased at the local Walmart. I've noticed that plants I buy end up dying. I'm afraid I'm a lack luster gardener. Due to my negligence many a plant has died. If we can understand plants in the next life, I'm sure that they will have a lot to say about Meridy, the plant killer. {My great Aunt Claire used to be afraid that the snakes would come after her in the next life, calling for blood. I think about her often after I've killed some bug, or plant, etc. I hope the snakes in the heaven are treating her well regardless.}So I figured if I bought some seeds and planted them. The tough plants would live and grow and survive. The little flowers would grow up in native soil and would not require any shock therapy.
So I bought a packed of seeds that claimed they were easy to grow, which turned out to be somewhat true. I have never grown 4 o'clocks before. The packet seemed to have somewhat substantial seeds in it. I was excited to see what they looked like. They looked kind of like a whole spice you would find in a little jar. I was going to say like cloves, but I just looked it up and these little seeds look nothing like cloves. Maybe like cute little acorns? Anyway, the point being, I thought they looked cute and was excited to plant them. I did my best to follow the directions.
I had to go on faith that they would grow. I put them in the ground, gave them extra water, and then trusted our irrigation watering system to help me out. I actually watered them myself also very faithfully in the beginning. I doubted some days if they would ever pop up. Eventually a half a week late some of them started popping up. They began to thrive. I attempted to plant more in the tier above them, but that failed completely. This saddened me, but I continued to be happy that at least the first batch turned out pretty well after all and that the yard looked a little nicer because of it.
The flowers caused me joy and disappointment. The came up in different colors. Some yellow, some white, some dark pink, and these particularly pretty ones that were white with dark pink speckles. I felt so happy that they survived, that they were doing well, and that they were taking care of themselves and therefore would not die due to my negligence. Then I became disappointed in them. Suddenly they weren't good enough anymore. They were never in bloom when I happened to notice them. I became detached.
Then this morning, I went outside with Josie, because she was bored and needed something to do. And for some unknown reason I decided to go look at the 4 o'clocks with her. From a distance I noticed that some of the flowers had gone through their process of life and crumbling away and that new flowers were blooming. As I looked closer I noticed that where the old flower had passed away, lay those little tiny acorn seeds cupped in tiny leaves just waiting to drop. I just felt this sense of joy. I went into the house to get a little baggy to collect a few of the seeds to plant new locations later. As I collected the seeds I noticed a sweet scent in the air..it was probably the rose bush, but it went well the the flowers and added to the experience. I just kept feeling this sense of pride, and power, and accomplishment. I planted those seeds, they grew into something beautiful, (some of the flowers were open, or "in bloom" as I was saying above) and now they were perpetuating themselves. I was able to now collect more seeds from all of the colors to spread throughout the world! It gave me perhaps a little snap shot into what God might experience as He creates, sets things in motion, and watches them grow. He lets us experience life, grow strong and beautiful, even if we neglect to notice the beauty, it is there. Then He must feel great joy as we and the creatures of the world continue His joy by spreading it. He must feel joy as we find this connection to Him, by planting a garden, creating an art piece, learning a lesson taught to us by our own children.
Imagine if someone asked you the following question: "Do you think lettuce is foxy?" How would you respond?
Well this is a question I asked Nate a few days ago. The question seemed quite odd to him. "Um......no." he responded incredulously. Why did I ask him such an outlandish question? Because the lettuce I purchased is "Foxy" brand lettuce and it suddenly occurred to me that foxes have nothing to do with lettuce in the wild. Why use such a mascot or brand name for vegetables? Personally I think that Foxy Chicken makes much more sense. Or if foxes used vegetables to capture rabbits in the wild I supposed it would make more sense as a brand name for veggies. What say you?
This reminds me of another amusing anecdote. When last I visited my parent's house, I happily snacked on a cereal that looked and tasted like little churro bites. Pretty Yummy. While I poured myself a bowl I noticed that the box boasted, "Made with real cinnamon!" While I enjoyed my cereal, I thought about their claim. I wondered to myself, "If all they can boast is real cinnamon, then what is the rest of the cereal made of??" Disturbing question. Then an even more disturbing question came to mind, "What in heaven's name, pray tell, is fake cinnamon??" I mean if a cereal company can boast REAL cinnamon, it in turn seems logical that there must be fake cinnamon.
Does anyone out there have any thoughts on these perplexing questions?
Today Nate and I have been married for eight years....
.....and the baby just woke up. So, this post may or may not get finished.
The point is: I love you Nate. Happy Anniversary. :)
{Now you may be thinking, she hasn't typed anything for MONTHS and now she chooses to type about spilled milk? Why yes, yes I do. Something happened this morning to finally make me post it, I've thought about posting about spilled milk on various occasions, but haven't done it until now.
I had a little personal crisis in the summer that carried over for a little while, but I'm doing much better now. Everyone else is doing well except for the fact that we have colds. But between the crisis and the new baby who is now NINE months (can't believe it!), it's been hard to type.}
I have decided I hate the saying, "No use crying over spilled milk." Wait let me back up.
Last night was one of the worst nights ever. It was difficult to get Josie to bed. I finally gave up trying to get her to sleep in our bed, and I went to rock her. She threw up all over the floor. Thankfully it was the concrete floor and not the carpet. After cleaning up that little incident, I finally got Josie to sleep, and then she and I went to sleep in my bed for a little while. But, Josie tossed and turned in our bed after an about hour or two. Then...she threw up in it. Yuck is all that need be said. Then she tossed and turned for the rest of the night. I dragged myself out of bed this morning and found out Will got some poop on the outside potty. (Sorry that is also yuck, but very true and adds to the drama of the story.) So I had to clean that up. We were late getting Ellie to school because I was so tired from the turmoil in my bed, so Ellie got cookies and milk for breakfast. As she ate, I frantically fixed her hair. And while I was securing the ponytail holder, I slightly (and really I mean slightly) bumped the lightweight plastic green cup containing the milk. Milk spilled EVERYWHERE. On the table, on the floor, on the chair, in between the rungs on the back of the chair, and on the legs of the table.
Ever notice how no one ever says, "No use crying over spilled water"? If you sop up the water and the floor is a little damp, no big deal. It will dry. Life continues on. You spill milk on the floor and you have to sop up the milk, then you have wash the floor with soap and water, then you have to do it AGAIN because for crying out loud it's STILL sticky!!!! And if you do not complete this arduous process your kitchen will STINK and be sticky.
Frankly I don't care if there is no use crying over it, I'm going to cry, and rant, and rave because I don't care! Spilled milk is WORTHY of it. That's what it gets. That's what everyone else in the room gets who is NOT helping to clean it up.
So....then later on I was finally able to get my breakfast, I put down JoJo in her little seat that attaches to the counter and guess what was in front of her unbeknownst to me. Yep a little plastic cup of milk. And yes, she dumped it all over the floor. Fortunately for those around me at that time, I thought it was so over the top that, I didn't not cry or rave. I just ranted a little.
Oh yeah, and now there are tortilla chips on the floor. "Josie" apparently spilled them. My money is on Will.
We like to watch White Collar on Netflix. Tonight we saw the episode Vital Signs, from season 1. Frankly, I sympathize with the bad guy. I went in expecting people waking up in a bathtub with their organs harvested. Nope. It turns out the bad guys are evil because they buy kidneys from willing donors and sell them to willing buyers. Wait a minute, isn't that a good thing? Apparently not, because bypassing the donor registry and a wait list makes you a white collar criminal.
The bad guys contact June when her granddaughter is bumped from her position on the wait list. They basically offer to get her a kidney for $100,000.00. When June tells Neil about this, the FBI comes in to save the day.
Let's look at the kidney market. There are about a hundred thousand people on the kidney transplant wait list. According to kidney.org, 4,573 kidney patients died in 2008 waiting for a kidney. You know why nobody is out there donating kidneys? It's because NO ONE IS PAYING THEM TO DO IT. Why is no one paying them to do it? BECAUSE THAT MAKES YOU A WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL. We should let people sell their kidneys. Lots of people out there are willing to pay good money for a working kidney, and the donor has one to spare. The donor needs cash, so he would willingly sign the dotted line to feed his family--or his vices (IE. gambling, drinking, investing etc).
Currently, if you have money, and you need a kidney, your only option is the black market. Unfortunately, the black market is full of cutthroats, snakes and charlatans, not to mention extortionists. An open market with reputable channels would improve the quality of the product and allow more people to get what they want and need. Having willing donors also alleviates demand for unwilling donors.
You would think someone who could bring compatible buyers and sellers together would get a reward, maybe even a Nobel Prize. Instead, the guy saving lives and feeding families by lining up kidney transplants goes to prison. Here's the kicker, the show magically glosses over this problem. Everyone feels good about the happy ending in which the FBI pulls some strings to get the grandchild back to her original spot on the wait list. The ending doesn't satisfy. First, it means the FBI unjustly bumped a more urgent recipient off the list. Second, there is no guarantee the grandchild will EVER get a kidney. Even if she does, she will suffer through years of bad health waiting for it. If the FBI had just allowed the bad guy to facilitate a kidney transaction, the grandchild would have a new kidney within weeks.
Oh, and I want to be his lawyer. The FBI obtained their evidence against the bad guy illegally. They also committed some pretty serious crimes and torts against him. Kidnapping, assault, extortion, intentional infliction of emotional distress, interference with chattel, etc. He's got a pretty good pay day coming. I would represent him for a contingency fee.
