Seriously. I don't make this stuff up.

Alex just couldn't think of of a thing to write in his journal yesterday. He was just stumped. What could he write a WHOLE page on? (Keep in mind his has a small journal-a whole page is about eight sentences-tops!)  I started making suggestions:
Write about Bogdan-his friend getting adopted in the next few weeks.

No

Write about Dad.

No.

Not your Ukraine Dad but your American Dad.

No.

Write about you day. (Which is usually what he writes about.)

No.

Write about your hurt lip. (Cold sore)
No.

Make up a mystery.

No.

Write about what you want to be when you grow up

No.

Write about what kind of Dad you'll be when you grow up.

No.

And the list went on. He shot down all my ideas, one after the other. Finally I said,

"Alex, why don't you just write about you favorite thing in the whole wide world."

With exasperation he says, "Mom! That will be short!"

"Why? What will you write?"

"I will just write MOM!"

Awww....that's so sweet. 

I had to hug him and then asked him why he loves me so much? He shrugged. (See? Hard time verbalizing his feelings.) In an attempt to help him come up with "you're nice" or something generic yet expressive. I said "Is it because I'm mean and yell all the time?"

He rolls his eyes, "No! If you were I wouldn't write about you!"

He ended up just writing about things he's grateful for. (His idea)**

Watches-it helps you know the time

Arms-because it is not cool when you have someone's arms? (Not really sure where he was going with that one.)

Mom-helps me all the time

His own bathroom-it is not cool when you go to the bathroom with different people (Note: he does not technically have his OWN bathroom but shares with his sisters.)

and then a little tribute to his favorite thing in the world....me!

**This was a prefect entry without any spelling or grammatical errors. The 2nd one ever! After the first one a couple of weeks ago, he made his own deal: If he writes ONE HUNDRED perfect entries then I will no longer read and correct them. I'm good with that! In fact I would have suggested 25 entries but he threw out the 100 so....okay.

The bathroom comment brought to light that there were no stalls in the orphanage. Just rolls of toilets-and not toilets like we have, the ones you stand on and squat over and how you just had to do your business with others squatting beside you doing their business. 

"Yuck." I said.

To which Alex said, "See? I told you not cool!"

Then he told me about how they wore uniforms to school,  the boys wore white shirts and jackets and the girls skirts. They had to change before lunch.(Which would explain why I never saw these uniforms-we weren't allowed to visit until 2pm-after lunch) The boys and girls would all change in the same room. He was disgusted about that. He was also disgusted that all the boys showered together. Big and little. He nonchalantly says,  "I didn't like guys looking at my p.enis." (He can freely talk about his privates but cannot tell me why he's upset when he cries? He's such a puzzle.)  The big kids would take the little kids shampoo and stuff and hit them when they showered. There was adult male supervision but apparently not GOOD supervision.

Yes, having your own bathroom is most defiantly cool and something I think I will appreciate more!

We sent gifts with the Moore family. (They leave on Friday for Ukraine-Danielle promises to blog so follow their adventures with me-they're on my side bar "Moore the Merrier". Cute blog address huh? They are adopting Alex's little friend Bogdan and another boy named Ruslan.) Some cars and candy for his friend Sasha. Alex had to write his note on Google translator. He wrote that Sasha is still his best friend even though he is very far away. We also printed a few pictures of Alex on the note. (In hindsight I wonder if that was a little cruel? Alex catching a fish, Alex tubing with his sister, Alex building his gun and his fort. I hope it doesn't come across as "look at me and my cool life, sorry you're stuck in orphanage!")  Then at the last minute I thought to send a baby gift to Ivan and Snezhana. Alex was at school and wouldn't be home before I had to hand it off to Danielle so I just sent some updated pictures of Alex and a blanket and burp cloth for the baby. I'm hoping that mailing it IN Ukraine gives it a better chance of actually arriving? Thanks Danielle for being our messenger and best of luck to you! You will be in our prayers!

Big kids are out of school tomorrow and we're going to head down south when James gets home to see Kambree dance during half time at a volleyball game. So excited to see my girl! I will try and post pictures later.

Alex Update

One of Alex's vocabulary words is literacy. We went over them last night and this morning we were doing a verbal review. I asked him what literacy meant:

To put litter on ground?

Then we went over spelling words. Easier compound words than last weeks. One was seashell. I try to make sure he knows the meaning of these words as well so I asked if he knew what a seashell was?
Yes, a thing in a thing.
I asked him if he asks me what something is and I tell him a thing in a thing would he know what I was talking about? "No!" and he laughed.  He tries so hard and he does so well and I think he understands so much yet when you ask him what an eyelid is he'll say something like. "A thing people stand on?" Oh. I hope not!
He was telling me last week during our huge "talk about your feelings" talk that he NEVER talked to his Ukraine mom. That he didn't know how to talk until he went in the orphanage and learned his ABC's. Could that be possible? He was six when he went to the orphanage. Was he non-verbal all that time? (This came up because I was trying to understand his aversion and apprehension to talking about his feelings and telling the truth about how he feels. When ever he's upset and I ask, he gives me some crazy non emotional excuse about something that has NOTHING to do with what he's upset about. I was guessing, and asking if I was correct, that no one in the orphanage cared about how he felt?  No one wanted to know or asked about his feelings? He agreed. Then I asked about his Ukraine mom, that maybe she didn't ask about his feelings either? "No, I never talk to Ukraine mom. I no know how to talk until I go to orphanage and learn ABC's.") He was in a school for speech disorders. All this time I've been told he has difficulty making a certain sound that we don't use in the English language. He's in speech right now for his  S sound. (His S's go out the side of his mouth rather than the front.) But maybe he was verbally delayed? I wonder if any of his Ukraine medical records or school reports indicate anything about this. I think I need to find a translator.
Although not his vocabulary word this week, I've been teaching Alex the word "obsessive" as he is obsessive. Last week it was the piano. Hours on the piano. Same song over and over. This weekend it was the Nerf gun. Hours and hours building, rebuilding, reconfiguring. Every waking minute.Couldn't hardly pull himself away to eat or do anything else. This week it's "Tom & Jerry" cartoons on the computer. He got up early to watch them and was dismayed to learn that I don't go for cartoons before school. If you're up early than get started early on jobs or reading. Or stay in bed and get your sleep! Good grief.
Yesterday after all his homework was done he went straight to the computer. Spent all his play time watching "Tom & Jerry". Now if  Tom or Jerry SPOKE ENGLISH I wouldn't care so much because perhaps he'd pick up a word or two. But they don't. They just run around trying to kill each other. So, this morning we talked about obsession and his obsession to do ONE thing for days at a time and then move to the next thing. We came to the conclusion that since he cannot monitor himself and I am going crazy trying to monitor him that he has a one hour limit for EVERYTHING! I know that sounds harsh but since I've NEVER seen him play with a friend for more than an hour I think it's a good rule of thumb. And hopefully will eliminate me always nagging at him to go find something else to do.
The friend thing is an issue. I think his novelty has worn off. We have many boys his age in our neighborhood that use to come play but not anymore. It might have to do with Alex's competitive nature and need to always win and be the best. I talked with him about this but he's just not getting it. He has one friend across the street that he'll go find to play with but I don't think it's very fun to play with Alex when he insists on kicking the soccer ball above the other boys head, as far as he can in an effort to show off, making the other boy chase it down the road. How to you teach a child to be a friend? To play nice? To let others win sometimes?
As you all know. Alex is very loving and sentimental about having a mom but he's been sort of indifferent about having a dad. James mentioned to him a few weeks ago that Alex never mentions wanting to have a dad. Alex pretty much shrugged like, "Yeah, never really thought about having a dad." I suggested that maybe Alex had always wanted a mom but getting a dad was an extra bonus? He nodded. Alex does write about James in his journal all the time but mostly things like "My dad left for work." or "My dad gets home Wednesday." or just a statement about what his Dad is doing, "My dad is playing guitar.". However, he ALWAYS prays for James when he's at work to "be safe and warm"-even in the dead of summer!  But two days ago he mentioned his Dad in the gratitude part of his journal: 
"I am grateful that I have a dad because he keeps our home safe."
So there you go James. He IS grateful for you!
Then there was yesterdays entry-exactly how he wrote it (which is pretty dang good if you ask me):
I am grateful that I have a mom that cooks because if she did not cook we would have to eat restorant food all the time."
Really? If I stopped cooking we could eat out every night.....why didn't someone tell ME this??
(Teeheehee!)

The Life and Times of Wendy....

So I'm at the bank, depositing a  check and in my new gigantic-o-vehicle I'm always struggling to reach the canister.Usually I have to get out and or lean half my body out to grab the canister but today I got nice and close and reached it without any problem. 

The problem happened after I took the receipt and casually put the canister back in the suck-it-up-the-tube thing. I missed. I didn't get it in the suck-it-up-the-tube thing and it fell down under my car. I couldn't open the door-because I was so very close. I debated. Should I scoot over the middle console and crawl out the passenger door? Then what? It's probably right under my car and I can't crawl under there. I have a dress on. This is ridiculous. Luckily no one was behind me or in the other lane for that matter. I decided that the canister-being circular most likely rolled under my car. I can't see it or anything. Yes, I'm sure it's right under the middle of the car and I will just pull forward, hop out and retrieve it and put it back.

Uhh....

Nope.

That didn't happen.

I drove very slowly but soon heard a terrible crunching sound. Much to my dismay I had ran OVER the canister, smashing it into many pieces.

Oh my.

My first thought was to just drive off but that's obviously a stupid thing to do. Not to mention-they know my name and have all my pertinent contact information. Besides-it's not right to smash and dash! What am I always preaching to my children? To stand up and take responsibility for their actions. Well, it's time to walk the walk!

So I got out, picked up the pieces and pushed the call button and explained my plight.

How embarrassing.

The teller laughed and tried to make me feel better telling me her manager didn't like this pink canister anyway. I had to wait for her to walk around-giver her the pieces and see the old beat up canister she put in its place.

Oh my.

This is exactly what it looked like-before it had a date with my two ton tire.

Week In Pictures:

This was spirt week and Thursday was "Erkel" Day (or Geek Day in other words) Here is Devree and Jazmine practicing after going to the DI for clothes.

The official day:

There was also: 

Sports Day & Crazy Hat Day

Pajama & Crazy Hair Day

Superhero Day

Geek Day

and then the last day was Spirt Day and a carnival during school. I went and helped sell tickets. It was crazy. Dev was running the cotton candy machine and swears she'll never eat cotton candy again!
She was in charge (along with the other student body officers) of the week and spent hours putting together music to be played between classes over the PA and then making posters and announcements promoting the next days activities. Saturday she crashed and took a five hour nap!

Alex got his precious part for his homemade Nerf gun and here he is with the finished product:

Alex then made a "Ukraine air-soft bb gun". "("Mom, we no have guns so we make these!") It's made from a the mouth of a water bottle and the finger of a rubber glove. The bb's go in the finger and then you pull it back-stretching the rubber finger-let go and the bb flies.
Austin modified the design by inverting the rubber finger-it helped it stay attached to the water bottle mouth better. He and Hayden also took turns shooting the bb's at each other. Each had welts from the sting of the bb. How fun to be a boy? Although it looks like he's holding something questionable here  is Austin holding what we now call the "Ukraine Finger Gun":

Austin's car got hit with friendly graffiti Saturday morning:

James got home Friday-met me in Midway for a BBQ and games with friends. (And we had a lovely time!) Then we drove home and he was up 4 the next morning to prepare for his presentation before the panel of judges. It went well and we'll know Monday or Tuesday if he makes it into the top 15! Saturday afternoon he took a nap and then we did some shopping to get him prepared to get back to work the next day.

Here's the kids saying goodbye this afternoon. Can you tell they like him?

Here is James and I. I'm holding the camera. Nice shot huh? 

Tonight we had Alex's court of honor. 

He received 5 merit badges

And a couple rank advancements:

And here is the skit they did. Alex has the punch line but it was very hard to hear. 

I had my friends daughter/Rylee's good friend here Thursday night through Sunday afternoon. Friday night Dev had three friends sleep over, Austin two and Rylee one! TEN kids for breakfast. Good grief. 

Kambree got a flat tire Saturday night-not JUST a flat but a need to replace the entire wheel. Yikes. I don't blame her-given my competence level in car knowledge how can I? But James is kicking himself for not having a few Car Care 101 classes before she left. Oh joy. First a battery now a wheel and tire.
This week should be a bit tamer with Spirit Week behind us. But who am I kidding? If it's not one thing, it's another. So here's to a new week....

That's my girl!

This morning Kambree and I had this text & picture exchange. (Warning this is a PG-13 post!)

Fri, Sept 24 10:57 From Kambree:

Made some banana cookies :)

10:59 ME TOO! Banana. How funny. Yours look better though.

11:03 That is way to funny! Mine were kind of hard to make because we don't have a mixer. But I am pretty proud of myself. 

11:05 We are so in sync.....even two hours away!

11:06 Haha its like we made them together. Haha. Oh, I did another thing that I think you would do.

11:06 What?......

11:07 I made this box for my roommates stuff

 

11:08 I AM LAUGHING OUT LOUD!!!

11:11Yeah there is like shoes, books, cups and a cup full of shrimp shells in it. Whitney and I were saying our mothers would be so upset with us if they found out our roommates had to,make us a box to put our stuff in that we left out!

11:15 I am still laughing!

11:27 Ha Ha I am glad I could make you laugh this morning :)

Awww....look at that. Cooking and cleaning! A college education is priceless! And she's right....I so would have made that box!!!

Alex Update....

I was reading this morning on my blog about what was going on around this time last year. I wrote DAILY about funny things Alex said and did. It seemed everyday I just had a plethora of material. Now that Alex is getting the language down, I don't have as much to write about. But I've got a couple Alexisms to share.

Alex has spelling words, my vocabulary words and content words (usually relating to science or what the class is studying.) weekly. This week there were some expressions in his content words. Try as I might he had a hard time grasping what an expression was. I finally just asked what he thought these expressions might mean:

Shed some light on it.

To shine a flashlight on it?

Light a fire underneath someone.

Light him on fire?

Make light of something.

(Absolute silence.)

Yep. Expressions are hard.

Because he's still not regained-and probably never will-full video game privileges he's found a lot of fun things to do with his spare time. (He's even confessed that he's glad he doesn't get to play video games all the time because he's having much more fun with his new found desire to build things and play tunes on the piano!)

His newest project is building this: "sweet homemade Nerf gun" ! (Click on link if you'd like to see how he's building it.) He needs a certain 1/2 inch ball valve-which took me forever to figure out-finally he just showed me the video. He went down to my Dad's. No valve. (Not even sure he was able to communicate what he wanted because he was telling me it was a tool? My Dad doesn't hear well so, I can't imagine that the communication was actually accurate!) We emailed James. No answer. Then later he was sort of stomping around disgruntled about everything that I was asking of him. I asked him to do his reading. He was frowning so much and I couldn't figure out why. I frowned at him and asked how he'd like it if I looked at him with this grumpy face all the time. He stormed off and began to read. I gave him a minute and then checked on him and his eyes were filled with tears. "What is wrong Alex?" He burst into tears. "I can't make it work. I try and try and it won't work. I need to buy part and I don't have enough money!" "The Nerf gun?" "Yes." "All this stomping around and looking grumpy is over the Nerf gun that you don't have the right parts for?" "Yes." I explained that I thought he was mad at me for asking him to put his scout book away and do his reading. That he can't expect to make things without the right materials-even if he is creative there are some jobs that just need the right stuff. That we'd talk to Dad, see if we had this do-hicky and if not he could buy one at the store. But until he gets back with us, he just needs to wait. I suggested he could look it up on line and see how much it cost, reminded him that he was getting his allowance tomorrow. Then we talked about patience. His lack of patience. (We've been talking about patience for almost two years now-given that I was trying to teach him patience two October's ago during the hosting program when he couldn't ride a bike the very minute he sat on it and had dissolved into a puddle of tears. A Ukraine puddle of tears never the less that could not communicate with me or I with him!) He needs to be more patient.  I cannot and will not drop everything and run and get parts or what not for his projects. He only informed me of the need of said part today around dinner. He needs to plan, communicate and have patience. (Gee-wiz! He and Devree are like peas in a pod with their need to get things RIGHT NOW!  Can I handle having TWO of these high maintenance, gotta get it now kids?? I think they're going to drive me to drink!) Then I made him take some deep cleansing breaths, air in through the nose out through the mouth and he began to giggle. 

After he finished his thirty minutes of reading he found the part on line. It's at the local hardware store and it cost $2.47. He will have his allowance tomorrow and I have no doubt that he'll negotiate/bug me until we get to the store after school! 

Wow. 

I wonder if Ben Franklin or Thomas Edison's mom had this problem?

We have a court of honor on Sunday where he'll be awarded four merit badges for his work during scout camp. He had a board review last night and needed to review the scout oath, motto and pledge. Here he is practicing:

Isn't he a cute kid?

Todays' journal entry was sweet but a little odd. 

I know that I do not like taking all the getages (garbages) but thats how my mom loves me. My mom loves me when ever she gets mad and  I love her now matter what happened's.

We talked a bit about this. I asked if he thought I brought him here just to take out the garbage?

No.

Do I only love him only because he takes out the garbage?

No.

Do I only love him when I'm mad?

No.

Well, that's what is sounds like in you journal.

Oh.

We went back over it to try and make more sense of it and he decided to erase the garbage part and then switch some words around so it says "My mom loves me even when she's mad." (Whew. That sounds a lot better then the only time I ever love him is when I'm mad!)

Later after his spelling pretest (where he got ONE right and asked if I could help him study spelling better next week-I almost fell to the floor-he was asking ME for help and additional time to study! Glory be and the Saints be praised!) and his vocabulary pre-test (that he aced-thank you very much!) I told him as he was leaving, "I sure love ya!" and he looked at me confused. "Alex, it means I sure love YOU!" Again confused look, "Sure love you?" I finally just asked, "What do you think I'm saying?"  "That you love me lots and lots no matter what?"

Yep. 

Exactly.

What I'm Missing Rant....

I think I'm a pretty organized person. According to my offspring I'm "anal" about the condition of my house, I call it OCD'ish as I think the word anal is so....yucky! Anyway, despite my OCD'ness, lately many things have come up missing in our house and it's driving me CRAZY!!!

Here is  a list of the tangible things that are missing;

• My tape dispenser-which is always in my office and everyone knows that if you take it and don't return it....you're in trouble! But it's missing and despite my texting and asking EVERYONE....no one has any idea where it is.
• My pasta spoon-my big Salad Master one that would survive a house fire so NO CHANCE that it broke and someone threw it away. (Besides, I'm the only one that throws anything away-including the card board middle of the toilet paper roll that will continue to sit spinning uselessly on the toilet paper dispenser with the new roll of tp sitting on the counter! Seriously! Why is it I'm the only one that can put the new roll on??)
• Austin's packet of school pictures. I put these in a very special place and dang it! I can't remember what that place is! This is actually on my daily list of things to do.  ( )Find Austin's pictures and has been left unchecked and transferred to the next day's list for a week now. 
• The primary song book. Grrr...this one makes me sooo mad!! Who lent this out or left it at church?It's been missing for months!
• MY COSTUME PIECES!!!! Nothing drives me more crazy than going down in my costume bins (yes, I have eight) and not finding my satin white gloves or my gold pirate tooth! The problem lies with the children that reside in this house and their friends that borrow and NEVER return my costume pieces. (Seriously, who would borrow my gold pirate tooth?? That's gross!) I really don't mind lending them out (except the tooth of course) but just ask my nephew Brach how harsh I am when you don't personally return my stuff!! Or ask Jazmine when she borrowed a few items and I admitted to her that I was a little witchy about my costume stuff being returned. (Only I didn't use the word witchy but it rhymes with it.) 
• The trailer keys. Which have been lost for months and no one knows anything about them. These were actually returned yesterday by my Dad who found them hanging in his key stash. I knew we hadn't lost them but of course we look like we did since we store the trailer and have an abundance of children that "probably" lost them. Good grief!
• James. Yes. Day 23 and I'm missing him....lots!

It makes me worried that like my friend-who found numerous odd items behind her fridge due to her children stashing them there-that I might have a black hole of sorts in my house. (Not that I truly think James is sucked into some black hole or hiding behind the fridge. That would indicate a little psychosis on my part wouldn't it?)

In addition to the tangible missing items above, there are also some very non-tangible things I am missing lately.

I am missing a solid nights sleep. Going on for months now. I wake up around 3 or 4 am and try NOT to look at the clock-assuming it's close to 5 am and my alarm will go off. So, I toss and turn waiting for the alarm to go off, then finally give in and attempt to focus on the digital display which will inform me that it's only 3:30 am!!! What the heck??? Every night. I've tried all sorts of things. Eating carbs before bed-as someone told me I was waking up because I was hungry? Nope.  Going to bed later? Nope. I even tried my sister-in-laws "essential oils" and went to bed smelling like a health food store but it didn't work either! And since I had that one experience in Ukraine on the train when I took an Ambien and then dreamt I was devouring a bag of cashews like a starved chipmunk and woke up to find I actually had, I'm afraid I'll eat the entire contents of my fridge each night if I take any medication. Besides I don't have trouble falling asleep it's staying asleep that's the issue.

I miss my memory. When did this happen? I use to be so good at names and dates and my brain was full of useless facts and trivia. Now I try to search for the info and there's just a blank. Like  my brain just isn't booting up or something. I've just go that stupid little hour glass blinking, telling me to wait. It's so disturbing. Eventually it comes to me but not when I need it!! Is this a sign of what is to come? Am I going to be one of those crazy ladies that leave the house with my bra on the outside of my shirt because I forgot it goes on first?

I miss my childhood. No really. Why was I in such a hurry to grow up? Why didn't I appreciate the days when all I had to worry about is what flavor of  lip gloss to buy? This mortgage paying-in charge of everything-responsible for everyone-life is not all it's cracked up to be! Oh, to be a little kid again with worries like: what to wear and who to walk home from school with. I'd like just a day of it here and there. Wouldn't it be nice?

I miss my wit. Oh, I use to be so quick and witty. One liners just rolled off my tongue. Now? I can totally come up with good ones.....a half hour later! I know who has found my wit and is not returning it anytime soon. Austin. Yes. He took it! That little scalawag! 

I miss my metabolism. Need I say more?

I  miss my babies. I miss blowing zurberts on their bellies and kissing their chubby cheeks. I missed Alex's babyhood entirely. I would just like to go back to those crazy baby days every once in awhile. I had four under eight and their world was what I made it! No one had their own plans, work to get to, homework to get done,  friends wanting to "hang out", cell phones vibrating, i-tunes blaring and insatiable appetites. It was the days of Barney and Telly Tubies and naps and walks to the park. And I was all knowing and looked up too. Don't get me wrong, I love my teens but it's a different ball game and I would just like to re-visit that other game every once in awhile or at the least, remember it better! (See #2 on this list!)

I miss my knowledge and usage of the English language. You will only relate if you have teens and the words that you used your whole life suddenly take on a new meaning. Like "These costumes are so sick!" Which  no longer means sick, as in yucky or bad but suddenly, sick=cool! Bad=good! Wicked=Awesome! And when YOU use these words in this new context....you look dumb. As in DUMB=DUMB!

I miss family TV shows. Like Different Strokes, The Cosby Show, Little House, Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman. Shows you could watch together as a family and not field questions from your ten year old about all the sexual humor jokes.

I miss entertainment creativity. My children are in awe that I know so many words to the songs they listen to. Well, that would be because so many artists are only re-making 80's songs! Don't they have a creative thought on their own? And now Hollywood is remaking movies and TV shows-only adding 21st century smut to them. Really? And why is it a child cannot entertain themselves? What happened to make believe? Making a game out of nothing. Just riding bikes? Why do children need technology and/or parents to be entertained? We're working on that in our home.

Well, I'm sure I'm missing many items on both lists but with my memory, I'll probably remember them tomorrow. Maybe I'll just go back and add to this post later? If I remember that is!

What are you missing???

After note: I found the tape dispenser!!! It was in MY Sunday bag!! That dang missing memory! Now, did I do something with all the other things? Think Wendy think!

Congrats James!

James entered the "Invented in Utah 2010" competition with his Glummy Bag invention and is one of the top 26 entries!!!

Whootwhoo!
(I was only disappointed in that the timing nixed our plans for a couples overnight bike ride in Park City with some of my favorite people. Boo. But at least we're going up for dinner and games Friday night.)

He presents to a panel of judges Saturday morning. Scary!

Here are his instructions:

Presenting:
You have exactly 15 minutes from the moment you enter the room of judges until you leave.  Do not go over as you will be cutoff and ushered from the room so that the next semi-finalist can enter.  We will have a timer in your line of sight the entire time so that you are aware of exactly how much time you have.  Again we suggest you keep your presentation to 5-7 minutes and leave the remaining time for answering questions from the judges.

Be sure to practice your presentation.  We recommend that you come early to make sure you find the building, practice any audio visual hookups and also just have your wits about you.  Come to room 102.  You will then present in the adjacent room 101 where the judges will all be sitting around a boardroom-type table.  

See what I mean about scary!!  

He drives home Friday after working 25 days straight, is taking me to dinner and games and then presents first thing Saturday. Leaves again for work on Sunday. Whew! He comes home again next weekend and then is gone for nine days and then home for THREE WEEKS! Thank goodness. Normally he doesn't work like this but he's been covering for some other guys. The money will be nice but dang! We miss him!

Speaking of money.....

We picked up Austin's car from the car doctor yesterday. $657 for the "Retro-Metro" but we figured we can't get him another car for that and if we can just keep it running through high school it will be well worth it. (For all you car people something was wrong with the fuel filter and then something about a plug coming undone and then somehow that made the other plugs all weird and they needed new wires and then there were a bunch of oil leaks. Whew! I remembered! I am so proud!) The mechanic assured me that it should last two more years. He told Austin to tell all his friend that his mechanic says "NO ONE BUT ME CAN DRIVE THIS CAR!" Apparently there was another boys car in the shop with $1200 in damages from a friend that drove it. Good advice and I'm sure he listened to the mechanic better than he'd listen to me or James. (Not that any of his friends are dying to drive the Retro! It's pretty rough. But Austin's not complaining-once he realized just how much cars cost and just how much he actually makes now that he's a working man! Reality. It hits hard when your young!)

Thanks everyone that reads my blog. Despite my lack of comments I know you're reading. I have one of those tracker thingys. I don't know who you are but I know what part of the country you live in and how many hits I get. My top day was September 6th with 117 hits but that's really high. I average about 40 hits a day with 15 of them returning visitors. So shout out to my faithful fifteen!!!

~Wendy

Alex's Important Book

This morning, as I pulled Alex's back pack out of his locker and a bunch of pens, papers, and crappy toys fell to the ground, I sighed. How do you teach organization skills to a child who had nothing for so long? As I attached his lunch to his backpack-he has a backpack with a lunch bag that hooks on it-I noticed a large stack of papers peeking out of his backpack. Graded papers. The first I've seen. Funny. He usually shows me everything the minute he gets home from school. I thumbed through his math assignments, noting that he's missing 10-20 problems per assignment. Hum? This is work that is done IN class and probably on his own.Yet he's always telling me how cool math is. How  much he loves it. I'm thinking these grades are as much a surprise to Alex as they are to me and the fact that he hasn't shown them to me makes me think he's embarrassed or afraid. Math was low but his weekly summary's show 100% on homework and unit work and his test score one week for spelling and vocabulary was respectable, at 83% but the following week (is graded odd and I can't figure it out) he got a 30%. Yet he really didn't do that bad. Humm....
When he came down for breakfast I had a chance to talk with him before the other children arrived. I mentioned I saw his math work and didn't make a big deal about it, I just asked if he thought he needed help with math? Yes. I asked if he'd like to talk to his teacher or should I? You. I asked if he'd like to get help in class or bring it home? Bring home. That surprised me. He complains so much about how much time it takes to do his homework at home. (It also scares me as I am not a math wizard!) Then I told him how awesome he was doing and that we'd figure out together how to help him with his math. He seemed relieved. (In the game of Mommy I should score some points for not getting angry and frustrated about his grades. Right? Because truthfully that was my first emotion. What??? You missed twenty??? Angry and frustrated happen more than I care to admit! I just choose to not make my blog a record of my horrid parenting skills and or lack of patience of understanding!)
But back to my backpack exploration...
Crumpled in the bottom of his back pack was a four page, stapled book about what is important to Alex. I can tell he got help on the first three pages but it's the forth page I know he did on his own. Take note of the art work. (Especially the self portrait of the muscular boy with incredible biceps standing in front of the class!) Here is Alex's Important Book.

Well, I need to do a million things this Monday. Starting with emailing Alex's teacher about what we're going to do about Alex's math situation and his weird grading for the 2nd weeks tests.

But at least I've been reminded about what is important:

Friends

Mom

Family

May we all keep the important things in perspective as we start this week!

Kids Update

Lately Rylee's favorite show to watch on the computer is Master Chef. Last night she came in with wide, excited eyes, "Mom, we can buy the Master Chef Cookbook for only $14.95!" I explained that we have a shelf full of cookbooks and an Internet too and we don't need to BUY another cook book. So she goggled for breakfast recipes and decided to make a Raspberry Strudel Braid for breakfast on Sunday. Yes, Rylee is ten years old. Here is the picture of what she decided to make for her first cooking project:

I hear her rustling around the kitchen this morning and figured that she'd be hollering for help any minute. But nope. By the time I hauled my hinny out of bed I came down to witness the glaze being drizzled over the top.

Here is the finished product. It might not have looked just like the picture but it did taste good and given the fact that Rylee is a novice-besides her hours of viewing Master Chef-I think she did awesome!

Here she is ready for church. It was Stake Conference and yes, I let her wear my high heeled sandals to church. She just had to sit there for two hours so why not? When you're ten and your foot is a size 8.5 you need some perks. Besides, there are some days I'm just not up for the battle. Today was one of them.

I told Alex he didn't have to wear a white shirt to church and he came down in this shirt. I asked him what he was wearing? (I don't remember seeing it before but we have had a few people give us hand-me-downs and this was probably one of them.) He answered. 

A: A hot shirt.

Me: Hot as in "Whew, it's hot in here!" or hot as in "Oohlala this shirt is hot!"?

A: Hot as in Oohlala.

Me: (Laughing) Oh, well okay. But I hope you know that all hot guys iron their shirts. (It really needed to be ironed.)

A: Mom, the only hot guy you know is James! (And between you and me he HATES to iron his shirt!) I ironed Alex's shirt and then he gave me this hot guy pose:

And this is just a cute Alex pose:

Devree went to help my mom with my cousins wedding Friday night and caught the bouquet. Apparently it was between her and my other cousin-the brides sister-and her boyfriend was there so she didn't want to catch it so she whispered to Devree that it was hers. The bride didn't throw it far and Dev had to quickly pick it up off the floor. Here she is modeling it:

She also got her hair cut off on Thursday. She got a text in Stake Conference (I know, she should not have had her phone on in church. Again, just not a battle worthy day.) and her friend asked where she was? (He was sitting behind us.)

Dev: I am in Stake Conference. 

Friend:  No, I see your Mom, your Ukrainian, Austin, your little sister and Kambree. I don't see you. 

Dev: I am here, my sister Kambree is away at college. I'm wearing a green shirt.

Friend: You look just like Kambree from the back!

Great! I already call them by the wrong names all the time. Similar hair isn't going to help!

And since I was taking pictures I wanted to document Austin's new hair cut. (All signs of the 007 and gun insignia are now off his head-thank goodness!) but he was giving me these GQ poses:

Finally I caught a genuine pose on the way out the door!

Such a funny kid. He keeps me laughing.

Happy Sunday all-hope you have a great week!

Kambree @ College Pics.....

Checking in...

So...remember that list of vocabulary words for Alex this week?

Well, we were working on them and he just struggled with the word imitate.

So, I started imitating him. He sighed, I sighed, he tapped his pencil, I tapped my pencil. He soon caught on but didn't catch that I was trying to help him with vocabulary.

A: Mom!
Me: Mom!
He turned away, I turned away.

He sighed again, I sighed. I could sense he just wasn't grasping it.

I asked, "Alex what am I doing?"
He turned back towards me with eyes filled with tears.

"Making fun of me?"

"Oh, no honey," and I pulled him onto my lap. "I am IMITATING you!"

The light dawned as he laughed through his tears. 

"Oh." he said.

I reminded him of the time I taught him the word duck by throwing something at him. (I know, I'm not going to win any parenting awards admitting that.) And he laughed again. 

So this morning we were making a last ditch effort to review his vocabulary words and we got to imitate. He hummed, he hawed, then I said "Come on Alex. You should know THIS one!" and again the light and he grinned  "To copy!" 

YES!

He heads to scout camp for an overnight-er tonight. His back pack is almost as big as him. Its a two mile hike. I hope he doesn't fall over backwards. He came in with it strapped on and asked if I wanted to be a scout? No thanks. Then later he came and rubbed his cheek against mine and sighed and laid against my shoulder and I teased him that he was going to miss his mama. He laughed. "No, I will not miss you for ONE night." I asked if he was sure, that maybe he would cry "I want my mama!" and he laughed. No mom, I will not. Lately he's been so much easier to joke with and be around. He's getting our humor and we're getting his. 

He's very protective of Rylee. Rylee had a guy friend from school drop by out of the blue and he was very concerned. Almost like a father-hen or I guess that would be a father-roster? It made me laugh. Rylee is really going to be in for it in junior high and high school with Alex looking out for her. 

I forgot to blog about Alex's talk in church. He did really well. I always remind my children to speak slow and loud enough for grandpa to hear. My dad is hard of hearing and we're lucky enough to be in the same ward. Alex walked up to the mike, leaned into it and in a deep, low voice said "Grandpa....can you hear me?" The congregation laughed as my Dad nodded. He bore a sweet testimony at the end of his talk saying he was thankful for his family and the scriptures and that he can come to church and learn about Jesus. 

Chalk that one up to a Parent Pay Day! 

Another P.P.D. I need to mention is about Austin. He doesn't read my blog so I'm safe as he would be embarrassed that I wrote about this. I have been trying to ask the kids each night to tell me a nice thing they did for someone else during the day.(With hopes that they'll look for opportunities to do nice things and make it a part of their character? I know, maybe not. But it's worth a shot right?)  I usually get crazy answers-especially from Austin-like,  "I was nice to not hit/make fun of/punch so and so when they did this or that." Last night I hadn't asked for a nice thing report but Austin shared that he thought he was in trouble during school that day. He was asked to go into his PE teachers office after class.  He wasn't sure what he had done but he knew getting called into the office wasn't a good thing but it turned out he wasn't in trouble. 

So I had to probe, well then why did you get called in? He was called in because they had been playing baseball in class and had a handicap student pitching and Austin had swung at all his pitches-despite the fact they didn't make it to the plate-and he obviously struck out. The teacher complimented him for being a good sport and taking the strikes without complaining. 

Awww....that's my boy! It warms my heart to hear these stories. I always hear-through the neighborhood grapevine-when he's being mischievous. Nice to hear some good stuff. (Note to self: Don't be that neighbor that tattles on the teenagers. Be the neighbor that tells the frazzled mom that her prankster teenage son did something GOOD!)

I need to keep my note to myself in mind as I serve in YOUNG WOMEN'S! Yes, that's right. I am no longer the 2nd counselor in Relief Society but the 1st counselor in YW's. I couldn't be more thrilled! I will be over Devree's age group and working with many of my ward friends! So excited. I hope they don't think I'm old and fuddy-duddy. I remember thinking woman my age were exactly that when I was a young woman. Funny, how your body say's "Yes I'm 41" but you spirit is still in its early twenty's! Now if I could just get my energy level to agree more with my spirit and not my body!

Happy weekend everyone!

Crazy Hat Day at the Elementary

And the battle rages on.....

So, I thought Kambree going away to college and Devree remaining at home would solve all the clothing battles. Wrong O! Here is a verbatim text conversation between my two lovely daughters.

D: (September 11th  10:51 pm) Where's my black skirt?
K: (No reply)
D: (September 15th 7:57 pm) Do you have my black skirt?
K: Yeah, when I was throwing everything into my bag that was on my floor at home and I found it when I was unpacking at my apartment.
D: Well, can you give it back or mail it? Cause I am not waiting until October or whenever you are visiting.
K: I will probably be coming home sometime in the next few weeks.
D: Well, when you do bring my skirt and give me the blue jean dress. Cause it's my turn.
K: It's not your turn for the blue dress until October unless you want to trade it for a different dress.
D: That WILL be October.
K: I just said I'm probably coming home in the next few weeks. That is still September.
D: Oh. Well, bring the dress and the skirt AND MY SHOES!
K: (No Reply)

So, in Devree's defense a few weeks from September 15th IS going to be October. In Kambree's defense-she did have a big mess on the floor at home and probably didn't notice that Dev's skirt was in the mess on the floor.  But really, "Can you mail it?".

Good grief.

The Last 24 hours-or just about!

What IS this picture you might be asking.....

Well......

It's Alex in his fort...of course!

And just in case you wanted to see MORE of the fort....

He came home from school Friday with wild plans to make said fort. Only I thought he meant a fort outside made of wood and involving power tools. Whew. No. Just a fort out of his bedding. His plans were to build the fort and have Brach sleep over but Brach couldn't come so he slept in it by himself. Apparently it was rather warm so he rigged himself up some sort of fan by the light of his flashlight. Yes. A fan. Somehow he hung it from the sheet ceiling of the fort. Don't ask. I only heard about it. I didn't see it.

What a funny boy.

Saturday I roused the boys at seven am to put out flags with the scouts for Patriot Day and Ry and I ran to pick up our Bountiful Baskets. After breakfast we all attacked the house and then went shopping for birthday gifts for Dev & Ry's friends birthday parties later that night. 

We stopped for lunch at Scone-cutters where the girls bought these lovely teeth out of gum-ball type machine.

Alex had been complaining of a tummy ache right before we left. Earlier he had been jumping around and climbing trees so I was a bit puzzled. He wanted Ibuprofen for his tummy ache. (Ibuprofen fixes anything....right?) No, I told him maybe he needed to go to the bathroom or toot. Rylee-being the mother hen that she is-started quizzing him on when did he poop last and Alex got really cranky about it. Rylee was bewildered. "I'm just trying to help him!" "I know." I agreed "But brothers don't want to talk to sisters about their bowel functions." 

I was getting rather worried as we went to the pet store and Alex LOVES animals and he was walking like an old man. We had two more stores to hit before lunch and he sat in the car for the last one. He insisted he did not need to toot or go to the bathroom-although he did try. The only think I could think was that he was carrying the big ladder and perhaps he strained his groin? It was low and across the entire front of his abdomen. Not to one side or the other. He thought maybe he needed to eat.

We went to lunch. Nope didn't help. But he ate just fine. He tried going to the bathroom again. No luck. He laid his head in my lap while we finished eating and then we went to the car. Here's Alex showing his tummy ache face at the restaurant.

  I had pelted Alex with questions. Did he fall on a tree branch while climbing? Did he feel anything strain when he was lifting the ladder? When did he go to the bathroom last? I finally just figured he'd pulled something and did give him an Ibuprofen. He told me I should be a doctor. He has such faith in me, doesn't he?  

We went to the car and on the way his eyes got big and he exclaimed, "I farted! I feel better!" Sure enough when we got home he did a little jogging in place and proclaimed himself as good as new! He told me he prayed twice for his tummy ache to go away and it did! (I love how simple his faith is! Love, love love it!)   He also matter of factually informed me "I guess my hole just wouldn't let it out." I'll let you figure that one out for yourself.

Alex babysat Maren that afternoon and he did a good job. He made her folded paper frogs and colored with her. I was sitting in my office listening to them talk. Maren-who just turned four-and Alex have very similar sentence structure. Alex had asked me to print him off a car to color and Maren asked him "How did her print it off?" "She's just awesome." was his answer. Then Maren told Alex that she liked him and Alex turned to me "What did I tell you Mom? I KNEW she'd like me!" He really is a good little babysitter.

I ran grocery shopping that afternoon and got home just in time to press Austin's shirt and pants for his big date.

Tonight is Murray's homecoming. Here's my Austin all ready to go:

His date, Jessica, just lives down the street so he walked down and delivered her corsage and talked her into walking back to our house-for my sake! Her mom came too! 

Here's their coordinating foot wear: 

And a close up of the two. Aren't they cute?

And here's a full body shot!

Cole-Austins friend-who was driving-came to pick them up and go get his date but not before I snapped this picture. I think Jessica is just so dang cute surrounded by those handsome boys!

Devree was off to her birthday party and then Rylee to hers:

And knowing it was just Alex and I home for the night I had asked him the night before if he would like to go on a date with me?  He said sure, but he looked a little uneasy. "It's okay", I said. "I'll pay." He sighed in relief.  We decided on a movie and he offered to buy the popcorn.

(Oh, I really hate having my picture taken!)

We went to see "Nanny McPhee Returns" and I'm telling you-wait for it to come out on Redbox! (Not half as good as the first one.)

On the drive there I told Alex that "I know I'm just a mom but we're going to work on your dating skills." Alex rolled his eyes. When we got there he stood outside my door for a minute or two before he realized I was waiting for him to open it. I handed him the money for the tickets and he bought our tickets and he bought our popcorn. I had to give him a little head nod to open the car door for me when we got out of the movie but he did it with such a grand jester and swoop of his arm-I felt like royalty! (I just hope Austin was half as gallant on his date!)

We had a nice time. Amy had lent us her popcorn bucket that only cost $2.50 to refill so Alex didn't have to fork out $8 for popcorn. Thanks Amy. It's a BIG bucket and half way through the movie Alex asked me to take it away because he just can't stop eating it!

We stopped at McDonald's for sundaes on the way home and then grabbed Ry from her party.

Austin popped in to change his clothes and now they're off to the "night activity". He says he's had a blast! The went to Red Robin for dinner, went to the dance, had their picture taken and then danced and danced.  He also said he's tired and sweaty already and now going to some gymnasium to get more tired and sweaty. Did I mention the "day activity" part of this date was breakfast and then plans to go ride go-carts? (But it was $20 for ten minutes so they went to some girls house and played pool instead.) Crazy all day dates! Austin mentioned-after buying his turquoise Van's-"I'm sure glad we don't have one of these every weekend!" They're fun but they are expensive. I think he's spent his whole paycheck!

Tomorrow is Alex's talk in church. It's so funny-see his blog if you want to read it in its entirety. I hope he'll speak clear and slow so people can understand. I didn't correct his sentence structure or tell him what to write.I just took what he wrote and then had him tell me more and typed as he spoke. I wanted it to be his own words with his own style. But you're really missing out not hearing his cute voice with his funny "s" sounds and the occasional "f" instead of "th".
Well, Dev's home from her party and I have three out of the four under the roof. I'm not going to stay up for Austin-good grief! 

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday!

~Wendy