Thoughts running wild

OK, hey there! I started wring a blog about a serious topic, but I couldn't get my thoughts expressed in a proper order. If I did, it would take pages to describe what I was thinking. Also, I like to keep my blog on a more positive side. There are so many negative things out there, I didn't want to add to it. Perhaps one day I'll write out my feelings on the serious issue, but for now, I'm letting it go and ready to write about the funny things that go on in life.

I have three sons and one daughter. The boys are boys and they are noisy, messy, gross, and funny. My daughter is girly, pink, sweet and something of a rebel. My toddler son and I were playing with cars the other day. The cars in each of our hands would run head first into each other and crash spectauarly. He would laugh so hard and we would do it again. Later he brings me a couple of his sister's Polly Pocket dolls. (They are the perfect size to fit into a little fist) He gives me one doll and takes the other. He brings his Polly up to mine and says "hi". I say hi back and his Polly attacks mine. He jumps on her head and knocks her over. He laughs and laughs.

On the other hand, when my daughter brings me her Polly's to play with, we first much change all the girl's clothes. After new dresses are on all the girl's, we meet. "Hi, I'm Polly," I say.
"Hi, I'm Cinderella."
Then I ask, "So, Cinderella, what are we going to do today?"
"We are going to have a party"
"Yeah, a party!" I say making Polly jump in the air, "What kind of party?"
"A Valentine's Day party," (forget Thanksgiving and Christmas, let's get right into Valentine's Day)"You need to get the presents"
You know, it isn't a party without presents. "OK, where are the presents?"
"Back there," Cinderella tells me, pointing to some random place in space behind me. I make Polly go to the general area of random space. "No, not there," Cinderella is sounding annoyed, "Over there!" Another random place of space.
"Maybe you had better get the presents, Cinderella. I'll go make a cake."

Well, to make a long story short (too late) Polly can't make the cake correctly either. She doesn't seem to know where the random space kitchen is. This goes on and on. Polly and Cinderella are joined by Ariel, Belle, a kitty and a pet dinosaur. Now, toddler sees the fun, grabs the dinosaur and basically destroys the party in a Godzilla-like fashion.

I love my one sweet daughter. I'm so happy to have that bit of pink and princess in my life, but right now, it is more fun to play with my toddler. I love his laugh when the cars crash or when dolls attack each other and jump on each other's head. I think my three sons have corrupted me.

Ski Battles

My kids found the funniest web site. They love playing funny games and this one is one that even I got into. It is called Ski Battles. Basically, you build a ski slope, push play and watch a little man on skis slide down (or fall down) the slope you made. My kids love to put bumps and strange obstacles in the way of the skiier and watch him fall. It is funny and really quite challenging to make a good slope. It is on a site called addicting games and with ski battle, it is addicting!

http://www.addictinggames.com/skibattle.html

Give it a try.

Air Noise

We live very near a Navy Air Base. F-18’s fly over our house constantly. They fly day and night! The latest at night that I’ve hear a jet fly over was after 2 a.m. I understand they need to practice night flights, but really, can’t they limit the night flights or just stop after 11 p.m.?

I actually don’t mind the noise. I like seeing the F-18’s flying around. I realize they have a very important job.

Virginia is a lovely state for fall and spring. Those seasons last a long time here and they are my favorites. Winter in our area of Virginia are mild and we have seen very little snow, although we get some biting cold winds and summers are hot and humid. But fall, ooo, fall, it is perfect here. The temperature hovers in the mid 70’s and it is pleasant to be outside. I love to take walks and feel the cool air. I don’t turn on the air conditioning, just open up lots of windows and it keeps the inside of the house a perfect temperature. Right outside the front living room window is a little water fall that we installed in April. I love hearing the sounds of water falling from one little pool to the large pool. It is calm and peaceful.

Then, the F-18’s rev up and start flying over. It certainly gives the ambient sounds a new tune. Sometimes they fly directly over the house, pointing their engines right at us. The windows rattle, glasses in the cupboards rattle and I’ve even heard a door shake on it’s hinges. All conversation must be stopped, and if we happen to be watching a movie, we have to rewind a bit to hear what we missed when the jet flew over. F-18’s never travel alone. They work in groups of twos or fours. One passes by and the noise just starts to subside then the next one flies by, then the next one and the next one. Yesterday I was sure they were going to land in our yard. They were low and loud. My toddler, who loves to play outside doesn’t know how to cover his ears yet. He lays his head on the ground, waiting for the jets to pass.

Often I must close the windows while they are flying around. Later I’ll notice they have stopped. I go open all the windows again and guess what happens…. Yes, the F-18’s rev up again.

We are bound to live near air bases. My husband’s work is of the nature where he works with military. (Luckily he is no longer military, but that is another story.) Truly, I don’t mind. I like the jets. I just hope one day we will live near an Air Force Base rather than a Navy Air Base. Air Force has usually got quieter engines. Or, better yet, we can live near some of the stealth fighters. They are awesome to see and well, stealthy quiet.

Blog to blog

Sorry for the multiple postings. I can't get here everyday like I would like to and then thoughts build and finally I do a blogging explosion.

So, what's on the ol' mind?

Blogging. I love reading others blogs. I have a few I visit frequently and somtimes I'll follow links they have for blogs they enjoy. You can go on and on and on doing this. Some, ok, many blogs have weekly things, like Menu Monday, Kitchen Tip Tuesday, Frugal Friday, and I've seen stuff for Wednesday and Thrusday, but I don't remember any right now. These are fun and I enjoy reading kitchen tips and frugal ideas. However, some blogs are nothing but these things. It seems that blogs are used for many reasons.

Some blogs, like the ones that follow the weekly things and nothing else seem like a public To Do list.

- Some are there as family journals
- Some are a nice combination of journal/weekly To Do
- Some are there for the blogger to make money, they get commission off things they review and sell or they are promoting their own wares.
- Some are for creative muses and thoughts
- Some are to make bold statements on certian issues
- the list can go on and on

Nothing is wrong with any of these. I have no point to this, it was just an observation. I hope that my own little blog is a creative combination of personal observation and amusing family life. The blogs I visit most are SAHMs, like me, who want to share a little of their life, their kids lives, and recipies. It is nice for me, who is home all day with her children, with no car available for me to get out of the house, and who just wants to reach out and feel a part of a social group where we all understand each other.

The absolute best part of this social organization is that to visit "friends" I don't have to clean my house or change out of my pink Winnie the Pooh pajamas!

Breakfast?

Breakfast this morning was strange. It was a every kid for himself kind of thing. I didn't plan it that way, but everyone craved something different for breakfast. Hubby and Little Princess had toast, pumpkin bread and mandarine oranges. Oldest son appeared soon after and had pumpkin bread and a banana. Middle son had 2 slices of pumpkin bread. Toddler had a banana, 2 slices of lunch meat (I was fixing Oldest Son's lunch) and a slice of toast. Me, well, mine was the oddest. I had one slice of toast with grape jelly, 2 olives, and 2 slices of dried beef with cream cheese. The olives and dried beef were a part of the lunches I was fixing for hubby and Oldest Son.

Oh well. Everyone has full, happy tummies.

Tomorrow - oatmeal!

Kanga

I don't often do these personality quizzes, but this one was cute. Who doesn't love the Hundred Acre Woods?


Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

Apparently, I'm Kanga, and yep, it fits me pretty well. I'm a mom, through and through. I'm pretty easy going with most kids, but I don't care who's kid you are, you disobey me when I've asked you not to do something, you get a time out. ;)

Giant Pink Fish

Remember the adventures of Jenny Jenna? Well, Jenny Jenna, it seems, is on vacation right now. We haven't heard much about her lately. Now we have a giant pink fish who talks to us. The fish is a stuffed toy that was given to my Little Princess by someone at church who was cleaning out their closets and getting rid of the kiddy stuff from their teenagers rooms.

This fish, would you believe, loves to party. Anytime the big fish talks to us, she is telling us about a party that she is going to have. It seems to plan parties everyday. I'm not sure if pink fish actually has the parties, but she loves to plan them.

It sounds a bit like me, actually. I'm a planner. I love to plan. I have a hard time executing those ideas though.

Back to the giant pink fish, it has gone everywhere with us since last Wednesday when it joined the family. Sometimes the toddler wants the pink fish. Sometimes Little Princess doesn't want to give up her fishy friend. As a result, pink fish has had to have several time outs. Mostly, however, it plans parties with Little Princess. I have been proxy to many invitees: Cinderella, Ariel and Polly. The plans always include cake, dancing, decorations (often in the form of a Christmas tree) and presents. Confused? Yeah, it is hard to keep up with the big pink fish and Little Princess's party plans. Little Princess will be thrilled in a few weeks when we actually begin the planning of her real birthday party. Can you imagine what she might come up with? Perhaps the pink fish will give us some good ideas.

Silly the Clown

We are in homeschool week 5. We are still having fun, but the realization of doing this every day for the rest of the school year is really beginning to dawn on me. I started knowing that I would do it everyday, but today I was thinking how nice it would be to take a break and play or walk or do something else and knowing that all my wants would have to wait until school was done. It's OK, I'm still really enjoying it. (things would be easier if my two younger kids were a bit better)

So, today, I was following a neat set of lessons I found. It said, have the student make his own clown. Then describe the clown and make up a story about the clown. Encourage creativity. Alright! This is something I love to do. Well, Son built the clown. I asked him constructive questions about the clown.

Does your clown have a name? Silly.

OK, does Silly have a hat? No.

Does Silly have hands and feet? Yes.

Tell me something that Silly likes to do. Ummmm.... I don't know.

What makes Silly happy? Ummm...I don't know.

OK, (I start to panic a bit) how would Silly rake leaves? Ummm... with a metal thing on the

bottom and the wood poking up.

Yes, that is how you rake, but would Silly do it in a funny way or would he rake like Dad rakes? Yeah.

I go around in circles with various questions trying to get a creative or articulate answer out of him. Finally I say, Pretend you are Silly, now show me how you would rake the leaves. Son does a little dance. YES!

What are you doing? Raking leaves

Right, but how are you doing it? What makes the way you rake leaves different? I'm doing a dance.

YES! You are doing a dance. Now, tell me a story about Silly doing a dance when he rakes leaves. Ummmm.....

Inside I'm thinking ARGHHHH!

I wish my mom were here. She would know the way to get him to think and talk. I talked to hubby about this today. He told me to forget the clown and next time have him tell a story about his Guild Wars character (a computer game that Son loves to play). That makes sense. I'll try that next time.

Don't send in the clowns.

11 years

We have had an exciting morning. It is my husband and mine anniversary - 11 years!! It is hard to believe. In some ways, it doesn't seem like it could be that long, and it other ways, it has felt like 50 years. Anyway, it has been 11 years ago today we were married in the Jordan River Temple in West Jordan, UT.

Well, my oldest son headed out to the school bus like normal, but a few minutes later, I heard loud dog barking and my son burst through the door. He was breathing hard and had only one shoe on. Three large dogs were on our porch barking. They ran off back into the front yard and down the road a bit. My hubby got on his shoes and grabbed a bat. The kids and I watched from the doorway. They came after my husband and he gave one of the dogs a good whack in it's side. They barked a lot more, but they didn't come back down our side of the street. The kids were able to get on the bus when it came around. My husband was in the yard ready to strike again had the dogs come back. A lady and I called 911 and two police were sent out. Come to find out, the three dogs belongs to a neighbor down the street a bit. They released the dogs back to the owner. I hope they got a good fine to help them remember to keep them locked up better.

It turned out fine and we didn't press anything because no one was hurt, but had they gotten to my son, well, it is awful to think about and I'm just glad he was fast enough to make it back to the house - shaken, but safe.

Now, we are having school. We are playing with cuisenaire rods this morning. My toddler has exactly the same thing as the other two have, but he is still fussing about it and trying to take things away from the others.

Oh, and to top it all off, our fridge doesn't seem to be cooling at all. When I took out sandwich stuff today, the cheese was soft and gooey and the butter was soft and there was just no blast of cool air when the door was opened. Hopefully it can be fixed, but if not, we only have a short time before we have to replace it. Now you know why our family motto is "It never rains, but it pours."