Wednesday, December 15, 2010
I Believe in Curious George...
Monday, December 13, 2010
Lame Blogger
I just noticed how really boring my blog has been lately. I think I've been spending too much time cleaning or making meaningless comments on facebook! Things are settling down well since the move. If I could find my camera cord, I could download my photos. Maybe if I decide to blog again before six months go by, I can do that. Now we're just juggling the holiday sickies and trying to get healthy before we head North to see some winter.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
On Luke's Fourth Birthday
Friday, November 5, 2010
Where's the Beef?
5 November, 2010
Chere Famille,
Welcome to the first official issue of:
“Barefoot and Pregnant, J.D.”
This week Alex and I didn’t have a single argument about homework. I nursed Ryan’s little feelings through his first social disappointment: not getting invited to a birthday party that he wanted to attend. Today, I managed to negotiate nap time with my two-year old without a roof-raising fit. Josh and I have made it through another week of wedded nearly-bliss. I have made two meals for friends in need, babysat kids, cleaned the house, kept up with the laundry, done the grocery shopping and cooked meals for my family, unpacked a few more boxes, paid bills, run errands, gotten the kids to school on time, to swim team and to scouts and worked on my personal history. I made homemade bread and a batch of raspberry jam. I have knitted half a hat for Jane and read my scriptures and a wonderful book called Freedom’s Daughters about the women of the civil rights movement. I have read a Newberry award winner to the boys for 30 minutes every night. I have already run 8 miles and tomorrow I will run 7 more. After that, I will help my husband teach a lesson on virtue and purity to 300 youth at the Queen Creek South Stake Youth Conference. And yes, I am currently barefoot and baking cupcakes!
In case you were wondering, I just received my copy of “Res Gestae” in the mail. It is the magazine sent out by the law school once a year to brag about it’s programs, faculty and students. As I looked at all the things that were highlighted I realized that never in a million years will they ever include anything about those of us who have retired from the practice in order to rear children. Since we are not out fighting for the rights of convicts, saving the planet, battling injustice in Africa or the Balkans, or carrying the banner for gay families, we seem to have fallen through the cracks. So, today I wrote a brag rag about myself and I hope you will all forgive me for sending it to you.
We are moved in to our new house. We owe much gratitude to our friends, especially Matt Rosen, Jeremy Atkin, and Warren Barnhill, Jennifer and Lexi Cluff, the Felt Parents, and Ken and Alison. They all came at different times and helped us do all sorts of lovely jobs. Gary and Debbie worked like field hands for the time they were here and so the move has been relatively easy. Debbie got the whole kitchen unpacked and put away, and Josh and Gary hung ceiling fans in every room and fixed up inummerable odds and ends that needed to be squared away. Funny enough, it hasn’t taken a lot of adjusting for us to feel like this is home. It has been nice to have our parents here to visit. A house isn’t really home until your family has been there. I am hoping that we can get our other little house in ship shape and be able to sell it soon.
I’ve got two great kid stories to end things off. Today I gave the kids a treat and let them have cocoa and raisin bread for breakfast. When Ryan got home he announced to me that today in Kindergarten they had talked about healthy food. “The breakfast you gave me today was NOT healthy and didn’t help me concentrate and learn at school!” He told me that he didn’t think that anything with chocolate in it was an appropriate breakfast food.
This week I splurged and bought myself a copy of Beauty and the Beast, my favorite Disney movie. This morning when I asked Jilly what she wanted to do today she said, “I want to watch ‘Beauty and the Beef’.” So I put the movie on and we started to watch. About 10 minutes in she looked up and said, “Mom, this Beef is a scary Beef. I want to watch Nemo.”
Well, Josh is off at Youth Conference, I have cleaned up after dinner, and the kids and I are going to sit down and watch “Beauty and the Beef!”
Our love to all--
Cheryl
BY THE WAY, THE TITLE OF MY MAGAZINE IS PURELY FOR EFFECT. THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT, NOT AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF ANY KIND!!!
Friday, August 27, 2010
Dear Family,
I know this is a crazy day for writing a letter. However, today I have time and I finally have a word processing program again. I have lovely new iMac, but it took me a while to get a word processor and get it installed. So, I am back in business. I have also realized that the last letter I wrote was in JUNE. Oops! Time flies when the kids are out of school.
We had a really nice summer. We spent three weeks with our families with visits in Salt Lake and in Jackson. It always leaves me mystified when I come home to Arizona: WHY DO WE LIVE HERE???? We were able to be there for Parker’s blessing, Jillian, Eliza, and Aunt Abby’s birthday parties, and Alan’s baptism. I loved spending time with Sunny. We did projects every day, went shopping, made delicious
food, played games till 1 AM, etc. We had a wonderful time just being able to be outside in the great outdoors.The advantage of staying away so long turned out to be that Josh
finished the built-in bookshelves and storage in our bedroom and gave me a new computer as a surprise when I got home! He thinks that it will make me less likely to stay so long next time we visit. I think he’s got his logic all twisted up! I feel like I’m walking into Pottery Barn every time I go in our room.We got home with a week to spare getting the kids ready for school and in time to celebrate Josh’s birthday. I had been to Spoons and Spice in Salt Lake and bought some tart pans, so I had to make fruit tarts for Josh’s birthday. They turned out rather nice, I think! It is so
helpful to have your own personal reference chef. I missed him
when he was unavailable.
In the mean time, our little Jill has turned two, in all senses of the word. Peace and quiet has now become and indication that there is something wrong. In the last two weeks she has unrolled an entire roll of paper towels, filled the sink
about 1/4 full with toothpaste, dumped an entire bottle of hair spray on the carpet, pulled all the drawers out of her dresser and dumped her clothes into a big pile. But, she has also taken to giving really good hugs, singing quite a variety of songs (with correct lyrics and on key), playing really well with her brothers, loving story time, and behaving herself in the baby jogger. So as much trouble as she’s causing, she’s making up for it in cute.
This year was also Ryan’s big year. He started Kindergarten on July 28. I took him up the first day and I was trying to be happy and excited so that he wouldn’t get nervous. We found his teacher and we were lining up to go inside when Ryan said, “Mom, my tummy hurts.” I took him over to sit down and about 30 seconds later, he puked all over. The poor little guy was so scared, but he hadn’t told me that he was nervous at all. Needless to say, I felt like a loser mom, not even knowing that my son was so scared.
Subsequently, he is still working on adjusting. He’s had some times where he just can’t control his little emotions. When we talked about it, he said, “Mom, I’m just not used to being away from home every day.” He’s a tender-hearted boy. I think it will just take him some time to adjust. He hasn’t had any trouble in his class though and I’m glad for that. Today, he told me that his shoes keep coming off at recess. I said, "Ryan, are they slipping off, do they just need to be tied tighter?" Ryan responded, "No, Mom, the white guys keep taking them off when we're playing white guys and Indians!"
The beginning of this school year has been pretty tough with Alex. We spend a lot of time over the summer keeping up and reviewing the things he had learned, so I wasn’t anticipating how challenging the first few weeks would be. He seemed to have lost all motivation for school work. I couldn’t find any way to get him interested or to even get him to care about how he was doing in school. His handwriting was possibly even worse than it was last year. And we had the same struggle that we’ve had every year since second grade--the dreaded, timed math-fact test. We have fought this battle each year and I was hoping that we would have cleared the hurdle by now, but no...
Once I stopped panicking and realized that this year was going to be just as time-intensive as the last two, we buckled down and got to work. I’ll admit, I was hoping that I might be able to spend a little less time riding him to get his homework done this year. I found a couple of things that have helped to move him along: Swim Team, Harry Potter, and playing chess. He can’t do any of these things until his homework is finished an
d neat enough to be read by his teacher.
Luckily, he still has Mrs. Fatka, his wonderful teacher from last year. I told her that when I place the footnotes on his High School diploma, I’ll make sure her name appears right after mine! I just keep reminding myself what a wonderful kid he is. He is happy, he is kind, he is imaginative, and sometimes he’s downright funny. For a woman who values humor as highly as I, he’s a joy to be around most of the time.
After we got home, Josh announced that we were going on a camping trip so he could spend some time away
from work and church and with his wife and kids. So we rented a canoe and drove up to the White Mountains. We camped by Black Canyon Lake and spent a couple of days camping, fishing and canoeing. We discovered that Ryan has real natural talent as a fisherman. He was standing on the shore casting his line and kept getting standing ovations from the old-timers out on their boats. Alex really took to the canoe and by the time we left he was piloting himself around in the canoe. The kids had a great time. Mom left the “food police” part of her personality at home and we ate junk food and stayed up late watching stars and played with fire and rolled in the dirt and all the other things that make camping so much fun.
Now we’re back in the regular swing of things. We’re grappling with some pretty big decisions about our family’s future, so the routine is nice. It gives me something to be absorbed in so that I don’t spend too much time worrying about everything else.
I have decided to train for and run a half-marathon
at the end of January. (NOTE TO MOM: Dad said he would come down and run with me. The race is on January 29, 2011. January is a really lovely time to be in Arizona!) It feels good to be running with a goal in mind again. It’s been a long time since I’ve run a race and I’ve never run one this long. Maybe it will help push me along so that I can run at least one marathon with my Dad. I’d hate to miss out on that. We hope you are all well. Maybe I’ll write another letter in another couple of months! :)
Love,
Cheryl
Monday, June 7, 2010
Homecoming
Dear Family,
Well, of all the strange things I am sitting up late tonight waiting for my bread to rise enough to be baked. I’m not sure why I am doing this right now. Last night was my second 2 a.m. awakening from a barfing child in a week. I should be in bed, but my mind needs a release.
Saturday night as Josh and I were sitting on the sofa recovering from the bedtime routine Mom called to tell us that my little brother, Alan, had showed up at home after six months of no contact. After the initial shock wore off, the tears of gratitude spilled down my cheeks. Alan is alive! All we had been able to pray for lately was just to know that Alan was ok, and there he was, a direct answer to prayer. We don’t know much about where he’s been or what he’s doing. No one wanted to pry or scare him off by asking too many questions.
I am now struggling to interpret this emotional flatness that I am experiencing. Perhaps it is just the geographic distance, or the fact that I haven’t seen him myself. I know I am relieved that he is ok. I think maybe I am just hesitant because I worry about how this will affect my parents. I have watched them wade through so much sorrow to finally come to a place where the ground seems more firm. I think I am aftraid of the unknown path ahead. Mom says she feels good and has slept well for the first time in six months, so I’ll have to take that as a good omen.
Of course, my emotional confusion could also have something to do with the craziness we’ve been experiencing around here. Jillian and Alex have both had a stomach flu this week. I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone who knows me well that 3 hours of sleep in a night is not enough for me to be a nice person. I am tired of sick. It seems we’ve had someone in this house sick every week for the last month. I must admit that I broke down and cried when I had to clean up barf again at 2 a.m. this morning. I hereby declare an end to sickness in the Felt house for at least 6 months!
So rather than weigh everyone down with more complaining, I am going to record the best kid stories of the last month, beginning with Ryan. Ryan has been having a little bit of a tough time adjusting to the end of preschool. He’s been spending a lot of time in time out, but he’s also been providing lots of solid comic relief. Alex came crawling into the family room complaining of some kind of ache in his leg when up pops Ryan off the couch, pushes Alex down on to the ottoman and announces, “You’ve come the the right place! Welcome to Dr. McRhino’s office. Please have a seat right here on the table and I’ll take care of everything!”
I’ve had a rotten cold and sinus infection that kept me down for a good two weeks in the middle of May. On one of the worst days, when I felt I was just dragging from place to place, I was trying to feed Ryan and Jill. Just as I went to pick up Jillian’s tray, I knocked it against the edge of the counter and Cheerios and bowls and spoons and canned pears and cottage cheese went flying everywhere. In frustration I burst out, “Ahhh…why is everything I touch today turning to sh…” I had gotten the first sound out when I looked up and saw Ryan eyeing me from the counter. I stopped mid-word so as not to offend his little ears and he raised his eyebrows and said slyly, “Galactic crud, Mom?” Yes, Ryan, galactic crud! You’ve got to love Star Wars fans.
Jillian has now entered the fascinating world of pretend play. One day in May I went to get her up and said, “Good morning Jilly!” She looked up and very nonchalantly said, “I’m Alison!” I had to call her Alison all morning or she wouldn’t respond. Now she’ll come up to me and say, “I’m Alison, let’s dance.” Or “I’m Alison, read me Gossie and Gertie?” Needless to say, Jillian is sooooo excited to be having a sleep over with her Aunt Alison while Mom and Dad go up to girls’ camp this week.
Jillian also loves her Uncle Ken, but in a different way. Every time we read her favorite animal book, she points out each animal and says its name. When we come to the page with the big, silverback gorilla she always points, giggles and says, “Uncle Kenny!”
Alex has now finished the third grade. He’s had a wonderful time and a great teacher who we are thrilled to note will be staying on next year and looping with Alex’s class. We’re excited to have her again for 4th grade. Toward the end of the school year however, she called me to tell me that she was having a terrible time getting Alex motivated to learn his times tables. He needed to pass them off in order for her to advance him to 4th grade. So she had resorted to the ultimate Alex-threat: she was going to keep him in at recess if he couldn’t pass off one number from 5 through 9 each day for the next week. Well, that’s all it took. He came home and we drilled and drilled and drilled. The next day, he passed off his times tables with time to spare. Mrs. Fatka took one look at his test and “fainted” dead away. Alex was giggling when he got in the car to tell me what had happened.
Alex’s class also had a big field trip planned before school got out. They were heading to Tucson to see Kartchner caverns. He was so excited and nervous that I would forget something. He kept reading me the list of what needed to be prepared and fretting about whether I would get everything ready. The night before the field trip, I didn’t pack up his lunch until after he’d gone to bed. The next morning I heard the clatter of silverware and cupboards at 5:40 in the morning. Alex was in the kitchen, showered, fully dressed, teeth brushed, shoes on—making himself a peanut butter and jam sandwich. I gently showed him the lunch I had already packed, told him eat his PBJ for breakfast, then sit on the sofa and read and wake me up in 45 minutes.
Well, obviously I am having trouble collecting my thoughts, but the bread is baked and I am going to bed. If Ryan gets up at 2 to throw up, I am afraid he’s on his own!
Love to all—
Cheryl
Friday, April 23, 2010
Welcome Baby Parker!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Well, it’s Monday morning and here I am getting my letter written. We were having the barf-o-rama yesterday (actually it was just Ry, but he threw up enough for the whole family!) and today I am trying to ignore the fact that my arthritis is acting up and keeping me from running, so I will just write a letter to drown my sorrows.
It’s been a tough couple of weeks. Josh has had LONG hours at work and LONG hours at church. Jillian’s new favorite phrase is, “Daddy at a meeting!” He’s adjusting to his new position at work, but it’s taking its toll. He’s gone by the time the kids get up in the morning and has sometimes been headed straight to the church from work. So, I have newfound respect for single parents.
Alex and Ryan have found new levels of volume, and I thought they were loud before! They seem to be compensating for the lack of Daddy-wrestling time with more noise. Luckily for me, they are the best of friends and Alex has an excellent imagination. The two of them have turned our back yard into a ninja training arena, and the playroom into a medieval armory. They’re either outside whacking each other with sticks, or inside pounding on their cardboard armor with plastic hammers.
Alex is going through the week-long standardized testing that Arizona uses to torture third graders and their teachers. Fortunately, the test is not actually timed, so they do one section each day and the kids who finish can pick up a book and read while they wait for the others. Thanks to the testing procedure, Alex has made some great strides toward being an independent reader this week. He’s been taking the Percy Jackson book that we’ve been reading together to school. Last night I looked over, and he was just sitting there on the sofa reading. Now, unless you know Alex, you may not realize how extraordinary it is for the perpetual motion machine to sit so still!
Alex’s teacher had asked us to take him to get his eyes tested. Sure enough, he’s already nearsighted enough to need glasses. We’ve already had the, “You don’t’ need to wear your glasses to play ninjas and on the playground” discussion. He’s really excited. I am not naïve enough to think that it will explain all of the attention issues he’s had in school, but here’s to hoping!
Ryan has discovered LEGO’s since his birthday. He spends his down time poring over LEGO catalogues and deciding what he’s saving his money for. He is gearing up for the end of preschool and keeps asking me what day he starts Kindergarten (July 28). His preschool teacher has been wonderful. She’s promised a little flag to any of the kids who learn the whole pledge of allegiance and Ryan is a pro now!
This week has also been the week when Jillian turned into a little girl. We got her a little doll stroller early this week and it seems to have awakened the motherly instincts in her. She had been pushing her doll around and came in to find me with a plastic bin and a blanket. It didn’t take her long to get across that she wanted a crib for her baby. So we folded the blanket inside and she put her baby in and gave her a binky and a toy and a bottle. We have to take the baby and her crib with us wherever we go.
Mom made her a new dress and sent it in the mail. It has a full skirt and Jillian has been wearing it around and dancing and twirling in it. She loves her Grandma Shelly dress! Jill is also a major Winnie the Pooh fan. However, she has one problem. She continues to refer to Pooh as “Poo-Poo”. She asks if she can watch poo-poo, she sings songs to poo-poo, and she loves to read books about poo-poo. If she weren’t already potty trained, I’d be beginning to wonder.
The official report from the “No TV” experiment is, “Wow! Why did it take us this long to kill our television?” Our home has been a really great place without it. The feeling here is better and Josh and I spend more time doing useful things when the kids are down. He’s almost done milling all the parts of the built-in cabinets and bookshelves he’s making for our room. It’s amazing what you get done with the number one time-waster eliminated!
I guess that’s about all from the Felt house this week. We were pleased to hear that Sunny and the girls are going to spend the summer being nomads. Josh told me to tell Sunny that we’d love to have her and the girls “come spend a year with us this summer.” I can’t wait to see them again whenever and wherever I get the chance. Still no word from Alan. He keeps showing up in my dreams, but nothing else. I hope he’s finding a way, wherever he is.
Love to all,
Cheryl
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Has it really been a month? Time flies...
For a stay-at-home Mommy, it was a perfect vacation. I think my two favorite stops were San Juan and the little island in the Bahamas.Of course, none of this could have happened without my Mom. She very graciously agreed to come and take over management of the Felt household for the week. She was wonderful, the kids were more than well cared for, and honestly, I don’t think they missed me at all, even Jillian! She even survived the homework battle with Alex without strangling him. I was worried about asking her to do this until she said, “Let me tell you a little secret, we grandmothers wait around for chances to get our hands on your children WITHOUT you around to interfere!” That one statement put my mind at ease and I was able to leave them behind without a care. I will admit that by Thursday, five days into the trip, I really missed my kiddos, not because I was worried about them but because I wasn’t quite sure how to handle myself without them. It is amazing how much of what you do every day and who you are is defined by caring for your kids. No wonder some people get weird when their kids are all gone! (No offense intended to our parents who are only weird some of the time! Ha ha ha … :))
At the same time we flew home, my Dad flew to Phoenix from Las Vegas after running the first marathon of the year there. Go Dad!!! We got to spend the whole weekend together. While Dad was here, we celebrated Ryan’s fifth birthday.
He had a family-night party at the park with his grandparents, his cousins, and “the friends,” meaning the four families that we have shared our babysitting group with: the Rosens, the Atkins, the Christiansens, and the Householders. We had dinner at the park and ate Ryan’s surf-board birthday cake. I must say, Ry’s cake was a triumph. Usually my cakes look like I made them with my eyes closed, but this one worked out really well. Maybe it’s because I’d just spent a week cruising around the Caribbean looking at the most beautiful oceans I’ve ever seen!Birthday number five has traditionally been “The Lego Birthday” around our place. When they’re five, they’re old enough to get their very own big-boy Lego kits. Ryan has been having a great time learning how to build under the tutelage of his brother and occasionally his Mom. I realized the first time I gave Alex Legos that for the next 10 or 15 years, my holidays would be spent crouched over a pile of Legos with my sons. They are such great toys. I love watching their little minds work as they figure out how to read the instructions and place the pieces correctly. Ryan is a really sweet little boy. I think the Lord knew that I would need him. We call Ryan “the little diplomat.” He is gentle and unselfish by nature. He would rather give up something that he wants than cause an argument. Usually that means his older brother manipulates him in to giving him whatever he wants, but we’re working on that! Ryan’s small frame and big blue eyes really bring out the mother-bear instincts in me.
We spent the next two days washing laundry and re-packing our suitcases getting ready to go to Salt Lake. My mom stayed on and we planned to drive up together. In the meantime, Alex made his theatrical debut playing Willy Wonka in the third grade class rendition of the play. His teacher did a wonderful job of paring down the script so that the play was actually less than a half hour long. Each child had a part, some were speaking parts, some were singing, and the kids had all helped to color the background scenery. Alex needed a bright colored jacked and a top hat for his part. I took him to Goodwill and we found a red plaid jacket in the women’s section. He didn’t say anything at the time, but as we walked in before the play, I over heard him whisper to one of his classmates, “My mom made me wear a women’s jacket!” (I’m sure you can envision the rolled eyes here!) He did a wonderful job. He spoke up, but didn’t yell, and he spoke slowly enough that you could follow his part. Most of all, he had a lot of fun. I do so love his teacher. She has been such a wonderful influence in his little life.
The next morning, we drove out at 3 a.m. and headed for Salt Lake. We had a grand time. We got to see Uncle Greg and Aunt Shannon and their girls, and Uncle Doug came down for an overnight visit. Ryan had his another fifth-birthday party with the Felt family Sunday night and then we all went bowling together on Monday for family night. Alex and Jackson (Meggan’s little guy) had tons of fun playing together, despite their age difference. I think it has something to do with both of them being cracked out of the naughty mold. :) Uncle Rich took the boys over to his place and they made their own chart-busting track starring Alex’s fabulous beat boxing, Uncle Rich on the electric guitar, and Ryan as lead vocalist. I think I almost wet the chair in Debbie’s living room when they played it for all of us. I was really trying hard not to laugh too much because I didn’t want the boys to feel bad, but I could scarcely hold it in.
Jillian has struck up quite a friendship with her Aunt Abby. The two of them did all sorts of girly stuff: fingernail paint, hair do’s, lipstick, etc. She would wake up each morning and start singing, “Oh, I love Abby…” in her crib. She also took quite a fancy to both of her grandpas. She dragged Gary all around the house by his finger for a good 30 or 40 minutes Sunday night and loved sitting at his desk at work coloring pictures. She had loads of fun having tea parties, playing dollies, and learning all about snow (“Snow is white and cold!”) with her Bapa. We had a few days of snow, a few days of sun, and a wonderful time just being with our families every day. Mom and Dad and I also had fun watching episodes of “Foyle’s War” each night, running a whole bunch of little errands and iChatting with Sunny. Mom and I got the materials to finally make a cushion for the window seat in our playroom. We had everything cut out and ready to go, but I had to leave for the bowling party with the Felt clan. When I got back, she had a glint of accomplishment in her eye and produced a beautiful completed cushion. She’d done the whole job all by herself in one evening. SUPERMOM!!!
On the way home I asked each of the boys what their favorite part of the trip was. Ryan: “I liked my birthday, and opening presents, playing with cousins, and bowling, and going to Brenda’s house, and watching Quest for Camelot, and going to Felt Lighting, and…..” Alex : “I liked the childrens’ museum because I got to be with BOTH GRANDMAS at the same time.” I knew there was a sweet kid in there somewhere! We are back with one more week of Spring break for Alex. I think I am going to have a massive case of Grandma withdrawl to fight off. Wish me luck!
In regular, boring news: we have been trying hard to get Jillian to go to the church nursery without breaking down into hysterics. The first time I went to take her, we had prepped her and talked about how much fun nursery is—books, toys, kids, snacks—and she seemed all ready to go. Just as we got to the nursery door, she put on her best scowl—lips puckered, calculus eyebrows, and the whole bit—and said, “I NO LIKEY NURSERY!” Whereupon she proceeded to throw a massive fit, prompting the nursery leaders to bring her to me. For the next couple of weeks she was so naughty that the Nursery Leader had been carrying her around most of the time to keep her from disturbing the other kids who were trying to adjust to nursery. While we were gone, Mom took the kids up to Ken’s ward and didn’t even attempt to drop her off, given that her parents had just disappeared. When I came back from the cruise, I was walking down the church hallway talking, half to myself and half to her, “I don’t know whether to try you in nursery today or not.” She looked right up in my face and said quite forcefully, “NOT!” Today, she went in and only threw fits for the first hour. I sincerely hope the Lord has extra blessings in mind for her longsuffering nursery teachers.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Family Letter
We are a little bit behind on the family water-cooler chat because we have officially killed our TV—bad timing a week before the Olympics, I know. I just have a terrible time wanting to pay $50 per month for TV when things are so tight in other areas. We’ve watched a few of the clips that they show online, but it’s not quite the same thing. The boys, of course, want to see the clips about all the crashes that happen each day. Being little boys, and having never really hurt themselves, they think it’s hilarious.
I’ve been outside doing some yard work this last week. We’re trying to get our veggie garden ready for planting. I should say our tomato and zucchini garden, with a few patches of herbs since this is all we have had any success growing here. So, I am going to plant a whole herd of tomato plants and hope to have a decent harvest this year.
The kids are looking forward to having Grandma Shelly come and stay with them for a week. The boys tell me that they will not miss me at all, which is perfect. I hope they don’t. I don’t think I will miss them for about 4 days, and then I’ll be ready to cut the trip short and come home. Josh is taking me on a cruise for a week. We had wanted to go somewhere for our 10th anniversary, but we had a little Jilly that gummed up the plans. Now that she’s older (and potty trained!) we are going to leave her. So, we’re going off to celebrate our 11th anniversary and to get away from the telephone.
Jilly comes up with new words every day, she’s virtually a non-stop talker these days. Some of her words: “rasboadies” (raspberries), “yalka-yips” (chocolate chips), “beeto” (burrito), Didney an Cami (Sydney and Cami), and her very best “bye-bye Dada” (no translation needed). I think it’s a mark of the Felt in her that most of her words have to do with food. She also has a new song each week. Last week was "Zippity Do-Dah" and this week has been “I Am a Child of God."
Alex is working hard to learn his multiplication facts. He has a wonderful teacher who is very understanding of little boys and their foibles. She really likes Alex, which is helpful. His class is putting on a short play of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and she’s asked Alex to play the part of Willie Wonka. I think it may have something to do with the fact that he’s the tallest child in the class and that he loves to talk to adults. His teacher tells me that about once a week he’ll come sit by her and recess and say, “Hey Mrs. Fatka, how’s life?” or “How are your kids doing Mrs. Fatka?”
Ryan is loving his Preschool. His teacher loves to tell me the things that Ryan says to the other kids. I guess he functions as the Preschool reality checker. One of the kids was saying that the strawberry marshmallows they were eating had strawberry blood inside them. Ryan looked over and rolled his eyes and said something to the effect of, “Actually, the marshmallow is not alive and so it can’t have blood.” His two favorite words are “actually” and “technically.” He keeps his teachers amused because he’s kind of like a miniature adult. He’s very serious and very much based in reality. He’s always asking me if things are “real” or “actual.” I think he’s a lot like his Dad in that regard.
I am still terribly concerned about my little brother Alan. We haven't heard a word from him since early December. I’ve been praying and fasting that somehow we will know that he’s alive and that he’s OK. We were driving along in the car and the boys were wondering what one of the names in Kung Fu Panda meant. Ryan said we should call Uncle Alan because he knows Chinese. Whereupon Alex replied, “We can’t Ryan, Uncle Alan ran away.” I cried the rest of the way home. I sure wish he’d let somebody know that he’s ok. Until then, I will keep asking the Lord to look after him.
Love to you All,
Cheryl
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Believe it or not, I am posting today and not waiting for another six months to pass before updating my blog! We made a momentous decision this week and decided not to re-up our cable contract. I've always thought paying for TV was lame, but this week we decided that we have much better things to do with $50.00 every month. I am looking forward to doing more useful things with my time. Things like yoga, reading, jogging, knitting, playing strip poker and blogging. I never realized how much time I was wasting in front of the TV. It's just so easy to crash on the sofa after getting the kids down. Now, I don't have a reason to go sit there anymore. I don't imagine that it's going to be too much of an adjustment, considering that I grew up without at TV. My friends used to call me "raised by wolves." I guess since the wolves didn't to too bad a job on me, they can come and raise my kids, too.
Alex came home with an essay that he had written in school that I wanted to record here.