Why The Face?

In Which the Indian Man on the Phone Needs to Poop

2012-01-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

Let me set up the scene for you...I'm on the phone. My kids are gathered at the kitchen table doing their schoolwork. As a good homeschooling mama, I should be sitting there with them, but I really wanted to get this phone call over with. You know what kind of phone call I'm talking about. The kind with a lot of automated computer prompts..."press this number, press that number...I understand you want to speak with an operator, but let me get a little more information from you first"...blah, blah, blah....

Yeah, that kind. So, I am so excited because I finally get to a live person and his accent is so thick I have to keep asking over and over for him to repeat himself. The conversation continues for way too long in such a way. He talks, I don't understand, I ask him to repeat, he talks some more, I figure out the gist of it (I think), lather, rinse, repeat.

Half an hour into the conversation, my children (who are angels for sure) are being ever so studious at the table still, but are possibly noticing that their mother is frustrated with the phone call. In due time, the lovely man on the telephone decides that he can't help me. As a matter of fact, he needs to give me a different phone number to call. I hang up, call said new number, and what do I hear? It's a fax! That's right, he's given me a fax number to call! Awesome! At this point, I needed to vent, so I call Josh quickly and begin to vent. After my vent session, I tell Josh about my morning walk with the dog. Cooper had needed to poop and I could tell, so I let him off the leash to poop, which he did, and then he proceeded to chase several rabbits and wouldn't listen to me when I was calling him back.

Apparently, as I was relating this to Josh, Taye was listening in. I got off the phone with Josh and the conversation with Taye goes like this:

Taye: Mom, why did you tell Dad that he was chasing rabbits?

Me: Well, because he was chasing rabbits, Taye.

Taye: (confusion evident on her face) Well, how do you know?

Me: (irritation evident) Taye, I watched Cooper chase rabbits, that's how I know he was chasing rabbits.

Taye: (relief now evident) Oh Mom, I thought you were talking about the man on the phone. I couldn't figure it out and I also thought, "How can she tell that he needs to poop?"

Ha! Rest assured that I cannot tell when people need to use the bathroom, well, you know, unless it's obvious. Or you're a baby, in which case you probably look like this:

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

She's such a Barney!!

2012-01-09T11:10:00.001-08:00

See the title for this post? Yeah, those words came out of my husband's mouth at dinner the other day. The response from the rest of us ranged from giggles to smirks to "What in the world are you talking about?" That last one was from me. If you couldn't guess.

So, what was he talking about?

Josh: That's what they call cute girls. Barneys.

Me: Huh?

Josh: Yeah, it's like slang for cute girls.

Me: Uh-huh. Okay, Josh.

Josh: You don't believe me. I'm going to look it up and prove it.

Josh: (After a few minutes spent with Google) So, apparently, the term Barney has several different meanings.

Me: Are any of the meanings "cute girl?"

Josh: No.

So, the deal is this. I have a love/hate relationship relationship with my surname. I love it because I got it from the man I love when I committed to love him forever. I love that. The name itself...yeah, not so much. My friends found my surname-to-be so humorous that they decorated my bridal shower in purple and green. For the famous dinosaur, yes. Lovely...

Anywho...back to the meanings of barney. I found the number of slang meanings for the word to be fascinating and I thought you might too. Or, you might be annoyed that you spent the time today reading them. That's possible also.

So, for those of you still reading, here you go....

barney:

the police (Keep an eye out for Barney.)

a heated discussion or argument (Mom and Dad were having a real barney last night.)

an ungainly, awkward newcomer to surfing (That beach is overrun with Barneys.)

an unattractive male (He is such a Barney.)

Incidentally, Josh was remembering the term used in the TV show Gidget. Apparently, as a young boy he was a Gidget fan. We'll have to return to that little phenomenon later...Sorry, back to my point. Apparently, in Gidget, the characters often spoke of the number of "barneys" on the beach. Josh assumed they must be speaking of all the cute girls on the beach. Nope, turns out they were talking about all the "ungainly, awkward newcomers to surfing."

And now I leave you, my readers, enlightened on the subject of all matters "barney." As for me, I will ponder whether or not I resemble Sally Field and whether or not that factored into my husband's attraction to me...

Trying again...

2012-01-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

Okay, everyone, I know you have missed our blog. You have, admit it. You spend time each day wondering when you will get to read the adventures of the Barney family again, right??? Huh? Okay, maybe not. Whatever. Read or don't. I don't care. Except I do care, a lot. I want you to read. And I want you to comment. Comments are so heartwarming. I love comments. Yeah, so anyway, I'm trying this again. I'm going to try to post regularly and I'm going to rope the kids into posting also. For our very first post back I have decide to put the following video up for your viewing pleasure. Taye and Kye doing Black Eyed Peas. Don't look away or you might miss the fancy footwork starting around 2:40.

I will be back.....

I'm not even going to try to play catch up...

2008-12-15T09:09:00.000-08:00

Hello all! I'm not sure if I can keep up with this blogging thing. It was fun for a while, but it's kind of worn off. I have debated just deleting it, but have decided to leave it up and post when I get a chance, even if it's once a month (or less). It's so hard to keep up with everything internet related and still have a "real-life" life. :-) I have so enjoyed reading everyone else's blogs and appreciate the great comments you all have left for me. So, thank you. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year!

Pictures and yet another catch ya'll up post...

2008-11-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

Happy November everyone! The holiday season is here, again!!! Brinkley and I walked the mall on Saturday and all the stores are in full Christmas decoration mode. Crazy! Now, for a quick update:

Halloween:
We had a fabulous Halloween! We went with our good friends, the Butlers, to see High School Musical 3 and then out to eat. We ended our night with some trick or treating and hauled home plenty of candy. :-) We had a Hannah Montana, a knight, a Dorothy (Wizard of Oz), and a werewolf. See pictures on shutterfly to figure out which was which!

School:
The kids are having a great school year. Jaten and Brinkley both continue to read books faster than we can get them from the library. Taye is doing well with her reading lessons. She's reading a little now and she gets soooo excited when she sounds something out and then figures out that she actually read a real word! Kye isn't doing any formal school, but enjoys hanging out and listening in.

Life in general:
Josh stays busy with work and family and his constant projects. Right now, he is working on his sand rail, his motorcycle, the back yard, the front yard, and his truck. For those of you who have not heard: Josh's truck was stolen! And then found again! And then the insurance company totalled it! And then we bought it back! So, as it turns out, we live close to the border and vehicles get stolen a lot. :-) Who would have known?!

Anyway, we had recently purchased a used Ford F-250 truck for Josh. Josh previously had a diesel running truck which he converted to run on vegetable oil. We had been wanting to do that again and found a really great deal on this truck, so we bought it. Not too long after we bought it, it was stolen, in broad daylight, from Josh's office building. As it turns out, both people smugglers and drug smugglers like to use the big four wheel drive trucks. It was found across town a week later. It was a mess!!! It had been driven through the desert, hard! The back seat had been torn out to make room for lots of people/drugs. The back windows were spray painted black (so the people/drugs could not be seen from the outside). One of the tires was flat and the wheel was torn up. The windshield was broken. There were multiple dents and tons of scratches along the sides of the truck. So, our insurance company decided it would cost too much to fix everything, so they totalled it. Since the truck was still drivable (with a few things needing to be fixed), we purchased it back from the insurance company for very little cost. Now, we have added the truck to Josh's long line of projects. Whew...

One final note on the truck, it is a sad situation all the way around. It hurt my heart to picture illegals piled in the back of that truck. It wasn't much better to picture drugs instead. Either way, the smugglers are making money on everyone else's heartache.

Let's see, what else? Jaten and Brinkley have been playing volleyball on community teams. They have really enjoyed it. I have too, although adding practices and games into our already busy schedule has been a bit crazy. They only have a couple more weeks and they will be done.

I'm staying excessively busy with kids, homeschool, youth activities at church, hiking, and three online courses. I am taking World Religions, Bio-medical Ethics, and Communication in Health care. All have been interesting and fairly easy courses, but they still take time.

And I think you are officially caught up... Please check out more pictures on the shutterfly link!

P.S. Although this is a politically neutral blog (I have friends and family on both sides), I would like to note that the election/voting process was so much fun to teach my children about. They were so excited on election day! Last Wednesday for school, we watched McCain's concession speech and Obama's speech. I thought they were both amazing. Regardless of your party affiliation, this was an historic election. I discussed with the kids what it means to have an African-American become the President of the United States. I had a really hard time containing my emotion when discussing it with the kids and I think they thought I was crazy. I hope that means that they are essentially color blind and can't understand what it really means to people of our generation and older. Both girls asked questions after I got done talking and Brinkley's first question was, "Yes, but will he be a good president, Mom?" I just answered her with, "I hope so, Brinkley." That's what we do every time we elect a president, right? We hope...

Attempting to find Fall in Tucson...

2008-10-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

My friend Ashlie invited the kids and I to head up a mountain with her and see if we could find some leaves changing color. We found approximately two trees on the mountain yellowing. The rest were green. :-( We still managed to have a good time and enjoyed spending time with Ashlie and her cute boys. Ashlie is an amazing photographer and snapped some pictures of the kids while we were up there. You can see some of them on her blog.

Thanks for the fun day, Ashlie!

I take the stairs...

2008-10-23T21:15:00.000-07:00

Conversation between Brinkley and a friend:

Friend: "I get to take the bus to school."

Brinkley: "Really? Well I get to take the stairs."
(Brinkley's room on main level, school in the basement)

I love homeschooling!

Cwappa and gwass..

2008-10-12T20:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, so my first two children spoke well very early on. By the age of two, both girls spoke in complete sentences with generally perfect grammar. That is what I thought was normal.

Along comes girl number three and by the age of two, she is still just putting a couple of words together. Not to mention, the words that she is putting together are only understood by members of our family, sounds like gibberish to anyone else. I start to get a little worried, but soon she is talking, a lot. Unfortunately, it still tends to sound like a secret twin language or something (and she's not a twin). She just turned five and now she is fairly well understood by all. She cannot, however, say her r or l sounds at all. They sound like w.

Well, apparently, she taught number four how to speak because my son has the same ailment. My purpose in sharing this is to explain that it can make for some funny moments around our house as we try to figure out for sure what Taye and Kye are saying. Kye recently got a "clapper" toy, a cheap thing that makes annoying sounds. He says it "cwappa." Sounds like someone from the East coast saying "crapper." Taye was asking me something recently and getting increasingly frustrated because I was misunderstanding her. I thought she was telling me something about "glass" and she was actually telling me about "grass." She pronounces both "gwass."

I've been teaching Taye to read and as part of those lessons, we review the sounds in a word. So, I will say, "Taye, say rrrrrruuuuuunnnnnn." She will say, "Rrrrrr-Wuuuuuuuunnnnnnn." :-)

Happy 5th Birthday, Taye!!

2008-10-09T10:07:00.001-07:00

Taye is 5 years old today!

Taye was the most stubborn Barney baby from the beginning. It took us a year and a half to get pregnant with her, whereas all the other children have come as soon as we even have the thought. :-)

She was also the baldest of all the Barney babies. I had heartburn horribly while I was pregnant with her, so don't believe the old wives' tale about heartburn and hair.

Taye has always been adventurous and determined. She has two older sisters and despite their age difference, has always wanted to be treated just like them. She taught herself to ride a bike without training wheels when she was three. She taught herself how to swim at four. When I told her recently that she was too little to have piano lessons, she enlisted her sister to help teach her the piano. When riding in the sand rail or on Daddy's motorcycle, Taye is the only child of the four who says, "Go faster, Daddy!" She also loves to be cuddled and loves hugs. She currently loves all things Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and Camp Rock. When she was just three, she had multiple "boyfriends" at church, preschool, and in the movies. Actually, I think Zac Efron from High School Musical is still her boyfriend. We're a bit nervous for the teen years!!

Taye is fun, makes friends easily, is happy, helpful, and smart. I love her so much and am so grateful she is my daughter! Happy birthday, Taye!!

Volunteering

2008-10-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

We have been volunteering as a family for the past year with an organization called The Shyann Kindness Project. TSKP was started by Glenn and Sandy Rosati as a tribute to their daughter, Shyann, who passed away a few years ago. Their goal is to pass on kindness and they do this in various ways. Their website gives plenty of information, please check it out.

Josh and I trade off and on taking the kids to various kindess events. We have been privileged to spread kindness to Iraqi refugees, Mexican special needs children, and children involved in various mentoring programs throughout Tucson. We have witnessed tremendous gratitude, selfless giving, and plenty of kindness. Our hope is to instill a love of service in our children.

For those of you in Tucson, I have little cards I could give you for TSKP so that Metro Car Wash will donate part of the car wash proceeds to TSKP. If you go to Metro Car Wash, that is. :-)

Friends

2008-09-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.
-Virginia Woolf

I have been blessed in my life with amazing friends. My childhood friends and I have continued our friendships despite being scattered across the country. I have no doubt that I could call any one of them, if needed, and they would be at my side as soon as possible. My family, both immediate, extended, and in-laws are an amazing group of people and I count many among them as friends, not just family. I am blessed to be able to say that my husband is my best friend. I have childhood friends, college friends, newly married friends, mommy friends, Alaska friends, Utah friends, Arizona friends, internet friends, exercise friends, homeschooling friends, reading friends, family friends, new friends, young friends, and old friends.

So, what I wanted to say today is... thank you. To each of you who enrich my life, thank you.

Homeschool Science

2008-09-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

Homeschooling is, at times, a passion and a joy and, at times, pure drudgery. I try to snap out of those times when I feel like we (or just me) are in a rut by shaking things up in our homeschool curriculum.

In the past, I have detested science experiments and have been more prone to use "real life" science experiments like cooking or having the kids help Josh with one of his many projects. The kids love science books of all kinds and I certainly don't feel like they have been lacking in their science education. They are, after all, still in grade school.

However, they have absolutely loved the few hands-on, out of a book, science experiments that we have done over the years. Hence, The Great Radish Experiment. We are currently on week two of a four-week unit studying plant growth using radishes. It is time consuming and sometimes frustrating, but in all honesty, we are all enjoying it. I can't wait for it to be over so that I can evaluate how much was actually learned through the process and determine whether or not it was really worth it. All four of the kids are really into it and I could not believe how thrilled Kye was when his radish seeds sprouted. Pure excitement!

One of the biggest reasons for my reluctance to do involved, lengthy experiments is the mess that inevitably follows such an endeavour. I am gritting my teeth and getting through it. :-)

That's what she said...

2008-09-10T17:36:00.000-07:00

Here we go again, yet another lame update post. Oh well. Ya'll are used to it by now, huh? So, here we go...

We've had a crazy busy summer and are hoping that we will slow down a bit now that fall is here (yeah, right).

Anyway, Josh had a birthday, Jaten had a birthday, we had an anniversary, we spent a long weekend in the White Mountains with friends, and I had a birthday. Mixed into all that, we have had a great start to our homeschool year, all three girls have been riding BMX, and Josh and I became obsessed with The Office.

Yes, that's right, The Office. We are not big TV watchers around our house and cancelled our satellite service a few months ago. We live too far out to get any TV reception at all, so we have been without any TV. We recently discovered Netflix though and we love it. I had heard that The Office was a good show, so we started watching it on Netflix. Oh my goodness! I have laughed out loud so many times! Anyway, now we can't go even one day without getting our daily fix. Silly waste of time, but so much fun!

We ventured up to the White Mountains for Labor Day weekend and had so much fun. We went with our friends, the Porters. It is beautiful up there, almost beautiful enough to make me give up on my dream of a summer home in Alaska and change it to a summer home there, but not quite... We relaxed and enjoyed our friends the whole weekend. The kids enjoyed playing and we all sang karaoke. Picture for me if you will Josh singing "Bad to the bone, b-b-b-b-b-b-baaaaad." Much fun!

Please check out the shutterfly link for some new pictures!

A Wedding and Wicked

2008-08-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a couple pictures from our recent trip to Chicago. We went to attend Melissa's (Josh's sister) wedding. She and her new husband, Scott, were sealed in the Nauvoo temple on Friday, August 8, 2008. We also attended their reception the next day at the home of Scott's parents. Scott and Melissa were so fun to be around. They are very obviously in love and happy. The pictures are from the reception. I don't have any pictures from the temple yet, but there should be some amazing pictures from there.

Josh and I also attended Wicked while in Chicago. It was absolutely amazing and we can't wait to take our girls when it comes to Phoenix next year. We've been listening to the Wicked soundtrack over and over since we got home last week. The kids will have all the songs completely memorized by the time we get to go again.

I also have to say thank you to my mom for watching the kids for us so that we could go to Chicago. She is always so willing to stay with the kids when Josh and I go out of town, even though it involves using vacation time and traveling all the way here from Houston, and I appreciate it so much. Thank you, thank you! I love you!

11 Years Ago Today...

2008-08-16T16:55:00.000-07:00

"Love is not a matter of counting the years...but making the years count."
Michelle St. Amand

Happy Birthday, Jaten!

2008-08-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

A decade ago, August 15, 1998, at 8:41 pm, Jaten made her entrance into this world. I, personally, had spent months picturing my dark-haired, dark-eyed baby girl. Jaten came out bald and blue-eyed. :-) After the initial shock wore off, Josh and I were in love. She was here, she was perfect. She spent the first five months of her life either asleep or crying. There really was no in between. Josh and I didn't really understand colic. We didn't really even know that she was different from any other baby. We just figured that all babies came that way. :-) After discovering that she was allergic to everything and putting her on a completely hypoallergenic formula (liquid gold, we called it), she became an angel. She rarely cried, smiled all the time, and was calm and content. This easy-going personality continued through all the way until the present time. She has brought us an incredible amount of joy. She is a wonderful big sister. She's smart, she's kind, and she's fun. I can't even picture my life without her and I feel amazingly blessed to be her mother. Happy birthday, Jaten!! I love you!

Mexico and Friends, or maybe Mexican friends??

2008-08-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

First let's address a few items of business, shall we? I've been a slacker blogger for sure, for a couple of reasons. First, my posts are few and far between. Second, my comments on my friends' blogs have been pretty well non-existent.

I'm sorry.

There are so many posts rolling around in my head at any one time, you would all be surprised, it's just the sitting down and actually writing it that I'm having trouble with. Also, I do read others' blog posts and I love them. I'm just lame about leaving comments. I'll try harder on both counts. :-)

Second item of business: comments on my posts. I have heard from various family members and friends and know that there a quite a few out there who are happily reading what I post and I am grateful for that.

Honestly, comments are not necessary. I mean they might prompt me to write more posts for all of you to enjoy and they could possibly give some kind of meaning to this thing called blogging that I do, but really, they're not necessary.

Not necessary at all...

Okay, moving on... I am finally getting some pictures posted from our trip to Mexico. We went with our first Tucson friends, the Dike family. We love the Dikes and we don't get to see them very often since they moved away a couple of years ago. Their two oldest children are each five days apart in age from our two oldest children and the four of them have been friends since the older two were three and the younger two were one. Fun stuff!

We had a fabulous time in Rocky Point with them. The Dikes were so generous to give us a condo for a week and what a fabulous condo it was! Two bedroom, two bath, kitchenette. We spent the week enjoying the beach and the pool for the most part, though we did venture into town one day for a quick trip to an aquarium and to get ice cream. The kids played, played, played, and played some more. No fights, no problems. We adults wished that we had more time to talk, but other than that, it was a great time for all!

One funny story for those of you who know my little Jaten... The condo organized various games and activities. One such activity was a sand castle building contest. The husbands decided to take the older kids down to the beach for this contest while the wives and the littlest kids stayed in the condo for naps. When Josh and the kids came back up for lunch after the contest, I asked how it went. The kids were telling me all about it when suddenly Jaten blurted out, "Dad was not really flirting with that lady, Mom."

What?!!

As it turns out, Josh was chatting with one of the employees of the condo who was helping with the contest. She happened to be a she. In a bikini. On the beach. Apparently Jaten is not used to seeing her dad chat with a bikini clad woman on the beach when mom is not around. Must be flirting!!

Anyway, I had much fun the rest of the week, teasing Josh about his Mexican girlfriend. Good stuff, good stuff...

Here are a couple pictures from the trip. Please check out the posting on shutterfly for the rest. Some of them are not great because we had the lovely film camera, but it's all we have. Enjoy!

Organizing and Alaska

2008-07-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

I spent the last week organizing our basement. We received some great shelves (for free!) and I've been able to get our storage stuff organized. I also took the time to go through everything that was taking up space in the basement and to organize school books/supplies for the new school year. It feels really good and the basement looks so much better! I came upon some old pictures during this project and thought it would be fun to post them. These are just a few that show the unique aspect of a childhood in Alaska. I loved growing up there and miss it. I'm fairly certain that after over eight years in Tucson, I would in fact freeze to death if forced to endure an Alaskan winter, but oh how I miss the Alaskan summers.
Me, in front of the "homestead", my grandparents home, where I spent much of my childhood.
Front yard of the homestead, with snow-capped mountains in the distance.Me, unidentified friend, and a fish (nothing like the smell of fish to remind me of home).
Me and mountains.

Okay, apparently I had to pee and I had quite a nice mullet going, but let's talk about the fact that I'm standing in front of a glacier with short sleeves!

Greek Gods and Goddesses

2008-07-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

My children are still fascinated with ancient Rome and Greece, so we have continued to study various aspects of Greek and Roman history. Recently, we discussed the various gods and goddesses. After school one day, the kids decided to create their own costumes to represent their favorite god or goddess. Enjoy!

Brinkley as Aphrodite
Taye as Hera
Jaten as Hermes

Incidentally, that Mexico post is going to have to wait a while. We forgot our camera when we took our Mexico trip, so we bought disposable cameras to use while there. Now we have to finish taking the pictures on them. What a pain life used to be: dial-up internet and film in cameras.

Lame blogger, vacations, and what-not...

2008-07-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

I'm so lame. I'm averaging a post a month now. Sad, sad, sad. Oh well, if anyone else is still reading, I'm going to attempt another catch-up post. :-)

For the most part, I spent the month of June without an internet connection at all. Okay, so, admittedly, my mom and step-dad's house does have a connection, but it is dial-up. What? Do people still use dial-up, you ask? Yes, some apparently still do. This last week, though, we were in Mexico with no connection at all, dial-up or otherwise.

So, my wonderful big brother decided to up and buy a truck in Houston, Texas. Fine, you might say, Texas is a great place to buy a truck, right? True, but my brother lives in Soldotna, Alaska. Distance between the two: 4500 miles. Those Alaskans will do anything for a good deal.

So, I have known for a while that my brother was planning on being in Texas for a week in June. We have also had a trip to Rocky Point, Mexico planned for the last week in June for a lot longer. So, I was very unsure whether I wanted to attempt to make it to Houston to visit and then go to Mexico right after. So, being who I am, I made a last minute decision to go ahead and go.

Now, mind you, I have driven to Houston many times (probably close to a dozen) over the last eight years that my mom and step-dad have lived there. Most of those times I have done it by myself (meaning without Josh). This was not that big of a deal when I had only two kids. As number three and four came along, though, it became increasingly difficult. The past three to four times that I have gone, I have said that I would never, ever do it again. You see, it involves a lot of crying: sometimes the kids crying, but usually me crying. For some strange reason (I believe it's in my genes, no choice of my own) I cannot let the opportunity to see my family pass me by, no matter what discomfort it brings me in the process. And believe you-me, driving 1100 miles with four kids causes discomfort. And that's just getting there. Once there, there is the sweet, sweet joy of being crammed onto one small acre in Texas with two grandparents, mom, step-dad, sister, 'nother sister and her three kids, my brother visiting, myself and my four kids (all stuffed in two manufactured homes and an rv). Fun all around, right?

All kidding aside, I loved spending time with my extended family and the kids had a wonderful time. Some highlights include: getting a speeding ticket on the way there (71 in a 65, seriously?), Kye and Trey (nephew, same age as Kye) playing together constantly, time spent chatting with grandma and grandpa, mom and Lowell, Jamie, and Ranee, kids swimming in Nana's pool constantly (a bigger pool may be in order, as this may be the last year that those 7 grandkids could fit in that little one), a visit to an arcade where Uncle Chris secured his position as favorite uncle (at least in Taye's book), staying up until three (or was it four?) in the morning talking to my brother, day trip to Lake Conroe in which all my children experienced the joy of swimming in a lake, and last, but certainly not least: Twinkies, ice cream, and chocolate cupcakes. The drive home was a horrifying affair which can not accurately be summed up, but included screaming kids, spills, screaming mommy, more spills, lots of bathroom breaks (some at real restrooms and some not, including a quote from Kye while peeing on the side of the road: "Look Mom, I'm shooting those ants.", five different stops before finding a vacancy in a hotel for our overnight stay, car TROUBLE which made me realize that maybe you cannot be so lucky as to drive a vehicle as hard as I do and not have car TROUBLE. Anyway, we made it back and I didn't even say that I would never do that again this time. Maybe I've finally realized that I will in fact do it again.

So, this was longer than I expected it to be and I'm going to end here. We did go to Mexico and I will post about that later. Here are a couple of pictures from our Texas trip and you can check out our shutterfly link for the rest of them...

Taye and Uncle Chris at the arcade...

Me and kids at Lake Conroe...

Update!

2008-05-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I know I haven't posted in a while. We've just been so busy and then I got so behind and had so many posts rolling around in my head that I got overwhelmed. So, I just decided to post an update and catch you up on everything.

Okay, so after Brinkley and Kye's birthdays in April and our Bon Jovi concert, we had a busy end of the month. Josh was released from working with the young men at church, and I was called to work with the young women. Josh and I also started a new work-out regime, including daily (or near daily) hikes in the morning (which I was already doing, but Josh is now too) and some weight lifting and aerobics in the evening. Brinkley Jo had a piano recital on April 25th and then was baptized the next day. Busy, happy weekend for her. :-) The kids had their six month dentist visit the next week in addition to all the regular stuff that keeps us busy (school, piano, gymnastics, etc.) Three out of four kids had no cavities. Kye had two. :-(

As for May, the beginning of the month was relatively quiet and picked up mid-month with quite a few activities with the youth for me and normal family craziness. We had our annual "Eggstravaganza" with our ward and we participated this year. In essence, you make a vehicle of some sort to carry an egg down a ramp in a race. You must be the fastest and your egg must not break to win. Josh set us up with a VW bus car outfitted with a motor. The girls and I decorated it and it was dubbed Barney's "Save the Eggs" bus. We took 3rd place of ten or twelve participating. That same weekend, we took Jaten and Brinkley to see "Cats". I saw it as a child and loved it. This time was even better because I was there with Josh and the girls. Jaten and Brinkley were in awe. It was awesome! I am getting somewhat tired of the songs, though, as they want to hear them over and over now. :-)

Taye also "graduated" from preschool. She has been attending a small in-home preschool a couple times a week since January. They had a little graduation ceremony. Jaten has decided to try BMX racing and we took her to the track to try it this last week. She went around the track several times as practice runs on a loaner bike and then she actually raced! She is happy to say that she did not come in last (just second to last). :-) She's very excited about that and wants to continue with it. Taye also wants to try this next week, so we'll see how that goes.

Let's see, I think we may be just about caught up now. Cooper is doing well. He is very protective and definitely alerts us when someone comes up our driveway. He met his first rattlesnake this last week when just he and I were hiking. Luckily, it was just a baby and he had me to yank on his tail to get him away from it. Consequently, we decided it was time for a rattlesnake avoidance class for him. Josh took him to such a class where they have real rattlesnakes that have been de-fanged (sp.?) and they shock the dogs with a shock collar when they go near the snake. Cooper wanted nothing to do with the snake after that, so we'll see how it works in real life.

Josh is doing well at work and spending some time working on the sand rail. He currently wants a motorcycle and we are having discussions about that possibility. I am enjoying having my kids home, reading a lot, and just trying to keep up. I love hiking and take every opportunity that I have to go. I don't know what I'll do when and if our house ever finally sells. I love being able to walk out the back door and hike. Jaten and Brinkley are inhaling books faster than we can make it to the library to get them. Taye and Kye are finally learning to play together a little better (for about 10 minutes at a time, tops).

All in all, we are busy, busy, busy and very happy!

I created a page on shutterfly.com for pictures. There is a link on the side of the page for it. There are pictures posted there from the past couple of months and some older pictures also.

The ABCs of Me...

2008-05-05T18:31:00.000-07:00

A: Attached or Single?: Attached. To an amazing man who is often my opposite. Yin and yang, I suppose. Apparently, there are people who are surprised that Josh is not married to a blond, big-bosomed, heavily made-up ditz. True story, maybe I'll tell ya'll about that later.

B: Best Friend?: My husband, hands down. I also have amazing friends in Arizona and "old" friends from high school spread around the country.

C: Cake or Pie?: Cake. Preferably with ice cream.

D:Day of Choice?: That would be a day spent hiking or a day spent with my family, or both at the same time.

E:Essential Item?: A good book to read. I feel a little lost when I don't have at least one book going, usually it's three or four at one time.

F: Favorite Color?: When I was young, it was purple. I still have a fondness for purple, though I don't wear it or decorate with it. Now, I don't have one favorite color, I like them all.

G: Greatest Accomplishment?: My family. Oh yeah, and finally, after eight long years, finding the "beauty" in the desert.

H: Hometown?: Soldotna, Alaska. Yes, it's cold there. :-)

I:Indulgences?: Chocolate, in any form, "fluff" reading, and blogging.

J:January or July?: In Alaska, July. Gorgeous beyond all description. In Arizona, obviously January.

L: Life is incomplete without?: Family and friends.

M: Marriage Date?: August 16, 1997. Feeling old now, thanks Ashlie!

N:Number of Siblings?: Well, depends on how you count it?! I have one older brother, two younger half sisters, and six step-siblings.

O: Oranges or Apples?: Apples.

P: Phobias or Fears?: Mildy claustrophobic, afraid of heights, and I really don't like sitting on the end (end of a row at theater, pew, whatever). Constantly afraid that I'm messing up my children.

Q: Quote?: Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to what happens.

R: Reason to Smile?: My husband and kids.

S: Season?: Winter. I love long sleeves! It's true we don't get to have any fun wearing boots and coats here in Southern Arizona, but let's hear it for long sleeves!

T: Tag your friends?: Uhhh, no, not tagging anyone, I have too few blogging buddies. Although, Tahna, if you want, you know, go ahead...

U: Unknown fact about me?: There are probably many. This is probably a good one though: As a kid, I loved taking a big chug of my dad's beer when he wasn't looking.

V: Very favorite store?: My favorite store is any store (besides the grocery store) when I am shopping without my four children in tow.

W: Worst Habit?: Cleaning up food and drinking glasses before people are done. Common phrase in my house: "Where'd my glass (plate, sandwich, etc.) go?"

X: X-ray or Ultrasound?: Gosh, ultrasound, I guess. No good things have come from needing an x-ray in our house.

Y: Your favorite food?: Alaskan King Crab legs with lots of melted butter. My mouth just watered, seriously.

Z: Zodiac?: Virgo. I don't believe in that astrology stuff, but I do seem to have a lot in common with other Virgos. Weird!

Bald babies?

2008-05-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so for all those out there who have personally seen me with a bald baby and have heard me whine about the fact that I have bald babies (me, who had tons of black hair as a baby, as a child, and as an adult), here is the proof:

Baby Toni:
Baby Toni again:
Bald Baby #1 (otherwise known as Jaten)

Bald Baby #2 (aka Brinkley)

Bald Baby #3 (the most bald of them all, also known as Taye)

Bald Baby #4 (okay, he looks like he has a little, but in time, he will lose it all, aka Kye)
That's all I have to say about that!

April Birthdays, Part 2

2008-04-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

April Birthdays!

2008-04-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

Bon Jovi!!

2008-04-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

So, Josh and I went to see the Bon Jovi concert in Phoenix last Friday and I thought it was awesome! Loved it, loved it, loved it. I saw Bon Jovi in concert once before, but I was 14 years old at the time. That show was awesome, too. That time, my brother and his girlfriend (now sister-in-law) took me and my two best friends. (Remember Mandi and Acacia?) I have always loved Bon Jovi and was so excited to get to see them again. Josh was a good sport and went with me. He actually enjoyed himself too. Daughtry opened for them and Josh is a Daughtry fan, so that helped. Anyway, I just wanted to share my Bon Jovi joy. I would definitely see them again. They put on a great show.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Kye!

2008-04-12T21:02:00.000-07:00

My baby is three-years-old! He doesn't look much like a baby anymore, either. We were in Mesa today for a friend's baptism and someone found out that it was Kye's birthday and asked how old he was. He said, "Big." :-)

What fun it has been to have a little boy! Cars, trucks, balls, bikes, motorcycles, and dirt! That's Kye in a nutshell. He will also readily allow any one of his sisters to paint his face with makeup and do his hair. He is spoiled rotten as he has a mother and also three "little mothers" who dote on him. He is outgoing and will talk to anyone who will listen (and also those who don't really listen). He entertains us all and we love him like crazy! So, here's to our "big" three-year-old boy, Kye! Happy Birthday!

Diorama week...

2008-04-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

"Medieval Castle" Jaten and her "Roman Men's Bath House." (Don't ask me...) Brinkley and her "Roman Market." Jaten and Brinkley decided to make dioramas last week for school. Brinkley is really in to Roman history and Jaten is currently loving the Middle Ages. I did not give them the assignment or idea to do these and did not help them in any way. They had such a great time making these! Jaten decided their castle needed to be more "schoolish" so they looked up castle facts and listed those around the edge of the box. I love to see my children excited about learning!

Men vs. Women or Venus vs. Mars...

2008-04-04T12:28:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I just wanted to share an analogy that has helped me a lot in my marriage. Josh and I were recently listening to a couple (husband and wife) give a talk and they shared the following. Picture a standard sized glass fish bowl, if you will, and imagine this bowl is a woman's mind. This woman wakes up in the morning and starts thinking. Imagine each thought is a marble in this bowl, so as each thought enters the woman's mind, a marble is added and the bowl is shaken around. So, here's an example: 1. Let's see, I need to get the laundry finished today because (insert name) is out of clean underwear. 2. Oh, there's that book that I reserved at the library that I need to pick up. 3. What am I going to make for (meal) today? 4. I've got to figure out how to spend more time with (child) because I really think he/she needs that. 5. Etc., etc., etc. She has all these thoughts going at one time. It's possible, isn't it, ladies?

Okay, now picture a plastic set of drawers, you know, kind of like those little drawers that are used for holding various craft items. I set of a bunch of little drawers. This is a man's mind. Now, in order to think about something (the marble), a drawer in the man's mind must be opened and the thought (marble) put into it. In order to think about something else, that drawer must be closed, another opened and that thought (marble) put into that drawer. No two drawers can be open at the same time.

Is anyone saying Ah-ha! right now, or was this just eye opening for me? This is not man-bashing. No one is saying that the fish bowl is better than the drawers, they're just different. I, for one, love the differences between my husband and myself, and love understanding those differences too.

Happy Birthday, Brinkley!

2008-04-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

It's Brinkley's 8th birthday today! To celebrate, I thought I would write a little about her. Brinkley was loved well before she was born. Once we decided on her name, Jaten would walk around the house saying, "Binky, binky, binky" as her attempt to say Brinkley. I decided right before Brinkley was born that we needed to rid Jaten of her pacifier (also called binky). Not the smartest choice, since any mention of her new little sister sent her into hysterics about her binky... Jaten and Brinkley have been fairly inseparable since Brinkley was born. I have sometimes felt bad because Brinkley was forced to grow up kind of fast. This was due to the fact that she and Jaten are so close in age that I have pretty much always treated them the same. Brinkley often became the leader between the two of them. She was more adventurous than her older sister (and a bit more mischievious). Brinkley is an amazing person with a huge heart. She has an astounding internal moral compass. She loves to help and is a wonderful big sister to Taye and Kye. She is smart and funny. She is mine and I love her more than I can describe. Happy birthday beautiful Brinkley!

Trampoline Fun...

2008-04-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

Jaten jumping!Cute Taye!Go Brinkley!The three girls.. Kye was napping during the jumping, so here's a picture of him, just to see those blue eyes!
On a daily basis, my children amaze me, frustrate me, make me laugh, frighten me, and cause me to be grateful. Most days I just hope the grateful part outweighs the frustrate part. :-)

Are we done yet?

2008-04-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

Here's to the joy of attempting family pictures with a tripod and a timer. Gotta love it!

Writer Waiting

2008-03-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

by Shel Silverstein

Oh this shiny new computer-
There just isn't nothin' cuter.
It knows everything the world ever knew.
And with this great computer
I don't need no writin' tutor,
'Cause there ain't a single thing that it can't do.
It can sort and it can spell,
It can punctuate as well.
It can find and file and underline and type.
It can edit and select,
It can copy and correct,
So I'll have a whole book written by tonight
(Just as soon as it can think of what to write).