How to survive a week of 100 degree weather:

FHE Magic

For FHE this week Eirik, Joren Paul and I rowed down our canal in a canoe.  It was breathtaking.  It was a whole new look at our island.  We saw the things you can't see from the road.  It was spectacular.  The boys loved it and so did I.  I think it would be really cool to make this a family tradition.  Maybe my boys will row crew.

Rainbows make everything better

Our friend Kit showed us how to make Rainbow pancakes. (It's a big secret.. food coloring). They were such a hit that my kids request them all the time. I discovered this time that if you cut the whole stack in wedges then you don't have as much fighting over the blue and green pancakes. :) They don't taste any different, but they sure dissappear faster.

Teig likes to kick his feet up to enjoy his pancakes.

Joren at 3 yrs 8 mo.

I had a dream last night that some friends let us move into their house fully furnished for a few years while they were away. The man had an artist's station in the front room that had this giant palette set up of chalk pastels. I was just about to move the palette out of reach when I got distracted and Joren got to it first. He started throwing the chalk pastels all over the room staining everything and breaking all the pastels. Then somehow he tipped this giant bucket or something and tons of rice and ants and popcorn that started popping in mid air went spilling down two open staircases and filling all the cracks and crevices of the house. Ants were climbing everywhere and popcorn was popping and the mess just went on and on. That's when Joren woke me up screaming at 4:00AM from a nightmare. I went from one nightmare to the next. :)
When I mentioned the dream to Paul he said, "you know what it means right?" I had not examined it yet, I was just still trying to remember it. He said, "you feel Joren, or kids are keeping you from art and from having the house that you want." HA! He's right.

Joren has been a major handful the past few months.

On the Fourth of July Paul and I were unpacking at the beach house. Paul was watching Joren and Eirik and I was with Teig. Paul came in to use the restroom and I went out to see the boys. The other uncles were starting the fireworks in the street. I could not see Joren. I was surprised because he loves fireworks. I started to run around looking for him. I ran through both houses, around both houses, I started to panic! Paul started to panic. We had everyone looking. I ran to the beach. Paul ran to the beach. We scanned everything. I pulled Paul behind the house and we prayed a desperate frantic 4 second prayer and split. He ran down and alley and I ran back to the beach. A guy there was watching me, I asked if he had seen a boy and he said he had the phone number of the police men who had him. They had just picked him up. I called and they brought him back to me. It probably all took about 15 minutes. Later Joren told us that he had to go exploring. He had to see the water. I was hysterical. I have never been so scared. Paul tied Joren to him with a rope for the next few days. After that Joren was not allowed out of our sight for more than a second. He meant no harm, but he was in great danger. I love my Joren. I'm so glad he is safe.

"My thrasher found the bees and put it in my blood and in my legs and now i have super jumping powers."

Joren's primary teacher told him he could only have one crayon at a time so Joren called him an idiot and spit at him.

Joren's swimming teacher told him to stay on the stairs unless it was his turn so he pinched her and tried to pull her swimming suit off and spit on her.

He had to leave both classes.

Joren has a habit of throwing sharp hard objects at his brothers head... all the time and loves to threaten till Eirik is screaming in a corner.

He insists on wearing no shirt or having his shirt unbuttoned (or he wears a vest). He says he's always too hot. He won't keep his shoes on and they are often getting lost. He woke up at 4:00AM and would not go back to bed last night. He likes to say, "you're not my muver!" and has an endless habit of running into your legs at full speed with the attempt to topple you over. He also loves to bite our legs or bum. He uses tons of toilet paper and loves to fill bowls with water and leave them around. He calls them his finger bowls. He collects rocks from everywhere we go. We always have rocks in the car. And he loves to tease and bother his brother.

However; he is kind and funny and sweet. He is clever and obedient and joyful. He is learning and sounding out words and has a great imagination. He understands and says he's sorry. He eats well and does not often complain. He does not fight me at bedtime much anymore. He brushes his teeth and loves to read books. He stays calm when people around him are acting nuts. he does not mind being by himself. He is so amazingly cute and has good style. He makes the quirkiest faces, like sideways smiles. I love him, and I'm more committed this week to being more patient and letting him explore and learn with more patience from me. He is three after all. And he will only be three once. (Thank goodness!) :)

Teigalicious!

Teig, Teig, Teigalicious
Teig, Teig, you're delicious
Teig, Teig, Teigalicious
You're my favorite dish!

He is almost walking. He says "Da Da and Mom" and holds on like a clinger monkey, he loves to climb the stairs, is unphased by his brothers rough and tumble and can't wait to get in all the action. He eats all foods.. ALL foods, and lots of things that aren't food too. He loves to climb, loves to bolt for the toilet, smiles all the time, loves baseballs, makes everyone happy and hugs tight and long. He laughs at his brothers. He popped 5 teeth in two weeks. He waves and blows kisses and claps. He rarely ever cries or complains. He is a dream. I can't believe he is almost 1!!!

One hot week

100 degrees:
"I'm the hottest one here! This is torture. You are never nice!" Eirik screamed as we drug him home from our family bike ride/ walk around the block. I drew a cool bath and helped him in, to which he screamed, "it's freezing! You hate me. I'm going to die!" In frustration I threw a towel and clothes on him and put his exhausted body in his bed while I mocked him repeating back his ridiculous words. When he had finally calmed down he said, "maybe I am a crybaby like Jake said. I'm sorry I make things so hard for you mom." Am I as immature as my 5 year old?

A family from Utah was visiting our ward the week of the Ann Arbor arts festival to show the Dad's metal artwork. They sat in front of us and I waited in anticipation to meet them the whole hour. They were cool. They gave me their card. Meeting them was like driving past my favorite restaurant but not going inside. I am starved to be understood as only an artist can. I feel so alone sometimes. They are in town till Sat. Should I call? What would I say?

I wrote some songs today:

My Joren, My Joren, My Joren I'm adorin'
My Joren, My Joren, You're scorin' all my love

Ninja warrior, samurai
Power ranger, super fly
Great adventurer, dinosaur guy
my creative kid

In his creature power suit,
water bender or sonic too
Luke Skywalker, Hero true
My Creative kid

Design Star is back on. The white box challenge was last night. I was up late brainstorming and sketching and even now I can't turn it off. Restaurant supply store... cutting boards, wax paper, wooden spoons, big buckets, butcher paper, mop handles, rubber mats, cabbage, orange spice, light socket kits, rubber bands, napkins, placemats, tablecloths

If I could have dinner with anyone it would be Michael Orwick or Madeleine L'Engle or Ray Brandbury.

The boys just greased their whole bodies with Paul's $18 pomade and then hid the empty jar under the sink.
Now Eirik is proudly wearing red pants with white socks over his pants pulled up over his knee. A black long sleeve shirt, red tie tied around his waist, bungy cord around his leg and a neon orange head band.

Please bless these vitamins to neutralize our bodies

Joren just ran into the house hysterical and crying. He screamed, "My friend is glowing and about to turn into a zombie!!!" Eirik had convinced him that he was actually glowing and about to be transformed. Joren was terrified. Wow, to be three again!

Morning Prayer:
"Dear Heavenly Father,
Please bless these vitamins to neutralize our bodies."
Eirik

"In the middle of the night my head hurt. It felt like my brain was moving out of place and the cords were moving and it broke through half of my skull. And my stomach hurt too. And it felt like my heart was moving out of place. It felt like it broke through all the cords and broke through my stomach. That's what it felt like. I threw up in my toy box, but I covered it up with all the toys. Now every hour I have to cough and I can't speak." Eirik

"My overflowment is going to overflow my pee pee castle." Joren

Mom, Joren just said the 'S' word (stupid) and the 'H' word (hate) and the 'sh' word (shut up).
he he he

We had a great Family Reunion in Oregon this week. After an incredibly packed week with 9 super efficient adults planning one activity after another we were heading to the airport to come home and Eirik asked, "When is this life going to pick up the pace? It goes so slow."

As I was putting Joren to bed tonight he said, "mom, I quit!" I asked, "you quit what Joren?" He replied, "I QUIT YOU!"

Oregon Family Reunion 2011 "Aanderud Roots"

Ben and Jeanette had made all the arrangements for us. When we arrived in Oregon they picked us up, gave us a car and car seats and let us stay at Jeanette's house. We had a nice relaxing morning to recover from a really hard day of travel. I almost committed to myself to never fly with these kids again. Paul had the harder job having Joren and Eirik on a different airline than Teig and I, but we both had our challenges. Paul's moment of panic was when Joren ran ahead on the moving walkway and fell and bloodied his knees and wouldn't get up and the end of the sidewalk was coming soon while at the same time Eirik was screaming at the beginning of the walkway as he did a complete split with one food on and one foot off terrified to get on the walkway. As Paul chose to run to Joren, Eirik decided to sit down on the walkway and take his shoes off so he could tie his sock around Joren's leg when he got to him as a bandaid. People were stepping over this big mess of kids and crying and Paul said he felt like a complete zoo.


Sunday afternoon we had a dinner at Patty's house with the whole family to kick off the excitement. Grandma Edna and Grandpa Rallison were there. Grandma Pat set out little tea sets for all the kids at their place settings. After dinner everyone packed up to drive to the beach.

Ben with help did a ton of work on the basement of the beach house. It was finished enough to sleep lots of people downstairs. It looked great. We slept there the first night and the next morning we moved over to the Rene's house across the street. On Monday we went to the exciting Rockaway 4th of July parade with lots of entertainment, fun things to see and buy and at the end, everyone gets totally soaked by the local fire dept. Eirik used his allowance he had saved to buy a red crystal from Flamingo Jims. He thought that was pretty special.

We went back to the beach and had a sandcastle building contest which was a lot of fun.


Kim made a yummy dinner and then I got to work getting settled for the night in the Rene house while everyone else prepared the beach for our fire and with s'mores and fireworks.
That's when the disaster happened. We lost Joren. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. I will tell the story in detail in a post about just Joren later, but for now I will just say that the police brought him home safely and he got tied to us with a rope from then on.


You can't see the rope in the picture, but it's there.
And there were PLENTY of fireworks! There was a show up the beach, right where we were on the beach and down the beach. Fireworks everywhere. It was a great celebration. I could even watch them from the window where I ended up putting tired kids to bed. 3 hours time change really worked it's wonders on our sleepy heads.

Tuesday:
We went to the tide pools and our kids cried the whole time. They were tired, did not want to get their shoes wet, wanted to be carried, didn't want to get near the creatures..etc. We had a good time anyway.

After we went to Cannon beach to the candy store and I stole a few minutes in my favorite galleries to see Casandra Barney's work and I cried in Dragonfire gallery seeing Michael Orwick's paintings. I discovered an artist I had not heard of that was phenomenal named Mandy Main. I was so moved. It was a highlight of the trip to stand there in front of their paintings and actually be moved to tears. That hasn't happened to me many times. Micheal teaches 3 day workshops and I will be in one someday.




When we got back to the beach, Arinn and I got the kids busy painting a block of wood for our art collage we made to hang in the beach house. 

Then we took family pictures.  We had lots of wind and crying babies and it was getting pretty cold.  I did my best, but I was pretty flustered.  I am not really happy with any of the group shots.  I had to slide in at the last minute and I think I look ridiculous in the middle.  If I had been taking the shot I would have changed it.  Darn it.  I think everyone else looks good.  Bummer. 

Taking this next shot was not fun.  As everyone was getting in place Patty said, "where is the Dad? Where is your father?  and everyone cried.  Steve was so missed and there were many moments where everyone just cried.  Patty was a trooper, but she was very sad.

 

Keeping it real. 

My friend is glowing and about to turn into a zombie!

Joren just ran into the house hysterical and crying. He screamed, "My friend is glowing and about to turn into a zombie!!!" Eirik had convinced him that he was actually glowing and about to be transformed. Joren was terrified. Wow, to be three again!

"In the middle of the night my head hurt. It felt like my brain was moving out of place and the cords were moving and it broke through half of my skull. And my stomach hurt too. And it felt like my heart was moving out of place. It felt like it broke through all the cords and broke through my stomach. That's what it felt like. I threw up in my toy box, but I covered it up with all the toys. Now every hour I have to cough and I can't speak." Eirik

Reunion Day 3

One of my favorite pars of the reunion was day 3: Pirate day
Everyone got to dress up.  I'm kind of funny and love to dress up.  I wore my hair extensions and the kids were all so confused.  They came up and touched my hair, tugged on it, asked me how it grew so fast.  They could not believe it.  I brought some extra costumes and I loved helping them get all dressed up.

 

Next there were games like "walk the plank" and "sword fight challenge" on the grass. 

  

Zach and Arinn made a really cool treasure map which the kids had to follow to the beach and all around.  When they got to the X in the sand they had to dig.  

  

They found Grandpa Steve's tool box and in it there were treasures for each of the kids with notes from him.  The treasures were the things Steve had collected on his travels.  Eirik got a stone bear, Joren got two carved tiki guys from Hawaii and Teig got a wooden cowboy.  I thought it was really special.   

Morning prayer

"Dear Heavenly Father,
Please bless these vitamins to neutralize our bodies."
Eirik

My overflowment is going to overflow my pee pee castle

"My overflowment is going to overflow my pee pee castle." Joren

When is this life going to pick up the pace?

We had a great Family Reunion in Oregon this week. After an incredibly packed week with 9 super efficient adults planning one activity after another we were heading to the airport to come home and Eirik asked, "When is this life going to pick up the pace? It goes so slow." I can't pretend to know exactly what he means, but I do know that I can not spend my life trying to please him or keep him entertained for if I do, I will never win.
As I was putting Joren to bed tonight he siad, "mom, I quit!" I asked, "you quit what Joren?" He replied, "I QUIT YOU!"
Admittedly, coming down off vacation is hard. We have gotten used to constant overstimulation and fun, and being home with just mom is pretty boring I guess, especially when I cleaned the house well before we left and there was only one of us home.. and he's big and hairy, and when I got home only the upstairs was clean enough to put Teig down in. At the end of today Teig was a filthy mess. I feel like a failure because this house is such a constant stinky mess. I hate having Tor live with us. He makes me miserable.