carpenter ants

Joren just went to his cave so that he could turn into a panther and grow claws.  Then he came out stalking us.
In the mean time, Teig was chasing around a carpenter ant and picking him up, letting him crawl all over him, squealing and then flipping him off just to do it all over again.
Such good, crazy boys.

I'm not a liar

Eirik had a dream last night.  In his dream he was playing on the playground, but it was not his real playground.  His dad came to the school, but it was not his real dad, it was a big buff guy (sorry Paul.).  His dad did something..... ( can't remember what he said)  and then somehow his dad found out that Eirik had been telling lies, like that he has science class at school and that he made up the songs that they learn at school.  Then they put a sign on him that said, "liar" and all the kids and teachers started pointing and laughing and taking pictures and videos.  He felt so bad and when he woke up he repented.  He said he thinks it was the Holy Ghost teaching him in his sleep not to lie.

Joren 4 yrs.

Joren has started insisting that I call him Lars instead of Joren.  "I'm not Joren, I'm Lars!"

He decided yesterday that I was his owner, and he was my pet panther.  He lives in a cage and has a pet worm named Toren.

I set up 2 L bottles with sand in them for Joren to practice bowling.  He got so excited and bowled for a long time.  We went to a birthday party the next weekend at the bowling alley.  I have never seen Joren so excited except when we go swimming.

"monks are kinda like people, except they are very wise and vey meditate a wot.  I am friends wif de monks." 

He is so random! 

Today Joren asked me to make him a coonskin cap like Davy Crocket.  He has been balancing a piece of fur on his head for weeks so I made him a cap and a vest.  He looks pretty cool.  He asks me all the time if he can be a caveman or an indian or a wild woodsman when he grows up.

Today at preschool all the kids got to say what they did over the weekend.  Many of the kids talked about what movies or what video games they watched or played.  I loved that my son could say, "we caught a giant frog and a baby bird."  For some reason that makes me really happy.

Goslings on East River

  Yesterday I went on a long bike ride around the island with Teig in the basket seat behind me.  The goslings were out on East River and we saw muskrat, squirrels and birds.  It was the most perfect weather.  

I picked up a book about a new potty chair for baby at the library she has been practicing sitting on his potty chair and wants me to read him the book every time he brings it up to me when he wants to try so far he has not gone potty in the toilet that he has wanted to sit on the toilet many many many times I think were getting close!

 "When I am a gadget engineer I'm going to invent a force field that will keep all the animals out of your sunflowers.  It will have a remote control to turn it on or off."  Eirik Oct 2011

"In the middle of the night I wake up, steal your things, turn on the lamplight and put on your glasses.  Then I do mad scientist laughs and do mad theories and experiments and stuff.  I made a  whole secret lab and I chart my experiments that I'm going to do when I'm a mad scientist."  Eirik Oct. 2011

Friends over

We had the Whiting kids sleep over.  It was one of the first warm weekends and the butterflies were out in abundance.  We spent the good part of the first evening catching butterflies and putting them in jars.  The next day we were lucky enough to catch our spectacular pond frog and the kids all got to play with him.  The funnies part of the weekend was when Brynlee came inside for dinner and said, "excuse me, I have to go wash nature off my hands."

Life is so good when you can be outside all day long.  I got to plant my garden this week.  For 4 days this week we were outside 80% of the day.  70-80 degree days!  To say I have been a happy girl is an understatement.  I read my new square foot gardening book and found out a few things I did wrong the past few years and tried to correct those and then I planted.  I learned to compost this year and used my own compost in the soil.  I also bought a drip hose and hay.  I am very interested to see if my garden will do better this year.  I planted (2) 4 x 4' gardens and 10 pots and hollyhocks and lavender in the flower garden.  I hope they will all do well.  Paul went to Oregon this weekend. (more details about that to come.) and I watched two Davis boys for two nights while he was away.  We played outside and had sleeping bag sleepovers each night.  We set up the tent, did bobsledding on the lawn with sleds and Tor, set up the pool and water slide, made homemade bubbles, played in the forest fort, had a read-a-thon in the tent, ate lots of pop-cycles and ice cream, and caught a baby robin and a huge bullfrog.  (This was obviously the highlight.)  The Davis boys and perfectly mannered and great to have around.  It was really fun, and they were all so good.  May is pretty much perfect.

 I learned how to make homemade bubbles and let the kids go to town.  They really liked that!

 On another day we had Nate Hillam come play.  He came on the very first day it was warm enough to get the sprinklers out.  They had so much fun!

Home Depot

 Hammering, gluing, sanding, driving a tractor, running around in the parking lot... a perfect spring morning at Home Depot.

Frogs in the car

 Paul and I took the kids on a nature walk and were lucky enough to find a toad for each kid in graduating sizes, small to large, just like the boys.  They were so giddy.  It took Teig a few minutes to get over his nervousness, but as soon as he did he wanted his own toad and did NOT want to give him up.  He tried to keep him in his pocket, but we explained that he would get smashed to which he did not respond well.  We explained to all the boys that the toads would need to be let free to live in the wild before we got back to the car.  Again, we did not get a good response from any of them.  We insisted and they all let their frogs go, Teig with a tantrum, Joren surprisingly pleasantly, Eirik, obediently.  On the drive home we suddenly heard Paul cry out, "What was that!?" as Joren's toad leaped out of the boot he had hidden him in!   He's a sneaky one, that Joren!

 Joren is always talking about living in a tree. Today he got to try to fit inside one.  He tried and tried, but it was a pretty tight fit.

 "my bone cowection!"

 A little nervous, but willing...

 Brave baby, caring brother

non-fiction

Playing the animal guessing game today Eirik insisted that we all took more than 20 questions to guess the golden breasted eagle.  We said we did not thing there was such an animal and he insisted that he had seen such an animal in the library at school in a non-fiction eagle book.  Joren said, "Eirik, you're so non-fictiony."  Eirik said, "I love studying."  Joren replied, "you're freaking me out."
It's hard to argue with a 6 year old who likes to quote non-fiction books.

Yesterday Eirik told me a lie.  I was explaining that lies are not permitted in our house and Joren said, in all sincerity, "so we can only lie outside?"

Joren still does not say l's or th's.  I think I will have a little crying moment when he starts to say, "I love you" instead of , "I just wove you so much."  

I spent a lot of time in the woods behind our house this week building forts and exploring with Joren.  The moment he gets home from preschool, he runs to his woods.  He tells me all the time he wants to sleep in a tree and live in the woods.  He wears his fur vest and jeans with no shirt and no shoes to do much of his "expworin in ve woods".  He calls himself a caveman or a adventurer.  He has a mighty stick collection and he makes tools and weapons out of sticks and rocks as his main hobby.  They are everywhere!

We lost Teig's bottle this week and for a couple of days he had to go without one for the first time in his life.  I baby grows up a lot when they don't get their familiar comforts.  He learned to say bobble, which I think is his first 2 syllable word, and he is showing some pretty fierce independence.  I had to make a big change in my behavior to him because I realized I have been happy letting him stay the baby in some ways and I have not been explaining every little thing to him like I used to do to Eirik.  Since Eirik could talk so well by this age, I was explaining everything to him, but Teig can understand as well as Eirik can, he just does not say the words yet.  I need to step up his education in a big way.   He is not a baby anymore and he is hungry to learn. 

Homesick

I finally got the guts to tell Paul how sad I felt about going to Oregon.  I have been trying not to feel sad, but to feel excited and happy.  After admitting my feelings, and crying for a bit, and talking again about how Utah just won't work out, I told him I just need to mourn my loss for a while.  I feel I am losing my family all over again.  I have spent a lot of my time away thinking that it is good for me to be away from them to develop my own strength or to bond with Paul.  I have spent some time feeling glad I am not near them because I thought I would get too frustrated with my brothers for not going to college and I feared my frustration would drive a wedge between us.  But really, those feelings just helped me not be so homesick and I fostered them so I would be ok.  I miss them and long for home.  I just miss them so much.

Evening walk

Tonight Teig insisted on holding Tor's leash on or walk.  Teig is tiny, Tor is enormous.  I swear, it melted me into a puddle.

One windy night

This Monday, Paul brought home a kite.  Not a cheap $1 kite, but a sweet jet shaped kit with long red tails.  I've said before, Paul just knows.  His sixth sense kicked in on this day and somehow he knew that Monday night would be the best kite flying weather of the year.  The boys piled out of the car at the middle school soccer field and charged through the wind to the center of the field where we watched our marvelous dad launch a supersonic super powered jet straight into the air at top speed.  It whip lashed and spiraled and did nosedive after nosedive.  Every boy got to take a turn flying the jet.  Friends from the preschool spontaneously joined us on the field with the same idea.  Their big beautiful kite flew across the island and into the river.  We shared our jet with them.  Eirik let his friends wear his spy watch and baseball gloves.  We raced around the field.  The boys tackled me and we laid in the deep green grass and watched the clouds sail by.   When the wind had blown us in circles enough, we drove to TV's diner for a meal out.  Eirik's dinner was a prize for completing all his reading during reading month.  Our host tried to seat us in the middle of the restaurant and we begged a more secluded table in the back, which we were pleased to have as soon as Teig spilled a whole glass of Diet Coke on Paul and screamed "no" through the whole meal.  The whole time we ate we played, "guess the animal" 20 questions.  The last animal was a preying mantis chosen by Paul.  At the end Paul explained that a female mantis eats the male after they have mated.  Eirik's eyes went down and then came up with a tear in them.  He whispered in my ear, "I never knew how much a didn't like females."  He was bothered the whole way home.  It is hard to be 35, but I sometimes forget how hard it must be to be 5.

The Wink

Paul sat his Diet Coke fountain drink down on the coffee table and proceeded to tell me a story.  Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Joren had snuck the coke and was chugging it in the corner.  I gave him the "you know better" look and he looked back at me with a big wet, shiny smile and then winked at me!!!!!  How does he know that!  How was he born with the innate ability to do something he is not supposed to do and then wrap you around his little finger in the same moment?  It's a real skill.  He's gifted, crafty but gifted. 

something crawled up your

Tonight I overheard Paul teaching Eirik to say, "something crawled up your butt and died." Honestly, how am I supposed to raise polite children?!"

Eliza R. Snow

She was the editor of the first woman's newspaper, "Women's Exponent." Her constant theme was for Latter-Day Saint women to reach for their divine nature and nurture it. Her works still echo from pulpits today!" 

 

"It is the duty of each one of us to be a holy woman.  We shall have elevated aims, IF we are holy women.  We shall feel that we are to  perform important duties.  Noone is exempt from them.  There is no sister so isolated and her sphere so narrow but what she can do a great deal towards establishing the KIngdom of God upon the earth."

San Diego in March

Paul and I decided to trek out west for a Dermatology conference in San Diego.  I only had to be a little coerced for this trip.  Vacations are great, but sometimes they are so much work, there is a little dread attached.  We were able to convince my sweet mom to come out and spend a week with her grandsons.  For weeks prior to her arrival I was jotting down notes about things I could not forget to tell her and things I could do to make it easier.  Yes, she raised 6 kids and is one of the most capable people I know, nonetheless, she does not live here and to be thrown into someone else's frantic routine, with jet lag, has to be a touch stressful.  I ended up writing 3 typed pages of notes for her.  Also, Paul warned me that the dermatologists that attend these conferences are very well dressed and they spend their abundant means on looking good.  So, I was a bit concerned that my stay at home artist mom style would not be quite fitting.  Did I need to go to a lot of trouble to make sure I looked good?  No, but did I, yes.  Far too much, I have to admit.  I asked my friend Annie to help me go shopping and she helped me pick out some more professional clothes and a few cocktail dresses.  We went to Banana Republic and I got a coupon for 65% off of my entire purchase, so I just went ahead and bought Paul a nice suit, a blazer, pants and two pair of shoes.  For myself, I bought a black dress, 2 pair of pants, 3 pumps, 2 shirts, 2 pencil skirts, a gorgeous leather bag, a white coat and gold jewelry.  I totally splurged.  I have never spent so much on clothes in my life.  I felt great in my clothes and was glad to have them when we got there.   I think Paul was glad too.  

 The first night we were there we met a dermatologist from Portland named John Young and his office manager for dinner.  We had a nice discussion, but he did not offer Paul a moonlighting position.  He shared advise and offers to help fund us though.  That night we dressed up and went to a swanky club to dance.  The next day we went to classes and to the convention center.  I went around and learned about the companies that can help starting our practice.  We had a really nice lunch at a place called Sally's on the waterfront that we both really enjoyed.  That night we had a dinner at this really expensive restaurant called BICE with some drug reps.  Everyone drank a lot and after dinner we went to an Irish pub because it was St. Patrick's day.  After that there was a party for the Michigan Residents at the House of Blues.  That party was not fun and we walked home in the rain.  It rained for the first 4 days of our trip accompanied by lots of cold wind.  I had to do my hair 2 times some days.  Sunday the rain was very light and sporatic so we got to enjoy our time in the afternoon after spending all morning at the convention center at Bilbao Park.  We got to see the Spanish artist village.  Many artists were working in their studios there and we could go in and see them at work.  We go to see the botanical gardens and the art museum.  I was amazed to be able to walk right in and see Picasso's and Monet's and all the classics.  What a treat.  That night we met at Croces for another drug rep party.  I talked to Arathi and Anne Marie most of the time while most everyone else got really drunk.  Billy, Anne Marie and I went to a cupcake shop on our way home.

  On Monday it got sunny and we got a rental car, picked up Billy and Anne Marie and made a great day of it.  We went over to Coronado and saw the hotel.  Beautiful and spooky!  I loved it.  We ate at a wonderful place called Miguels.  It was an outdoor Mexican place.  I loved it so much.  If it were in Detroit, I would eat there all the time!  I had wonderful fish tacos and stuffed myself.  Then we drove up to La Jolla and enjoyed the drive the whole way.   We played on the beach and then went to the aquarium.  It was warm and sunny and I fell asleep in the sun on the bench looking out over the water.  It was dreamy.  We went on a wonderful hike up a small mountain with sage brush and red rocks and then down the other side to the beach.  We walked on the sand for 1/2 mile back to the car.  That was amazing.  I was in heaven.  We go tot drive by the San Diego temple on our way back to the hotel area where we ate an amazing fancy dinner at Sally's.  Incredible chefs work there!  What a feast.  The next day we came home.  I read "how to start a dermatology practice" on the way home.  I learned a lot about the business side of the field of dermatology and I feel like I will now be a lot better help as we start our practice next year.  We have to get going! :)