Eclipse photos

Ladybug and I had a good time staying up together and watching the progression of the lunar eclipse. Here are some photos that show the sequence. Some pictures are better than others. I was taking the pictures with my simple point and shoot digital camera. Also, occasionally the sky was a bit hazy. I was also trying to play with settings on my camera to see what setting would get the best photo.

Here is a link to a video (that I did NOT take!) that shows the whole eclipse. It's pretty cool!

December?!

Whoops, I fell off the "blog-wagon" again. Guess I'm just trying to see who REALLY loves me! There's a few of you left who have patiently (and some not so patiently) waited for the next post. Glad you aren't holding your breath!

It's been busy around here, to say the least! I have plenty to blog about, but most of the time lack the energy to get it done.

So, I'll summarize a few of the highlights in completely random fashion and hope to get pictures on here of some things soon.

*We spent Thanksgiving at Brian's brother's house with his side of the family. While we were there, we took the opportunity to surprise Brian for his 40th birthday. It was a true surprise since his birthday didn't fall until the middle of the next week! We had fun pulling that one off. And yes, I have pictures. :)

*I have been working on camp organization. I have all our guest artists hired and most of the returning staff, as well. I had some help from Brandon and have learned how to update the camp website. The registration form has been revised and should be ready for launch on the website in January. The work on the brochure and poster is coming along and will hopefully be completed soon.

*Meanwhile, registrations for the convention have been trickling in. Thankfully, I have that down to a science. I LOVE mail merge!

*The girls and I made sugar cookies Monday and will frost them tomorrow. Yummy! I'd better get back to exercising on the Wii... I haven't been as faithful as I wanted to be on that these days! But, I'm still faithful in eating the junk I shouldn't eat...

*I'm almost done with piano lessons for the semester. Then I hope to get to my Christmas preparations. Hopefully we can get the tree up this weekend and get some presents wrapped.

*Ladybug completed one part of her catechism review last night. She did an excellent job on her memory work! I'm very proud of the work she has been doing in catechism class. I look forward to her Confirmation in the spring!

*The girls continue to work hard on school work. It is nice that they can be independent on many of their tasks.

*We have enjoyed dog sitting this month. First, for my friend and her two cute shih tzu dogs. They are sweet dogs. And now, we have Brian's parents dog, JJ. Someday I hope to have an indoor "lap" dog. :)

That's all I can think of for now. Hopefully, I'll find my way back to my blog before January!

Maybe a GPS would help?

My sister-in-law shared this tonight:

She told my nephew that he was a c-section birth. My 9 year old niece then asked, "What section was I born in?"

Lost

7 year old: "Daddy, can you read to me?" Daddy: "I don't know, have you lost your attitude?" 7 year old: "Yes, so can you read to me?" 4 year old: "You lost your attitude? Where is it?!"

John's Transplant Update

If you are following Little John's story and would like to read the latest blog entry:

Here is a link to Gina's blog.

Life in the Shadows

My kids aren't kids who are naturally outgoing or have the outward appearance of excelling. Their talents are much more subtle. They are bright and talented, but if you aren't watching closely, you will miss those amazing details. I see them every day.

My kids are not "showy" kids. They don't particularly like being the center of attention. They don't like to perform. They don't like a lot of attention drawn to them. They are not highly competitive.

But, because of that, I too frequently forget that they do appreciate recognition. It's so hard to balance in a world that has to see what you do in order to give recognition when you have kids who don't want to stand out, and don't particularly want to place themselves in front of others.

Thankfully, last night my oldest daughter received some recognition. She was so thrilled. It was so neat to see, yet I received another load of guilt. She could have had the same recognition last year, but she didn't want to take away from anyone else and neither did I, so she remained in the shadows. So, now I remain in the shadow of guilt.

I hope someday I learn how to balance, for my kids' sake.

Another update on John

God was indeed watching out for John this morning. Gina received a call from the hospital that he had gram positive blood cultures. Had he had the transplant, he would have been on immune suppressing drugs which would have allowed the infection to grow like crazy.

Feel free to check back in on her blog.

Prayer Update

John did not have his surgery this morning. The organs were not in good enough shape for successful transplant. He and his family will return to their home and wait for God's perfect time.

Please continue to pray for the family who lost a child.

Praying

My friend Gina's son, John will undergo a multiple organ transplant in the morning. I can only imagine the emotions Gina is feeling - relief that a donor has been found, fear of the surgery and the unknown, sadness for the family who lost a loved one. May God be with all and grant His peace.

Her blog can be found here.

Piano

Panda went to the piano and was trying to figure out how to play a song on her own.

Ladybug said, "Mom, Panda is trying to sound out the song."

Pumpkin Carving

My friend invited us to come over and carve pumpkins with them. Her boys were so helpful with my girls! Butterfly was the first to dig into her pumpkin. I figured she would be the one who would not touch the pumpkin. But that was Ladybug!Panda dug into her pumpkin and did a great job with the assistance of the boys.
The finished products: (We finally convinced Ladybug to work on hers)

Butterfly's pumpkin is an owl on a tree limb - kind of hard to see in this photo.B

Bike Riding

Butterfly decided that she wanted to learn to ride her bike without training wheels a couple of weeks ago. We went across the street to the church parking lot and I gave her a little push and she went a few feet. We tried again and she went a little further. One more time and then she was riding all the way across the parking lot. (these pictures are actually taken later at the school nearby)Ladybug came out about that time. She had taken the training wheels off her bike a couple years ago, but then wiped out and wouldn't ride again. Her jaw dropped as she saw Butterfly racing across the parking lot. She grabbed her bike and off she went. She told me that she wasn't about to let Butterfly get ahead of her! Yes, she does have a bigger bike, but wanted to ride this smaller bike that a friend gave to her.Panda wanted to join in the fun, of course, so she pulled out her tricycle and away she went.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip Report

We arrived at the pumpkin patch pretty close to our arrival time goal. We paid our fees and with the help of the map made our plan of attack. We decided to tackle the corn maze first this year. As we walked toward the corn maze, we (the moms) about panicked when we noticed that the jumping pillow was not inflated! Hoping that it would be inflated later, we continued walking to the corn maze, after a stop at a tree swing and a teeter totter.The girls tested their navigation skills by leading us through the maze. I'm not sure they knew where they were going, but they enjoyed being the leaders. We (the moms) enjoyed listening to their cute conversations. After finding our way out of the maze, we headed over the swinging bridge to another tree swing, tricycles, horse swings, and a hay bale maze. Once the girls wore the moms out by making them run the horse in circles, we continued our exercise routine on the pedal cars. Yes, they apparently make pedal cars for two people, just so young children can further poop out the moms. It really was fun, until the hill... My legs are going to tell me about that hill again tomorrow.
We (the moms) we delighted to see that the jumping pillow had been inflated. So, we encouraged the girls (as if that took great arm twisting) to go have fun jumping. They invited us to join them and, of course, we couldn't refuse. We jumped until our post-baby bladders could take no more bouncing... some things just aren't the way they used to be.On our way to lunch, the girls had to make a trip down the tube slide. We enjoyed our lunch in the picnic area and marveled at the beautiful weather! We couldn't have had a better day.
After lunch, it was off to the playground area. The girls wanted to review their fire pole sliding, swinging, log swinging, and climbing skills. After brushing up on those skills, we took a ride on the paddle boats. Mine wouldn't steer. I thought we were going to be stuck on the little pond all afternoon. Thankfully, paddling backwards worked.
We were getting to the end of the afternoon, so we let the girls pick what they would like to do before we left. The older girls chose the tube slide again and the younger girls chose the jumping pillow. A good time was had by all. Once we were sufficiently worn out and VERY thirsty, we headed to the car. Snacks and drinks were passed out and we headed for home.

Exchange with the 4 year old

4 year old: "Mommy, they aren't letting me play."
Mom: "That's not nice. Why not?"
4 year old: "They said I'm being mean."
Mom: "Oh. Well, are you being mean?"
4 year old: "No, I think they heard an imagination."

Back for Homecoming and Misc.

We went back again this weekend to see my parents and do a few homecoming activities. The girls just HAD to get their candy harvest in for the year (the parade...).

I was so glad to get there and back safely. As we were headed out Friday, we came upon two different accidents. That always makes me more edgy while driving.

Sunday, we drove straight to church and enjoyed the youth dinner after church. The youth are raising money to go to Higher Things again. I hope someday that I will get to go with my girls. :)

After the dinner, we took Ladybug to her clarinet lesson. Since her teacher is 45 minutes away from us, this was only her second lesson. She did wonderful. Her teacher is awesome!

Off Track

Ever feel like your day is derailed before it even begins? That's how mine is today. The pipe going to my shower head broke last night, so I couldn't take a shower in my shower this morning. The plumber can not be reached until possibly tomorrow. Anything I have tried to accomplish today has taken double the amount of time to get done. Can I just start over?

The good news is that we do have water. It wasn't a break that is a drastic emergency. We do have another shower in the house.

I just hope my day gets back on track!

Aging

Here's Proverbs 23:22 as heard from Butterfly as she was working on her memory work: "Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother because she is old."

Monday

Glad it's over! It was a busy one. We got our school work done, had an appointment, made two trips to get the 17 enormous mums that Ladybug sold for choir, delivered 12 of them, took her to choir early for a group photo, picked her up after choir. Guess I shouldn't wonder why I'm tired!

Too bad Tuesdays are too busy for a nap...

Family Photo - My side of the family

Mom and Dad celebrated their 40th Anniversary on June 6th. We told them that for their anniversary, we would do a family photo. We hadn't done a whole family photo since Ladybug was a baby! We were able to get together today and get the photos done. We were pleased with how they turned out.

Yesterday's picture

In case you were wondering about that picture....

No, we did not get a new or different rabbit. That was a rabbit that we saw at the state fair. We thought it was so cute. It sat there with its nose poking out, waiting for someone to come along and pet it.

We went to the fair Monday and I've spent all week trying to catch up with life. We had a good time, though. We went to the birthing barn and saw baby calves, sheep, goats, pigs and chicks. I didn't think the girls would be interested in the rabbits since we have one of our own now, but they were even more interested this year in all the varieties of rabbits. From there we went to the Wild About Monkeys show. One of the boys from our church ended up being one of the volunteers chosen from the audience.

We spent some time at the midway and let the girls ride several rides. They love that!

After lunch, we went to a presentation on rocket science. It was very well done. The girls enjoyed it more than they thought they would.

We spent some time in the agriculture area learning about soil and grains. Panda's favorite part is sitting in the combine.

As we left, we made a pass through the petting zoo. We were tired and ready to go by the time we headed to the car!

Wordless Wednesday

I remember

Nine years ago, I woke up with my oldest daughter who was 16 months old at the time. I don't remember now what may have been planned for the day. My neighbor, a friend of mine, called. She had been watching the Today Show and told me that I needed to turn on the tv. The first plane had just crashed into the Twin Towers.

I turned on the tv, wondering what could have gone wrong that a plane could run into a building like that. How does an accident like that happen? My friend and I continued to talk on the phone as coverage went on live, when we saw the 2nd plane crash into the other tower. Seeing that plane crash into the tower, it was easy to figure out that this was no accident. Who would do such a thing and why? And then the report came in that the Pentagon had also been hit. Flights were being grounded.

Coverage returned to rescue attempts at the towers. The sight I would see next will forever be engraved in my memory. It was a sight I would never had expected. The first tower collapsed. The second tower was shortly behind. New York was in chaos. Despair was seen on everyone's faces. My heart ached for all the families who lost loved ones.

And then came the report of the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. The plane, as we would find out later, whose brave passengers would not allow another plane to crash into another building.

It all seemed so unreal. I stayed in front of the tv all day, trying to find out more information, hoping to find answers to my many questions and all the while feeling guilty that my 16 month old was near by. Would she pick up on any of the horrible things that were going on? I certainly hoped that she could remain in her innocent world, playing as usual.

I remember feeling so relieved for the families whose loved ones for whatever reason were late to the Twin Towers that day and escaped the disaster and for those few who were rescued, even from a stairwell, which unbelievably kept them safe as the towers collapsed all around them.

I am so thankful for those who have served and those who still serve our country, continuing to fight for our freedom and safety.

Slowly it creeps in...

It used to be that there were no school activities on a Wednesday. Slowly, schools added sports practices to Wednesdays. It should be ok as long as it doesn't interfere with the actual time of church activities, right? What could the church going parents say? Of course at that time also, teachers would not stack a lot of homework on a Wednesday night either.

Fast forward down the road many years. Now I have students who have sports practices on Wednesday, of course. And they are loaded down with home work that evening as well. Add a catechism class to that load and they are wiped out.

But, it gets worse. Now, they are scheduling parent teacher conferences on Wednesdays. In the school where my husband teaches, they have always had after school meetings on Wednesdays (which annoys me anyway). They had a meeting this past Wednesday to discuss how they could make up the regularly scheduled meeting which would be missed due to scheduling the parent teacher conference on one of those Wednesdays. Seriously.

There are about three teachers who have church activities on Wednesday (my husband is one of them). They were essentially "bullied" into having a double meeting on a Wednesday to make up for that conference (which my husband was unaware of in the first place - somehow that conference ended up on the schedule). He found out today that this Wednesday conference is kind of a test. If it goes well, they'll do another Wednesday conference in the spring. That just makes me angry. See how it creeps in.

First Day of School

We school year round, so I decided to just choose a date for our first day of school. I chose the day after Labor Day. That's when school started when I was growing up and it just seems like a logical time to start over. I had intended on getting some pictures of starting our first day, but our first day ended up in the car repair shop!

Thankfully, I was able to start my van (barely!) one last time and get it to the shop. I figured it was the battery (since it is the original battery in a 2005 van). There was a day, when I could change a battery myself. Unfortunately, the way they design these vans, the battery is buried under a bunch of stuff that require shop tools to remove.

We packed our school books and sat in the shop while they replaced my battery. Butterfly got all her work done there. I'll have to stage some photos later. I guess it would have been funny to take pictures going into the car repair place...

Some days...

I wish other people could see my girls the way that I see them. But, I guess that's why I'm their mom. I love and appreciate them the way their are. They aren't perfect, but they're a gift that I treasure.

Along those same lines, some days I wish we could just be secluded in our own little world where we could get things done at our own pace without the thoughts, opinions, judgments, and interruptions of everyone and everything else.

Clarinet Lessons

Ladybug had her first clarinet lesson this afternoon. It was awesome. My friend, Jay, is teaching her and he loves beginners and loves the clarinet. He teaches with such enthusiasm and I'm hoping her will draw her out of her shyness.

I think she's off to a great start. I'll be looking forward to the next lesson. :) I enjoy being a fly on the wall and hearing what Jay has to say to a beginner.

I'm wondering...

I have a couple days which are sooo busy. Do I chuck it all on those days and getting nothing else done beyond what is scheduled? Or do I buckle down and shut off the phone, computer and everything else in order to hope to get a few more things accomplished? Either option is frustrating.....

Wordless Wednesday

Yes, I am a wimp!

I have decided that we are done with swimming at the pool for this summer. We went yesterday and it was sooo cold! It is only open one more Sunday, so we aren't missing much.

I have decided that I really like heated pools! We found out this year that they heat the pool through June. Next year, I think that we will try to swim as much as possible while it is heated! I REALLY love my friend's swimming pool. She found a spa setting on her heater and the one evening we were swimming, the water was 90 degrees! It felt so good!

A Moment to Treasure

Brian and I watched a movie tonight. The girls were supposed to be in bed. Instead, I found Ladybug reading the book she wrote, to her sisters. I could hear Butterfly asking her questions about her story and she would patiently explain things. They all giggled together at the funny parts of Ladybug's book. So, I left the light off to my room and sat and listened and treasured the moment. It's so neat to be able to eavesdrop on this kind of interaction.

Vocabulary words

According to the 7 year old:

The power that keeps our lights on: lightricity.

Our lightricity went out this morning. It was so convenient that it came back on just about noon. Now I don't have to do a lot of work to reset my alarm clock. :)

I thought about doing a wordless Wednesday yesterday and it was more wordless than planned! Next time I'll try to get a picture in there...

A little drama with your spelling?

I was doing the spelling list with Ladybug, when in the middle of the list she exclaims, "Wait... time out, hold on a minute!" holds up her mechanical pencil (with feeling), gives it a click (also with feeling) and then finishes writing the word.

We had to wait to write the next word because we were giggling too hard.

A visit from a friend

Sunday, a dear friend stopped by and introduced us to their 5 month old daughter. She is absolutely precious.

I had the joy of passing on some of my girls' baby clothes and toys to her. It was such a blessing to pass them on to a friend. I get sentimentally attached to these things which are tied to my girls' infancy. I treasured the time they were babies and it went by so fast. My heart ached sorting through all those cute clothes which were mostly gifts from my dear family and friends. So, to be able to give them to a friend whose sweet little daughter will wear them is such a joy.

I forgot to ask my friend if I could post pictures of her daughter. She's a cutie!

Time for clean-up

I'm not talking for the kids! Yesterday was a major clean out day for us. The pull the junk out of the closet that I stuffed in there when company was coming (um - several times...) kind of clean out. The two boxes of paper recycling kind of clean out. The got behind during the school year and whoops, just lost the summer too, kind of clean out.

Well, you get the picture. I didn't get done by any means. But, it's a few more steps in the right directions. It will make me much happier when we are stuck inside all winter.

Brian even mopped my kitchen floor with the lavender cleaner and it smells so good!

Toothless

I don't know about you - but I love these toothless smiles!

This photo was taken by my friend's daughter, Courtney. This was a preview picture that I downloaded - so the quality isn't as good. I'll be getting the disk soon. I can't wait! Courtney did an absolutely wonderful job!

Where did the summer go?

My last post of June 12. Oops. I've gotten so behind on blogging. I think I have 2 of you left reading this! So, for the 2 of you, I'll update life and then I'll see if I can get going this fall on putting thoughts on the blog.

The end of May was Ladybug's choir tour. We went to Branson and had a great time. In June, all 3 girls had swimming lessons the first two weeks. They also took tennis.

I took two internet classes in June in hopes of keeping up on credit hours for my license renewal. I took a podcasting course and a powerpoint games course. They were both very good, but sucked the life out of my June!

July brought camp. The girls kept busy with art classes. Brian was so good at keeping up with all the household tasks while I was busy.

Now I find myself halfway through August. Brian has returned to school and we are busy in our schedules. I'm setting up lessons and preparing for those while keeping up with the girls' studies and the usual work around the house. Time to buckle up again and hang on for the ride!

Fun With Cousins

On our way home from Branson, we stopped at my sister's house. The kids enjoyed some fun with sprinklers and water guns. My niece and nephew prepared a birthday party for the girls, complete with signs and a place to sit to open presents. It was so sweet!

Silver Dollar City

Here's Ladybug after riding Wildfire. See the loops in the background that we did!

Here's our group trying to decide which way to go:
Here's Ladybug after riding Thunderation as we were waiting on the other children to ride again.

Activities

When we arrived in Branson, we headed straight to the hotel since we were an hour ahead of schedule. The hotel staff kindly unloaded our luggage in the pouring rain! From there we went to the Dixie Stampede. I don't have pictures from there because I was too busy eating the yummy food! For those of you who are not familiar with the menu - all the food is eaten with your hands - there is no silverware. I think all the kids enjoyed that!

After the show, we returned to the hotel and the kids enjoyed swimming together. It was a good thing that we went swimming that evening because the rest of the evenings were stormy or too late to swim!

The next day was the choir performance at the 60s Show on the previous post. After that, the children ate at Pizza World where they also enjoyed go carts, miniature golf and arcade games. Since it was storming and we were not able to swim, my room decided to have a girls night in our room. We invited several other girls their age to join us. We popped popcorn, ate M&Ms, had Root beer, watched tv and played games together.

Thursday was the trip to Silver Dollar City. I'll post photos of that on a separate post. Ladybug was a trooper. The first ride that our group wanted to ride was the Wildfire. Wildfire is the largest roller coaster in the park and has upside down loops. All of our group went on that ride right away. Ladybug was scared to death! She watched the 2nd time as some of the other children rode again. The went to the American Plunge next and cooled off with the water ride. Ladybug enjoyed that one. Next we rode Fire in the Hole. She was ok with that one although the occasional drops surprised her. The declined riding the Powder Keg. She did ride Thunderation since everyone was riding. She said over and over that she did not like that rollercoaster - it was too scary! She also told me that Wildfire is not a ride for a beginning roller coaster rider! So, I think we have established that she really doesn't like roller coasters. :)

In the evening we went to the Haygoods Show. They are a family - 7 brothers and 1 sister who do a variety type show. It was fantastic! They are incredibly talented and full of energy. Everyone had a fun evening!

Friday morning we loaded up the bus and the children headed to a retirement center in Springfield. They entertained the residents there and then headed for home. Brian and Ladybug caught a ride back with a family friend and we spent several more days in Branson with my parents and Brian's parents. We celebrated his Mom and Dad's birthdays and Butterfly's as well.

Choir Tour Performance

The Children's Choir went on a tour to Branson. Here is the theatre where they performed. They were the pre-show to the #1 Hits of the 60s Show. They did a great job!

This is a picture of the choir at their photo shoot:

How to Occupy my Girls

I don't think the kittens are getting any rest. My kids are having SOOOO much fun!

Aren't they cute?!

4th Birthday

Panda wanted her birthday party at Papa John's. So we invited her best friend and her family and enjoyed an evening at Papa John's.

It snowed on Panda's birthday, so some of the family was unable to come. But, we still celebrated with those who were here and had a great time. Here's her kitty cake. I made it and was please with how it turned out for as simple as it was. She seemed to like it too! I can't believe my baby is 4 already!

The 10th Day of Christmas

Sunday:
Since we'll be getting ready to get back on the airplane and head back home, I'm sure I won't have time to publish a post - so, this is a scheduled post. :)

I couldn't leave Hawaii without catching the sunset on the beach. So, I'll share it with all of you. It was just beautiful. (this was actually taken on Friday)

We leave at around 8 p.m. and get home on Monday morning. That will be the long part. And then the yucky part will be returning to the cold weather. I have absolutely LOVED this weather.

This is such a beautiful place to vacation, but as we talked to people, it is not such a fun place to actually live. Most people have to hold down several jobs to come close to making a living here. Cost of living is super expensive. If I ever get back, though, I want to go to a different island and just sit on a beach. I loved seeing all the sights we got to see, but I would love to just enjoy the scenery.

So, it's back to reality and back to getting completely behind on my blog. Hope you enjoyed following our vacation. I plan to upload a more photos to facebook sometime after I get back.

The 9th Day of Christmas

Saturday's activities:
*We hiked Diamond Head this morning in two shifts so that the guys and the big kids could go snokeling at Hanauma Bay. That is why you don't see Brian in these pictures. :) We left Panda behind - we weren't sure she could make this hike. It would have been pretty taxing for her. The bottom pictures are the view from the top looking toward Waikiki. It was just beautiful. Pictures just don't quite capture it.
*This afternoon the girls went with Gma and Gpa to the zoo while the others were snorkeling. I staying behind to clean, organize, shop and enjoy some time alone which I get so rarely at home. :) I think I'll even walk down to the beach in a bit and enjoy some more time there!

The 8th Day of Christmas

Thursday's activies:
*Slept in after being sick. But felt much better.
*Went to the Waikiki aquarium. It was really nice. Don't you love that giant clam?
*Walked back along Waikiki beach, ate lunch and rested. Heading back to the beach in a bit. Got to soak up all the sun I can. Sounds like it's going to be really cold when we return!

The 7th Day of Christmas

Thursday's activities:
*Went to the Polynesian Culture Center. Here's a picture of the 5 of us, the canoe ride, and Panda throwing a spear. I missed part of the activities because by the time we got to Samoa, I was throwing up in their plants. Rebecca and Jeanette were also sick, so we spent time in their little first aid resting station. (they had very comfortable beds) We missed the luau and the evening show and we so miserable that we didn't really care! The drive to the PCC was so much fun. We rode the bus and had a great driver who gave us a tour as we went. We had many different beach views.

The 6th Day of Christmas

Wednesday's Activities:
*Went to Pearl Harbor. Jeanette, Rebecca, Panda and I also made a side trip to the swap meet in the stadium and found some cheap t-shirts and a few other things. It's amazing to see the size of the ship. Brian and the other 2 girls also went to see the USS Bowfish Submarine. Panda was too young which is why she went to the swap meet with us.