My Boys Getting Ready For Bed

Here we are "settling down" before bedtime. Justice kept doing this (on my head) while I was trying to read a story to the boys. As soon as I was done, Ross & Mark joined in.

How We Made Our Model Of The Solar System

I don't claim to be an authority on the Solar System, but Lydia had school assignment to make a model. So, per Malauna's request, here's how we did it:

Supplies:

Balls of varying size - we used 2 touch lights taped back to back for the sun,
two medium sized styrofoam balls for Jupiter and Saturn,
different sizes of fishing corks for the rest of the planets (except Mercury) -you can use smaller styrofoam balls for these too.
We used a bead for Mercury since it's so small. We didn't include Pluto, because the assignment said we didn't have to. I'd use a bead for it too, if we had included that one.

Paint - We painted all of the planets in their appropriate colors (the corks were way easier to paint than the styrofoam).

Card stock - We cut out the rings so they were slightly smaller (on the inside) than the planet, so that they would stay tight. I also thought of using pipe cleaner and sticking the ends into the styrofoam, but we didn't have any pipe cleaner, and the card stock worked fine.

Straight pins with balls on the ends - We used these for the moons. You'll need lots if you include all of the moons; we used more than one entire package. Jupiter alone has 63 moons.

One hula hoop - We used this to hold everything up.

Fishing line - We ran it back and forth through the middle of the hula hoop, in a * kind of pattern. The sun goes in the middle with a planet on each line going around. We hung the planets from the fishing line in order, but in a circle. Mercury went closest to the sun, Venus was on the next line, but spaced about an inch or so farther away from the sun. Earth was on the next line, spaced about an inch or so farther away from the sun than Venus, etc. Since Jupiter and Saturn were the largest and also far away from the sun, it was off balance, so we added a line from the edge of the hula hoop, on their side to the main line. The main line, we tied on to the middle of all of the other lines, then it went up, so you can hang it from that.

I hope this makes sense! Sorry if it doesn't. I'll be happy to clarify if I can.

My Lydia

Here she is trying to blow out her trick candles.
Here she is with her cool model of the solar system that we built together over the weekend. Too bad you can't see it all in this picture.
Here's a picture that Amy took over the summer, that I love.

Can you believe that she's 10?! I've been doing this motherhood thing for a decade now.

Well, she's a wonderful girl. Helpful, helpful, helpful! She loves to do things with her mom & dad; especially things like going "frog giggin" with her dad. She just got her yellow 2 belt in Tae Kwon Do. Man, I love my girl!

The Passing Of A Prophet

Wow, what must his reception be like in the Spirit World!? I can't help but feel a bit sad, yet you can't expect the man to hang on forever. I'll bet Pres. Hinckley is feeling pretty darn good right now though. Can you imagine the reception a prophet would get upon his passing, especially one in our troubled times! One who helped to double the number of temples on the earth! He was a great man, and a prophet. I know it is so. I have so much respect for Gordon B. Hinckley! "Great man, Dumbledore, great man." (Yeah, but he's way better than Dumbledore!)

A Couple Of Funny Justice-isms

Justice's favorite phrase to say is "Kill me!" (That's from the "Crazy Lovesick Fool" slide show.)

He has a small baby doll that he has commandeered from Lydia, which, like most baby dolls, has long since lost all of it's clothes. He calls this doll "Naked." He likes to take Naked into the bathroom and put it on the potty and say "Go potty!" Or sometimes he goes a little overboard and actually puts it in the toilet. At least it's entirely plastic.

Another Couple Of Slideshows

I've been meaning to post this one for a while, so John & Liz could see the Sever version of "These are the Days." Yes, I know it's the same music and a few of the same pictures, but what can I say, I love this song.

And just for the heck of it, I'm posting another one from X-mas with Bruce's side of the family, because I liked it too.

Suggestions?

So, what the hay, I can use boy name suggestions from any source possible. For those of you who don't know, we didn't name any of our boys until it was past time to leave the hospital. The nurses said we could go home as soon as we had a name on the birth cert. (each time), and we sat around for a couple of hours trying desperately to agree on something good. With Justice I told Bruce to go and put something down on the birth certificate and come back and tell me what his name was. He wouldn't do it though.

Liz, I'm sorry but I can't save you from "Thor." It's just too ... caveman. I think that I am going to try to include Harlan for sure this time. It could be a middle name, so any suggestions should be compatible.

Anyway have at it. Who wants to be the one to name my child? I don't promise anything, but let's face it: Bruce and I are just no good with boy names.

It's A Boy (Again)!

I Got In Trouble!

Yesterday the kids and I looked out into our backyard and saw 3 turkeys walking around and pecking under our oak tree. We called Bruce at work and told him. He was chomping at the bit to be able to run home and shoot the things. (He's an avid hunter!) I have nothing against hunting, except for when he goes hunting so much that we don't see much of him. It does provide us with a lot of meat at a very low cost. Anyway, we watched for a few minutes, then I decided to let Chloe, our overweight yellow lab, out to chase them. I knew there was no way she could catch them, but I thought she'd have fun trying. So, out the door Chloe ran, the turkeys flew away, then Chloe trots over to the spot where they were hanging out, under the tree, and peed on the spot. I got in trouble when I told Bruce what I had done. But I couldn't suppress a little giggle.

BTW John, Mrs. Rabbity M. Georopostal?? (more strange mail)

It's Funny Now, But I Didn't Think It Was Too Funny At The Time

Please understand, I don't post this as a complaint; I post it because, now that it's over and done with, I can see that it was a somewhat humorous situation to be in.

Our toilet is extremely finicky; it clogs if you flush more than 2 squares of toilet paper at once. Well, I clogged it up good today! Usually when you clog it, some water will slowly go past the clog, and eventually the water level will go down. This bit of poo was not letting Any water past at all. (Lovely topic, huh) Justice and I were home alone. Here I am in the bathroom trying to plunge the toilet left-handed (my ribs hurt, so I couldn't do much with my right hand). I wasn't having any luck at all. Justice (who is fascinated by the toilet) came in, walked up and flushed the clogged toilet. As it was already full of nasty toilet paper water, it immediately started pouring out all over the floor. Oh crap!! I throw the top off and grab the ball, to stop the flow of water. So, now I'm standing there in my soaked through socks, holding up the ball with my left hand and trying desperately (but rather pathetically) to plunge with right elbow braced against my hip, using only my hip muscles to push the plunger. I was having no luck at all, that thing was really stopped up good. Bruce was on his way home from a work meeting about an hour away. I wasn't sure if he was going to stop by home before he went on to his usual work place. So, I'm thinking that I'm going to have to either give up and let my floor become completely flooded, find something to brace the toilet ball with (in which case I'd have to let go and get more of the mucky water on the floor), or stand there and hold the ball, trying to plunge until Bruce showed up (whenever that might be). This is going on in my mind, and I hear a slurping sound coming from behind me. Justice is down on the floor sucking up the nasty toilet paper grossness water!! Being pregnant, I'm in tears, and in despair. Then I remember the shut off valve right there within my reach! Hooray! I shut off the water to the toilet, throw some towels on the floor, take Justice and walk out on the mess for the time.

Another Stupid Post

Okay, I apologize for the glumness. Everyone, you have my free permission to just ignore me and my bad attitude! I'm really, really tired of the inside of my house. I'm tired of being useless, but I have to start my whole rib recovery over again. And I was doing so good! Oh well, lesson learned. Don't ignore warning signals! I tried to take my trash out to my curb yesterday. I moved the can about 2 feet and had to stop. (Everyone in our town has the same mini-dumpster thing so that the trash man doesn't have to get out and do the trash manually. The truck lifts them all up. Anyway the point is that it's about twice the size of a regular Rubbermaid-type trashcan.)
It's really hard to know the difference between being lazy and doing only what I actually can do. Does that make sense? I'm having a really hard time knowing what I should take on myself and what I should ask for help with. I really, really, really want to get over this soooon. So tired of sitting around! I had to get a sitter yesterday so Bruce could do the grocery shopping with me. I can't push a cart, I can't lift much, I can't handle bagging all of that stuff etc. I could have sent him with a list I guess, but it was just easier to go rather than to try to think of all of the things that we needed. I'd have forgotten half of the things for sure. I feel like America's biggest wuss.
You know, it's funny, for the easiest pregnancy I've ever had, it sure has sucked! As far as the pregnancy goes, there is absolutely nothing to complain about! I haven't been one bit nauseous, or even very tired. But since I've been pregnant, we've had a bout with head-lice, I spent 2 months sick with bronchitis or whatever that was (during which I broke my rib), the whole family (including the dog) had stomach flu, and I broke my rib again. Okay, bad murmuring Laman! Shut the heck up! I have a wonderful family, good hubby, four great healthy children, the gospel, enough food to eat, a warm home to live in. I'm actually a pretty blessed girl. I've certainly got it where it counts. Have a lovely!

Nothing In Particular

Sorry, I don't have much to blog about. I just am going a bit nuts opening my blog to see that last horrible post, which I really wish I had never put up. Anyway, not much happening around here of note. I rebroke my stupid ribs a bit. I guess I just don't know how to sit still and get better enough or something. So, I'm back on the couch. It's not quite as bad as last time. Darn, darn, darn (note the "r")! I totally hate my couch. There is nothing wrong with it, I'm just really sick of it. I guess I picked up the J-Bird too many times, or went running a bit too soon. I don't know. I laughed yesterday (but it was already getting worse) and I felt my rib crack. Blast, I hate being useless! Oh well, I'll be alright in a couple of days probably.

So, lets bury that last post a bit more. What have I been doing lately? Um, I'm organizing the stake music. That was a real mess, but now it will be wonderfully organized and easy to find whatever our wonderful choir director wants. I'm coming up with my own dewey decimal system of choir music, and I'm planning a spreadsheet thing.

Okay, I'll quit boring you. Later people

Why I Am A Horrid Person

Okay world, I'm about to admit to something that I'd rather not. So, for you more perfect than me persons, I'm sorry to disappoint. My 1 3/4 year old child said the word "darnit" except that it was the bad version of that word. Yes, that word does sometimes escape my lips when vexed. I am so going to the bad place! Well, at least I've made it to child 4 before I had one repeat a bad word. Maybe I should add another resolution to my list below.
I might add that Bruce thinks that it is hillarious that he learned a curse word from me. He considers this a "Get out of jail free card."

A Few New Year's Resolutions & A Couple Of Narrow Escapes

Okay John, I apologize if the following qualifies as "verminous."

Okay, I know that New Year's Resolutions are sometimes silly in that you promise yourself all of these wonderful things that are way too big, and then you never end up doing them. I don't usually bother with them. If you're going to improve, anytime of the year is a good time for a new goal. But having said that, I have made a few simple goals. Ones that I should be doing anyway, but areas that need improvement.

1: Go to the temple once a month. (At least through June, I'll be having a baby early in July, and as breast feeders can't always be left for 4 hours at a time, we'll have to do our best after that.)

2: 100 percent visiting teaching.

That's pretty much it. I can do that much. Bruce has set forth a family project that is pretty cool. We are reading the Book of Mormon as a family. The goal is to finish it by the end of the year. We have a special jar that we put a quarter into for every page that we read. If we finish by the end of the year, we will use our jar money for a big family outing. The kids are way excited about it (at least thus far). I calculate that we should have $134, when we are done. So, we will not only be reading scriptures as a family, but we will also be learning a lesson about saving for what we really want. I just can't figure out what we should do for our outing. Any suggestions?

Okay now for the "narrow escapes" (I hope they are actually escapes, and that they don't come back to haunt me.) (Will some wise person please tell me if the parenthesis are supposed to come before or after the punctuation! I don't feel the need for my blog entries to be English professor ready, but it annoys me that I can't remember that rule. So, is it supposed to be like I did a second ago after "haunt me" or is it like this)?

Anyway, Justice has apparently taken a new spin on David Letterman's "Will it Float?" game. He likes to play "Will it Flush?" Bruce stopped him just in time with a pair of socks in the toilet. I heard the toilet flushing rather too many times for normal use, and went in the bathroom to discover him trying to flush Lydia's shoe and a can of mouse. The toilet currently still works. Knock on wood! Is there anyway to childproof a toilet? Hmm, I'll have to give that one some thought. That child certainly keeps one on their toes!

Here's One For John

Here's another bit of silliness that John wanted posted.

My Christmas Project

I made a bunch of slide shows for Christmas. They are my children and their cousins. Hours and hours of scanning in pics! Here are a couple of my favorites. "These are the Days" and "Ordinary Guy" (just for silliness)

Recent Happenings (That Have Nothing To Do With Illnesses;) )

Here's the kids playing in a snow storm that got them a day off of school just before Christmas.

Here's Ross and his school teacher (who we think is the best teacher ever), at his school Christmas program. Doesn't he look like a little stud in his suit, pho-silk shirt and shiny red tie.

And here's Christmas at my house! We are drowning in the mess!

I guess the getting up at the crack of dawn was too much for Dad.

Here's another night when John, Liz, Todd, Trent & Ashley were hanging out at our house with us till the wee hours of the morning playing cards and other silly games. This is how we found the kids in the basement family room. L to R Lydia, Jonni (John & Liz's offspring), Ross & Mark.
Here we are one morning at breakfast when Mark had just learned to cross his eyes. It's a horrid picture of me, so be nice. (What do you expect first thing in the morning?)