The New Wall

Edited to add a picture: Turns out they were playing "ping pong". Whatever works.




I'd like to say that the boys are working hard in their new workstation. Using their space to spread their wings and compute, but.....all I actually hear from that room are the sounds of paper somethings flying over the half wall and being hit from the other side. All of this with necessary boy....um....tween/teen sounds.

Maybe what they've actually done is set something up on the half wall and they are trying to knock down said something.

They've always thought that I could see them no matter what they are doing, but actually I am just listening carefully. Shhhhh.....don't tell them.

Workstation #3

I'm working towards that goal. We've always homeschooled at the dining room table or living room or car or beach or park or wherever. Well......now that E is taking high school classes his work is quite spread out. He LOVES Perry's office and it has become the office to fight over.

When Perry walks into his office, his desk top is no where to be found. E is usually working and taking a break, back to working and doesn't want to have to put his school work away just to take a break. I completely understand and Perry has been extremely gracious with nary a peep about the HUGE inconvenience to him. However, Perry's job necessitates him working from home so I set about to make this a more pleasant experience for all involved.

Add to that - J is in Pre-Algebra and will be taking Algebra starting September and M will be in Pre-Algebra next year, it just seems necessary to be able to spread out. You know.......stretch your wings and fly when math gets to where each question takes a page to answer.

The older two boys and I had worked hard all day. In order to actually move anything you have to take every. thing. out. I decided to look (I mainly succeeded) at this as an opportunity to clean behind things, in the corners, downsize and re-group.

When Perry walked in the door he headed straight for the office because he knew we had done something. Boy, was he SHOCKED to see the 2'X2' pile that was his computer, wires, modem, wires, headset, wires, hub, wires, external hard drive, wires, keyboard, wires, docking station, wires, monitor, wires and did I mention wires. We had ever-so-gently piled them all so nicely right on the floor because they were hindering our ability to be successful in this endeavor.

He quickly re-grouped himself and commented on the hard work we had done and how nice it looked. Gotta love that man! I wish I had taken a picture of the mess of wires. It was so awful I had no idea where to even start. Which is why I didn't.

The reason he has now worked for 3 hours getting the computer untangled and all the above up and running is because it is the central hub for our house and my mom's. I don't even know if she knows that she was without phone and Internet for a lot of today.

I have sat on the floor talking to him. J has been his right hand man since he came home. It has GREATLY improved J's mood. I'm thinking he's lacking daddy-time. Me too! He's been a busy, busy man lately. Thanks Per for being so incredibly understanding and covering your horror well. It's always great to just focus on the positive, huh? I'm all about positive.

Birthday

If you look in the distance of these pictures you'll see where we were headed in the next pictures. We had 7 kites flying, getting tangled in the air at once. We use Delta kits that cost a whole dollar from Wal-mart. We have found that they fly the easiest, therefore making the whole kite flying adventure more fun.

After flying kites and blowing bubbles for awhile we headed out to explore the fort.

Different areas of the fort were open than the last time we came so we had a good time exploring the new areas.

Birthday

If you look to the right of where we are standing in the above picture that is where we are in the picture to the left . Now.....I did not let go of S's wrist, probably cut off the circulation, because the railings were about 1.5 feet high and the cement part we were walking on doesn't even go out under the railing. Any type of misstep would've sent her right down to the ground. Okay....I have a very vivid imagination. I know. I know. It works very well in some situations and sucks in others.

The boys were practically running through this area thinking it was a complete blast. Perry was laughing at me because he is well aware of what I was thinking.

There are no railings of any type where we are standing in the picture that has all of us in it. When you get to the edge of the cement it is just a straight drop down. This time a lot of the area was roped off. They are painting it. We still went through what we could though. It's like a maze. It's really fun.

Birthday

This is what we go through to get a good picture of us where we're all standing still, patiently waiting for whoever is taking the picture. We had just toured the fort and were headed down to the ocean. There is this wonderful trail, makes for a nice leisurely stroll down. We, naturally, didn't go that way.

I'm just glad that Perry is so strong because he's always carrying one or another of the kiddos. A few years ago when we climbed one of these cliffs, but further down where it was steeper, I completely froze. Perry had gone up an easier way and took J-man and Little Miss. I had helped the boys up over a hard part where there weren't any hand holds. They finished the climb to the top. I couldn't get up that little part. I looked down and my fear of heights kicked in. It was a LONG way down and looked like it was straight down or straight up. I couldn't get myself to move in any direction. Perry stood at the top encouraging me to keep going. I. Just. Couldn't. Once he realized I was serious, he took all the kids away from the edge of the cliff, sat them down, giving E & J each a smaller child with strict instructions to not. let. go. of. their. hand/body. He then climbed down, got behind me, and talked/pushed me the rest of the way up. I am often thankful that he is in my life. I should mention here that he is never patronizing of me, never raises his voice, never acts as if I'm wasting time, never acts as if my fears are not real, just patiently talks me through or helps in anyway he can. I really do appreciate this very endearing quality of his.

Sayings Take 2

S to Mo - "My daddy's in love with my mommy." Good to hear.



13yo to 5 yo - "You need to help me with this because you need to learn how to fold egg whites into the mixture."

Birthday

When we were climbing down the cliff we saw something in the water. Upon closer inspection we realized it was a sea lion. It was HUGE. Once we reached the bottom, Perry and Serena took off down the beach. The sea lion would keep popping its head up. When Serena would squeal at it, it would come closer. It was really cool. We walked to the RV camping area and watched a ferry, found some little fish and a crab.

Joshua determined that crabs do not pinch too hard.

We then decided to hike down to the Fall Out Shelter. It's very important to take the easy way up so we make sure to never go on the main trails. M (red coat) had already gone up and was headed back down. The other boys had to cross between the two trails because it was too difficult to get up that last little bit. We did let M and J-man, which, of course meant Perry had to take S back down, go up the left side and attempt to figure out HOW to get up that last little bit. Perry lifted S up to where she could climb. The two boys didn't want help so they had to cross to the other trail. Perry played his, Do As I Say Not As I Do role and kind of flipped around and managed to climb up. Completely safe stuff here.

Perry Birthday

Seriously, all these "heights"make me a nervous wreck. However I keep my mouth shut (mostly) because I don't want the kids to be fearful of life and what it has to offer. One of the qualities that I admire the most about Perry is his fearlessness. That fearlessness sure has a way of making a woman feel safe.

The drops at the end of these gun thingies (I want to keep this technical, ya know!) are probably(Perry's not here for me to ask) 15-20 feet. Straight down. Matthew asked me something to which I replied, "Go ahead." Now, this was M asking so I should've paid more attention, but Little Miss had just fallen and landed on her hands and knees and her knee was bloody so I had to take care of that. Did I mention she was hungry. No....Well, she was also that. So.......when I came upon M and J-man they were walking up the side of one of these gun thingies. If you look between Perry's or Elijah's body (above picture) and the green gun thing it's the diagonal slope. There were lots of blackberries growing next to the slope which made it more dangerous because they couldn't even use the whole foot of cement that they had. By the time I saw what they were doing I yelled, "STOP"! Perry was looking at me asking, "What do you expect them to do now." I assessed the situation. They were at the top of the diagonal slope, there were blackberry vines preventing them from just stepping onto the ground. They had about 10 feet to go in either direction. They had to step over blackberry vines no matter which way they went. Both directions were a 10-15 foot drop.

I told them to land on their feet if they fell and grabbed S's hand and led her away.

Perry Birthday

To get to the Fall-out Bunkers below we had to walk down a trail and road for a while. M and S (like usual) took a little detour where S determined that the hole we were looking in was where they kept prisoners. Okeedokee. We couldn't convince her otherwise so we went with her version.

These bunkers are a U shape, underground, dark and cold. Naturally, it is way too fun to run ahead and jump out at unsuspecting (Perry and I are on to them so it doesn't work on us) siblings. Little Miss was cold, tired and hungry by this point so her sense of humor was missing. There were 3 bunkers to tour. We then climbed the hill and walked above the bunkers, along a different road and back to the suburban.

Perry's Birthday Weekend told with Pictures

Joshua popped up at the right moment. He keeps trying to get out of pictures. There is a delay to the camera and he had ducked. Because he popped back up I got the above picture. I laughed.

After we had explored the above, which used to be a bathroom, M slid down the side. Which, of course, meant that S needed to do it also and everyone else, which meant Perry had to go back up to help. This was our last stop. We had explored only half of Ft. Casey, but been walking for hours. It was dusk and the sunset was beautiful when we got back to the Suburban. We then drove to Coupeville and took Perry out for his birthday dinner at a Family Dining Restaurant that was delish. Everyone loved it and ate a ton.

Little Miss made this "cheesecake" for Perry. Perry, the kids and I had spent the rest of this day working outside and finishing up his Suburban. We were cold and exhausted. We had fun and got a lot of needed work done.

Happy Birthday Perry!

W

Don't Make Me

S to everyone in the house - "I have a lot of ammo (said with a long 'a'). Don't make me squirt you."

"Mom, I can't hear anything out of my ear."

Poor Little Miss. Double ear infections. These are the same ear infections from when we went to Disneyworld. She has a very high pain tolerance. She was the grumpiest little miss yesterday. She didn't real want me, but wouldn't actually leave my side. The ear infections not having gone away and getting worse certainly make sense now. She's sleeping now. That's a good thing as the last couple of nights have not been real great....sleepwise.

The doctor was actually impressed that he actually got to talk to her. He talked to her just because he could. You could see his amazement. She had been so incredibly freaked out by doctors of any type that she would become a leech as soon as she knew we were going. Even weighing was an ordeal. I would step on the scale holding her and then I would unpeel her from my lower body/legs and hand her to a brother then weigh myself so they could get her weight. Then she would SCREAM and fight the whole rest of the time someone was in the room with us.

I have always been honest with her about the pain level of her procedures, but her poor little mind was so traumatized that it simply didn't matter what I said. Even doctors that she had seen since birth that didn't hurt in any way, shape or form became her nemesis. So for the last year, unless it was REALLY, REALLY NECESSARY we haven't gone to any doctors.

It worked. She has stopped fearing doctors and become more compliant.

I've put off her every 6 month testing because of her anguish. It's been almost a year. Dr. F was completely understanding, since this is the first time in a year that she has not been screaming, about the tests coming up and we talked about ways to minimize the trauma so as not to set her mentally backwards again. I need to do some work to coordinate all of her tests from birth to 4 yrs and see if there is significant change or not that would necessitate the amount of tests her urologist would like her to have done.

If she does need all of the tests then I am going to see if they will do the painful procedures while she is sedated. That was Dr F's idea. Both he and I think she looks good and besides ear infections is healthy so I am not rushing into this.

Different urologists have different ideas on how much/often testing should be done. She still has small amounts of blood in her urine, but it is a lot less than when she had her nephrectomy. She is growing well. The pain doctor has given me pain patches (not narcotic) to put on her scar that take away the "sparks shooting out her foot". All in all I think she is doing well. I don't feel that one of the tests is necessary but will probably err on the side of caution while she is still young and it would not be as embarrassing as when she is older.

Perry's birthday is Monday. He is taking the day off work and I am trying to decide if we should go south, take our bicycles and spend the day at Long Beach or go north, take our kites and spend the day at Fort Casey. We love both places. I'm thinking Fort Casey is going to win because Perry likes mountains and I like oceans and Fort Casey has, the appearance, of both.

The bear/or something else has managed to eat all the donuts, but not the donuts in the sock that make the door close. Kinda funny, huh?

The kids and I managed to get valentines made for all of our families far and wide. We even managed to get all but one in the mail. I need to go get some cash to add some birthday money for a certain niece and then I am going to mail it. Soon..........very soon.

Girl Power

While out shopping I picked up a girl game for Little Miss. She's really not into gaming. She'll only play if her friends really, really want to and usually just watches her brothers. I decided that I would buy her a game that she might enjoy.

She's enjoying it.

Heard from J-Man after she has been playing for a whole 15 minutes - "Mom, S is getting addicted to the Wii. She needs to be done."

S - "What's addicted mean?"

Mom - "J-man, you can't be addicted after playing for 15 minutes."

Sharing, apparently, is the pits at times.

Seeing The World Through M's Eyes

M has a lot of energy. He always has. It's a part of him. We, mostly, accept what that means, but it often means that life can be interesting. When we hike, he runs ahead and circles back at us.. He seems as if he could go forever.


Today, the kids and I went out shopping for Valentines and a birthday present for Perry. Then we stopped at Costco. We had all had a good time shopping. We were laughing and joking around. S was skipping beside the cart while the boys helped push/pull it. M guessed $250. The total was $247. He's usually closest. I guessed $200.


When we were exiting E said he was going to go ahead and get the pizza's we had ordered. Once you step out the exit, the food court is to the left. There are about 6 red/white tables in a row that you have to walk by to get to the window of the food court. The boys took off running towards the food court. Why walk when you can run! M took about 3 steps and then......................(insert music here) this obstacle course caught his eye.

Yep.....the tables. He jumped effortlessly onto the bench, up to the table, on to the next bench. He was just about to clear the space between two tables, totally focused on his goal, when I caught him by the wrist. I quickly pulled him to my side and put his hand on the cart, not saying anything. What, exactly does one say in such a situation without embarassing a child. Plus......I am his mom and know this child well so I can totally see the appeal of the tables as an obstacle course.


I heard male laughter behind me. I looked up and two guys were failing at holding in their laughter. M, was hung over the cart realizing what he had done, smiling sheepishly. I couldn't hold my laughter in anymore. I was trying. It just looked so fun.


I'm thinking he should be in some type of Special Forces.

Core

I bought this new dance/exercise dvd called Core Rhythms.. I have had more laughter - fall on the floor laughter doing this DVD. First I did it by myself. The kids, naturally, joined in. J makes a great Latin dancer. If you can get through the first five minutes, the kids usually drift away. So.....after five minutes of exaggerated moves and laughing so hard I was on my own.

The next day my friend came over. After making bread, cinnamon rolls, pizza and whatever else we did we finally put the dvd on. Different dvd than the day before, but same Latin dance. Again, we laughed so hard we could barely do some of the moves. That's our excuse and we're sticking to it.

The day after that I talked Perry into doing this with me. The boys were practically rolling on the floor laughing. He stuck with me, mainly, until the end. We then attempted to learn the Samba. I think Little Miss did better than us. She's usually wherever I am so does whatever I'm doing. My little, precious shadow.

This would fall under what I love best about Perry. I can usually talk him into, at least trying, different, new things with me. I'll be the first to admit that some of them turn out better than others. For example, when we were in Disneyworld we all got up and rode stick horses around the very full restaurant. It's probably just easier to do it than talk me out of it. I do reciprocate if there is something he wants me to try/do.

Oh...back to the exercise dvd. The lesson I learned........It's hard to twist your hips, keep on tempo and laugh at the same time.

Alaska - Here We Come

After spending 4 hours on the computer I was able to utilize free miles from various family members (THANK YOU FAMILY - you know who you are) and get all 7 of us on the same flight, seated next to each other. Total cost (I did have to rearrange miles and purchase some) $300 vs. $4200. Whew! That's a lot of miles!

When I tried to rent a car, or rather, some vehicle that holds 7 I found that costs range from $1600 - $2000. Yikes! I used Live Search to find an off airport rental and found a motor home instead. We opted for an "older" 2006 - 30 foot motor home that has 9 seat belts. Total cost, including taxes, $1498. It has a generator, all linens, pots and pans, etc.

This will free us up tremendously so we are going to take the kids all over AK and do some touristy type activities. Aunt Meri - Would you like to join us or send 2 girls (remember 2 extra seat belts) along?

The real purpose of this trip, at this time, is to see Greatmother. She will be 100 the day our 4th son turns 9. We want to wish her an early 100th birthday. We are trying to talk my mom into flying (without J) up to AK on Greatmother's birthday. Positive peer pressure needed here. :-)Perry and I will take turns staying at her house and keeping J occupied while she's gone. I'm hoping some friends will go up to Anchorage and stay at a hotel with her and laugh. She needs laughter in her life.

Today, I'm going to figure out a time table for our trip and reserve some camping sites. The kids are beyond excited about going to AK. I just pray that the flight will be okay for Little Miss. She had a panic attack (claustrophobia) on the last flight. I can talk her down, but 3.5 hours of talking is a lot, even for me, to come up with and it's simply hard to see her struggle. Hopefully she won't be sick this time and maybe that will take care of the whole issue.

We're looking forward to seeing all of you Alaskans.

Krispy Kreme Bear

The bear that has plagued us for months will, prayerfully, be gone tomorrow. Perry managed to get a hold of The Powers That Be and the nice officer has set up a trap in our yard. The officer very politely answered the five gazillion questions that the kids (especially Josiah - it was hard for him to keep quiet) asked. He reminds me of E in that the excitement just shines in his eyes and he has so many questions that he needs answered NOW, not in 2 minutes when he could see the process for himself. I will keep the kids inside unless Perry or I are out with them until the bear is trapped.

I sure hope this is the end of picking up a gazillion little, tiny, itty-bitty pieces of garbage from the ground. We have to go up the mountain and pick up garbage the bear has dragged it so far.

Hopefully I'll have pictures tomorrow. Oh.....the title is because they trap the bear with Krispy Kreme donuts. The officer placed them around and in the steel container. When the bear pulls on the sock full of donuts, dripping with syrup and vanilla extract, the heavy trap door will close. I will then, unless Perry is home because he's a whole lot more brave than I am, not to mention protective of me, go outside, push on the steel door to make sure it's really closed (Yikes!) and put a pin through the hole. We will call the officer who will come and do a hard release to/on the bear. I'll let you know how that goes.

I'm going to run to the neighbors and ask them to keep their dogs in tonight. If a dog is trapped it will kind of defeat the whole purpose of this. :-)

Happy 5th Birthday LIttle Miss

On this, your 5th birthday, you call everyone to remind them it is, afterall, your 5th birthday. I'm sure the Aunt's appreciate and recognize the gesture since we are so good at doing the same for their kids. :-) Thanks Aunt's for responding appropriately. May I return the favor. This is the year!!
There are things that I notice the most about you. One, you are strong. Physically strong. You have powerful legs. It's awesome to watch you run. It's commented on all the time. And....God, apparently gave you extra spring in your joints. Sounds funny, but Girl, you can jump. From the time you were a babe you have jumped. When you get tired, you climb and jump. You can jump far from a standing position. Your joints never hurt from jumping. I'm always amazed. I'm hoping that the reason you have extra joint help is because it will help you later in life.

You are very much your dad's girl in that if someone "needs" help, you can not sit idly by and watch, you must help. Now, "need" is up to your interpretation. For instance, there was a 13mo old girl in Kidzone who was crying for her mom. When I came to pick you up, you were the only one of 5 kids who was not watching TV. You were over with the teenager who was holding the baby trying to help him calm her. Apparently you had been very helpful in keeping her from screaming the whole time. If there is a person that needs help, you will not run ahead, even if I can see you would really rather be doing something else. Something draws you to help.

While you are athletically strong, you are all girl. Well, besides the fact that you really like to play with worms and bugs. The boys are nice enough to find them for you. You love dresses, dress up, pretend (okay real) makeup and fixing your hair. You love to twirl and dance. Your body is all girl. You practice what will one day be womanly moves (body postures). It's fun to watch. It's so very different than the boys who at that age were barely aware of their bodies. You like me to fix your hair in different ways. You usually have an idea and I try to get it to look like you're describing. You talk to me about different "men" you would like to marry. I explain,, very gently, because you are serious and I want to protect your feelings, that they are too old for you. They are, after all, in their 20's and 30's! You then decide that maybe you will marry their little brother.

Ever since you were a newborn you have slept in the crook of my arm. When you were a newborn you would centimeter your way over to me until you were snuggled under my arm/against my side. You still sleep that way. Every night you need an arm to cuddle up to. I'm sure this will end soon so I just enjoy the cuddles for now.

You had quite a birthday week this year. You had a princess party on Tuesday, Grandma took you out to Red Robin on Friday (I think this is the second time in your life she's taken you anywhere so you were very excited) and we took you out to Red Robin (your choice of restaurant) on Saturday. Carrie and I made you cupcakes for your Tuesday party. E decorated your cake (he did a great job) on Saturday. You got your baby doll which is what you wanted the most for your birthday.

Happy Birthday Little Girl. We love you so much. You have brought so much joy and pink to our lives.