Week #22: Out of Commission

This week...

...we found out that Jason won't have to wear his braces that much longer. He gets them off in August after only 11 months of wearing them. He is so ready to bite into a sandwich or hamburger without worrying about what gets stuck in his teeth. He's not always so thrilled when I take his picture, but he puts up with me.

...Sister Norman taught us a lesson on time management using the dirt and rock object lesson. My back went out on Thursday and the pain persisted into this week. I couldn't walk without great pain and difficulty. My mom came and stayed to help out with all the chores and all the kids. :) It was a little crazy for the kids to have their mom out of commission so close to the end of school with so many deadlines still to meet. Feeling the stress of the weekend and the last piano lesson looming, Emma made a comment that she wanted to quit piano. I was stunned. Emma loves piano. I asked her the reason and she said it was because she just doesn't have time to practice. I almost wanted to laugh. There was no way she was quitting piano and there was plenty of time to practice. I told her that she was probably feeling the effects of me being out of it and that there is lots of time, when dad is not sleeping, to practice - we just have to do that first before playing. 

When Sister Norman, on a visit to our house, heard that Emma wanted to quit, she knew just what lesson Emma needed. So the kids quickly gathered up the items and sat for the demonstration. Anything involving dirt, rocks and water in the house has to be good, right? And on top of that, they broke the jar as they shook it to get everything out at the end. That's a stellar day in their book.

There's not enough room for all of the must do's when you fill the jar first with the want to do's.

Getting some good participation. Note The tube of lip/chapstick in Lainey's hand I wrote about above.

Emma adding the water, demonstrating that when we put the items into the jar in the right order there is plenty of room for the must do's and the want to do's.

I wasn't using my camera much this week because of my back.

Week #21:Fresh Picks & A Science Project

This week...

...we enjoyed more fresh fruit from Fresh Picks. The season is under way. Mark's Fresh Picks truck can be seen pulling up to the front of our house every Thursday at 11:00. It's great! People order what they want online and then pick it up at my house. A perfect system! I made a wonderful rhubarb apple crisp that was just delicious one week, even threw in some fresh strawberries.

...Emma conducted a science experiment. She froze the same amounts of water, pop, and milk and then let them melt to see which would be the fastest. She was supposed to conduct the experiment three times and take the average. It was a lot of fun until she forgot to watch closely on the second round. The cubes melted and we didn't write down how long it took. We had to redo that one. It was a lot of fun until dad turned the timer off on the redo round. We had to redo that one too. It was a lot of fun until Dad measured out some replacement cubes (but measured differently than Emma) and the cubes took way too long to melt. We didn't have time to redo that one. So she chalked it up to variables out of her control and made do.

...we found the 3T tub of clothing for Lainey. I was so happy. I knew I had a whole tub of clothes for her in the garage, but I could not find them. That was about four months ago. I was not looking forward to the idea of buying a whole new set of clothes for her. Recently, I was looking through our books, that are still boxed up, and I found the long missed tub. Now Lainey has plenty to wear.

They were all getting in on the action - Ben was pulling things out of the tub, Lainey was trying everything on, and Claire was wondering where all of her "new - ish" clothes were. Note Lainey's beautiful lips. She has taken a liking to a tube of lip/chapstick of mine that I don't use anymore. She carries it around and applies it over and over all day long.

...we mass painted the trim for the Ranch House Renovation. It took us forever to get the paint sprayer ready, but it worked like a dream once we did. 28 pieces done in 20 minutes. We only spilled a little paint on the grass...

 Lainey trying to get her gloves on so she could be a helper.

This is Paul, Ben, and Claire's idea of what renovation days require - a lot of laying around and playing on the ipad.

Week #20: Lainey has a birthday & Lasers Update

This week...

...Lainey turned 3! She's such a happy little girl and she has such a handle on her words that it's never dull listening to her. I joked that I would invite all of my adult friends over for Lainey's birthday because she loves all of them like her own friends. I think she could hang out with them no problem.

Look at the wonderful birthday banner in the background. I won a giveaway from my dear friend Cynthia Gentry in Othello. She sent me that handmade felt banner in the background for celebrating. I love it! (Ethan (9), Emma (9), Claire (5), Lainey (3), Paul (7), Jenna (6), Allie (3), Ben (5) Some days are off days for Benjamin and picture taking - this was one of the off days.)

Lainey loves to play with Emma's American Girl Dolls. So much so that we decided she needed her own so she wasn't messing with Emma's. She was thrilled!

Grandma Erickson gave her a jean pocket purse. Lainey was not the least embarrassed to pose big for her picture.

...we swerved in to try some burgers at the newly opened Five Guys. It was so much better this time than on our trip to Arizona. This time I did get the grilled onions and mushrooms - It was delicious! I loved the peanuts too, they were tasty. 

"Order up!" It seemed as if Jason had brought a Mary Poppins to go bag back to the table. We were thrilled with each new item he pulled out.

Grandma Zirker, Ben, and Claire enjoy the peanuts before our order comes. Note the Voted Best Burger sign in the background-they've got my vote. (Or it could have been that we were extremely hungry...)


...we made our own instruments at Emma's school Build a Beat Night. This was a lot of fun. The boys went with dad to help some friends move into Kennewick and us girls went to Emma's school. We made macaroni noodle egg shakers, rice rain sticks, and drums. And they used recycled items to do it. We the sturdy paper towel rolls and large food cans from the kitchen for the rain sticks and the drums. After the instrument making, we went into the cafeteria to make our own rap song. I really got into choosing my name and making up rhymes. Emma thought I was silly, but I thought that made it more fun.
Here's our rhymes...We didn't quite get them finished.

KoolMama5 - that's my name. :)

Oh, I have five kids.

They blow their lids.

They eat snacks all day

and I have no say.

They jump on the couch...

Em-J - that's Emma's name. :)

Oh, I read good books 

and I get scary looks,

When I read all the time

and I talk in rhyme.

I could read all night,

but, oh, I'm a sight

When morning comes

and I'm all thumbs...

The chaos of maneuvering the instrument stations-You can't tell here, but it was chaos!

Lainey was building a beat by dancing on the cafeteria bench.

...we joined Paul for Frontier Days at his school. This is a big tradition at Paul's school. Every year at the end of the year, they have stations of frontier games, story telling, and activities. We made it in time for coloring time, lunch, and square dancing. After two trips back in to the school for bathroom breaks, I was ready to go.

 Paul is such a conscientious student. He knows what he's supposed to do and does it.

 Lainey knows how to be a ham. She acts like the classroom is hers.

They liked eating lunch at the school.  Well, they only ate what I could get them to stay still long enough to eat. It wasn't much. Those playground toys were just too tempting. Hot dogs and frozen fruit juice slushies.

Water Break!

...we played at Sister Norman's house. I work with Shelly Norman in the Young Womens at church and we have become friends. One night, after making some visits, Shelly took my kids over to the park and introduced them to the game Ninja. Ninja is where you make up an obstacle course and time everyone as they go through it to see who gets the fastest time. The kids loved it and they loved Sister Norman by the end of the night. Since that night, I have heard a lot about Sister Norman from the kids - Can we invite her over to play? When can we go to her house? We finally set a day and time when we could get together. It was also a Relief Society Activity night. So we had a hot dog roast and then her daughter, Kaitlin, watched my kids so we could go to our meeting together.

Sister Norman is another one of Lainey's special friends. Once Lainey learned her name, it was as if she'd always known the Sister Norman name. I thought it was cute that they were roasting dogs together.

Kaitlin was playing monster eats delicious kids on the trampoline.

:: They got to try out some flag team flags ::

The kids playing in Sister Norman's bed: She sleeps outside.

We got to hear Sister Norman play the harp and then Emma took her turn playing a little. That night Emma yelled out to me from her bed..."Hey Mom?" "Yeah," I called back. "I wish I was Sister Norman," she stated wistfully. "Why's that?" I inquired, on the verge of chuckling. "'Cause then I could sleep outside and play the harp," she stated. All I could answer was, "Yes, you could."

...Emma played the piano in the ward talent/hobby night. She was very nervous. But Jason sat next to her and she did just fine. I was so thrilled that she let us all talk her into performing. At first, she was dead set against it. Then our friend Shelly Norman made her a deal. Shelly would play a song on her harp for us if Emma would play in the talent show. Emma actually took the offer. Even though she was nervous, she did so great. We have been so surprised and pleased with Emma's progress on the piano. She started lessons with Sister Calleen Hall in our ward in January. Just January. She's already into book four. We've got the right combination of talent and teacher.

The activity was a talent/hobby night. People brought stuff for display and others shared their talents on the stage. Sister Norman made the Y quilt for her daughter that went to BYU, Brother Mathews does Bird Taxidermy and competes with his stuffed birds, Bishop Pierce (left) carves fish with a chain saw (on table at font center). We took Jason's sweet runner table and I displayed some vinyl decor. It was so neat to browse and talk with people about their talents. IT was definitely a neat way to get to know the ward members better.

...you'll get an update on my lasers. I know you really wanted to know. :) They are 10 times better than how I started off. So many people had assured me that their recovery was 100 % from one day to the next. That is exactly what I expected. But that isn't exactly what I got. It took a little longer for me. Once they cleared up on the fourth day as I related in the week #12 post, I had hope that things would get better. And they did. But a month-two months out, I was still having to use the eye drops consistently throughout the day or my eyes would go dry. So then I was wondering if that would actually go away. Thankfully I can say that the dryness has gone away. Now i just need eye drops occasionally during the day and night. It's so nice to not have glasses anymore. It was surprising how quickly I adjusted to not needing them.

On the day of my procedure, I didn't think the sedative was actually working as we waited the hour for it to kick in. Jason said I was acting silly and I didn't believe him until I saw the pictures and videos he took of me. In my own defense, Jason prompted the first one. I was loopy enough to do it. In the second one, I look like I'm relaxing at the beach not getting ready for eye surgery. You can't see that I have my feet crossed in the picture. Silly me.

Here's me during the procedure. Jason's caught my must-get-a-picture-of-everything attitude.

Week #19: Water Fun & Lucky Charms Disaster

This week...

...the kids begged to play in the water. We have been having some pretty hot days lately. Playing in the water is the obvious solution. With it being so hot, we tried to use our air conditioner. That thing blew a lot of air, but it wasn't cool air. The kids couldn't sleep it was so hot in the house. They got to camp out in the family room with the fan blasting and the windows wide open.

...we went to Muffins with Moms at Paul's school. We stopped in at his classroom and Emma got to see her good friend that she met last year in second grade. She's the daughter of Paul's first grade teacher this year. She is the best little friend any parent could hope for their child to have. I'm so grateful we've become friends with Faith and her mom Mrs. Shay Ogle.

...we walked down to the TCYSA Fields to watch our cousin play soccer. It was soooo hot that day that it really wasn't that fun. It was a chore walking with our chairs and blankets. The water was gone within the first five minutes of sitting down. Paul was sitting too close to Ben and Lainey Claire didn't ask to sit on Emma's blanket. Lainey had to go to the bathroom. I took her to the porta-poddy in the middle of the tack weeds. Ben had to go to the bathroom...and on and on. We decided to head out before the game was done. And because of all of our effort and exhaustion, we made a trip to DQ for dilly bars. It wasn't a total wash.

Alex is the one right in the middle of the field - #7

Katie and Emma trying to pass the time and cool off in the shade.

...Lainey found a convenient place to color. She loves to play on the stairs. Lately she's been going off on her own to play. After a while, I get nervous because I can't see or hear her anywhere. I call for her and she calls back. She's just tending her babies and using her play phone...on the stairs.

...Claire made me laugh with her extra long fibber nose.

...we went for a walk and played with our shadows.

Me, Lainey, Emma, Paul, Claire

...we made our first trip to the River for this year. It was so hot on Saturday that we couldn't pass up the chance. For awhile, the river was bogged down with tumbleweeds and other debris. The kids didn't seem to mind though.

...Claire had a mishap with the box of Lucky Charms cereal. I guess they're not so lucky after all. We didn't get mad about it, we took a picture. Then they gathered up all of the marshmallow pieces to eat them. 

...we celebrated my Dad's 68th birthday, backyard-hot-dog-roast style. My brother hosted the family in Mattawa for good food and a good time. The kids all enjoyed roasting their own dogs, the little ones loved the swings, the cousins enjoyed being together, and Lainey loved swiggin' on Grandpa's sodie. 

 Grandpa Zirker (68), Lainey (2), Paul (7), Trenton (9), Katie (9), Emma (9), Claire (5)

Keaton (5), Sydney (12), Benjamin (5), Jenna (6), Christian (15)

This one is my favorite. I love Cousin Allie's expression. She's the one in pink. She is the embodiment of the fun that swings are for children.

Look at that view-Great sunset, pivot running, tarped hay stacks in the distance, grassy pasture in the foreground. That's a great view.