2007, A Year in Review

Today I bought my new family wall calendar that keeps track of all our activities. Now you may say, Cherylann doesn't seem that detail oriented and organized. You would be correct, thus why I need one. Even with a calendar I screw up. Actually, this is the first year that I had a calendar that actually worked for me. Even though it is a little cutesy for me, I LOVE it because it keeps me from forgetting most things (except when I don't look at it in the morning or don't write it down). With this in mind, I thought I would run down our last year really fast. You know, since I didn't bother to send out a Christmas card and all...

• Katie was hitting up our neighbors to buy Girl Scout Cookies last January...now I am the troop's "Cookie Mom".


• Beginning of the year, I volunteered at Katie's school once a week...now I volunteer in Katie and Christian's class once a week. It is a lot of fun to see them in their environment and get to know their wonderful teachers.


• Mike worked a lot...he still works a lot.


• Christian was in Pre-School...now he is in Kindergarten. (Both kids in real school, wow!)


• Since we have moved to Phoenix we have been to NHL Hockey and MLB Baseball games an an NBA game. It is so fun to be enjoying professional sports while we live in a metropolitan area.


• The Phoenix Zoo has been a favorite of the kids. Between school field trips and some earned tickets from the library, we have been enjoying it.


• We got to go to Disneyland for our second time...the kids are still asking when we will go back next. We did it in one day and closed the park down at Midnight. Where upon, as Katie was getting ready to get off the Peter Pan ride she leaned forward as the bar came up, smacked her head and started to bleed. We now know where the First Aid Building is at Disneyland. This did not deter her from wanting to go back...go figure. By the way, where are our free tickets for that terrible accident?


• Mike and I went to Atlanta, Georgia at the end of May, sans kids. It was fun to be away even if I mostly caught up on my sleep and saw a few sights. The kids had fun with their cousins in California. Katie was talking today about feeding a donkey during her cousins piano lessons while she was there (it came up since we got carrots at the co-op today).


• Katie and Christian improved their swimming skills in our pool and at the community pool with their swimming lessons. They had a lot of fun. They transform into little fish in the summer.


• "Heart and Hand Girls" made June fun for Katie, learning things from cooking and sewing to making jewelery, with the girls from Church.


• The kids have loved the rock wall at the gym. Katie can get to the top on the easy and middle difficulty walls. Christian is overcoming his fear of heights.
  
• We go to the Library nearly every week. We love it there, even if we don't stay very long all the time. (Okay, along with loving reading, they have computers and free DVD's to checkout and they only checkout for 7 days...)


• Mike has resumed working on his 1968 Mustang and has had it painted.


• The whole family got to go to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico for a week in July. Even though I was a bit skeptical about getting even further into scouting territory, it was a blast for the kids and I. (For the scouters, I still refuse to go to woodbadge and work my tickets...and yes I had to ask Mike how to phrase that exactly.)


• The piano got tuned for the first time in six years. Thanks to Katie for starting piano lessons this year. She loves to play and is doing really well.
  
• Mike turned 40!!!


• Katie has lost a lot of teeth this year! Okay, I only added this because there were a lot of really funny pictures.


• We went home to California for Thanksgiving. It was so fun to see Mike's dad, my parents and 5 of my 6 siblings and their families.

So there is our year in review for our family. Even though it is a long list, I did restrain myself from sharing every appointment (Luckily for you, I am not that detailed oriented).

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas Time with the Marchese's

The night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except me and my camera...

The Christmas Season has been busy and a little overwhelming at times, but we have had a blast too!

Our month started off with an infatuation with all things "Spy Kids", thanks to the library DVD's that we get. Playing house was a Spy Kids fantasy that still is a favorite to play. Notice Katie's rad outfit. Thomas the Train sunglasses offset her rainbow belt that holds some sort of spy gadget. Her shirt that has red and pink going blazingly well with her hot pink pajama shorts. She is the Spy queen. She is so cute. I was quite the dresser like her at her age. Genetics really do have a strong hold on kids. Don't worry. She wasn't allowed to go out in public with the outfit.

We decorated our annual gingerbread house. Boy we love Costco's kit. We had fun, but we decided that we need to get two next year, one for the kids and one for my perfectionists self. It was fun and we had a built in treat after, with the gingerbread men that they include in the kit. Don't look around our house for our beautiful gingerbread house for more than a day after we decorate. We don't believe in dusting gingerbread houses and having unusable candy.

The kids had a Christmas concert and we did Katie's hair all curly. She had many compliments on it and it is now a common request... I am thrilled that she is letting me take a more active part in her hair... :) Silly me, I know.

Two nights before Christmas we went up to the Mesa Arizona Temple to see the Christmas lights and see a movie about Christ's birth. The grounds were beautiful and the kids loved going. Christian makes sure that every time we go we see the beautiful statue of Jesus that is there. As soon as he saw it he went in and plopped down to listen to the recording of Christ's words that they have. Kids always amaze me with what they tune into.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. The wonder of Christmas for kids is amazing. Christmas is not the same without kids.

The kids received new blankets for Christmas as Christian's is literally falling apart from all the love he has given his. Now, he walks around the house with both of them.
Christian wouldn't even look at me for the picture he was hugging the blanket so tight. He actually picked it out and I bought it in front of him. Then I told him it was too expensive and we would have to take it back. He was shocked when they opened them.

They, of course, love the toys they got. Katie loves the new game, Druthers, we got from Clark and LaDawn. She quickly claimed the small calendar that came with the larger calendar. As Katie grows up, the items she wants grow up also. She wanted and got a reading lounge pillow with a book and a watch (along with a few Barbie's, she hasn't completely grown up yet). Is it possible that she is almost eight. I keep telling them to stop growing up, to which I get a response of many giggles telling me how silly this request is. Oh, the wonder of kids that make all the stress worth it.

We hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas season. One of these years we will get our act together and get cards out. We have loved yours!

The Dancing Marchese's

You probably have seen this already. I finally couldn't resist. Just Click to watch our Fabulous Dancing!

Stick Figure Drawings, Hurray!

Some people are fast bloomers, some people are regular bloomers, and some are slow bloomers. In my young life I was a bit of a regular/late bloomer. There was the lower reading group of the "more advanced" class in my grade that I was a part of. (There were 1 and 1/2 classes per grade. One class always had 1/2 of one grade and 1/2 of the another) I always loved reading and would take the city bus by myself at age 8 to go to the city library to get books. However, I was painfully aware, because of my love for reading, that my reading speed and comprehension was not up to the upper echelon of the classroom. Over time, I got over the fact that I wasn't the smartest person on the planet. At the same time I am grateful that I wasn't the most challenged person either.

However, my heart aches for my kids when they seem to have a hard time with developmental issues. You don't want them to hurt or struggle, but that is part of life. Earlier this fall I became aware that Christian was having a hard time with his fine motor skill. Hindsight is 20/20, so I realized all those things he didn't enjoy doing that I found puzzling at times (not wanting to color, to do puzzles, refusing to do his seat belt, etc,.) were because he found it frustrating. Apparently there is a diagnostic tool to see how children are comprehending their surroundings or something by seeing how detailed a stick figure they can draw. Well, Christian never really did anything but scribble. A few weeks ago, he started to do stick figure Aliens that consisted of a smiley face head, a stick body, and a huge foot with toes sticking out all sides of it. Very cute. Finally, today, the first stick figure I have seen from Christian. Not just one, but two. Christian was making a card for a girls birthday party. Katie wrote it and drew a cake and then everything in marker is Christians. He even made hands with fingers (reminiscent to the alien "foot" since he and the girl were holding hands (as friends, he holds his sister's hand all the time). So Hurray for stick figure drawings!

Gilbert Day Parade

In the midst of packing for our trip to California (okay, I am totally putting it off), we decided to attend the Gilbert Day Parade that ended about a half mile from where we live. We packed up our new folding chairs and got the camera, and away we went. I am not sure why we have a parade this time of year except that it is cool enough. It is just to celebrate our wonderful town of Gilbert. So while we were waiting the kids took pictures of each other and had me take pictures of them and that occupied them until it started about a half an hour later.

What a great smile!

Our little ham bone....
The police color guard started the parade with the fire trucks sounding their sirens as they came down the road.
We had a great time, and then we went home. To start packing. Yeah...I am taking a "well-deserved" break right now. (I'll leave that up to your interpretation).

Another Day, Another Trimming

When one moves to different areas of the country, you learn all sorts of different things about the amazingly different flora and fauna the Lord has put on the earth. Here in Arizona, plants are predominantly spiky to different degrees. Not all, but most of the things in our yard. Also, the plants LOVE the heat. No joke, they do not grow much or at all during the "cooler" season. No, they love to grow like crazy when it is a blazing 110 degrees outside. Growing up in the Northeast, California, even the living in the Pacific Northwest you only trimmed trees if a branch was annoying, or was growing into important phone lines.

When we moved here we experienced something entirely new. We have a Mesquite tree in our front yard. We moved in at the end of March with the tree looking nice. I kept wondering as time went by if the tree was really that full when we moved in. By the end of May, I was getting a little flustered about what might be wrong with our tree. Then the branches were touching my car. Finally, a big branch was resting on my car (it is a soft wood) from the weight of all the new growth on it. As I backed out (amazingly without any scratches) it continued its decent to the ground. Of course, now professionals had to come out and take care of it. Still, it took us a few more months to realize, we would need to thin out the tree at least 4 times a year between April and November. Luckily, we already had a sawzall and just needed to get a long tree pruner.

Once, I trimmed it by myself. That is not a smart idea, being on a ladder by yourself with a sawzall. Mesquite trees are a very soft wood. So when I would cut off a large chunk, what I thought was a good clearance of tree to ladder would swiftly disappear as the tree limb would rise. It happened often enough (yeah, I am a little slow, it should have only taken once) for me to realize, Mike should be around for the next time. The tree was trimmed without incident, but I am not sure it wasn't without attentive angels (shaking their heads at me), as maybe my time wasn't up yet.

This last Saturday was another yard cleanup day. The last one we did all the bushes that had grown past the point of acceptable and it was finally cooler which was more acceptable to me. It is once again bulk trash pick-up this week, so we needed to trim all the palms and our two trees. The kids were really cute and helped us haul the non-spiky tree limbs to the front curb. As long as it is not horrendously hot, I actually don't mind it. We are getting faster as it only took us 2 hours for all of it this time. Katie is a real sweet heart and helped sweep the driveway and brought us tall glasses of water without being asked. I was really touched. Katie and Christian have both learned to stay clear of the trimmings as the type of Mesquite we have has small to two inch spikes on its limbs. (Another wonderful aspect of that particular tree.) Here is a picture of the kids in front of the trimmings (that pile is over their head). It brings us great joy that trimming is done, and we are hoping it doesn't grow a whole lot over the Arizona winter.

Later the kids were ready to go outside and have a water fight. Here is a cute picture of the kids together, soaked. Mike had just cleaned the glass doors that morning, of course.














They later went to the park with Mike, by scooter and by bike. So a little work and a little play, made it one great happy day!

Student of the Month

Warning: Parental Bragging will be taking place. Skip this blog entry if you loathe this concept.

This morning we had an opportunity to honor Katie. She was once again chosen as Student of the Month. She was chosen twice last year, once by her teacher and the other time by her music teacher. Last months virtue that they focused on was Perserverence and Katie was chosen to be the student in her class that exemplifies it. We are very proud of her. She works really hard in school to do well and is just so sweet (especially when she listens to me :) ). You may not be able to tell from her picture but she was very excited. She gets a little shy at times and won't smile really big.

This is what her teacher wrote:

"I feel this student deserves The Student of the Month Award because this student works very hard each day. She models Perservernce in our class when she sticks to a difficult concept and works it through without giving up.

"She is a kind student and is a role model to all her peers and I am happy to have her in my class this year."

Here is a picture of Katie's teacher Mrs. Radziwon and her after the ceremony. You can see she is more comfortable one on one with her teacher. She absolutely adores her teacher. Look at that huge smile!

Marchese Genealogy Find

We just found out some great stuff on Mike's genealogy! We are very excited. The information on his grandfather is not completely accurate at this time on the website (4 vi on the page), but we can now go back 5 generations! We emailed the webmaster of the sight and got a return call. So Mike got to talk to the grand niece of his great-grandfather tonight. She is 73, but looks 60 or 65 on the website. She was just wonderful to talk to. Here is a picture of the Marchese family crest.
















Here is a picture of Mike's Great Grandmother Maria for her 80th birthday. His Grandpa Joe is 3rd from the left in the back row.













We think it is pretty cool. Thought we would share our excitement!

Halloween Arizona Style!

Halloween Pumpkin Carvers Unite! No more dangerous knives that could kill you (like when we were kids), now we have pumpkin carver kits. Love them. The kids are getting better at it. I think they need their own pumpkin next year so I can let go of my perfectionism. :) It turned out great though (partly because I was holding on...let go, let go, let go).

It is a different land here in Arizona on Halloween. It becomes a neighborhood block party. (Well, not our neighborhood, we had to go a few streets over. But the cops tried to arrest our neighbor right before we left to go trick-or-treating). Neighbors set up tables in their driveway, have games to play, s'mores to roast and dancing to do. One house had their Nintendo Wii projected onto the garage and trick-or-treater's stopping to play. Christian was all over that one.

Here are the kids in their Halloween costumes. Katie was a Fairy and Christian was once again Buzz Lightyear, his cartoon hero. It wasn't until later that I realized Katie's costume was sleeveless. She had a jacket on before we left. Kinda funny, she danced in that, so it was never a question on modesty when doing that, like swimming. Never thought about it in a costume way. Just thought it and wrote it. If I pointed it out to her she would probably be mortified.

We had a lot of fun. Christian wanted to go home after a while because we had "too much" candy. When we got home he went in and got himself ready for bed. Katie stayed out with us while we talked to some of our nice neighbors across the street. Such a social creature like her Mom. She doesn't want to miss a thing. They are so precious. It is fun to see share these experiences with them.

Happy Halloween!

Dancing Fools, Gotta Love 'Em

Notice the rad outfits. They had just watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and were dancing to the music at the end. They are funny.

The Car is Back...

Mike's beloved Mustang has returned home all pretty on the outside, but still "wrecked" (as observed by a seven year old) on the inside. Little by little, we will get it done. For now it is pretty exciting just the way it is. We are working on the next step of getting the new headliner and the old glass back in. Then there is the wonderful task of reassembling everything that we took off in the beginning. While the car was being painted, Mike was able to acquire some new wheels and tires for the car. For those that are interested in the details, they are 17 inch wheels and tires in the "Shelby" fashion.

Of course, getting the Mustang home was eventful. Mike called me one evening to tell me he needed me to meet him at the mustang shop that put the doors, hood and fenders back on. (There is a very high degree of difficulty to getting them on "straight", so we had professionals do that) Being in the middle of making dinner, I was obviously ready to drop everything and go. Mike tells me that I am sometimes a stickler for rules. You can imagine my stress when I realized he wanted me to follow him home because he had 1) no license plate because the part that holds it isn't back on yet and it was suspended anyway, 2) there is no glass in the front or back windshield, 3) there are no lights, anywhere, on the car (i.e., brake lights, not that that is important), and 4) It is not really a complete car at this point and it is loud and gets noticed.

Away from the shop we traveled after we convinced the kids that riding in the mustang, as is, without seats, was inadvisable. Keeping careful watch on the...traffic, yeah, only the traffic,...we got 4/5ths of the way home. Carefully, I moved over to get ready to turn left, expecting Mike to follow my lead behind him, when he continued to slow down and start to turn right into a parking lot. My first thought was that the car had something wrong with the newly rebuilt motor. But no, not that at all. In his haste to get his beautiful car home, he forgot to check the fuel gage. He ran out of gas. It was a good laugh, even though I was wondering when we were ever going to have dinner. Luckily our gas can for the lawn mower was relatively full so it was rectified fairly quickly. We got home without further incident. Getting the car done will take awhile, but it is the journey and mostly the outcome that I look forward too.

Temple Bound

Here in Sunny Arizona we are truly loving the weather right now. I think the high was 82 today. We actually got to pull out our jackets when we took a little Family Home Evening field trip to the temple. It was fun to have a jacket on again. Windy and cool. Christian wanted a coat when we got out of the car because he was so "coooooold". I laughed and teased that if they thought this was cold, why would they want to go back to Idaho. Katie immediately defended herself by stating that she thought that it wasn't cold. (For some reason she really wants to move back to Idaho)

We walked around the grounds for a little bit. They have a really cool cactus garden that the kids like to check out whenever we go. You can see it to the left in this picture.

There is one that is called an old man that the kids thought was funny. It looks something like this. As you can see the "hair" looks like an old man's wispy hair. They also enjoyed picking out the plants that are in our yard and in our neighborhood.

We headed over to the reflection pools and had a chance to enjoy the peace of the grounds. They are starting to put the lights up for Christmas already, which we are pretty excited about. This picture shows what the temple looks like at the reflection pools with the lights at Christmas. The kids enjoyed running around the area as no one was around. The feeling is so peaceful there and they seemed to really soak it up.

We headed inside and were greeted by a sister missionary. The kids had wanted to see a movie and there was a really cool presentation about families that you move through with the video. I would highly recommend it if you get the chance. Mike and I were both struggling to keep a dry eye. There is one point where the grandmother is talking to a grandchild about how they miss grandpa. Christian turned to me and said, "I missed grandpa when he was in the hospital". He was referring to the last time we were there and Dad had just had his surgery. Yeah, I just about lost it. We are excited to go home for Thanksgiving under better circumstances.

One of the kids favorite things to see is the Christus that greets you when you enter the official front of the building. Christian likes to go up and touch the foot. I am not sure if that is really okay to do, but a sister missionary encouraged it the last time. It is amazing how kids are incredibly drawn to it. Christian then proceeded to plop down on the floor in front of it to wait for the short presentation to start. It was very cute. When it was over it was a little difficult to convince him that that was it.
It was a really great way to spend the early evening. Of course, it isn't Family Home Evening without a song, so Katie insisted we sing a song on the way home. I love the peace you feel by going to those grounds. We are grateful that we live so close to a temple right now and with such a big visitors center.

A day trip to Mexico costs how much?

For about a month now, the kids and I have intermittently (like every phone call) been asking my parents if they would like to come here for Christmas again this year. Last year my dad was really sick and they were only here for about 72 hours. The kids just adore their grandparents and are just itching to have them come down. As you know, we move around a fair bit and they are very aware of this fact. A sample conversation between the kids as they would get out of the car for school on many occasions has gone like this.

Katie: "Yeah, when we move to California we can do that."

Christian: Giggle, "Yeah, when we go to California. That will be so cool."

Katie: "And then we will be close to Grandma and Grandpa."

Christian: Giggle, "Yeah, and we can visit them."

Door Closes.

Now mind you, we have never said we are moving to California. In fact, we never know where we are going to move next. It is always a surprise to me about a month before we move. The biggest by far was moving to Idaho, which my kids really miss and I assure them that we are not going back (Did you know that it snowed there last weekend?). But I digress. The point is that they love their grandparents.

My parents recently acquired some nice timeshares and are wanting to use them. My dad wants to stay in Palm Desert and go to the Grand Canyon and then go to Mexicali,

which is a Mexican border town. Now, from everything I have heard, border towns are not the part of Mexico you want to see. There are beautiful places to see, but border towns are not one of them. If somebody wanted a "taste" of California, you wouldn't send them to Bakersfield either. In addition to the unattractive drive and border town status, you now need a passport to get back out so you are not trapped there. Out of curiosity for the cost of Passports, I decide to look it up. Wow. If you want a passport to do a little day trip to Mexico it is going to cost you $97. For ONE person. Now I know that I don't want to do a day trip to a Mexican Border town. Plus, I have heard it is taking forever to get a passport now that many people need them to go see their relatives. Oh, but wait, with a simple $60,...per person, you can expedite them. Needless to say, if they go, my parents will be going by themselves (they have their passports). We do still hope them come, even if they go south too.

I should play WHAT?

Okay, so my friend Jeralee had this on her blog. Apparently I should play the accordion. I don't think when I clicked wacky, that I was expecting quite this outcome. I'm not quite that wacky, I think, but it is kind of funny.

You Should Play the Accordion

You are eccentric, funky, wacky... definitely one of a kind.People have trouble putting you in any one particular category. You definitely have your own thing going on. You are a born entertainer. No wonder you'd be perfect as an one man (or one woman) band.Your musical influences likely cross all genres - and blend together in a very unusual way. While you are definitely offbeat, you also enjoy tradition and influences from the past.It's just your style to take an old fashioned instrument like the accordion and make it uniquely yours. Your dominant personality characteristic: your total inhibition Your secondary personality characteristic: your interest in obscure activities and subjects

http://www.blogthings.com/whatmusicalinstrumentshouldyouplayquiz/">What Musical Instrument Should You Play?

Reading is just so fun to do.

So this is a first for my blogging...taking a picture with the only intent of putting it in a blog. As you can see the kids really cooperated with this idea at first.

The reason I took the picture is that we have reached a really cool milestone around here. Katie has become a really good reader and has to read at least 15minutes a day for school. We go to the library almost every week and one of the series that Christian and Katie really love right now is the Magic Tree House books. Not wanting to wait for me to read every night (and she doesn't like me to repeat what she has already read for Christian) she has started to read to him so she can read all the time. There was a time that Christian would not have gone for Katie to do this. However, she reads with a lot of expression now and it is fun to hear her. So she was reading and Christian was curled up next to her listening to her read. Very cute. Very fun. More like this picture below once I got them to ignore the camera.

Here is a funny video about mothering that a friend forwarded to me. It is really quite good and since I am not big on forwarding, I thought I would put it here. I hope it at least brings a smile to your face.

Picture Day

So, we had picture day not to long ago. The kids were really excited. Since Katie doesn't really like to have her hair done (she has a bit of a tender head) we did a dry run the day before. Then we got the curling iron out and the pink bows for the actual day. We also had choices for what to wear for the pictures. She had two tops that she could pick from. Then she pulled out the shirt that she wanted. There was a little of the "No, your not", "Yes, I am" going on for about 30 seconds until I informed her that unless she was ready to cough up $29 for the pictures, I got to influence what was going to be worn that day. Since she had just spent all of her Birthday money, I knew I was safe.

Christian was easy. I pulled out a blue shirt he had never seen before and he was good to go.

Now just mind you that the temperature at school was 106 or so that day, but I still wanted long sleeves. Probably because I grew up in the Northeast and we were always in long sleeves by the time picture time came around. So of course, it just doesn't look right without them. That and I just couldn't find a short sleeve shirt that looked nice enough and that wasn't worn for last year. But I sent them with a change of shirt so that they wouldn't die of heat stroke more than normal. The good thing is, if they have to do retakes for some reason, it might actually be cool enough to wear a long sleeved shirt by then.

Forty, Forty, Look who's Forty!

First of all, either Katie is trying to give her Dad bunny ears, or she doesn't realize you aren't supposed to do it to yourself.

So how do you celebrate a 40th Birthday, you ask. Let me tell you... We celebrated Mike's Birthday like a bunch of crazy people by going camping with our ward (congregation). Now this is what you call easy "camping". The ward really roughed it by going to one of the local Grand Canyon Boy Scout Council Camps and staying in the Staff cabins. Because we have a "small" connection with that said local council, our family got hooked up with the health lodge. No one but staff could stay in it, so the guilt factor was low. It was a lot of fun to go up to the mountains and be able to see the stars at night. We plan on going back this winter and actually see snow again. Of course, the kids have outgrown all of the warm Idaho clothes we had, but I am sure they will be fine in their shorts...

So did the celebration stop there? Of course not, we are talking FORTY now. On our way back to Phoenix we stopped at the local Pizza Joint (fresh and tasty) in Payson, Arizona. Video games and Pizza were on the menu. Yeah, I know, we are so upscale. But the kids had fun and felt like we were celebrating.

The really cool part of Mike's Birthday is that his Dad called him up two days before his birthday to see if he would like to come and spend the day with him in California. So we got back to the Phoenix valley and put him on the plane. When we told Katie that he was going to leave before his Birthday was over she started to ball. It was very cute. So off he went and while he was gone we made a triple layer chocolate cake for him. Birthday cakes, I have come to realize, are a big thing in our family since it was the first thing they wanted to share with him when he came back.



It was an awesome cake. We had to give chunks of it away to our neighbors because we couldn't (or knew we shouldn't) finish it all. It was fun. I know, I know, too much for a Birthday, even if it is a Fortieth. But it didn't stop there. He did get a present from us..,..a new car charger for his cell phone!...But don't worry, he IS getting his mustang restored right now. (Pictures coming, it just got painted) So I pledged to help him put it back together and make it look good (by driving it, of course).

The Gobble Bag

There has been the best discovery that our family has made in recent history. Surely it won't last, as all good things must come to an end, however, it is working for now and has been such a blessing. In fact, such a good blessing that Katie herself told me that she was grateful for it.

To begin with, for seven or so months, I have been doing an allowance with Katie. She starts out with $5.00 of allowance each month. She has to have her room clean when she goes to bed at night and she has to make her bed and put her pajamas away before she starts the rest of her day. Supposing that her room was clean the night before, her room would be spotless after putting her pajamas away. If she gets it done, she keeps her money. If she doesn't, money gets subtracted. This really worked for Katie. Getting something and then having it taken away was much more effective than not having it and still not getting it.

So this system worked well for awhile and then she didn't care. Partly because we weren't spending what she earned. We have solved that. It is gone and she needs more to buy things that she wants. The other problem was that she just didn't care anymore. She actually went negative in what she earned last month (however, I don't make her pay me, but it was an eye-opener). We have talked a lot about choices and she started to tell me, "it is my choice, moooom!" (Just a small backfire!)

Luckily, that same weekend I was flipping through my LDS Living magazine and saw an article on "The Gobble Bag". We instituted it that night. The Gobble bag is a big black garbage bag at my house. At night, I give the kids warning to pick up anything that they don't want to go in the gobble bag. I guess that I need to move onto the part where it talks about not warning them and letting the bag do the teaching....SCARY! (Now Christian has tried to abuse this and get me to clean up a giant mess because he didn't care if it was gone for a week. I told him for that big of a mess it will go straight to DI/Goodwill for some other kid to enjoy :) ). After they go to bed the gobble bag eats the stuff they didn't pick up. And it goes away until the next Family Home Evening. The first time they got it back the lesson was focused around that issue, so they got the stuff back during, but now I do it before we start and we are still getting ready. They get it back in the family room and if they don't put it away, it goes back in for another week. If it goes in 3-4 times you are supposed to talk about where you are going to give it away. Christian chose to get rid of things the very first night that we talked about it. Apparently, he did not know that this was an option. Katie, who is a bit of a pack rat, even got rid of a few things she didn't want to bother with.

So back to the beginning, I love the Gobble Bag. And because it gave another incentive to keep her room clean, that is why Katie has come to love it too. (She was pretty upset in the beginning, go figure!). The nice thing is that I don't have to worry about groveling and begging for things back. It is gone for a week, the end. There was an incident where someone didn't want to clean up one Saturday. I figured out that they thought they could hold out for a day (we do FHE on Sunday because of Mike's commute). So we revamped that and if it is obvious that they are abusing the system, it is held for an extra FHE. The Gobble Bag is actually hungry this week. WHOA WHOO!

Name Game Tag

Okay, so I was tagged for the "Name Game" by my friend Jeralee who got me started on this blog thing. I would give you a link to hers, because quite frankly it is one thing that gets me laughing more regularly than anything else, however, it is invite only to keep the sickos on the Internet away.

So Here is how it works...

1. You have to post these rules before you complete the "middle name" facts.

2. Players must list one fact (that is somehow relevant to their life) for each letter of their middle name.

3. Once tagged, write a blog post containing middle name game facts.

4. At the end of the blog post, tag one person for each letter of the middle name. Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog for rules.

Now, starting off, I have to say I almost copped out of the challenge because I was not given a middle name when I was born... But, I took my maiden name as my middle name, so I won't flake...

R- Rice. I hated rice growing up. It was cheap and filled kids up. I thought it tasted like nothing. Now I love rice. Especially Jasmine Rice. It smells wonderfully and it goes great with many ethnic type dishes. I love curry with it! The kids love it with butter.

A- Athletic Training. That is what I studied in undergrad and got my masters degree in. Loved it. But I enjoy being a stay-at-home mom now, and I wouldn't trade that for anything! Even when the kids are having those days.

W- Whistle. Mike informed me the other morning as Katie was trying to whistle and we were talking about how you have to practice to get really good at it, that I am really bad at it. Apparently I need to practice.

L- License to Drive. I did not get my license to drive until I was 19. Not because I didn't want to, but because my family was hit hard by the recession. At the time insurance companies would let you drive with a permit without being insured. Unfortunately that meant I had to have an adult with me whenever I drove. Trust me, it was not a peaceful issue. One day when my mother swore at me in frustration (the only time I have ever heard her swear), I knew it was nothing she had control over and I should drop it indefinitely.

I- Indoors. Because it is so hot here in Arizona, our summers become the time that we spend a lot of time indoors. Unless you are going to go swimming. I am looking forward to it getting a little cooler so we can go biking and roller blading. But I will miss the swimming in the pool.

N- New. New is what I need in my computer as the mouse and keyboard are pretty much shot. Tonight I am enjoying typing on Mike's computer as I don't have to go back and correct the mistakes that occur because the keyboard didn't feel the stroke. Drives me batty somedays. I went and bought a plug in mouse for my laptop so I could actually have a mouse that worked. Unfortunately I do not have a plug-in for an extra keyboard too, otherwise I might be able to tweak another good two years out of it. :)

S- Seven. The number of kids that are in my family. It is also the number of kids that I will never have. Loved growing up in a big family. Having one might kill me. :)

Okay, so Brian Porter...you are the only other one that is invited to this blog that I know has a blog. You are it! I will be watching and waiting!

A Broken Wrist

Those who have been around kids enough are generally surpised when they haven't killed themselves by the tender age of 3. Katie was determined to walk down our steps before she could even walk on her own, which of course led to several tumbles down the stairs that scared me to the core several times. Amazingly she never broke a bone. Christian has always been my more cautious one. He wouldn't walk down the stairs until he was at least three. He would always scoot on his bum or slide on his stomach. Not that he doesn't do his crazy things now.

Yesterday, as he was running into his room to get dressed for swimming, he tripped on one of his stuffed animals and with an outstretched hand tried to catch himself and hit the bottom edge of his bed. He came tearing out of his room screaming and crying like I have never heard before. I used my athletic training skills and saw that it looked fine and nothing I did seemed to produce pain of a point tender break. However, a five year old has a hard time distiguishing and telling you if it is dull and achy or sharp and shooting. Today, after he woke up in pain in the night and was walking around with his right hand holding his left up, I realized that when he was patting his whole arm saying that it hurt, that the pain had been shooting up his arm from his wrist.

Since my athletic training skills are not used often I called and got an early appointment at the doctor's office, hoping I wasn't wasting money on a sprain that would go away. After waiting for the doctor for 45 minutes he confirmed that it was probably a Torus fracture which is common in kids when they fall on an outstretched hand. It is a contained break which squishes the bones together like the plates of the earth and they buckle as they hit. He gave us a splint which he said Christian didn't have to wear (but we will have to pay for as we have a deductible) and gave us an x-ray order to make sure it didn't go through the growth plate. Off to the X-ray lab we went for another hour wait and we will know for sure everything is mostly fine in a few days. Here you can see a picture of somebody else's further up the arm than Christian's is supposed to be. I saw his x-rays and there was nothing this visible as far as I could see. And you know, I'm not a radiologist, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night, so he should be fine in 3 weeks.

Christian is having fun telling everyone that he has a broken wrist. But when asked why he doesn't have his splint on he says it feels fine now. When I get the bill I will know exactly how much money was well spent. The problem is, while your kid is in school and an injury is in that gray area, you can't send them to school without checking it out. The school will call you saying "Your son says he broke his wrist, and he is holding it like it is hurt". So you might as well make an appointment and just go. And hey, it was broken!

Katie is just upset that she didn't get a sticker. If she knew how boring the whole process was, she wouldn't be coveting it that much.

Update: We got the X-ray results back and it wasn't broken after all. We have got some strong bones in this family!

Just to start off...

Just to start my very first blog off, I thought I would post the birthday cake pictures. Katie and Christian had swimming parties this summer, so that is why their hair is wet. Katie was strongly encouraged to have piggy tails so that she would look good in all the pictures and wouldn't have to worry about her hair, but refused. Then she was encouraged to brush her hair after she came in and got dressed, she refused. The next day after she saw the pictures when we downloaded them, she covered her mouth and said "look at my hair". It is in the genes. I have pictures that are in this vein also. It was a much more peaceful and educational approach this way. MAYBE, she will listen next time. She did have a fabulous time though, which was the whole goal. We almost had to change plans for the party, however. We had 110+ degree heat all week long. The forecast was hot all week long which is great for a swimming party. Then on Saturday morning we got the remnants of Hurricane Dean, thundering and dumping .91 inches in our backyard. It didn't get over 90 till after the party. But since it wasn't raining, we carried on. And yes, it is back to 110+ again. Come visit!

We are really enjoying Arizona, even with this heat. The weirdest thing to get used to is that when you set your washer on the cold cycle in the summer, you open your washer up to very warm laundry. Opposite of Idaho where I would have to warm my hand after touching my cold cycle clothes because they could've almost contained icicles. Don't miss that! I have also gotten used to going to the grocery store with coolers so that my freezer stuff doesn't melt on the way home. I actually don' know if anyone else around here does that. But Costco didn't mind when I brought mine in one time. Didn't even bat an eye. I dare you to try that where you are and tell me the results!

Mike's big news is that his baby is almost out of the paint shop. He has finally decided on a color. Royal Maroon.

Here is Mike working on taking as much of the car apart to save money on the painting as possible. He did a great job. We are saving about half by doing this and putting it back together ourselves. (It was supposed to be just Mike, but I got roped into it too.)
Anybody recognize this great Lime-Gold color from the 60's? It looks a lot better when it is not oxidized, but I am glad that it will change.

And yes, a beautiful picture of me helping with the project...
no I have not had a shower in this picture. When Mike set off determindly to do this project in the middle of July while he was on vacation, I told him he was on his own. If it was any other time of year, I would help, but not now. Notice the date on the picture, yes, that is why I had not bothered to take a shower, I was sweating profusely. There was a decision that I made that I would rather see more of Mike inside once we got it taken apart and on its way. And I don't mind saying, I was the one who figured out how to get the bolts that held the doors on, off.