Clink!

Now some may find this a very small thing, but last night was a glorious night for me. Christian's handwriting has made a turn for the better! Up until this point his handwriting has been very close to illegible, much to the chagrin of his teacher whose goal this year to have all of her students have good handwriting. Christian never cared how he held his pencil, never pressed carefully, it was a matter of getting the assignment done and maybe not even that. It has been a struggle of his over the years. His fine motor skills are not great, and I think his hand writing is a bit hereditary if you have ever seen mine. Now it is not perfect, but look at this pencil hold...

And look at the words. What...you don't see it? The letters sit on the baseline, they are not floating in the air. They have the right shape, and trust me on this, were formed slowly and mostly correctly. This is nothing short of a miracle.

I am a great mother...and didn't hold back my dumbfounded amazement at the neatness of his handwriting. He smiled and giggled. When he was finished I held him on my lap and asked how this came about. Did his teacher say something that helped him? No. Did I say something? No. (Trust me, we have been working hard saying all sorts of things) Well, what did it then?

"Well, one night dad told Katie to slow down while she was writing so that her handwriting would be neater... (Pause) and I thought that if it would help her, then maybe it would help me to have neater handwriting." Hallelujah, something clicked. It is like hearing the metal clink into place inside the brain. When it clicks it clicks. You can try to hurry it all you want, but it happens on its own time.

Clink!

Ice Skating

Oh, what do you do in the winter time in Arizona? Go ice skating, of course. We have to pretend to need warm clothes and justify it somehow. Katie had a girl scout activity to go ice skating. It sounded like a fabulous idea so Christian and I tagged along. We haven't gone since we were in Idaho, partly because I didn't even know this rink existed, and so close to our house too. Did you know that they now of blue plastic ice skates to rent? I think it is cheaper to buy and has less chance of passing along athlete's foot, but they are definitely NOT comfortable. But it was still worth going.

The last time we went in Idaho Christian was 3 1/2 at the most. It was a futile effort as he couldn't stay up at all and we were trying to drag him as we went. This time, as soon as he got his skates on he got on the ice without even letting me know. The nerve! I think he was determined to not have any help from M-O-M. He clung to that wall like his new best friend. I passed him several times and he proudly told me that he had only fallen once. I showed him some basic movements to help him glide on the ice (which is ALL I know) and he went off the side and never went back. When he fell and I tried to pick him up he declared, "I don't need help mom, let me go." Well, alrighty then Mr. Independent. So I didn't, the rest of the time, which he loved.

Balance....balance....

Katie was off of the wall pretty fast. She remembered our last time ice skating and felt like she had the upper hand, even though she had had a very rough time of it when she was 5 1/2. Somehow she remembered all that was good about it. The brownies from her troop pretty much stayed together the entire time talking and giggling and supporting one another. Some of the girls were terrified of letting go of the sides at first and they helped by taking their hands and holding them as they went around and around and around. I think that all of our feet hurt pretty well after we got the skates off, but it was a lot of fun.

Faces of like this, make it all worth it!

Usery Mountain Pass

A couple of my friends have talked about the different County Parks around here and I figured it was time to start visiting! We got some snacks, filled up our camelpaks, loaded the kids in the car and headed off to Usery Mountain Regional Park just north of Mesa. We did an easy hike for the kids that had some climbing, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't hear whining about it. I am trying to toughen them up slowly and less painfully. They were excited. I love their hiking shadows in this picture. This was right at the beginning. Katie kept asking why I was taking so many pictures and would I just put it away. Christian felt like it was slowing us down. There may be a little truth to that. But I am not admitting anything.
Here we are at the top of the first peak of the little ridge we were hiking. Don't you like Christian's pose. He had to do this whenever we stopped to do a group picture. He is a rugged Mountain Man in the making.

The valley has received a lot of rain this winter (at least for here...I think). Christian is pointing out the moss that we found on the rocks.

There was this fantastic Arizona Barrel Cactus that twisted as it grew. I would love to see this when it is blossoming in the spring. They get these great flowers on the top of it. Did you know that cactus get flowers? I didn't until I moved here.

I loved this rock formation that was so unlike the rest of it around it.

There was this amazing Saguaro (Sa-wa-row) Cactus. How does this thing stay up? Did you know that it takes 60-75 years for a Saguaro to start getting one of the arms and can live over 300 years? Although I do not think that the arm thing applies to this one, remember that for some of the other pictures. It is amazing.

Here Mike and Katie are walking past a huge Ocotillo. They are VERY prickly but get leaves all over them during wet periods and they fall off during times of drought. During April they get fantastic blossoms also. I am going to try to get a really good picture of these beautiful desert flowers this year.

Here we are at our second pinnacle with the Mountain we intend to climb next time we go. We aren't going to tell the kids how long it is, but take better food with us to make it worth it. Notice, Christian still has to have his stance. Katie is all girl.

This is the path the leads around the hills that we hiked back to our car. Isn't the desert beautiful? It is so different from the lush trees that I grew up with, but it has its own beauty that is quite amazing. Those tree like cacti are Teddy Bear Cholla. You wouldn't want to meet up with this thing in a dark alley, but they are fun to look at.

Here it is up close and personal. Aren't they fabulous in the sun. I don't think I would want this one in my yard. I have enough prickly plants already. Beautiful, but painful to take care of.
See the great Saguaro? No, not my husband, he is not 60 and already has arms, so you can rule him out. It was a fun day that we really enjoyed. I look forward to going back soon. Or to another park...

PS...I got all my information about the plants from the picture I took of the plaque about "Sonoran Desert Plants" at the park. Our day use fees at work for the public!

The Value of Selling Cookies

Katie has finished her last round of selling Girl Scout Cookies (thus it will also be my last year to be the cookie mom! Woohoo!). Actually, it is a lot of fun and three years ago I would not have ever known how valuable this experience would be for her. Katie is extremely shy. When she first started doing this three years ago, we had to do a lot of the talking for her. Katie went to Jobing.com last year to sell to their office, per their request. When she was asked to stand on a table and shout "Come and get your cookies, she dropped to the ground like a lead weight. She sold cookies, but quietly, cubicle to cubicle. We would bring it up every once in awhile and ask if she was going to do it this year. About a week before we were to start selling she declared, "I am going to get on the table and yell this year." After practicing projecting her voice versus screaming in the car on the way there, she did it! Katie even called one of Mike's board members (also on the Girl Scout board) after he said he would order 10 boxes if she called. After making a script for her, she did the whole thing. I was right there beside her in case she needed help, but she dialed, talked to the secretary, got another number, called him and did it! Now I know for myself, selling cookies is not all about money. It is a great learning experience...even if it is motivated by an incentive program. Are we not all motivated by one thing or another? Talk about pushing her personal boundaries! Wow! Congratulations Katie for coming out of your shell!

January Randomness

I figure it is time to catch up with what has been going on with the Marchese family, if for no other reason than this is my record for my family and my kids love to go back and read and look at the (hopefully) fun pictures of themselves. I enjoy it too, because as you look at the pictures and focus on the good things that happened, usually most, if not all of the stress surrounding that time fades into the background and you can say that, yes life was good.

If you have been reading at all in the past, you will know that my Katie can put some very "creative" combinations together for wearing (and that it is also hereditary). Add to that a camelpak and playing an active game on the wii...well, I just couldn't resist the picture. This wii stuff is hard work...must...have...water.... :)

The kids don't just stop there. They have become bionic machines....look how fast they were going on our elliptical (one on each side)! Amazing kiddos. :) (Okay, the flash would've been helpful to slow it down, but it turned out really fun!)
I don't know what your New Years Eve was like, but our was FANTASTIC! Talk about a party baby....okay, maybe not...this was Mike's idea. Really, since when did he care about being prepared for 72 hours. But he thought it would be a great way to spend our time. We kissed when it was midnight and then completed the project and went to bed. Now you know who to invite if you want to get the party started (Woo woo)!

We have had new culinary experiences...okay, so I just had to put this picture in, because how cute is this boy. Christian really wanted to eat with chopsticks like his mom and Katie. Since he couldn't get it, he just decided to use one in each hand for the entire meal. He couldn't be persuaded otherwise.

Katie has found a new fun activity called "washing the driveway". One has to stay entertained somehow. But let us not forget that it is a precious (translation = expensive in the desert) resource, so I have to limit it. I think she would be out there the entire day otherwise. I tried to catch her in the act of dumping the buckets, but she has a sixth sense about people being around watching her. So instead, she had to pose. :)

Great work Katie. Our Driveway would not be as clean without you. ;)

Last but not least...no Mike didn't regrow some hair....no, if you decide to visit, watch out. You may just end up being the babysitter to all the webkinz and stuffed animals that we can rustle up. He was a good sport about it and just kept them there until he left.

So, thus ends the randomness for the month called January...let the rest of the fun come...

My Sweet Katie

My kids are kids, and they don't always get along. However, I do think that they get along really well. They are little buddies. Christian loves to play with Katie and vice-versa. Last night as they were getting ready for bed, Katie asked if Christian could sleep in her room. So he schlepped his blankie and a few stuffed animals to her room so they could sleep in the same bed. Since they both move around so much, we nearly put a third person in there when we added his Tiger, to keep them from rolling on top of each other. This is how I found them ringing in the new year about 12am.

Yesterday we went to the store to get a few things that were on sale at Tar-jey. While I was combing the clearance isles, Mike went down the sports equipment isle. He picked up a glove and T-ball baseball (softer) for Christian and Katie bought herself a new hot pink polka dotted basketball with money earned from de-junking her closet. The last one was left out in the Arizona sun and disintegrated, so I am hoping that since she purchased it, pride of ownership will keep this one alive. We all headed off for the the park and Katie and I shot some hoops while the boys tossed the ball back and forth. Katie was really enjoying the basketball and we discovered that Christian has a pretty good throwing arm.

Christian and Mike went outside again this morning to toss the ball while I was getting ready and they were seeing how many throws they could get back and forth to each other while a game timer was ticking down (Katie's idea, I think). Katie came in running, "Mom, mom, they got in 43 throws. Christian is doing really well!" I just love the enthusiasm that girl has for her brother and how well he does at things. She gets so excited for him that sometimes he gets annoyed. It is really cute. She is a sweet girl that just adores her brother.