Spider Webs

The spider

The fly

Six

Marcus turns the big 0-6 on Wednesday. My shy little snuggly helper boy is getting so big! As you can probably see by that big cheesemeister smile in the picture, ever since he started kindergarten in August, that whole shyness part has worn off now.

He got to choose the extracurricular activity for the big day and bowling was it. So off we went at 9am, because that is James' happy time and that is when the bowling is cheap. Let me just say I am a sucky bowler. If there were only nine pins, then I would win medals or something, I can hit nine all day long. Since there are ten I can just forget about a bowling career. Mike took bowling in college, that's right, bowling in college, so he knows how to make the ball do S shapes and all sorts of other show-offy tricks down the alley before it knocks all the pins down on the first try.



Jason and Nathan insisted they didn't want bumpers. I listened. Bad idea. Halfway 7 frames into the first game, they had a combined 62 and were the only ones in the bowling alley that were shedding tears. For my sanity, I decided bumpers were going to happen. After that, everyone had a good time.



Birthday boy action shot



I always let them pick out what kind of cake they want for their birthday. They also get to pick the birthday dinner. I will make them whatever they want. Nathan picked filet mignon for his last birthday so I was kind of worried that Marcus might pick something expensive. I wasn't expecting him to pick SpongeBob shaped macaroni and cheese with hot dogs cut up in it like he did. Delish by six year old standards. He was waffling back and forth about what kind of cake he wanted. It was between Funfetti and cheescake. Funfetti won. As you can see, I am pretty dangerous with a can of icing.



Last but not least were presents. If you have never done a present paper trail you are really depriving your children. My kids enjoy this almost more than the actual presents. We hide the present somewhere and then give them a paper with a clue written on it that leads them to the next clue. Six clues later he found one the presents and we started with the next one. The older they get the harder their clues get. It is so fun to see the excitement in their faces as they race for the clues.



Nothing makes a birthday boy happier than slaying his brothers with his brand new Indiana Jones sword that makes very realistic sword striking sounds.

Hello Officer

My dad is a sheriff for Maricopa County. If you know my dad you know that this is the perfect job for him. He has only been a sheriff for the past four years but even while I was growing up there were signs that it was meant to be. I remember my dad listening to a police scanner when I was a child, I remember my dad always wanting to go check out that fire down the street or the accident we drove by. And I remember him staking me out when I would go with my friends somewhere because he knew I was up to no good. It really was frustrating to try to be a rebelious teenager having my dad.

Anyway, this past weekend I went on a ride along with my dad. I didn't know exactly what to expect but I thought it would be cool to see a day in his life. There were a few things that I got to see that were completely cool. The first cool thing was driving fast. Going 100+ mph is scary and exhilerating at the same time. My dad told me they have a very formal name for the sensation you feel going that fast, it's called the pucker effect. If you use your imagination you can probably figure out why. Another cool thing I got to see was the feeling of authority and control. The stares, the waves, how people move out of your way as you drive, how eager people are to do exactly what you tell them to do. It feels like you have so much power which is sort of scary too, but when you help someone with that power, and you see the look on their face, it makes you feel real good inside. Something else I saw was the bond they share. The closest word I know to explain how it felt was family but that isn't completely right. The way they race to back each other up on calls, the way they trust each other completely to save their lives (which is a serious possibility to happen), the way they all cared about each other's families, and the way they talked to each other like they have known each other forever, was just amazing to me. It's something I have never seen before.

The parts that I thought were not so fun were the reports, you have to write sooo many dang reports and they have to be perfect. I never knew that. I thought you just wrote tickets and arrest bad guys, didn't know you spent half your time writing. Being outnumbered wasn't very fun either. We had gone over to this area where lots of people ride atv's illegally. There must have been over 40 people there hanging out and riding around. We had to go talk to them and tell them where they were allowed to ride and that their 7 year olds that were on giant atv's all by themselves had to at least where helmets and eye protection. It wasn't a rowdy crowd or anything but being outnumbered like that is scary. Something else that sucked were the police cruiser seats. Those things are so uncomfortable. I can't imagine sitting in those every day wearing twenty or so pounds of equipment.

I'm glad I went. I saw how much my dad loves his job. His friends told me crazy stories about some of his stops. Apparently elderly people aren't intimidated by my dad and often refuse to give him their license. I can just imagine my dad taking down a grumpy 70 year old guy.I could never do the job he and his fellow officers do. I am greatful that they do. They make my town a safer place to live and I appreciate all of them.

P.S. Happy Birthday Dad! I am making you your pineapple upside down cake tomorrow!

Trying Something New

Lately, our house has become the after school hangout. The neighborhood kids have been flocking to our house to hang out with the boys and the boys cool toys. Sometimes they just come for the toys


Today was bike jumping day. The brave ones strapped on their helmets and hopped on their bikes. This is something that- as a girl with only one sister that I grew up with- never happened at my house.


Look at the air under his front tire!

Sometimes, you think you are big enough to do something

Then you find out the hard way you're not. He was okay, the handle bar hit him right in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him. Jason helped him up and carried him inside.

A Visitor

Today after school, while the kids were outside. I had a visitor. My next door neighbor who in the year that we have lived here has never introduced himself to me decided to stop by. I was delighted to finally meet him but my happiness was soon to be dashed when he spoke. Apparently John is allergic to kids and has come over to tell me how particularly sour he is on my kids.

He starts his little speech by saying, "I think you should be a better mother and teach your kids to not kick their ball over the fence." He also tells me "You should also tell them to stay out of my front yard." There were other choice words spoken by my neighbor but aren't worth repeating. He was very kind to let me know if I didn't follow his parenting advice, he was prepared to get the authorities involved.

You may be wondering, Wow! How many times do they kick this lethal ball of fire and spikes over the fence to upset him so much? Maybe once every month or two.

I am guessing John did not like my nickname I gave him as he walked away while he was still commenting on my parenting skills. So he decided to call his friend Officer Chavez to come by and have a talk with me. When I went outside to greet my new badge adorning visitor, I noticed that my new friend John decided to help the kids out in case they did not know which yard was forbidden by stretching my garden hose across the property line. How nice of him.

Officer Chavez didn't seem to think the ball over the fence warranted my three ball kicking children a trip to jail like John had hoped. Officer Chavez did tell me that on top of the ball kicking, line crossing little mongrels, John also called wanting Officer Chavez to address the few bird turds that were on my porch. My bird turds? Seriously John? Me and Officer Chavez discussed how much John loves children and the importance of good neighbors. The officer let me off with a stern warning but said next time John says my beasts fire a cannon ball into his yard I will be serving hard time.

Hey John, here's an idea, how about if the ball comes over the fence, you just throw it back over! And if the bird crap on my porch is really bothering you, then stay off my porch!

How lucky I am to have such wonderful good hearted neighbors like John. I can feel the warm holiday spirit in the air already.

Guess Who Can Crawl!

Today, during Monday night football, at approximately 7:26pm, at age 8 months and 27 days, Mr. James crawled! I quickly grabbed the camera and tried to recreate the little miracle I just witnessed by lining up a bunch of temptations, toys, my water bottle, a can of soup for the kids soup drive, the tv guide, his bottle, the remote, and some other stuff he is not supposed to play but always seems to want.

I debated if I should put some bottoms on him and change him out of his shirt that had dried up biter biscuit crud on it. I was worried that if I did he might forget his new trick and just go back to his belly scooting ways again. So here he is, no pants, dirty shirt, dried up boogers, and crawling!

Go Devils!!

Last night we went to the ASU game with Deedee and Chris. Sarah babysat J for us and he said they had a lot of fun hanging out together. It was the first time the boys and I have been to a college game.

Usually whenever I go to a sporting event, whichever team I am rooting for ends up being the losing team. I have thought of myself as a sort of bad luck charm. Well not today. The Devils won!

I am a fan of the marching band. Mike and I decided we both would want to play the drum. Not the big drum that looks like a big gut, we want the one with the four little drums. You know, those ones like on the movie Drumline. We also decided that the dorkiest part of the band is the boy baton twirlers. I wonder if that is what they really wanted to do or if they just want to meet girls.

Marcus was really curious about the loud, drunk, potty mouthed college kids that he wouldn't stop staring at, and the security guards. At one point he was asking me if we were allowed to call security on the people in front of us because they kept standing up and he couldn't see the game.

Anyway, I am a Sun Devil fan now. Chris even taught me how to do the pitchfork gang sign with my hand. I am legit now.

Thanksgiving

I wasn't brave enough to go shopping today. I have done it in the past but this year the thought of getting up at 4 in the morning to go stand in some jaw droppingly long line, to wait in the cold, while keeping an eye on that lady that is trying to cut in line, to get that magic deal on whatever just did not seem that appealing. For those of you that did, I hope you got all the items that you evil-eyed and fist fought for.

We spent our Thanksgiving at my dad's house. Sarah and her kids came over and so did my aunt and uncle. We did the usual, gorged ourselves three or four times, fought off the urge to fall asleep while watching football, and played Rockband. What you mean you don't play Rockband at your Thanksgiving? You're weird.

Yes that is my 47 year old dad playing guitar. If you look on the wall you will notice a very nice animal skin and right next to that is two giant pairs of elk antlers. Yes my dad is single and is looking for a nice girl that enjoys cooking, cleaning, and dead animal decor.

The turkey tester

The ham, stuffing, potatoes, corn, biscuits, green bean casserole, peas, sweet potatoes, and everything else testers.

I was thankful a bee didn't land in my soda like one did in Mike's. I hate bees.

We ate our meal outside, my dad said that meant we were eating al fresca. I think al fresca means "with the flies".

No Thanksgiving meal is complete unless there is a kiddie table. This year's table was for Marcus, Angel, and Ryan. There were lots of "don't move the table", "do you have to go potty", "you have to eat three bites of your veggies" being said.

Here are all the leftovers. Sarah and I braved the dishes without the use of a dishwasher. We are troopers.

After dinner, the kids burned off calories by jumping on the trampoline. You can see Ryan aka Tiny Tim hanging out on the side. He got stitches in his foot on Wednesday and although the dr's said it wouldn't affect his walking, he refuses to walk on it. Everyone has been carrying him around so I named him Tiny Tim.

The older kids climbed up the trees in the front yard. It's so funny to see them up in the trees because it's the same trees I used to climb in when I was their age. Oh gosh I am getting old.

Cheaters

Jason fixing up Tiny Tim

After all the dishes were done, all the die hard Rockbanders (me, Sarah, my dad, Jason, and Nathan) spent the rest of the evening playing. Me and Sarah fought over the guitar but I played the I'm older card so I got to play most of the time. We even got Mike to sing! He was pretty creative with his lyrics which was highly entertaining.

I hope your Thanksgiving was as much fun as ours! And I hope you didn't burn you ooey gooey butter cake like I did mine.

Planning is for Wimps

Our family really likes that old expression, fly by the seat of your pants. We were "planning" to have a preThanksgiving Thanksgiving at my mom's house. She said that would be too boring, so she broke her oven while in the middle of baking pies the evening before the big day, and decided it would be more exciting to have the party at my dirty, unprepared, house. FUN!

Then we "planned" on cooking the turkey for 4 hours like our handy little turkey cooking chart that is always completely accurate said to. That would have been too boring though so mom bought a magic turkey that resisted heat waves and would take an extra 2 hours to cook. You know, that way everyone is starving and the food would taste that much better.

We had "planned" to eat till our stomachs were about to burst and then let Ryan open his birthday presents. Since today is his 3rd birthday today. Then when we got the turkey out of the oven to take his temperature, Ryan decided this party was kind of lame. He decided to liven things up by pulling a towel off the counter which knocked the sharpest knife I own onto his foot. This then caused us to make a surprise trip to West Valley Hospital for some super fun stitches. This way he could pick up his presents that they were holding for him. He got a popsicle, crayons, and a teddy bear that we named Stitch.

Happy birthday Ryan! I am sure this is a party that you won't even remember in 10 years but it was definitely one we will never forget.

Now I am "planning" to get a good night sleep and have my husband rub my feet and feed me peeled grapes in bed. I'll have to let you know how that plan goes...



On a different note,
How come it seems like whenever I am at the hospital I am a magnet for the medical student that wants to "practice". Now I know they have to learn somehow but shouldn't there be something in it for me? How about a free copay or an Ipod or something. I mean if I (or Ryan) am going to sign up to be a lab rat and donate myself (or Ryan's self) to better someone's stitching skills we should get something in return. Just a thought.