....I'm dreaming of a white christmas....okay so not anymore it is white here that is for sure. As long as I don't have to leave the house I love the snow and cold, but when I have to leave it becomes bothersome and annoying!!
We are preparing for our Christmas eve celebration so yesterday my mom came and rolled the pigs in a blanket (little smokies in crescent roll dough) I have made 3 batches of punch concentrate turning 1 of them into cupcake size ice cubes to fit in the cascading punch bowl. Everything is mostly wrapped. Last night the kids frosted sugar cookies and I am pretty sure they will be the only ones eating them...they look festive but...... We haven't watched nearly as many christmas movies this month as I would have liked, and Jim and I still haven't watched its a wonderful life but we will get it all done.
Eye doctors and orthodontists are the theme for this past couple of days. Getting it all in so we don't have to take the kids out of school. Jim's sister is in town for work so she will be coming for dinner tonight, I finally get that lasagna I have had in the freezer--no not the store bought one the real homeade one.
Merry Christmas!!
A

The Christmas Sweater By Glenn Beck

I love this time of year, Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. Each year Santa slips a christmas book into my stocking and I spend Christmas day curled up in my pajama's reading. This year our neighbors gave us an early christmas present and gave us a copy of the book "The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck. Of course as much as I love to read, I don't read very often because I can't put books down until they are done and because of this nothing else gets done. This book was no exception!! An amazing story with an extremely powerful message! I can't wait for my older kids to read and get their perspective on it. If you have the opportunity to read this book, please take a few hours to do so.

Christmas is only 15 days away? The kids present are purchased and ready to wrap, the tree is up, the house is decorated, the sugary yummy snacks are almost all done, the neighborhood christmas gifts are ready to be delivered..We are so far behind....on our Holiday movie watching. We haven't even seen Charlie Brown's Christmas... can you believe that??

SNOW!! we NEED SNOW!! THINK SNOW!!
A

It is the Sunday before Thanksgiving and I am really struggling with the Holidays approaching so quickly. So much to do, so little time. Today Jim and I cleaned the west wing again...the little not me people came again this week and of course I had my area of mess to clean up...while he was taking stuff to the shed, he brought in a couple of tubs of Rescue hero stuff that has been packed away for a couple of years..Stuff Nick has never seen, needless to say he has been playing nonstop with them since we brought them in..I think this is the first Sunday in a very long time that he hasn't whined and complained all day about nothing to do.


Friday was the Kindergarten Thanksgiving feast. The pilgrims and the Indians paraded around the school in their costumes and then sat down to a huge feast. Our little Indian thought the chicken legs were quite good!!Have a great Holiday!!

Happy Fall Y'All!!

It is raining, cold and gray today. I almost with that it would snow it feels like it should. Amelia was up with the same stomach stuff that I had earlier in the week. She is doing much better, I am amazed at how quickly kids bounce back from stuff. I am so thankful that overall my kids are very healthy!!
We went to the Bogus Basin Ski sale on Friday night. The older I get the less patience and tolerance I have for being in large crowds. Yes, you guessed it 15 minutes in line to get in, BIG Crowd...dull noise...trying on kids ski boats, looking for skis...25 minutes in line to cash out... Next year Jim goes it alone with the children. Although it was a small price to pay to have a full day alone when he takes the kids out skiing, do I dare hope every weekend.
Can you imagine being 7 and 10 and growing up in the white house??
The Pueblo Chieftain was looking for stories the other day on your favorite non-purchased christmas gift. I know that she bought part of it, but one year for christmas when I was a kid my grandmother gave me a recipe box with recipes in it that she had spent hours writing on 3x5 cards. I know longer have the box, or my grandmother, but I still have the recipe cards and when I pull out the box I have them in, it reminds me of her. So what is your favorite christmas gift??

Misc. ramblings

How many marshmallows can you stuff in your mouth before you gag?? or I gag watching you?? We played this game with a group of kids at our house on Halloween afternoon, it was pretty funny I think the winner got 8. They all said it was easy until you start laughing then somehow it triggers your gag reflex and you have to get it out. My kitchen sink had a load of marshmallows in it. We also tied strings to the ceiling and attached donuts to the other end..chocolate frosted of course and then the kids had to eat them with their hands behind their backs...heeehee

Halloween itself was low key, trick or treating with friends, dinner and Halloween town movies. I feel asleep on the couch...times have changed....

We finally closed on the 23rd on our Colorado house. It was bittersweet...glad it is finally behind us, but at the same time sad because I really loved that house.

Spent yesterday in bed with some sort of disease which I was sure I was going to die from. I decided in the afternoon that a bath might make me feel better, so I ventured up to the kids bathroom and took a bath, which didn't make me feel any better!! the bath tub sucked and I was realizing that until we moved here I have been extremely spoiled with my 6ft jacuzzi tub. Now I am on a I hate our masterbath kick--

Time for a nap, I don't think I am completely over whatever disease invaded yesterday.

View from Melba Cemetary

My friend Amy and I went to a funeral this summer and this picture was taken at the cemetary, I realize a bit morbid but the really the view was amazing. It is ironic that she sent me this picture today as I was just reading an article in Vermont Life about all the old cemetaries in Vermont and the organization that restores headstones and keeps them neat.

Three of the kids are finishing week 1 of a 2 week fall break. I think 1 week would have been adequate but apparently I didn't make the schedule.

We have finally, (keep fingers and toes crossed) sold the house in Colorado. The closing is set for October 24th. What a nightmare!! We sold it as a short sale so of course the 2nd mortgage company wants to filet you open and look at your insides!! If anyone ever has to go with a short sell I can tell you it is a painful and frustrating ordeal!! The banker actually to our realator "they are both working" making it sound like I a full time job--Yes, I work 10 hours a week at a little more than minimum wage!! and only during the school year. The only reason that Jim even disclosed to them that I was working was so they couldn't come back and say we were with holding information. Maybe someday I will grow back the hair that I have lost!!

So, about the job I serve hot lunch at one of the local elementary schools. The kids are plotting against me I am sure of it, because I always tell them 2 bites and come back and tell me if you like it. It makes me crazy when they look at something turn up their nose and say "yuck, I don't like that!!" Apple crisp--who doesn't like apple crisp. They make all their rolls from scratch and kids turn those down. I guess you have to be cooking for yourself to appreciate some things, and at 3.00 or more a gallon I want to scream when I see how much milk they waste. I want to get them stickers that say "I tried something new" and "I drank all my milk"

Fall Festival

Yes, this is Nick sitting with a yellow Boa constrictor, it was in the reptile room at the Fall Festival and you could get your picture taken with it. And yes, I avoided this room like the plague...snakes...spiders....oh yuck!! Zach came home last week and said he needed to find a spider to take to class the next day. Tell your teacher we have the bug people come and spray so we don't have any spiders in our house, it makes your mom happy when we don't have creepy crawly things in the house!!
Every once in a while you have to through them a curve. Nick won this cake at the cake walk at the Fall Festival, so when we got home I put 6 forks on the table and told them they could cut pieces and put them on a plate or they could just eat the cake straight off the board it was on. Ben cut a piece ate about half of it and decided he had had enough. They all thought I had lost my mind, letting them eat as much cake as they wanted. How crazy!!
A group of kids went to a place in Meridian called Spyglass Gardens and made scarecrows to use as decorations at the Fall Festival. Above is one of them we had straw bales and corn stalks donated to the school for use at the Festival.

Why do mammals eat their young? I am pretty sure that it is because they have some insight into what the future is going to hold. You know like knowing your young son is going to tell you their is no soap in the shower, but what he really means is he doesn't have his own personal bar of soap and sharing with his siblings isn't an option or The teenage son who tells you his room is clean and when you go up you find the trash overflowing, candy bar wrappers all over the place and piles and piles of junk everywhere, but in his world it is clean, or the small son who has convinced the neighbors you are moving because he heard his mom talking about an address change.

School has started so we now have the ritual of homework, dinner and bedtime. I had a shower yesterday why do I need another one?? (forget their pschye) Because YOU SMELL BAD!! Is your homework done? sort of--okay what does that mean yes it is, no it is not. Seems pretty clear to me. Zach's schedule is a little wierd this year, he has some extra free time at KMS so I told him go to the library and get your homework done. Did you go to the library today and do your homework? No, I forgot. The 8th grade health curriculum is sex education this year. We are going to have to teach it to him (actually he will take it online and we will do it with him). The only sex talk I ever got from my parents was "you get pregnant I will kill you" pretty self explanatory no room for interpretation! of course times are different these days, girls are talking about boyfriends in 3rd grade and boys in my class are this guy that I know. I am constantly correcting Amelia no it is not a guy that I know it is a boy in my class. She is getting better with it. Middle school girls are talking about who has bigger boobs and how is that fair when I am older than she is.

more later....

Reality TV

Okay, so I have actually watched TV this summer. We (Zach,Amelia and myself) have been watching The baby borrowers on Wednesday nights. Yes, it could be considered glorified babysitting however the frustrations that these teens are having are real and rather humorous at times. This past weekend we went to the area of Eagle where the show was filmed and toured 3 of the houses. Okay so 1 of them was 5 different colors of pink and not lite pink but screaming pink--1 of them was 5 different colors of green and I am talking Lime green, the wood floor was really nice I liked that--the 3rd house was 5 different blues. AUGH!! I don't remember the colors being so uh bright on TV and maybe they didn't and that was the point. Anyway..they were selling all the furnishings in the houses and by the time we got there pretty much everything was gone, I did find a platform bed, I have been looking for one for Ben's room for a couple of years. It was marked 40.00 and Jim talked them down to 20. So now Mr. Benjamin can't clean his room by shoving it all under his bed. He only has 4 dresser drawers so that leaves the only place to hide things in is his closet. Should make the cleaning of his room a little easier--I hope--Amelia talked the guy into selling her the pink elephant lamp for 15.00 it was marked 30.00. It was really cute but not 30.00 worth of cute!! The money was donated to the salvation army for the high school they run for pregnant teens. Good cause.

Major projects going on. I took down half the bead board in the kitchen and we are almost ready to paint it. Jim has to do a little more sanding and then it will be ready. Today I started tackling the garage. I have inventoried all the stuff we are going to donate to good will and it is quite a pile. Made another pile of boxes that need to come inside for further inspection and I am sure will eventually end up in the good will pile.

It has been so hard to stick to a proper eating plan this summer with the kids home everyday. They have lunch everyday and I find myself picking at there food. I try to make somewhat healthy stuff but..... I did find this website www.vitalicious.com that has really good muffins, brownies they are fairly healthy for you..wheat flour, sugar alcohol instead of artificial ingredients and the brownies are soooooo good!!

more later!!

Summer vacation so far has been strange. Starting on May 24th, Zach went to Colorado for 2 weeks to stay with his friend Todd and Todd's family. He came to Breckenridge for the weekend with us so all 4 kids were together. When we left Colorado Nick stayed behind with his friends Gabriel and Ethan. Nick flew home last Wednesday, and may I add he was by himself and now he thinks that since he has a ticket every time he goes to the airport he can just get on a plane. Ben left last Tuesday with Jim's folks for a trip to Washington, Canada and Oregon and they should be home at the end of this week. Having only 3 kids at home has been strange. Last night Amelia spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa so it was just Zach and Nick at home that was truly wierd.

Zach is still going to summer school--and for those of you that I haven't told--it was his choice. He decided to take Algebra I over the summer so he can take geometry in the fall. Sometimes he has great initiative and other times...well I am still waiting for the trash to be taken out. I did find a school that we are going to try to get him into for the fall. It is called Treasure Valley Math and Science Center, he takes the test on July 7th. If he gets in, he would be bussed from Kuna Middle School in the morning for math and science and then back to KMS in the afternoon for all his other classes. This program starts for 7th graders through 12 graders it is very intense.

Can 9 year old girls suffer from PMS??

Their was a tragic and freak accident in Kuna last week. A family driving out by the dam had a 250 pound rock (I would call it a boulder) fall on their car. It killed the 6 year old in the back seat. It makes you appreciate your own children a lot more when you hear about the death of someone else's child. This family did everything right, and yet this tragedy still occurred. I have tried to imagine what they must be feeling, but I can't. The older daughter was admitted to the hospital a day or two later with ecoli. She was in intensive care for 2 days and is now out of ICU, but has not been released from the hospital. The funeral is tomorrow with a reception to follow at Kuna High School.

Enough tragedy. Our trip to Colorado was good, it was too short, but we crammed a lot in to a short amount of time. It was great to visit with family and friends. I did not make it to Aunt Nancy's burial on Friday as I picked up some sort of stomach bug and slept all day (okay, in between trips to the bathroom). The memorial service/BBQ on Saturday was really nice. The weather was warm and sunny and a lot of George and Nancy's friends and family came. Towards the end of the time we all sat and told our favorite Aunt Nancy and/or Uncle George stories. My favorite Uncle George memory was my first Thanksgiving in the Negomir family--I made homeade pumpkin pies, he took one bite and said they would keep me. Good thing they tasted good, I would've hated to have to leave. Sunday morning we woke up to 3 inches of snow!! Amelia had snow on her birthday...I am sure that this will never happen again. Pueblo was hot and dry. On Tuesday when we left it was 98 degrees 6 hours later in Rock Springs, Wyoming (my favorite place), it was 38 degrees and raining. I was so glad to get home, and I am finally getting over the sinus/cold thing I came home with.

Father's Day was a very pleasant day. The weather was great and we bbq'd with Jim's parents, my parents and some friends of Jim's parents. Of course we ate until we couldn't eat any more! imagine that.

Looking forward to summer vacation now that all the kids are on summer break...well except for Zach who decided to take Algebra I this summer so he can take geometry in the 8th grade. He goes to school from 8-1145 Monday thru Friday, but Jim drops him off and he takes the bus home.

Went to the curves in Kuna for a 30 days for $30 promotion. Very Clean and well run establishment. The first day my legs were so sore..I didn't expect my legs to be sore but ouch!! I thought my pansy arms would hurt the most.

Later!!

Genetics--A funny thing!

How is that 2 people can have 4 kids...same gene pool each time and they turn out so differently and yet so much the same?? I look at my kids and they are all so different from each other and yet when you look at the similarities they are so much the same. Amelia and Zach are so similar academically, and yet her temper is like Ben's. It takes a lot to push Ben over the edge, but she has a short dramatic fuse. Nick and Ben are so much a like stubborn, strong willed, opinionated but Nick got the throw yourself down on the ground and scream tantrum gene, and Ben got the walk off shaking your hands and muttering to yourself gene. I am awestruck sometimes at their personalities. I once had a teacher tell me "...and you wonder where he gets it from?.." I had to tell her "I have never wondered where he got it from, I know exactly where it came from." When Nick throws a tantrum, I sometimes think, "man I wish I could do that" but as an adult I guess that is socially unacceptable, at least in public. Their have been times that I have had a complete meltdown and Ben calls them my pschycotic episodes. He hates it when I have them, but I still find his dirty socks balled up in the middle of the living room floor. Thankfully for all involved I don't have to have them often. I look at the parents around me and I think wow I bet they don't have these problems and yet when you talk to them they have problems too some are the same and some are different. I have several mottos "if we are going to pay for therapy we should get our monies worth." or "if we are going to be on Oprah/Dr. Phil we should at least have something to talk about."
I took Ben and Amelia on a bike ride yeterday 4.5 miles today those 2 little bones that sit on your bike seat are sooooooo sore! with the rising price of gas, I am thinking that if they want ice cream this summer we are biking to get it. Of course we biked to my parents and go there just as the rain started. My dad had donuts for the kids--kind of defeats the purpose of exercise. I can't wait to be a grandparent!!
Our quick trip to Colorado is coming together slowly. I have 2 kids packed, realizing that 1 needs new socks and underwear and 1 needs new underwear. Does it ever end? Nick is going to spend 2 weeks in Colorado with his friends Gabriel and Ethan, he is so excited every day he asks is it time to leave yet. He is also excited to fly home all by himself. That ought to be interesting--Zach has flown by himself a lot and Ben a couple of times-- With the price of gas a 1 way ticket is less than a drive half way back to Colorado.
Later

Nick's Music Program May 20, 2008

This was Nick's music program, I wish that I had known how to video using my camera so that I could have gotten Brendan who is the little boy to Nicks right in the plaid shirt who sang who has a fishing pole.... They were so cute!!

Yesterday I went with KMS to the The Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial (http://www.idaho-humanrights.org/ click on the link for memorial) for a tour. I was glad that I went it was an amazing tribute. The docent had our group read the quotes wall and wanted the kids to pick their favorite quote and then tell whether it was awareness or action. I have to say my favorite was the quote from Ghandi. (Thankfully I didn't have to talk in front of a bunch of middle school kids--one of whom was my son and already thinks I have 2 heads)

Be the change that you want to see in the world.
Mohanda Gandhi

So after the Human rights tour, we had lunch in the park and then to the Boise Zoo. As the middle school was leaving, Nicks Preschool was arriving so I spent an hour walking around the zoo with the Preschool. It was a nice day and again made me think about how lucky (for now) that I am able to be at home with my kids. I did however realize that I sooooo not cut out for 6 hours in the 90 degree heat!! I didn't sunburn thanks to SPF 60, but I was worn out! too much sun, not enough water and A LOT of walking.

I think we finally found an air conditioner for the attic/Zach's room that will keep it cooled off pretty nicely however I don't want to see the electric bill for that, but if it is 80 on the main floor it is 980 (okay so maybe not that bad) on the 3rd floor.

School is winding down and I can't wait until we don't have to have bedtimes and we can sleep late and really have no true schedule. Of course by mid to end of July, I will be screaming for school to start.

Jim is in the windy city for the next 2 days..I am so not cut out for being a single parent!! dinner tonight? can it go in the microwave, be ready in 10 minutes and use no dishes? that is for us.

Later

National Junior Honor Society

Zachary's Induction into NJHS
May 13, 2008

I pledge myself to uphold the high purposes of the National Junior Honor Society to which I have been selected; I will be true to the principles for which it stands; I will be loyal to my school, and will maintain and encourage high standards of scholarship, character, leadership, service and citizenship.

Last night was the National Junior Honor Society induction. The above was the oath that the KMS middle school students (91 were inducted into the Honor Society)had to recite. All the 2008 officers (which were 8th graders) gave little speeches on scholarship, character, leadership, service and citizenship. The whole program was very well done. One of the girls I think she spoke on character said "It is not just who you are when someone is watching, but who you are when no one is watching "if a teacher leaves you alone to take a test and you know exactly where the answer is in your notes do you cheat?"

We were very proud that Zach received this honor. Of course his statement was "this will look really good on college applications" I am positive that when I was in the 5th grade I didn't know what MIT was let alone that I wanted to go there and I am even more sure that college applications were not even on my radar in the 7th grade. I can also say that I didn't and wouldn't have voluntarily taken Algebra (at the high school) over the summer so I could take geometry as an 8th grader!!

Zach got to move back into his room today. After a week sleeping on the couch he cleaned his room this morning and was told his next offense would be 2 weeks on the couch!! He was without a doubt much more pleasurable to have around this week since he couldn't go hide in his room everyday. We will see next week when it is time to clean his room if he remembers his time on the couch!! I thought raising kids was supposed to be easy!!!

Nickolaus just came to ask me what friendship means...his definition "we are friends and we are in a ship" guess that about sums it up when you are 5.

Amelia's argumentative behavior landed her on the new "naughty stool" for 45 minutes last night. so far today no outburst or argumentative behavior. It is going to take a while but hopefully she will get it! No means No!!

Have a great weekend!

New Reality Show coming soon to your TV

HELLS KITCHEN MEETS


SURVIVOR

The top picture is Nick decorating Jim's chocolate cream birthday pie and the bottom picture is all the kids setting up camp in our front yard.

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day!!

Field Trips/DUI and beyond

WAGONS HO! OF IDAHO

Ben's class went on a field trip yesterday, the event was called WAGONS HO! OF IDAHO, it was at Veterans State Park in Boise. I joined them later in the morning and was very impressed with the program. They had stations all around the outside of the wagon everything from washing clothes to cutting wood to doing dishes. The whole class was very well behaved as Mr. C explained that if they didn't follow the rules, they would go to jail..jail was located behind the wagon and he and your teacher were the judge and jury...punishment was anywhere from 25 to 100 push ups depending on the offense. If you went to jail twice and were convicted twice you would walk the path of "No Return". For some of the adults who happened to see, the DUI arrest in the park parking lot was rather entertaining. As they were giving Beverly her sobriety test she informed the officer she was not a ballerina...he said neither am I now do it.. At noon on a Tuesday, I guess it was 5:00 somewhere.

Mother's Day is this weekend, can you believe it? I am going to a movie and breakfast/lunch on Saturday with a friend. Saturday night we are going out for Chinese Food with my parents and on Sunday we are having some friends over to BBQ. Thank goodness this is the last food weekend for a while. The last 3 weekends have been food, food and more food. I need to get back on the wagon!! It is a great feeling to grab a pair of shorts out of the closet and put them on and they fit comfortably.....

Our trip to Colorado is coming together, slowly....we will be in Breckenridge and Pueblo..it will be a short trip...

I am so glad spring is finally here, although the weather is so menopausal right now, I did pull out my tan in a bottle yesterday so my ghostly white legs didn't scare anyone. I am thinking spray on tan would be a good idea. The farmers are all out working in there fields (Nick has been offended by the smell of fertilizer in the fields)...I have gotten pretty freaked out a couple of times driving around, as the farmers work in the fields it changes the way the fields have looked all winter, which then changes the way intersections look. I have been convinced that I am lost or took a wrong turn.

The other night Nick comes running into the house "they are moving the hay, it is all gone" so I told him that they would probably be putting more hay in that spot later and he ran back out the door screaming "not on my watch".

I spent all winter telling them to shut the door and now I spend as much time telling them to leave the door open and in another month the air conditioner will be on and we will be back to shutting the door....does it ever end??

Has anyone ever watched HEROS? I started watching it last week, from the first episode of season 1. It is pretty good. Seems like it is taking them a while to get all the "special people" together as a team...which is what I think is going to happen.