Thanksgiving Dinner

Champ's new trick: Pulling food off the counter. Apparently the smells of Thanksgiving dinner were just too overwhelming, so he had to see what was up there. We came home yesterday to the remains of an apple pie on the kitchen floor. Today Tim left the leftover turkey carcass out on the counter when he left for work...with quite a bit of turkey left on it. We weren't home yet, so Champ decided since it worked once he'd try it again. This time he ate the entire thing--carcass and meat. The only remaining evidence was a small piece of bone left on the ground. I'm not loving this new trick. I think I liked it better when he wasn't so curious.

D-Land/Funland--by Joie!

Aaaaahhhh! A pirate!
We went on the pirate ride and after we went on the pirate ride we went to watch some of the fake pirates dance and sing then we posed for a picture. He was one of the guys playing musical instruments. He said he was drinking rum. At Disneyland?

Tower of Terror!
Megan and me were the only people in the family that went on Tower of Terror. It was awesome! That's us way in the back to the left.

DISNEY LAND! (by Megan)

WE WENT TO DISNEY LAND IN CALIFORNIA! WE WENT TO GOOFYS KITCHEN!

ITS FULL OF EXCITEMENT! WE WENT TO A PARADE AND LOTS OF RIDES OF COURSE!

OH,AND A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MEGAN, 10, UT!

Trying to Understand

This started out as a brand new, perfectly good folder. Nate was required to have one in his binder for a particular class, so Tim bought a few for Nate to choose from. But apparently character folders in middle school will ruin your life for the next 6 years, so Nate opted for Plan B...cover the hideous looking Spiderman folder with duct tape. I was humoring him, asking him how in the world he thought of duct tape, interjecting that I'm sure duct tape must be way cooler in middle school than Spiderman, and just playing around. About then Beth sent a text that required a phone call back. Not to be deterred from having fun with Nate, I asked Nate if I could tell Beth what he was doing to his folder. Nate likes Beth, and just smiled...my nod to go ahead. I said to Beth, "You'll never guess what Nate is using to cover his folder for school." Instantly she said, "Duct tape!" Of course I was in shock, and and couldn't stop laughing. I finally managed to ask how she knew, and she said, "Because Braden is sitting here doing the same thing!" We all got a good laugh out of that one, and the best part is, apparently duct tape is cover of choice for middle schoolers across America, or at least across Utah and Idaho. School supply manufacturers are missing a great marketing opportunity here. If they teamed with the makers of duct tape, watch out!

And now for Megan's shoes...In August, this was a brand new pair of Rocket Dogs. She didn't like them as much as her DC's. I had to talk her into trying something different at the shoe store. She wore them and realized 1) a lot of other kids thought she had some awesome shoes, and 2) a lot of other kids had the same pair of awesome shoes. After that, she's worn them religiously. I think in the past 4 months she may have worn her DC's 2 or 3 times. As you can tell, these shoes haven't left her feet. Most 10 year old girls love to go shoe shopping, and normally Megan is no different. She LOVES shoes, and loves to even just try on shoes. Once I took her and a friend shoe shopping (friend's mom hates shoe shopping with girls) and they picked out their shoes in less than 5 minutes and spent the next 20 minutes in the womens' section trying on shoes. Over the past few weeks we've been trying to break it gently that we may have to say good-bye to the Rocket Dogs. (Yes, those are holes in the bottom.) Megan won't even remotely consider it, and today when Tim picked up the beloved Rocket Dogs and said they needed to be in the trash, she dissolved to tears. Finally, after 15 minutes of tears and talking, we hit rationalization, although right now I'm not sure what it was because Megan wore this very pair of shoes again today to the movies...for the last time we hope. Famous Footwear is having their Buy one-get one sale again, so we may have to hit the stores tomorrow. I can see a combination of winter boots and Rocket Dogs (most likely identical, minus the holes) in Megan's future.

More Things We're Thankful For...

We're still keeping up on our November gratitude tradition. Here are a few more things we're thankful for:

Tim: Gospel, my children, 2nd Ammendment (Tim's new hobby is guns...), Veterens, Joe's service, and today he said, "I'm thankful I can go to the Messiah sing-in with Mary..." (there was a pause at that point, and I was thinking, "how sincere..."). The he finishes, "So Mary will go to the Styx concert with me." By way of explanation, I should say we have some friends who are going to a Styx concert. Tim would also like to go. My response to going with him has ranged from lukewarm (in attempt to support him) to mildly disinterested (in my more honest moments). Let's face it. Music may be one of the areas where our 5 year age differential looks more like a generation gap. In the 70's, at the height of Styx's popularity, I was struggling through my first decade of life in rural Idaho. Styx is a band I only heard about in the 80's when they released a few songs I was familiar with. To my credit, I do remember Babe. It isn't stirring in me the desire to attend a Styx concert. I digress.... Tim is also thankful for his life, food storage, his freedom, and his Home Depot buddy, Nate (I added that one). Champ is also his Home Depot buddy.

Mary: I'm thankful that God created something as amazing as our brains and bodies, thankful for our freedom to worship, thankful for sleep, thankful for 1 1/2 hours of reading a good book (The Last Lecture...love it!), a supportive husband (who would never ask me to go to a Styx concert), and individual time I get to spend with my children.

Nate: I'm thankful for the end of the trimester, choir (he's found something he likes) and school. Nate also said another day he's thankful for the challenge of school (I may forward this blog to his 6th grade teacher). He is also thankful for Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and "myself." He's also very, very thankful that the Utes and Alta won!

Megan: I'm thankful for Veteren's Day, soldiers, and America. I'm thankful for George Washington, and I am a child of God. She also said she's thankful for pilgrims and shelter. Recently she said she's thankful for Santa...hmmm...is Christmas near? She's also thankful she got to see Alta beat Bingham!

Jeran: "Veterens Day and those who have served for our rights." He's also thankful for the teachers and parents who planned Colonial Day for the 5th grade; he's thankful for the Lord and the plan of salvation, for freedom of speech, Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Champ, Angel, Penny, and Dollar (all pets), and the fun he had with cans and string. He also said he is thankful for the ability to be free.

Joie--"Pictures in the rocks" (Tim helps the kids find pictures in our fireplace rocks. It helps Joie calm down.) She also said she is thankful for Radio Disney and Disney channel, Santa, Jesus, Thanksgiving, and "real friends who walk in when the rest of the world walks out." (She was reading off a cross-stitch.)

We may or may not get to blogging our gratitude again before Thanksgiving. As a family we have much to be thankful for. This time of year always has us feeling thankful for family and friends.

What do you want for Christmas?

If your child is begging you for a cell phone, consider this fine alternative--2 cans and a string. It's in such popular demand this Christmas it's selling off the shelves. Parental controls are the best feature of this alternative to the cell phone, and teachers do not need to worry about kids texting in class. Jeran and his friends have been test marketing this prototype for about the last week. They've come up with several creative ways to test how far away from each other they can stand and still hear the other person. The most creative was standing across the street from each other using the slope of Nicholas Road to their advantage. One kid climbed out a 2nd story bedroom window and was sitting on the roof on the down side of the street. Another kid was on the uphill side in a steep driveway across the street. The red string stretched out between them high enough for cars to pass underneath. Parents are thrilled at the creativity of this prototype, yet many have expressed concerns about safety. The test market shows this version of the alternative to the cell phone may need more research...or more string.

Choir

Nate before his choir performance.

Indian Hills Middle School 7th Grade Choir. They were great. Believe it or not, this is less than half of the entire 7th grade class--the choir was 250 kids. When he goes to high school there will be 4 middle schools merging into one high school. You do the math!

Go Alta!

Megan went to the Alta-Bingham 5A state championships tonight. Alta won. The kids asked if Bingham (cousin) was named after Bingham High school. I told them Bingham High was named after THE Bingham that cousin Bingham was named after. They remembered the Bingham cabin display at Lagoon this summer, and it all started making sense. Sorry Bingham. Tonight just wasn't your night. And GO UTES for tomorrow!

A few more things we're thankful for this month...

Somewhere there's a few more of these gratitude lists kicking around, but here's a few more things we're thankful for that we will share with you as Thanksgiving approaches. I'll just write several by each name from the list of things they've said.

Megan: School, friends, brothers
Nate: Ironman, leftover Halloween candy, my mom (awwwwwww...)
Tim: My kids, the lesson in Priesthood meeting today, and I think one day last week he said he was thankful for Glenn Beck.
Mary: Joie eating veggies! Also last week I said I was thankful for my kids' tuff hearts, and to be able to vote.
Jeran: One grumpy day last week when he was mad at everyone else, Jeran said he was thankful for Champ (the dog). Today he was back to himself and said, "I am thankful for the knowledge I can one day live again with my Heavenly Father (Yes, he really talks like that. The other day after Parent Teacher Conference he said he felt "ostracised and mortified" because his teacher and I were talking about him. Help me out here, but isn't that what we're supposed to do at Parent Teacher Conference?) At a more 10-year old level, he said he was thankful for Sims and Chinese cakes.
Joie: I'm thankful for this day. She has also said she is thankful for pies, angels, and Angel (the dog).

Joie ate Vegetables!

Anyone who knows Joie knows of her dislike for veggies. Since she's lived here we've gone through milestones with food. First, finding a list of 6 things she would eat. Then moving on to requiring her to try one new thing at meal time. Somewhere around late winter/early spring I remember her eating a lot of meals we were eating without much complaining, but when it comes to veggies, we do everything to get a few servings a day in her. She did better at fruit, so we relied heavily on fruit hoping she'd get vitamins from fruit and supplemented with carrots, one of the only vegetables she would eat. Mealtimes haven't been much of a battle so we just take what we can get and then....

Then finally tonight a most amazing thing happened. We had Shepherds Pie. One of Joie's favorites. For whatever reason tonight Tim made it with frozen peas instead of her other favorite, canned french-cut green beans. She saw it on the table and said how much she loved Shepherd's Pie. She scooped it onto her plate, and noticed there were peas in it. She said, "Oh well. I still love Shepherd's Pie." Inside I was falling off my chair out of shock, but I was a good parent and didn't make a big deal out of it. She took her first bite. She was looking over her nose at those peas like they would jump off her fork and gag her, but she put the spoon in her mouth. Chewing...silence...more chewing (noticable absence of gagging)...more silence, then, "Hmmm...I actually like peas in Shepherd's Pie." Again, there was a huge, huge celebration going on inside me...the inner me was dancing on the chair, but the mom me just commented, "You found a new food you like." She asked for seconds. At our house we have a rule you have to eat vegetables before seconds. Tonight it was raw cauliflower (an attempt to get rid of some we had in the fridge) or baby carrots, but you had to eat at least 1 piece of cauliflower first. She picked the teeniest, tiniest piece of cauliflower she could find to go with her carrots, which is fine. She'd eaten peas. Who was I to complain? Next thing I know I look over at her plate and it is absent of carrots, and this time about half filled with cauliflower. I had to do a double take. I said, "Are you really eating a plate full of cauliflower?" She said, "What? I like it," with a huge smile on her face. That time, I didn't hold back. Months and months of altering family eating patterns was erupting out of me and I celebrated. Everyone else did too, while she sat there all the while eating her small mountain of cauliflower. Raw cauliflower. I declared a holiday and said the whole family gets ice cream tomorrow. You'd have to have lived with us for the past year to know how really, truly BIG this is, but WAAAAAHOOOOOOOO!!! On this day, November 9th, 2008, Joie ate 2 different kinds of vegetables in one meal, and liked them both. Whatever will we do with those bags of baby carrots in the refrigerator?

How to lose 2 children in one day

2 missing children

I know already you think I'm kidding...unless you're a parent and you know you just can't make this stuff up, and it really, really does happen.

Child #1--Jeran. Every Wednesday morning I leave for choir at 7:00 a.m. with Megan and Joie. I even occasionally pat myself on the back for getting us out the door by 7:00 a.m., with Nate and Jeran leaving at 7:30 and 7:50 respectively to walk to school. 


This past Wednesday I left at 7:00 a.m. in a snow storm. As I'm driving to the school with Megan and Joie, I'm thinking, "I'm a really, really bad mom to have my boys walking to school in this snowstorm," so once I was at the school I got someone to cover for me and called the boys to tell them I was coming to pick them up. 


Clue #1 that something is wrong: No one answers the home phone. 


To myself I'm thinking, "Maybe Nate left early because it's snowing...Maybe the phone is off...Maybe...Maybe..." 


And sure enough as I'm driving who do I see walking down 11400 South, but Nate. I picked him up and he was happy to have the ride, but looking a little like he'd just been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to do. I ignored it, and said we'd go pick up Jeran at the house before I dropped him off. 


Clue #2 that something is wrong: Nate says, "Uhhhh.....Jeran's not home." 


By now, things are clicking, and without even asking I knew Jeran had walked to school early to play on the playground, thinking I wouldn't know because I had already left. Come to find out he'd been meeting a friend there to play before school...a whole hour before school! For the past four weeks! 


And where was I? Tucked safely inside the school with a bunch of elementary school children singing the Chipmunks Christmas song! 


The whole time I'm driving Nate to school I'm thinking of all the possible ways to ground Jeran for the rest of his life...take away electronics...take away friends...take away Christmas! (Grrrr....can you feel the blood boiling?) When I had dropped off Nate and returned to the elementary school, I walked first to Jeran's class, sure that by that time he'd be frozen and wanting to come inside. 


But off course his teacher hadn't seen him either. 


When I walked outside (still blizzard conditions), there was Jeran playing with his friend on the new playground equipment at the school. No one else was out there, just the two of them. All the other children where home safe in their nice warm houses getting ready to be dropped off by their parents. As it turned out, my child had been scaling the back fence of the school every Wednesday morning for the past 4 weeks to play with his friend (who arrives early with his grandma who is a lunch worker). 


You should have seen the look on his face when I yelled, "Jeran!" (I actually couldn't see the look on his face until he got much closer because of all the snow.) He followed me inside the school, and by this time neither of us said much of anything. He knew he'd been caught. I knew we'd talk later. 'Nuff said.

Child #2--Joie. For starters I'd like to say to all the Joie fans out there, I really, really do take good care of her. We just lost her for an entire hour. That's all. On a cold snowy afternoon. The same cold snowy day I lost my son... Really, it was nothing. 


Let me set the scene. I'm at work looking at the clock knowing Jeran will be home soon, and thinking I just really, really wanted to call and make sure he was ok after our rough morning, and to let him know I'd be home soon. 


I called about the time they would usually get home and Megan answered. She said she and Jeran were there, but not Joie. I asked where Joie was and she said she didn't know, that she waited and waited and her feet got cold so she thought maybe Joie got a ride so she walked home. 


I then called Tim, who gets home about the same time as the kids and was just pulling into the neighborhood. He drove to the school to find Joie, and couldn't find her. The office staff looked. The PTA Bookfair volunteers looked. No one could find her. 


Tim called me, and by then I knew my 3:00 appointment wasn't showing up so I was going to leave. He said he'd start going to all her friends houses looking, and I was on my phone driving home calling friends. One of her friends' older brothers answered the phone and said Joie wasn't at their house, but his sister wasn't home from school yet either and he thought they might be playing in the snow somewhere.  Tim got more details, and sure enough, there she was, playing in the snow around the corner from our house.

Seriously, we have only 2 rules about walking home. Rule #1--Wait for each other. Rule #2--Walk home together. It's simple. And yet Megan with cold feet, and Joie with her spontaneous nature (who also claimed cold as her defense and yet was out playing in the snow for an entire hour), found nearly logical explanations for doing it differently.

I'm proud now to report that all our children are home, and have been in our care for the past 31.25 hours without anyone else going missing. We may just yet earn our parent of the year awards!

Join us in our Thanksgiving tradition

Tim's family has a tradition of sitting corn kernels at the table on Thanksgiving day and after dinner, family members take turns saying what they're thankful for...one for each kernel in the cup. When our children were very little, our family borrowed this tradition with a little twist of our own. We started the first of November and used candy corn in a jar, moving it to each child's cup every morning as they would say what they were thankful for. I loved their answers when they were little, and if I find our old family journal I'll post some of them. We had this problem with using candy corn. As fun as it sounds, the candy corn kept disappearing...apparently we had mice back then. We switched after that to regular corn kernels, and still use them. Some years we've done better than others at keeping up our tradition, but we love seeing the number of kernels increase as we find things to be thankful for through the month.

Tonight we started our tradition again. I was writing down what everyone said because we've had fun reading back over some of the things we're thankful for over the years. The kids crack up now that they were thankful for "Grandma Barcy" (our really awesome old neighbor) about 15 times in one month. As I was writing down what they said tonight, Tim said, "Mom's going to put those on the blog." Of course I thanked him for his idea and here I am, blogging about what we're thankful for.

We also thought it would be fun this year to let all of you help us fill our gratitude jar. Through the month as we post things we're thankful for, feel free to jump in and let us know what you're all thankful for as well. We start off by saying we're thankful for all of you, the people we love!

November 3, 2008: We are all thankful that Joe is home. So thankful, in fact that we called him in Germany (we think it was midnight or 1:00 a.m. there) to sing "Happy Birthday" to him. Thanks Joe for letting us hear your voice and I hope you didn't miss out on too much sleep....we're getting you ready for the baby!

Megan: Animals

Joie: You peoples.

Tim: For my wonderful wife (I'm really not making that up.)

Nate: Barcy (Of course he had to get a laugh.)

Jeran: Nate's sense of humor...and Beth and Trevor's dry humor.

Mary: Tim and really great friends (We got cookies tonight from one of our neighbors.)

We look forward to hearing what everyone else is thankful for also!

Halloween then and now...

Disneyland then and now...Halloween then and now...I think I have a theme going on here. Actually, now that I'm blogging it's too fun to resist going back and reviewing former adventures in our posts. Rewind with me now to 2004. One of the only coordinated costumes ever, and Megan and Jeran picked it out themselves. It wasn't a stretch to make Megan Lilo, and back then Jeran was Stitch...every bit of him! There were days we hunted for the off switch!

Also 2004. Nate was the Red Power Ranger. He only wore the mask for the picture because it bothered his face. In the school parade picture from the same year he wasn't wearing the mask. Isn't that how it goes?

Fast forward to 2008. Jeran is Indy! He was good, and the best part of the costume is the whip! The scruffy beard was a nice touch too even though you can't see it that well in the picture. My kiddos are getting to old to hang out with mom all night (sigh). Jeran went to a friend's house and went trick-or-treating with him. Nate decided he wasn't going trick-or-treating this year, because apparently 12 is too old. Other moms have told me after one year of being "too old" they're back at it again when they're 13, and I think that's what will happen with Nate. He got to "dress up" for school. His costume consisted of neon blue hair spray. He looked like one of the Blue Men, but we didn't get a picture before he washed it all off. He dressed up as a monster for Halloween and sat on the front porch. When we got one street away, his friend was outside their house doing the same thing. He hopped the fence to our street to scare Nate, but Nate saw him hiding behind the Durango in the driveway (so he says) and wasn't scared. They took turns manning the porch and going to neighbor's houses to load up on candy. About 8:30 Nate called wanted to catch up with us, so he left the candy on the porch and we told him where to meet us. We were just getting ready to go to a haunted house in our neighborhood...they do an amazing job...a little too amazing if you ask me. I was brave enough to take Nate 2 years ago, but was really, really hoping I didn't have to go back. Right then the older brothers of one of the friends we were with showed up (in nothing but speedos and goggles...they're on the water polo team) and took all the kids. Turns out Nate and older boys were the only ones to go through the haunted house. Joie and Sabrina said, "We heard that chainsaw start up and decided to wait out front!" Megan, who had split off with another friend and her dad earlier ended up at the same haunted house and also didn't go all the way through, but from the middle they actually turned around and ran out the front. It was a fun night! Oh, and Tim missed the whole thing because he had a swing shift that night. Bummer!

Megan, her friend Camille, Joie, and her friend Sabrina...a.k.a. punk rocker, Dorothy, Vampire's daughter, and the snow princess.