Cool and collected under smelly pressures...

In the news...I was sick all weekend (1/6-1/10) with strep throat so I am even further behind than if I hadn't had a weekend...don't you love that?? I am on the mend though. Then S-dog got a painful rash, Seichi got my strep throat and handsome hubby went to the emergency room this morning in absolute agony...turns out he has kidney stones so he has to skip law classes (eeek!) today and stay at home with morphine and percocet. *sigh*

I started my first day of grad school classes last week. I think the classes will be very beneficial and interesting and also a truck load of work...ug! Paid my 1600$ tuition today...double ug! Guess there's no turning back now.

Handsome hubby is now officially half way through law school. It has gone by pretty fast I would say. He is taking immigration law, administrative law, domestic law (family/divorce etc) and a few others I don't remember in his course load this semester and rather enjoying them thus far.

The boys are doing well, healthy, active, funny and sometimes neurotic (G-man). They are all doing quite well in school which judging from the bulk of the students I teach is a sheer miracle. We had a blast at Legoland, it was awesome and a whopping 82 degrees F while we were there. Shorts, t-shirts and flip flops. It was really nice. The boys did amazingly well on the road trip. I couldn't believe how awesome they were. I would do road trips with those boys any day, there were really fun...granted I was prepared but still they rocked. 

At one point we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic between Las Vegas and the Cali border. There is NOTHING in those parts, not even a gas station. 4 year old S-dog, having ingested 4 of my banana/bran/flax/chocolate chip muffins for breakfast exclaims in panic "I have to go poopies!!!". Oh boy!!! If you know this child you have about 30 seconds before "it" has been brought into fruition. He is seriously the fastest pooper in the house and its a bit of a joke in the family. Mind you, having said that he does have amazing control and fortunately accidents are very infrequent. 

OK...back to our dilemma...I had brought cookie sheets for the boys to use as lap desks in the car. I slammed one of them down, laid a plastic bag down, lined it with napkins, whipped S-dog's pants down, supported his little thighs (ok chubby thighs) behind his knees while he held onto the armrests for dear life, commanded handsome hubby to drive VERY SAFELY, threatened the boys that I was to hear no comments, laughter or complaints, and S-dog took a successful and very large dump right there in the van between the seats. Biel (taking after his mother) began to gag...I scolded him "man up, man up, get a hold of yourself!"...he managed to gain control. I used what few baby wipes I had the foresight to purchase at the gas station to wipe his little bum, and tied up and double ziplock bagged the offending fecal matter to be disposed of at our earliest convenience and then opened up ALL windows for a few miles. When the ordeal was over handsome hubby turned to me and said with pride in his voice "Great job sweetpea, very impressive indeed. You sure can perform under the smelliest of pressures!"

Here is a pic of the boys on Christmas morning with their Christmas jammies:

Legoland for Christmas...

Handsome hubby and I had a long discussion way back in October trying to decide what to get the boys for Christmas. We came the conclusion that generally speaking they didn't NEED any more toys or anything to get broken and be under foot or sent to goodwill in a couple of months. Plus... we really wanted the boys to be grateful for the things they already have and not be constantly wanting more.

The boys have been wanting to go to Legoland for nearly 5 years now, and when you have FOUR boys a trip to Legoland is inevitable. Thanks to great online deals and Christmas money from Grandad and Mamère

On Christmas morning we had an envelope stuck in the branches of the tree. The boys were instructed to unscramble the letters that were in the envelope to discover what they were getting from Mom and Dad that year for Christmas....This is the video of it all coming into fruition.

Christmas Toms

I painted these Toms for a couple of my sister-in-laws for Christmas (I had their names for gift giving). It was a fun project to do and it makes me happy to think of my art work walking around on the streets in California and Manitoba (even if the Manitoba one lives in a town of 500 people :).

Art Class Folies!

I am so behind in posting but wanted to share some of the things I've been doing in my art class this year and with my students...
This is the door I painted for the beginning of the school year, it reads: "Grow your creativity"...

G-man and I made this melted crayon art together as decor for the classroom:

and my friend and I made these cute "a la Martha Stewart" lanterns for the ceiling

One of the first projects I did this year with my 8th graders was "painted shoes" (or painted Toms shoes) as part of our painting unit. They loved their shoes and I think they did an amazing job.
This is the prototype that I did first to decode the project:

 Then S-dog begged me to paint his... I tried to talk him into trains or robots but he INSISTED on flames and I think his creative instincts are on the money!

Here are some of my students' creations!...

Fertile Gnomes...

Friday was our Halloween festivities at our school. The children look forward to the Halloween parade and each class has a class party full of games, crafts and festivities. This year our family dressed up as garden gnomes. Of course our boys were not content with being your average every day garden gnome variety they had to infuse some super hero elements into their characters to make them more desirable. On our way to school this is what I heard as they discussed their gnome status..."when I rub my magic mushroom (appliqued on their vests) I can command lava!"..."when I rub my mushroom I can command the sky!"...Well, you get the picture.
Then the boys decided that they each needed to have "gnome names" and they had to be cool. G-man said "I'm going to be Digger, cause I love to dig!". Seichi proclaimed that he was going to be called "Shroom" after mu-shroom. S-dog exclaimed "I love lightning!" so we decided his name would be "Zinger". Then Biel chimed in "I'll be called Fertile!" My head spun around to look at him and maintain the car safely on the road at the same time...so shocked by his statement was I. I tried to maintain my cool by calmly asking "really honey why is that?" He replied "you know Fertile is short for fertilizer, get it?" I retorted "it's also short for fertility which means that you can make a lot of babies". His eyes grew wide as he replied "Oh no, I certainly don't want to be doing that!" We laughed so hard, it felt almost healing to share that kind of a belly laugh with my child and create a fun inside joke. Then we focused our efforts on coming up with a cool gnome name for him, finally settling on "Oakey" as in oak tree. We thought it to be a solid, respectable, masculine gnome name. After we finished Biel piped up "wow that certainly took a long time just to come up with one gnome name for me, imagine if I had to come up with a name for each of the gnome babies I would have had!" We laughed even harder. What a funny dude!

This morning we went to a "trunk or treat" with all our friends from church, the boys had so much fun going from car to car collecting treats and visiting with their friends. Afterwards on our way home I whined about how empty our fridge was and how I really didn't want to go grocery shopping. Handsome hubby suggested we all go to Costco together as a family in our gnome costumes. I NEVER thought I would hear my husband make that sort of suggestion. He even wore HIS costume! We went to Costco and boy did heads turn and a lot of smiles. I couldn't help feel that we were cheering up some people's day with our crazy antics. We had many comments too..."nice costumes I love your elf costumes!"...actually we are garden gnomes. "I love your smurf costumes"...actually we are garden gnomes. "I love your Santa costumes"...actually we are garden gnomes. "I love your seven dwarf costumes"....PEOPLE WE ARE GARDEN GNOMES!!!!  All in all it was a lot of fun!

How are male brains wired?

So this is a question that continues to intrigue me being surrounded by so many males in my life. I was listening to an audio book earlier this week that talked about that In Utero there is a fluid that goes through the womb around 13 weeks and that if the baby is female this fluid doesn't affect them but if they are male then it actually kills off a part of their brain (kind of makes me chuckle the jokes that come to mind!) and thus creates the males to be predominantly left brained and the females predominantly right brained. Now, I haven't had time to verify this information and I don't really know if its true or not but I thought it was as good an explanation as any.

I have visions of sitting around the dinner table involved in deep, meaningful conversations with my boys and handsome hubby and once in a blue moon this occurs but more often than not this is what happens...

After a blessing on the food we start eating and one of the boys (usually my second or third born) starts talking about a book that they have all read, or a joke they have all heard before or a cartoon or movie that they have all seen and one son starts quoting it. Then another son interjects and corrects the previous son making sure that the quote is verbatim. Then all the boys start talking over top of each other to have their turn to continue adding additional quotes from the "said" movie, book or joke.

I am continually amazed but the endless enjoyment that they all seem to get out of this mundane exercise and even more amazed at the accuracy with which they can quote book, movies, etc. that I too have seen with them! Often I sit there racking my brain trying to figure out what scene they are talking about. I have observed the same thing with handsome hubby and his brothers quoting childhood memories or movies they have seen together as children with mind boggling accuracy. As a result I have chalked it up to the way that the male brain is wired and I will not even attempt to compete in this arena.


This evening over steaming bowls of white bean chilli, the chosen quotes came from the movie "Hercules" that the boys find supremely hilarious or (i-larioust as S-dog says). S-dog in attempting to keep up with his older brothers tried to quote something that is said in the movie by Phil the centaur and it went something like this... "remember what Phil the red hamster said?..."  We spent several minutes trying to decode what he was referring to by "red hamster". When we realized it we all exploded in fits of laughter. I guess to a 4 year old a cartoon centaur looks a bit like a hamster...?

The Sinks Are Always Cleaner...

In our church we carry out volunteer positions. My position or "calling" is that of the stake primary music coordinator, which is a fancy way of saying that I am in charge of all the music for the children and train the music leaders on how to conduct or teach the music to the little ones. I have had this calling for over 2 years now and I really like it.
Last night we had an auxiliary training meeting for all the primary presidencies and their music leaders. It was to be a brainstorming session where the leaders could get ideas from each other to spark new creativity. At the beginning of the brainstorming session I was to teach the new song for 2011-2012 to all the leaders, I was also in charge of decorations and making some of the refreshments. I was quite stressed about the song in particular...I love to sing but I don't love doing solos, especially when they aren't written for altos (which undoubtedly I am). I just feel so vulnerable standing there...all eyes on me...everyone waiting for the virtuoso songbird only to hear a squawking crow of a singer. I really struggled with trying to get some direction as to how the song should be presented?, what did the teachers need to hear?, what tools/ideas could I provide them to make their jobs easier? I finally settled on painting a large earth and discussing with the teachers different opportunities that we have when we come to earth and what help does God provide us. We came up with the symbols or drawings together for each part of the verse and stuck them on the earth (since the song begins "I came to earth...."). It went well, and despite my shaking I got through it. In retrospect I can see that my prayers were answered and I got the direction I was looking for and was able to keep it simple but effective. It's nice to know that you aren't all alone, even when you feel like you are sometimes.

After teaching the song I sat with the music leaders in the brainstorming session. After about 5 minutes into the  session my friend Emigen started packing up her baby getting ready to leave. I said to her "are you leaving?", she told me her husband had a meeting in 10 min and she had to get home to her other 4 little ones. I told her "I'll go watch your kiddos and you stay for the meeting". Normally, my dear Emigen would never take me up on the offer. She is one of the most amazing mothers, homemakers I know. She is such a constant inspiration to me...not because her house is always spotless and exquisitely decorated but because its not and she is ok with that. I admire her frugality and organizational skills. Her home is welcoming and charming and modest and I feel at home there. She doesn't put on heirs or pretension trying to be someone she is not. She is very adept at balancing her 5 little ones and making sure that their needs, and nutrition come first. She spends hours and hours reading to them and teaching them and creating with them...paint, clay, markers, crayons etc. She is a darling mother and as a result of her vigilance and care her kids are so well behaved, loving, kind, creative and fantastic readers!
Much to my surprise she took me up on the offer and I headed over to her house. I helped the kids with their homework while stacking the dishwasher and cleaning up from supper. The older kids got their baths finished up and I read to the younger ones. I got teeth brushed and prayers said and tucked them all into bed. I noticed a bounce in my step and excitement in my voice being able to take care of these darling children knowing that my dear friend would be coming home to less worry, less mess and might be able to enjoy her evening a little more if I worked a little harder. Why is it so much more fun to clean someone else's home than your own?? Suddenly a peace came to me and I felt closer to my Savior than I had in a long time.. so grateful to have had the precious opportunity of time dedicated to worrying about someone else and not just my little space.