Weekend Update

After everyone enjoyed sleeping in on Saturday morning and eating banana chocolate chip waffles for breakfast, Rho took Corban and Karis with him to meet up with the Wilcox family for a hike that they called a Geocache. From what I understand, you use a GPS unit to make your way to a specified site where a "treasure" is buried. If you find it, you can take what's there and put your own item in for the next person to find. Sounds kinda neat, but Kaela and I went to the scrapbooking store instead, which is even neater. I've been wanting to check out this store called Archiver's for a long time and finally made my way over there. It was a fun store and I found a good bit of stuff to use for my Disney album. I also ran into a couple of old friends from the church we used to attend in Boulder years ago, so that was cool. After their hike, Sherri Wilcox took her kids and ours back to their place to play while Rho and Jeremy messed around with some climbing. Back at our home, Kaela tried to rest while I cleaned. Rho made it home at 5:30 with Corban and Karis and we quickly got the kids bathed since we were heading out for the evening. Sherri and Jeremy brought a babysitter to our home to watch the 5 kids and we headed to Boulder to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant called Ras Kassas. Rho and I had eaten there years ago (BC....Before Corban) and were excited to go again. There were 9 of us gathered for dinner to celebrate Sherri's birthday and we thoroughly enjoyed lots of yummy food eaten sans utensils. Fun!

We woke to a cold, snowy morning on Sunday. Winter is stubborn in Colorado, rearing it's ugly head during Spring, making us wonder when we can ever put our sweaters away for good! After our usual long morning at church, I came home and ate lunch in front of the fireplace and then crashed for a much needed 2 hour nap. Both the girls slept that afternoon as well, leaving the house nice and quiet for Rho to do the taxes. Kaela has put on her tutu, ready to do ballet with Bella Dancerella, so I'm off to put in the video.

Heely fun

As the kids and I were leaving the grocery store the other day, an old man and woman were walking towards us. The old woman was watching Corban roll past her and I heard her say to her husband, "How does he DO that?" heehee Corban's trickin' old folks with his Heelys! He's also been busted by a few store clerks lately, who've told him he can't skate in their stores. Being a good mother, I instructed him to keep rollin' (with caution) and just make sure no store workers see him! Some rules are made to be broken, right?

Visit from Bo and Becky

(Rho has told me that I post my pictures too small, so here they are in jumbo size.)

Rho's parents and two of our nieces, Taylor and Jade, came to visit us last week during their Spring Break. As usual, we weren't terribly entertaining, but I know the kids had a good time together and the adults enjoyed several evenings of playing "42", teaching me along the way.

On Sunday, everyone attended Corban's Upward Basketball awards
program in the afternoon and we ate at Noodles for dinner afterward. It was cold and drizzly that evening and we awoke to snow on Monday morning, causing great excitement for Jade. Several of the gang made a great snowman in our backyard.

Becky and I attended my yoga-pilates class together on Monday evening, returning home to find the kitchen cleaned up AND the kids in bed!! WOW!

We ate dinner out again on Tuesday evening at an Italian place called Cinzetti's. Everyone enjoyed that.

We took the kids to a neat playground one day, where Bo helped Corban fly his cool dragon kite. Most of the kids took turns flying it and had a good time generally running around and burning some energy.

On Thursday, we hit the rec center for some swimming. The girls had their lessons, so it was a convenient time for us to enjoy the pool. Becky chose not to swim, since she was sick, but the rest of us got in and splashed around.

During the week, Bo was busy working on several projects for us. Notice his t-shirt that says "I Can Fix Anything!" So true. He got our dining room chandelier rehung so that we're not knockin' our noggins anymore. He repaired our drippy kitchen faucet. He did some electrical thing with the lights upstairs in the loft. Most importantly, though, he fixed our psycho garage door!!! That thing has given us headaches for the last three winters, going up and down and up again and stopping mid-way and going down a little, then up a smidge....you get the picture. I'd leave the house early just to allow time to get the garage door down! It's a joy every time I see that door go up or down with only ONE push of the button! HOORAY! THANK YOU BO!

What? What?

"What?" is what I've been hearing all day from my kids as my voice comes and goes as a result of this blasted cold. Fortunately, I've gotten some energy back today and have started to get things under control again, but Rho is upstairs this evening with a headache and stomach pain. Sounds like me a week or so ago. Karis has been complaining of stomach pains for several days now, but we've started to wonder if she doesn't just like to eat Tums.

Corban completed his CSAP testing today. He had to go yesterday morning and this morning for testing in math and writing. It was a nuisance to get up early and drive 20 minutes to the testing site, especially while sick, but it's done.

Drip, drip, drip

It's not as bad as this picture might portray, but I've suddenly begun to feel pretty lousy this evening. I was hoping to catch up on some blogging, but guess it will wait a little longer. Hope you all are well.....

Kaela the Flasher

Yesterday, as I was on the treadmill, Kaela came into my room complaining of a string hanging from her panties. Since I didn't want to get off the treadmill, I just told her to put on different ones. Well, she tossed the offending panties down the chute and raced off to put on a new pair. Or so I thought. Three year-olds, especially Kaela, are prone to distraction. Later, as we were out shopping, Kaela needed to go to the bathroom. Whilst in the ladies' room, I discover that she is not wearing any underwear. I asked her about it and she just looked at me blankly. I said, "Kaela, doesn't it bother you to not have any underwear on?" She says no, it does not. It bothers me greatly, but what am I to do? We continue our shopping which includes trying on some new dresses for Easter. Karis and Kaela always like to show Corban what they're trying on, so they go racing out of the dressing room. I'm not paying a lot of attention to them at this point, but turn to call them back. It is at this point that Kaela's lack of underwear is significant as she and Karis are jumping wildly about, flipping the dresses up and down. Kaela is now flashing the Target workers and shoppers, mortifying her very modest mother. Now, before we leave the house, I'll have two things to say. As always, "Kaela, your shoes are on the wrong feet." And now, "Kaela, are you wearing underwear?"

Kaela speak

Some more goofy mis-speaks from Kaela:



Piggy pank





Cocoa Fuffs








Cliffdord





"I'm as still as a mustache!" ???






Crowns

Groakin the Cave Dweller

I've wanted to show you guys what Groakin looks like in his "home office," otherwise known as his cave. Here, under the stairs of our unfinished basement, Rho spends two days a week in a space that's about 3 feet wide. Behind him, but not pictured, would be some basement-y type things like a hot water heater. To his left, in the foreground of the picture, is a shelf full of paint cans and a few of his personal effects. Down at his feet is a small space heater that I bought him so that he won't ice over down there in the winter. Lastly, I'll point out the lovely artwork made for him by his sweet daughters, who clearly saw that his drab workspace needed a little something cheerful.

Weekend Update

The first thing that comes to mind about this past weekend was the crazy weather. We had a gorgeous 70 degree day on Saturday and woke up to blowing snow and 30 degree temperatures on Sunday. It warmed up enough today to melt most of the snow, thankfully. We're all ready for spring!

Corban had a very early morning on Saturday, waking at 6:00 to get to the church building by 6:30 for a Bible Bowl Round Robin in Littleton. When I picked him up around 3:30, one of the Bible Bowl mom/leaders told Corban to tell me how "cool" he had been. So, as we drove home, I kept waiting to hear some story, but it never came. As I do with Rho, I had to drag the details out of Corban. Turns out that his team of 4 came in 5th place in division 1. Though that might not sound so great, what's significant is that his team was supposed to compete in division 2, an easier group. So, all in all, they did really well, even beating one of the division 1 teams! I don't think Corban felt it was that great of an accomplishment, but I assured him that it was pretty awesome and that he indeed is very "cool."

Rho and I had to go to a party Saturday evening to celebrate the opening of Cerience's new office. It really is nice, especially compared to the old place. They had a catered buffet of different finger foods and a selection of wine and beer. I got so smashed! (That made me laugh out loud!) I was a tad bit embarrassed when we needed to raise our glasses for a toast and I had to hold up my bottle of water! HA! Anyway, it was good, considering this kind of socializing is not my, nor Rho's, cup of tea. We managed to be social though, and it was nice to meet the other workers and their wives.

On Sunday, after sleeping poorly due to wild winds, we dragged all our tired selves to church. The afternoon was spent resting, by most. I polished off another of Jan Karon's books in the Mitford series. (Thanks for the recommendation, Becky!) Our small group was canceled for the evening and Rho suggested that Michelle and I go do something while he watched our kids and hers, since her husband's away. In the end, it almost ended up being a small group night when the Wilcox's joined in the fun. Sherri went to the movies with us (27 Dresses....pretty cute) and Jeremy had the pleasure of helping Rho babysit the 8 kids! When the girls returned, we were happy to find that no one was crying and that the men had successfully changed two diapers, only after putting it off so long that they couldn't bear the odor any longer!