Mission Accomplished!

I've tried to read Cervantes' "Don Quixote" several times and have never made it any further than about a quarter of the way. I just don't have what it takes to stick with a 982 page book. It is AMAZING to me that Corban has read this entire novel at age 11! He just finished it today! And here is his critique of the book: "It's a good book, but it has a sad ending." Makes you want to get to the library and grab a copy, doesn't it? :-)

Kaela was learning about the parts of an invitation today. We talked about times when you'd send an invitation, like to a birthday party. She made a comment about not needing to send invitations since she didn't have any friends. I told her that one day she would, and she says, "Maybe next year." I asked her why next year and she said that next year she'd have friends because she'd get to go to school. Isn't this just breaking your heart? I made some comment about her maybe going to school next year and asked her if that's what she wanted. She said yes, of course. Homeschooling is just too lonely and boring with me. Anyway, I started carrying on about how lonely I'd be and how much I'd miss her, blah blah blah. Then she says, "I wish there were four kids." She clearly doesn't want to be the one to leave poor Mom home alone. Sweet, friendless girl.

Random Thoughts

A purging of of my mind:

1. Winter is coming. I'm not ready.

2. Our oven randomly beeps, sometimes for lengthy periods of time. It is irritating, especially when I want to go downstairs to sleep on the couch because I'm still not asleep at 1:00 or 2:00 or 3:00.

3. I finished knitting a scarf! It's not long enough to be a scarf, however. I'm starting a second one and hope it will be a usable scarf.

4. I love Chick-fil-A. I could eat there 7 times a day.

5. Corban gets really, really good grades. I want to be as smart as Corban.

6. I coughed so hard this morning that I thought I would throw up. Kaela didn't even check to see if I was okay. I think she just asked if she could have a sweet. She's always asking for a sweet. I think she should go to school so that her teeth don't rot away.

7. I lose lots of hair in the shower. Lots. It's not the gray ones.

8. I think a lot about re-educating myself/getting a job. I wonder why I think this is a good idea when I struggle to keep things running smoothly at home.

9. "Horton Hears a Who" is one of my favorite movies.

10. I haven't exercised in about 2 weeks. I think I'll go eat Chick-fil-A.

My First Flowers

Mom! Dad! Look! It's the flowers you helped me plant that I said I'd post a picture of! :-)

Good news from Corban!

Corban auditioned for a spot in the school district's Honors Orchestra and found out last week that he made it! He's very excited and we're very proud! Way to go Corban!!!

Here is the blurb from the school's newsletter:

Students Who Made SVVSD Honor Orchestra for the 2010-11 School Year

o 6th Grade – Corban Green (very unusual for a 6th grader to make this ensemble!)
o 8th Grade – Jaimie Erker, Eric Peairs, & Monica Walker

**Congratulations! This is a very special honor for Trail Ridge Middle School!

Corban told us that they announced his achievement during the morning announcements as well, so he was being congratulated all day. Fun!

Hangin' Out

I don't know what to say about this activity that Corban dreamed up one day. Maybe when you have a very high loft in your home, it's just what a boy thinks of doing. Rho belayed from up top and pulled them as high as possible, then, lowered them down. It just doesn't sound that cool, but they all got a kick out of it!

This song captured my attention recently while listening to K-Love, so I went hunting for the lyrics, and now I like it even more. Just thought I'd share it with you, because you're beautiful too!

Beautiful

Days will come when you don't have the strength
When all you hear is you're not worth anything
Wondering if you ever could be loved
And if they truly saw your heart they'd see too much

You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His
You're beautiful

And praying that you have the heart to find
Cause you are more than what is hurting you tonight
For all the lies you've held inside so long
And they are nothing in the shadow of the cross

You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His
You're beautiful

Before you ever took a breath
Long before the world began
Of all the wonders He possessed
There was one more precious
Of all the earth and skies above
You're the one He madly loves enough to die

You're beautiful
You're beautiful
In His eyes

You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His

The Green Home

Our house really needed painting and the HOA told us that we had to paint it, so we had it painted this summer. Here's the whole house before.............


The very faded garage door.....


Looking better........


And now the whole house.........
The paint job has been done for about 3 months and I STILL have debates with myself over the color of the darker green trim. It just didn't turn out like I expected. If I look at it when the sun is shining directly on it, I'm like, "No way. That has got to be changed." Then, in the evening, I'm like, "Well, it really looks fine." It's strange and I think I should probably just forget about it, but that's hard for me. My neighbor across the street is very wise and suggested that I simply not look at my house during the day when the sun is shining on it.

P.S. to last blog post

After I mentioned Sen. Mike Crapo in the last post, I was trying to remember another very strange and unfortunate name that I read in our paper just a few days after chuckling about poor Sen. Mike's last name. Well, it came to me and I've looked in the newspaper's online archive to double check myself. It was a story about a man in a neighboring town who was growing a pineapple (musta been a slow news day!). His name is...........get ready for this............Purdy Outhouse! I am not making this up! What were the parents of this man thinking? As if Outhouse wasn't challenging enough, they gave him a first name that can be heard as the sloppy form of "pretty!" Oh, my, my. Maybe one day Mr. Crapo and Mr. Outhouse will meet and appreciate the odd connectivity of their surnames. This makes me grateful to have the simple last name of "Green."

Mr. WHO?

This might be one of those "you had to be there" moments, but it made me laugh, several times, so I thought I'd share it. Kaela was reading a book called "A Fish Out of Water" to me. It's about a boy who feeds his pet fish, Otto, too much food and the fish grows bigger and bigger and bigger. The boy buys the fish from a man named Mr. Carp. Well, Kaela is reading along...."This little fish, I said to Mr. CRAP, I want him. I like him. And he likes me. I will call him Otto. Very well, said Mr. CRAP...." She just keeps right on reading, not realizing that Mr. CRAP is a strange name for a person. She only stops because I'm laughing SO hard. I correct her, without any explanation, but now I will always, in my head, hear "Mr. CRAP" when that story is read.

Sadly, there is someone with the last name of Crapo. Mike Crapo. He's a senator from Idaho. Poor guy.

July 4th, 2010

I'm jumping around in time, posting old stuff and new. Bear with me.

Our 4th of July celebration was different and really fun this year. Rho bought some tickets for a professional lacrosse game from a co-worker. So, we went down to the Pepsi Center and got there early to eat our dinner in the van. For whatever reason, we didn't open the windows or anything and when we finished eating and stepped outside, it had gotten chilly! We were all dressed in shorts and flip flops--totally inappropriate for the change in weather. We knew there was no way we could enjoy this game if we were freezing, so we made the decision to drive all the way back home (about 40 minutes) to get warmer clothes. On our drive back home, it also started to sprinkle, so we grabbed ponchos as well. Well, even though we went as fast as we could, we had missed half of the game by the time we got back. The weather had not cleared up, and we were in our seats for probably 2 minutes before the rain came pretty hard and we all threw ponchos on. Many people were using umbrellas, which we chose not to take, figuring they weren't allowed. Umbrellas would have helped A LOT! Kaela had to go to the bathroom after a little bit, so I took her, and when we were heading back to our seats, we saw that it was absolutely pouring! We stood around under cover for a bit before heading back to our seats and word was spreading that the after game fireworks were going to be cancelled! NO! That was the main reason the girls even cared about being there. We sat, trying our best to keep dry, for the rest of the game, which was really fun to watch, and near the very end an announcement was made that the fireworks would indeed happen! YAY! We've been to a couple of stadium fireworks displays before and they are really neat. They do loud, patriotic music and slides on the big screens, along with in-your-face fireworks. It was awesome! I turned to look at the kids at one point and saw that Karis was crying! huh? I could tell she wasn't upset, however, so I left her alone. Afterwards, I asked her why she was crying and she said, "It was just so beautiful." Awwwww! What a sweetie. It really was an awesome show, despite our soggy bottoms and the chill we got. We were happy to get back to the van afterwards and crank the heat on! There are no pictures to post of the game, since it was raining, but here are a few taken earlier in the day.



I gave the girls patriotic manicures and pedicures.

Corban's 11th Birthday

Kaela and Karis's birthdays are upon us and I realize that I never blogged about Corban's birthday. (Quite a realization, huh, seeing as I hardly ever post about anything! Ha! But I'm getting better!)

Corban had one wish for his birthday this year. A longboard! I don't know where he first heard of these things, but he'd been to the skateboard store a few times to look and was sure these were lots more fun than a regular deathboard. I mean skateboard. He was very happy to get one. And to make it more fun for Corban.......

Rho thought he should get one too. It's more fun to ride with someone!


Corban tries out the board.

And now he helps Karis try it out. What a nice brother!

And then Kaela gets a ride. Fortunately, the girls did not get the "bug" for longboards. I would not want for this to become a family activity! Corban hasn't had any major crashes on his board, thank God, but Rho had a good, but soft, fall one evening and says that passers-by were actually laughing at him! Hahahahahahahaha! Wish I could have seen it! I mean, I'm really glad Rho is ok.

Locks of Love

Near the end of July, Karis's hair was long enough for a donation to Locks of Love. There had been MANY times we were ready to get rid of the length, due to the frustration of tangles, but she was determined to grow it and give it away.

Here she is at Great Clips ready to get her new "do."

She first had to endure this Princess Leia-like goofy look.

Then came the big cut! Bye-bye hair! Good riddance tangles!

She's all smiles afterwards, loving her shorter hair!

The back is shorter than the front/sides. I thought she might be upset after having so much cut off, but she loved this cut immediately! Way to go Karis!

The Climbing Handyman

Here's Rho doing another tricky maneuver when I needed this crazy stairwell window and light fixture dusted. He started at the top of the stairs and shimmied his way over until he could reach the window with an extender pole. This was taken several months ago and now there's a lightbulb burned out, so he'll need to do it again before long. It's handy to have a rock climber around the house!

How many tools does it take......

.....to change a lightbulb?

1. 4 chairs
2. 1 ladder
3. 1 2x4 (or something like that)
4. 1 pair of kitchen tongs

He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

Kaela's history curriculum started with a lesson about the continents and oceans. Because it was a beautiful day, I asked Kaela to go outside and do a chalk drawing of the globe. This is what she drew. What I want to point out are the 2 oval-ish shapes on the outside that kinda make it look like the earth has ears. I asked her what those were and she explained to me that they were "God's hands, holding the earth that he made." What a beautiful addition she thought of! I love it!

First Day of School PHOTOS

It would have been nice to post the photos with the blog. But, better late than never!


Kaela is ready for first grade! A homeschool kid needs a backpack too! Well, not really, but she filled it with homeschool supplies, which was really cute. I had her stand outside the school room door and wait for the "bell" to ring. When it did, I opened the door with a cheery, "Welcome first grader!" We wanted it to feel official.


Wow, I can't believe Corban is in middle school. This photo was actually taken on the second day of school, which was the first "real" day. The first day was just an orientation day. He has considerable less "poof" to his hairstyle since having LOTS of hair thinned away. Thank goodness.

Ever since she got her hair cut, Karis looks almost too old to be a second grader. She could hardly wait to get out the door the first morning. I wish that were still true now, 3 weeks later! She's hangin' in there though.

First day of school 2010

It's going to be a long day. I already feel like going to bed and it's not even 10:00am yet!

Corban's first words at 6:30 this morning were, "I'm not so excited about going back to school anymore." The nerves had set in, poor kid. He got up quickly though and got himself ready, though he was barely able to eat any breakfast. I think he managed 1/2 of a Toaster Strudel.

Karis, on the other hand, flew down the stairs this morning, dressed and smiling hugely, at 7:00. School doesn't start until 8:50! I wasn't going to wake her up until 8:00! Yesterday, we went to the "Popsicle Pop-in" where kids got to meet their teacher, have a popsicle, and take their supplies into their classroom. Karis's teacher is Mrs. Wills, who seems especially sweet and has a son who was in Corban's class last year. I'm glad Karis didn't get Mrs. Jingleheimerschmidt, since she was having trouble remembering "Mrs. Wills" last night!

Corban and I left the house at 7:10 and walked to Trail Ridge for his first day of 6th grade at M-I-D-D-L-E S-C-H-O-O-L! He wanted to know if I remembered how I felt on my first day of middle school or high school or college. I can't really remember my first day of middle school, but is there any question that I was nervous? No. When we got close to the school, Corban slowed down and told me goodbye. I took this as my signal that I wasn't to go any further with him. I was being DITCHED! This bothered me. I had NO IDEA what his day would be like! Didn't it bother him? Didn't he need me to walk him to the front door and make sure everything was in order for him? Didn't he need me to AT LEAST hang there until he was safely surrounded by a few friends? I guess not. He allowed a hug, however. For this I am thankful. Today is basically a 6th grade orientation day, where only 6th graders show up (they don't even take a backpack or any supplies....just lunch money) with some chosen 7th and 8th grade kids who lead them through their day, somehow, someway. I don't know. And it bothers me! But what could I do?!?! I had to let him walk away into the UNKNOWN, to the gathering of other kids, and try not to vomit or run after him. My children cannot go to college. I won't survive.

Speaking of vomit. Kaela woke with moans and groans and calling "Mommy!" from her bed. Since Rho was hanging with us this morning, he went up to Kaela and got her to the bathroom where she emptied her belly into the bowl. Ugh. Not a good start for her first day of school. I let the teacher know that she wouldn't be coming to school today. :) Hoping that Kaela's illness was minor, Rho went on to work, believing I'd be able to get Karis to school just fine. (Read on.) Karis passed the time by playing some Wii and asking several times if it was time to go yet and suggesting that she walk to school on her own since Kaela was sick. She really wants to walk to school on her own and she probably saw Kaela's illness as her big opportunity. Ha! No way! Kaela barfed again just moments before we were to leave, so we actually drove half way to a little parking area next to the park and walked from there so that I wouldn't have to carry Kaela so far. So, I'd been wondering how it would go with Karis on the first day. Here's how it went: Karis TOTALLY DITCHED me when we got to the outside door of her classroom! Didn't she need to stand beside me to feel safe? Didn't she need comforting words from me? Why was she still so happy, even though she didn't know anybody? Why did I have to motion for her to come and give me a hug???!!?! ARRRRGH! She was WAY TOO HAPPY! I gave her a hug, unable to say any final farewells, then quickly grabbed my sunglasses to hide. Mrs. Wills opened the door with a cheery, "Good morning 2nd graders!" and my girl disappeared through the door and I nearly vomited. I walked away quickly, barely getting away from the door before Kaela needed to throw up again. I was prepared with a Wal Mart bag and dish towel, so we squatted on the sidewalk and took care of it. What a scene. A crying mother with a child in pajamas, squatting on the sidewalk, throwing up into a plastic sack. Pitiful. And it made me cry harder. Kaela said, "I've never seen a PARENT cry before." When she asked why I was crying, I told her it was hard to leave Karis at school. She assured me with a "It'll be okay, Mommy." I'm pretty sure she's right, but it's still going to be a long day.

-

Elementary Graduation

Ta-Da! I still know how to post pictures! Granted, they aren't very good, but hey, I tried.

Today was Corban's 5th grade "Continuation Ceremony." Family and friends gathered in the gym for the program, which basically consisted of a reading of "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Suess and a slide show of tons of pictures of the kids taken throughout the year. The kids were called up, one by one, to receive their diploma. I took one picture from my place very near the back of the room, so it turned out very dark, of course. Corban is looking and smiling though. And he looks so cool in a shirt and tie! I love it!

















Here are Corban and his friends Catherine, Diego, and Amira. They are a nice group of kids. Unfortunately, Diego is enrolled in a private school for next year and Amira is moving, so Corban only has one close friend (Catherine) going on to Trail Ridge Middle School with him. I'm sure he'll meet other friends next year, especially now that he'll be involved in band and orchestra.

After the ceremony, a picnic was held at the park next to the school. They served lunch for everyone and the kids had fun running around with each other and enjoying a beautiful, breezy day. The kids were allowed to leave afterwards, so we signed Corban out and then took him over to Amira's house where this little group continued their celebration.

Help Me...My Blog is Ugly

Hey! I have a question for anyone who might still be looking at my blog. Do you know how to make my blog look better? I don't like it anymore. The colors look dull and it just needs a good spiffing up. Any suggestions of how I do this? Like some website or something?

They Crack Me Up

The funny things kids say is one of the little rewards of parenting. Here are a few that I want to remember.

A few mornings ago, Kaela overheard Corban and I talking about a newspaper article that told of a kid who was accidentally shot when a gun he believed to be "jammed" suddenly went off. Later, as Kaela was eating lunch and looking at the paper, she saw the picture of the boy and said, "Mom, is this the boy who got hurt by the gun that shot jam?" Huh? I asked her what she was talking about and she clarified for me that the boy was hurt by a real gun that he thought only shot out jelly! heehee

Kaela prays for the people of Haiti. She wants them to have their houses back the way they were "in the very very very very very very very very first place."

Karis is able to find the smallest of opportunities to make a funny. Once, her math lesson asked her to circle the operation needed: addition or subtraction. She did a couple of problems and then very nonchalantly says, "I think this one's OR" and circles the word "or." What a goof. Another time, while teaching her measurement, I asked her what we were going to do about measuring a book that was longer than the ruler. She answered, "Just get a smaller book." She cracks me up.

Karis tries to eat with chopsticks at dinner. As she's picking them up off the floor, she says "If only I was French!"