John!

A couple of days ago John comes into the kitchen where Peter is cooking. He pulls down his pants and says wants to know what "these things" are. Peter tells him that those would be his testicles. "Oh," John says, "I call them mouse brains."
Where oh where, oh where did he come up with that? His mind just never stops.
He is so hard for us right now. I had another talk with the kindergarten teacher the other day. She is so great. She is SO great. Wonderful with John.
"It must be exhausting for you," she says.
She's right. Some days it is no different than having a toddler. There is no pause between demanding something and then demanding it over and over again. I'm doing the dishes and "Mom I want some milk. Mom. Give me some milk. Mom, I'm asking you for milk. Mom. Milk! When are you going to get me some milk!" I haven't even had time to process it before I'm already overwhelmed. He hasn't even given me a chance to respond!
The constant tapping, stroking, talking. I took him to the pool the other night for about an hour. I have to be within arms distance of him the whole time because he isn't a strong swimmer yet. He never stopped talking. Not for one minute. Not for 30 seconds. Story after story after story after story...about Buzz and Woody and aliens and sharks and fictional boys.
He won't go to sleep at night and then in the morning he stalks us until we get out of bed. Tapping, whispering, staring, patting. I feel like I'm being driven to the brink of insanity.
He has no sense of when to stop. I don't think he can stop. 6 1/2 years old!

Birthday for Rebecca!

10 years old! She described exactly what she wanted for her cake and I made it.

M&M game

Nathaniel's belated birthday party goes on simultaneously.

We did tons of games, had veggies and dip, had 7 pizza's delivered, then had cake and ice cream. Rebecca opened presents and then they watched a movie and ate popcorn and endless candy.
Rebecca got a case for her American Girl dolls, a piggy bank, and a pricey Harry Potter wand, which she was really excited about.
One of the girls, not getting that it was a mock sleepover party says,
"This is the longest birthday party I've ever been to."
You're telling me. People started arriving at 4pm and I didn't get the last one out until 9:45.
I came down with a bad cold the next morning and laid on the couch all day.

Poor John did not have a good time. He felt totally left out as the girls were not as nice to him as they should have been. It was not a good day for our little guy.

Really long post about something boring to you but exciting for me!

Our first washing machine was given to us by an old bishop we had. It was super old, even at the time, from like 1979 but we used it for the first 5 or so years of our marriage. It was his wife Sister White who offered it to me, and when we went to pick it up she came out with this big pole/stick thing and I was thinking what is this for?
"I just use this to agitate it sometimes."
It worked out fine.
My current washer isn't too old, maybe 8-10 years. We did have it repaired a couple of years ago, but it has certainly given us our money's worth. It is SO loud and bangs around incessantly. Sometimes it actually jumps around when I'm washing a blanket. Kind of alarming but you get used to it.

The dryer is older-- about 14 1/2 years old. I know this because I bought it when Nathaniel was 4 or 6 months old. We had to get the heating element fixed once, but other than that we've never had any repairs. Very faithful dryer.

The dryer has been looking sad for some time now. One of the paddles inside has been gone for a few years and I have to put duct tape on it periodically to keep it from snagging all my clothes.
I figured this out on the first wash of some brand new sheets:(

For some time (months? years even?) I have been looking into getting a new washer and dryer, but it just wasn't an outlay of cash I was ready to part with.

So Saturday I ask Peter if he wants to go with me to run some errands so we can get away from John, who has just about driven us to the edge, and he suggests we look at washers and dryers while we are out. The man was reading my mind.
When we decided on a set I asked the salesman at Lowes to give us a grand total of everything--pedestals, the warranty, tax, whatever. I was expecting to walk out the door with the estimate when he looks at us from behind the computer and asked if we wanted him to go ahead and order them. Peter and I looked at each other.
"Well, I don't know," I said.
Peter says, "It's up to you."
I was like, "What? It's up to you!"
He said let's get it.
I have to say he was in a really good mood that day.

So there it is, my washer next to the inferior dryer.
The new dryer is back ordered and won't come for another week.
The sales guy felt bad but I said I thought
I'd live with old faithful another week or two.
The washer comes with a steam setting. I didn't even know this.
And it plays me a little tune when the cycle has ended.

Peter was like, "Well? Are you going to try it out or what?"
I told him I didn't even have any high efficiency detergent yet.
"Well, come on then--go get it!"
I'm funny about these things. When Peter gets a new toy (like his new Verizon Droid) he must play with it right away. I'm a little slower. I have to gaze at it, shine it, and then read the whole manual. Then I called Lowe's because I couldn't find the button for setting the load size and there was nothing about it in the manual.
They said no load size button, instead there is a sensor that automatically sets it.
Eh?

I gave John have the special honor of being the first to press the "start" button.
Then we watched it for so long he was late to kindergarten.

We are all completely smitten. I wish there was a light inside.
Reminds me of that commercial of the woman watching her machine, which I think was supposed to be funny but turns out to be reality in this house.
Peter is very happy for me and reminded me of what a good husband he is.
I didn't disagree:)

Houdini mice

For months our cats have been staking out our trash compactor. I assumed there must be a mouse somewhere in the vicinity but had never seen a mouse in the house or any signs of one so thought it was probably long gone by now.
Then a couple of weeks ago Nathaniel opened the trash compactor as he was getting ready for school and "they were both just staring at me!" Sure enough there was not one, but 2 mice in the trash. But here was the weird thing--there was no hole in the bag! I couldn't really figure out how they got in there, but they must have somehow squeezed up and over the top of the compactor while it was closed. Gross.
Well Peter's mom Penny was visiting at the time and from that point on I kept seeing trash sitting on the counter top. Turns out Penny wouldn't chance opening the compactor. She said she's experienced more than her fair share of mouse incidents in her life, thank you very much.
hee hee
Yesterday morning John was freaking out--"a mouse is in the trash! I saw it! Come see!"

And here it is--mouse #3. Again no hole in the bag.

We can't really set a trap behind the compactor but we have figure out something. Now I'm thinking there has to be a whole nest somewhere in the wall behind there.
Really, really disgusting.

Report Cards and a Permit

We made our first trip as parents to the DMV here and Nathaniel got his permit. How weird is that?? He wanted to get in on his birthday but I didn't know exactly what we needed to do and didn't feel like waiting in line so I made an appointment for Monday. Then it turned out he needed to take a written test (even though he insisted he didn't) and so I was glad he got to read some of the manual online this weekend.
Having an appointment is a beautiful thing. There were people winding all around the counter at the DMV when we got there and I walked right up to the counter. These old people in the line were not happy. I actually felt kind of bad. Well, not too bad I guess.
He could only miss ten questions and so I advised him not to miss eleven, and guess what? He missed eleven. But here in Utah you can just walk right back and take it again--up to 3 times in the same day. So weird. The 2nd time he missed 10 and passed. We were out of there in an hour!

So here is his funny picture.

Also very major news around here is that he got a 4.0 for his first term of his Freshman year.
He knows his grades really count for something now so he can get into a college he wants to.
We are very proud!

Sarah didn't do too bad either! She is in the 7th grade and got a 3.67.

At school today they gave all the honor students candy bars, which I thought was funny.

Nathaniel's 15th birthday

Nathaniel turned 15 on Tuesday and here is me trying to get a picture with him:

I had to guilt him to even take the pictures with me and then they come out like this.
Growing out my hair is never cute--and would someone like to tell me where my makeup went?
And what the heck is Nathaniel doing in all three of these photos?

Just overall not good.

He is having his party with friends next week because that is when the video game he is getting comes out. Turns out we scheduled Rebecca's party on the same day he was planning to have it--and at the same time. He insists he told me several times about the date but if someone tells me about a date in November when it is still October it's unlikely I'm going to make the connection.
The invitations for Rebecca's are already out so I guess we'll have 13 extra kids in our house on that day.
Nathaniel had already reserved the theater room and so Rebecca gets the portable projector for her PJ party--which luckily only goes until 9pm.
Whew!

Halloween 2010

At Cornbelly's

The weather on Halloween was terrible! First there was this crazy pelting hail and then the rain came in torrents. Luckily after a while things cleared up and it went better!

Sarah the "nerdy Jazz fan"

Lily decided she needed to dress up to take the kids out because she wanted the candy too.
I gave her three options for costumes and she chose the smallest, most uncomfortable option--a gorilla suit that gave her a super-weggie. Don't ask me what she was thinking.

John the vampire!

Rebecca is Corpse Bride. Bought the dress at DI,
she cut it up a bit and then we dyed it blue.
I thought she looked great!

Grandma Penny came to visit and gets to see John's Kindergarten Halloween program.

So cute:)

Rebecca and Nathaniel pumpkins

John and Sarah pumpkins