ellie's habit

After a couple of months of being exhausted from the side effects of her medication, Ellie has learned all the right things to say to her school teacher to get them to call me.    I now get phone calls a couple times a week that go something like this, "Hi Mrs. G.  This is Ms. H from the clinic at school and I just wanted to let you know that Ellie is here to rest, but she's not really resting and would like to talk to you." 

Then I have a conversation that goes something like this, "Hi Mom!  Do I have a playdate after school?" 

"No, Ellie.  Not today."

"I feel funny.  I want to come home."

Sometimes I can talk her into staying the rest of the day at school (especially if she actually does have a playdate) and other days she's insistent that she really doesn't feel well.  When I do come get her, she often spends the rest of the day  as happy as a clam playing around the house with Cami.

While I would never have tolerated such seemingly manipulative antics in my other kids, I really hesitate cracking down on her, because she legitimately still has bad days where she's exhausted and "off" all day and it's hard to judge that over the phone.   

It is definitely a good thing they don't really care about attendance in kindergarten, because she's well into the double digit absences for this year....and that's not even counting the dozens upon dozens of days she's left early as well!  

It's also a good thing that she keeps us smiling and laughing with her humorous philosophical conversations whenever she's at home (and especially at bedtime).  Lately I've heard all about her philosophies on choosing a good husband, listening to the Holy Ghost, dying, getting boobs, Cosette and Eponine's relationship in Les Mis, exercising, and the tooth fairy.   I'm totally convinced she'll either be a writer, philosopher, or talk show host someday, because this is one deep-thinking girl who loves to share what's on her mind!!!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this little sweetie pie? 


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Mom to the Rescue

The Problem:  It's time for soccer and one of the soccer balls is missing.  All that can be found is this long-lost ball that has spent a few too many days in the backyard.... 

While the ball was well inflated and perfectly fine for kicking around a field,  there were still buckets of tears and arguing over which one of the kids would have to be the one to take the scruffy ball to soccer...

I was feeling my frustration level rise as quickly as their decibel level, when suddenly I had an idea!!!!  Why not break out the markers and make the soccer ball as colorful as they wanted it to be? 

After Ellie, Adam, and Cami frantically colored away, their smiles seemed to grow as each pentagon took on a new color and design. 

It was definitely the most colorful ball on the field...

which worked well for masking the fact that her socks didn't exactly match....

YAY!  Make that one big colorful tally mark in the "Mom Saves the Day" column!

And believe me, when I say that I need all the tally marks I can get today.  I'm at about negative 3,000 after a little parking lot incident I had today in our three-day-old car.    



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Isn't it Ironic?

After receiving word that the crashed Corolla was a lost cause,  we decided to go ahead and get a new Sienna and make our old Sienna the commuter car.  We figured it would be nice to have the family car be new and reliable and have a safe, old car for Spencer to drive when he gets his driver's license in a few months (not that I'm old enough to have child with a driver's license yet or anything). 

So, on Friday night, after much haggling on the internet and in person, we bought this beautimous new minivan with 8 seats, automatic doors, a navigation system, and even a built-in DVD player.  While these features may not seem very exciting to most of you, to those of us who have been driving around the same old economy car for the last decade, these features are downright  luxurious. 

On Saturday morning, before leaving the house, we give the kids a lecture about how we're going to keep this car uncluttered and clean, including a strict no-food policy except on vacations.  We really made a big deal of it and went so far as to breathe out threatenings for anyone who dares to maim our sparkly new car with so much as a muddy footprint. 


Shortly thereafter the aforementioned parental pep-talk/threats, the following prayer was given by Ellie: 

Dear Heavenly Father, We thank thee for this day and for our new car.  Please keep us safe.  Bless us to be good and keep our new car clean, so it won't get messy like our old car.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Shortly thereafter the aforementioned prayer, we get in the car for our inaugural trip (other than driving it home the night before) to take Ellie and Adam to ward soccer. 

Within 20 seconds of being in the car, Ellie accidentally dumped out a bag of stuff she'd randomly brought with her.   Thankfully, the stuff was all easily picked up and put back in the bag.  Unfortunately the long-lost crumbled remnants of a chocolate Easter bunny that also adorned the inside of the bag proved to be another story. 

<SIGH>

At least the new-car smell hasn't worn off yet. 




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RIP: Little Corolla

Now that our Corolla has officially been declared dead and gone by the insurance company, I thought I'd give a little eulogy on what had been, until a couple of weeks ago, a faithful little commuter car for Glen.  

a)  we purchased it on Ebay in 2003

b)  we drove to West Chester, Pennsylvania to pick it up

c)  we paid $6900 for it, which was significantly below blue book values for a one-year-old car

d)  it had nothing automatic and sported old fashioned window rollers, no CD player, and manual door locks, etc.

e)  we thought we were so clever when we got these personalized license plates  (4 MY 4 QTs)

f) we never updated our license plates after Ellie was born.  When questioned at why only four of our five kids were considered QT's (cuties), we would tease that one of them had outgrown their cuteness.
 
g) it had 110,000 miles or so on the odometer at the time of its demise

h) other than the obnoxious phase it went through shortly after Glen added his bike rack to the back, it's been a good and faithful car that's needed very little in the way of maintenance

i)  The estimated cost of repairing the damage inflicted in Glen's rainy, early morning  accident was over $10,000

j)  The insurance company estimated its replacement value at $6000 and sent us a check for that amount (minus our deductible)

k)  that's only $900 loss in value over 8 years.  We attribute it to the good deal we got in the first place and for how well Toyotas hold their value in our area. 

Goodbye faithful Corolla.  We will miss you and our 7 years of being car payment-less. 



(And here's the story, for those of you hadn't heard before now:   Glen had just dropped Spencer off at school after seminary and when traffic stopped suddenly in front of him, he slid on the wet pavement.  The other car (Kia Sol) only sustained minor damage to the bumper.  Other than a couple of bruises from the seat belt and wounded pride, Glen is completely fine. )


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Whatever Floats Your Boat....

For Emma, it's doing her homework outside on the deck....

For my girls, it's watching a real live prince and princess get married....

For Spencer, it's texting (on my phone since he broke his a year ago), lacrosse,  and golfing....

For Glen, it's whipping up something for dinner that he's been craving for ages, but I refused to make for him....       (I've got a meatloaf phobia)

For Cami, it's experimenting with cupcake and frosting recipes....      (key lime...yum!)

For Ellie, it's painting, and reading and writing stories....

For Adam, it's doing random math problems for no reason whatsoever other than being curious about what the answer is....

For me, it's trying to crash read the book group book for tonight ("The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio") while not missing out on a beautiful day with the kids....

Now book group is over and I'm bracing myself for the crazy last few weeks of school and looking forward to a little more laid-back schedule that comes with summer!  



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How hot is it?

It's really, really hot outside. 

How hot is it, Lara?

So hot, that my brain has melted into the sidewalk along with the kids' popsicle drippings. 

Whoa, that's really gross Lara.  Melted brain and popsicle drippings can't be a very pretty sight. 

Why, no.  It's really not, except for the bomb pop drippings.  It swirled with the gray and looks kind of cool. 

Ew, Lara!  You seem to have lost your tact along with the contents of your skull.  Why bother blogging tonight if you have no brains? 

Good question, but it's one that easy to answer even in my brainless state.  I'm blogging because I have pictures of my kids that I want to put into my end-of-year blog book.  The status of my melted brain is of no consequence whatsoever. 

Well, maybe you should stop talking about how tactless/brainless/pointless you are in this stiflingly hot weather and actually get on with talking about your pictures.  We don't have all day you know. 

Great idea.  I shall forgo my pointless verbal meanderings and just get on with the pictures...... 

These pictures were taken on Backwards Day at school. 

It was pretty hot that day too....fortunately not quite hot enough to melt my brains yet though, so I actually thought to take pictures of them forwards and backwards. 

This hair-do was supposed to be a backward ponytail, but it kind of reminds of my brainful days back when I was in high school.  I'm pretty sure I wore this hair-do at least twice a week at one stage of my life.   

 The end. 


PS  If anyone has a good brain shaped jello mold, let me know.



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Ellie's First Blog Post

After telling me that she really wanted her own Facebook page, I convinced Ellie that it would be just as cool for her to write her own blog post.  Here's the picture she chose and her very first post... typed completely by her:

I was so excIted  wen  i  saw  the hose i sprayed my brother wen  I got sprayed I wes  so cold

Working Hard...Playing Hard

Day 1 of Memorial Day weekend:

• Church activities (including 2 baptisms) starting at 9:00

• Copying the programs

• Home for Saturday chores

• Take a load of junk to the dump

• Take another whole load of stuff to Unique (a consignment store)

• Go to Home Depot and buy my belated birthday/Mother's Day flowers. 

• Come home and have a flower planting party. 

• Get cleaned up and put on swimsuits

Including goggles, socks...

winter boots...

and cute smiles.

• Come home at 8:00 and scrounge together some deliciously easy bagel and lunchmeat sandwiches. 

• Put kids to bed while Glen takes Spencer to take care of his weekend dog-sitting job and run a couple of errands.

• Blog while daydreaming about how quickly I can get in bed when the boys get home.  

Freaking out....

Memorial Day weekend is usually a weekend my kids look forward to with eager anticipation.  In addition to signaling that there are only a few weeks of school left before summer break, almost as exciting....it's also when all the outdoor pools open for the summer!   Usually I really look forward to taking the kids swimming on an almost daily basis, since it's one of the few activities the whole family enjoys.  This year, however, I can't help but be a tad bit freaked out about it! 

(see below)

Absence Seizure Definition

By Mayo Clinic staff Absence seizure — also known as petit mal seizure — involves a brief, sudden lapse of conscious activity. Occurring most often in children, an absence seizure may look like the person is merely staring into space for a few seconds.


Compared with other types of epileptic seizures, absence seizures appear mild. But that doesn't mean they can't be dangerous. Children with a history of absence seizure must be supervised carefully while swimming or bathing, because of the danger of drowning. Teens and adults may also be restricted from driving, riding bikes, and other potentially hazardous activities.


Absence seizures can usually be controlled with anti-seizure medications. Many children outgrow absence seizures in their teen years, though some may eventually develop grand mal seizures.

Good thing I just got a cute new swimsuit, because it looks like I'll be spending a whole lot more time in the water this year than I normally do.   



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Migratory Bird Day

 Adam's school teacher this year has a rare gift for making learning an exciting adventure for the kids.   In particular, her love of nature and her ability to integrate it into every subject has made this year of school an unforgettable year of wonder for Adam. Her enthusiasm for the earth----rocks, plants, animals, and birds has contagiously spread through the children and in Adam's case onto his family as well!   

Through the course of the year, Adam has become quite the birder with a knack for being able to identify different species of birds by sight or by their songs.  It's been absolutely amazing to us to suddenly have our eyes open to the rich variety of life all around us.  Suddenly what we thought were only robins, cardinals, and crows have become gray catbirds, mourning doves, downy woodpeckers, mockingbirds, and common grackles. 

Several weeks ago, Adam's teacher told me of an idea she had for the kids to attend a Migratory Bird Celebration at Rock Creek Nature Center in downtown DC.  I indicated that I thought it would be a great idea for a field trip, but then she mentioned that it was an all day celebration on a Saturday and there would be no buses, I was skeptical that very many people would come.

Once again, her enthusiasm proved to be contagious and when we got there on Saturday morning nearly the entire class (20 out of 26) had skipped whatever other Saturday activities they had for the day and had come with parents and siblings to participate in the celebration. 

The celebration was well-planned with a  number of fun, interactive booths set up around the nature center.   The kids were enraptured with the presentations and games and surprised many of the employees and volunteers with their extensive knowledge of the birds, their habitats, and calls.   At one point during this presentation where they showed an American Kestrel who had been rescued after being injured after crashing into the Capitol building, they asked the kids if they had any questions.  Much to my amusement, Ellie raised her hand 10+ times to ask a variety of questions...."What's its name?" "What does it eat?"  "Can I pet it?"  "What color are its eggs?" etc, etc. 

 

We wandered around quite a bit and found these two mourning doves looking all cozy up in a tree.  We laughed at how they wouldn't stray far from each other's sides and we took to calling them "Love Doves".  Adam had brought his Beginning Birdwatching book so that he could mark down the different species that he saw.  Ellie was excited to find the two mourning dove feathers. 

 

Here are some of the birds he was able to mark off:  A Screech Owl, which had been hit by a car...it was much smaller than I expected as you can see its size compared to the gloved hand that it's perched on.

 

There was also a Great-Horned Owl which was also hit by a car and then a gorgeous Red-Tailed Hawk who had suffered "neurological damage" after getting caught in a fence.
 

One of the booths demonstrated bird banding.  They had some kind of trap set up nearby and whatever they happened to capture, they would bring to the booth and band them in front of the kids.  Talk about fascinating....the kids (and adults) were completely enraptured.  This was a downy woodpecker they caught.  Again, it was much smaller than I expected it to be, but it was a tough little fighter eager to get back into the wild again.  The banding only took a few minutes of actually attaching the band, measuring the bird, determining its gender (female), and health.  As soon as everything was recorded properly they were set free again into the wild. 

 

We all went on a hike through the woods with a bird expert.  We did see a few turkey vultures and hear several different calls, but traipsing through the woods with 30+ people did not introduce us to any cool bird sightings. 

Towards the end of the celebration, the kids got out their bird art and performed two songs for the crowds.  The songs were touching and beautiful and I so wish that I'd thought to bring my video camera for the occasion. 

 

Adam's teacher was completely thrilled with the day, their experiences, and especially their performance and we were thrilled to be a part of it. 

And on Monday to say, "Thank you and Happy Birthday," to his wonderful teacher we (mostly Adam) made these cute owl cupcakes to share with the class. 

Teachers like her don't come around very often, but we are so very grateful for the opportunity Adam has had to be in her class this year and we hope she'll be around to teach Ellie in a couple of years as well.    

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