Steel Eel, and other misadventures

Yesterday I dropped Russ and the kids off at SeaWorld while I went to the temple. I joined them later that afternoon. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get Matthew to go down the big water slide the first time. After that he thought it was so fun that he kept going. So, we thought, hey--he's being so brave, maybe he will like one of the roller coasters too. He was just tall enough this time visiting to ride one of my favorites--the old-fashioned coaster called the Steel Eel.

Take an eel-lectrifying ride.

SeaWorld San Antonio boasts the Southwest's first hypercoaster, the "Steel Eel," with its pulse-pounding, 15-story initial drop, speeds of almost 65 mph and non-stop peaks, valleys and camelbacks that create maximum "air time," or weightlessness - a hypercoaster's signature feature. This "eel-lectrifying," state-of-the-art coaster zooms along 3,700 feet of track and covers the serpentine route in approximately two minutes. Height Requirement: Guests must be at least 48 inches tall to ride.

Yeah...

Bad idea. Russ said that from the top of the first hill on the Steel Eel, Matthew did NOT like it. Matt said that when it dropped it "really hurt my stomach". He was sobbing when the ride ended. I fear we may have traumatized the boy for life. I'm sure he will never try another fast roller coaster for a long, long time. With his cautious nature, we should have known better.



Well, other than that, it was a pretty good trip to SeaWorld. Matthew seems to have forgiven us. For that.

In other news, Lizzie crawled out of her crib for the first time today. Boom, crash. I ran to her room (naptime) and she was standing in the middle of the floor crying. But, I figured that if she was standing, that was a good sign that she wasn't injured too badly. Her crib was on the lowest setting already, but propped up on one side by a pillow (to help her breathe easier at night when she's stuffy). I pulled out the pillow after that, but I worry that she may still be able to get out. I don't want to put her in a big girl bed yet, nor let her sleep on a mattress on the floor--she wouldn't stay in bed and sleep if we did. I think I'll get one of those crib tents that can be attached to the top of a crib to keep toddlers from crawling out. Anybody tried those before?

Actually, maybe she can sleep on the floor. After wandering around the house, we found her like this...

...sleeping in the kitty bed.


In other, other news, my sister Deanna is not married. If you find her on Facebook, she's under the name "Deanna Dresden"--she's also listed her birthday as Jan 1, 1909. She's pretty hot-looking in her pictures for such an old lady.

A state of inefficiency

I can't decide whether to take a nap, read my book (Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, which I'm liking so far...I couldn't get through Emma, although I did like the movie), make some Coconut Zucchini Bread, plant some flowers, exercise, play cards with Ethan (not Book of Mormon Battles...again!), do crafts with the boys, finish sewing my duvet cover OR WHAT! So I'm still sitting on the computer.

I want to go get acupuncture done in San Antonio tomorrow (I really need to unblock my chi!), but that would require driving in the car with three kids for 6 hours. Russ has to go anyway to clear up his military portfolio or whatever at Randolph. I don't think he's keen on us coming.

My friend just called me for some advice, so I ended up playing cards with Ethan (the little cheater!!!) while we talked. This boy will go through a whole deck of cards, setting it up so that he has all the winning hands for a game of war... I already caught him looking at my cards while I was talking.

NineTEEN!

These are the mugshots of my boys that are on the wall in the Primary room. Pretty pathetic, huh? Don't they look happy to be there? hahaha

So, I haven't been posting much because I was fairly convinced that hardly anybody read it anyway. I guess I judge my traffic by the number of comments. My sister Deanna tells me that she checks this every day, even though she has never commented. Similar story from my mom. So, I will post more often.

Tonight for Family Home War--oh, I mean Family Home Evening--neither of the boys had their stuff prepared, so we decided to postpone until Wednesday (Russ is night-flying tomorrow). Matt was supposed to have the lesson, which I kept offering to help him prepare, but he put off until he was actually supposed to give it. And then he couldn't find what he was looking for (he had made a puzzle on Saturday at the Primary Activity), and it turned into a full scale breakdown. Ethan was soon to follow--so we just put them to bed. Try again later. Usually it goes a little better than this.

Although, one might wonder just what are we teaching our kids when one hears a question like the one Russ heard from 5-year-old Ethan a couple of days ago..."Daddy, do I have to wait until I'm ninety to go on a mission?" NINETY? No, buddy, nineTEEN. Nineteen.

Poor, Poor Sugar

Guess what minor drama we had this morning....All of a sudden we heard this awful, high pitched screaming. It was the cat. Matthew had taken one of my claw hairclips (the kind that are straight, 3 inches long) and stuck it on the cat's leg. Oh boy, she was NOT happy. Every time I got near her to try to get it off, she would hiss, bite and scratch. Finally I had Russ hold her top half in a towel so I could break the clip to get it off. Poor Sugar. I asked Matt later what was going through his head when he did that. Nothing. Of course.

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we sat outside in lawn chairs for the song, prayer and lesson. Then for the activity, we took some kites over to a field nearby and flew them. The boys did pretty well. Lizzie, not so much, but she was tired and ready for bed. I was cranky, because I didn't exercise today. Plus, you will not believe how many times you can tell a child to go get their shoes on and still see them wandering about aimlessly and looking surprised when you remind them. I swear they will not move to action until I yell. I feel like I'm training basics. Only, you're supposed to be nicer to children.

One person's opinion...

Okay, here's something that just happened yesterday. We were all outside painting (except Russ was at work of course). Matthew got mad at me for something--I don't remember what. It doesn't take much with him. He left us and took the dark blue paint and in huge letters he painted on our concrete back porch the words "Mom is an IDIOT". I had to laugh.

He wrote me an apology later in code. It said, "Mom, I'm sorry I wrote "Mom is an idiot". Can you come outside and bounce me [on the trampoline]? If you can't, can I at least have a cookie? Love, Matthew"

You can just see that keen little mind at work. As for the consequence? I put him out there scrubbing at the paint. When he was ready to give up (which didn't take long, mind you), I gave him the option of continuing to scrub until it all came off, or using his allowance money to pay for a special cleaner from Walmart to get it off. He opted to pay for the cleaner. Smart boy.

Which one is the real Val?

Dinotrivia

Saturday morning I came into the living room to find Matthew and Ethan trying to set up a movie to watch, "The Land Before Time: The Mysterious Island". In an effort to distract me from noticing that they were putting on a movie without asking, Matthew started his filibustering. I know I'm using that word incorrectly, but he does sometimes remind me of a politician, and once he starts talking, good luck getting him to stop. Anyway, Matt's informative speech this morning rather impressed me, so I let them get away with it. After all, Russ was sleeping in and frankly, if they're watching a movie, at least they're not fighting.

Here's what he had to say: "Mom! They're going to get a ride home on an elasmosaurus! But, if it were a REAL elasmosaurus, it would probably EAT them! And there would be mosasaurs, too. But, Mom, all these dinosaurs lived at different times. They have a triceratops and an apatosaurus living at the same time, but apatosauruses are sauropods, and they lived during the Jurassic; but the triceratops lived during the Cretaceous. And, there are ceolophysis, but they lived in the Triassic!"

Huh, what? I can't even tell you the order of those periods of time. Matt reads the Dinosaur Encyclopedia like it's a fast-paced novel or something. That's what he brings for me to read to him for "bedtime stories".

This pic is from Feb 6, 2009. I had given them graham crackers for a snack, which Matt chose to eat into the shape of claws, so he could be a T-Rex. Or velociraptor. That's kind of gross and funny at the same time. I made him eat the rest of those graham crackers. Just kidding.

Tough as Bricks!

Yesterday I was at a friend's house (just finishing a Primary presidency meeting--I'm the new 2nd counselor since our branches combined), when all of a sudden we heard a big crash and guess what it was...my 5-yr-old son, Ethan, had snuck into their attic and fallen through the floor, onto their minivan in the garage and then onto the garage floor. He has a few goose eggs on his head, but seems none the worse for the wear. Good thing kids are tough. I told him that he must have a guardian angel protecting him, because he didn't break a bone and there was not one scratch on him.

New Trick

My first Velociraptor drawing:


The boys are very into dinosaurs these days. Well, they have been for a few years, alternating between them and Harry Potter and Transformers. But, since receiving a 3 disc set of the Ultimate Dinosaur Collection by BBC video for Christmas, they've been all but obsessed (thanks Nikki and Ed!). I do not know how many times they've watched those videos, which are similar to National Geographic documentaries, but the narrator goes back in time and sees (computer generated) prehistoric monsters. I'm not surprised to hear Matthew rehearsing some little known fact to me, or talking about dinosaurs I've never even heard of before. But, now even Ethan is coming to me with such tidbits as "Mommy, did you know that Ceolophysis was the first dinosaur?"

Matthew will spend all day in his room reading one of his numerous library books about dinos. One book showed how to draw some, so this morning he tried to draw it. Of course, he got extremely frustrated that he couldn't get it right, and was going through paper like there was no tomorrow. When I intervened, he shoved the book and paper at me and demanded that I draw him a velociraptor. Um, what? I can't even draw a rose that looks like a real rose. Not even close. It will look like a carnation on drugs. But, I can follow instructions, so I took the book and some time later... "wha-la". [How on earth do you spell that?] And I didn't even trace it. Matthew was asking me how I got to be such a good artist. Well, you know.

President Obama's Inauguration Day

Cute & Cuter
(Russ & Lizzie)

Lizzie taking a stroll outside, enjoying the nice,
warm Del Rio January.

Playing with Matthew. 20 Jan 2009

Lizzie laughs at Matthew's antics.

Matt points to his picture of Barack Obama that he colored
as we were waiting to watch the inauguration.

All of us watching the inaugural speech
by President Obama on cnn.com

Ethan and Matthew...

and their versions of our new president.

Ethan's has a pink suit and yellow face. Nice.
Matt's just has a pink shirt and purple tie. He added the legs.

Christmas Pics

Christmas Eve--the boys were laughing at some silly story I was telling them.

Sugar and Cinnamon take a "long winter's nap" under the Christmas tree.


Ethan teaches the Family Home Evening lesson
by using the flannel board to tell the Christmas story.

Lizzie enjoys an up close spot for the story.


Christmas morning, checking out their stockings.


Ethan thinks this Santa Claus sucker will be good...
too bad it was disgusting. All hard marshmallow.


Matt can't wait to get started reading his books.


Santa brought the kids a truck just like Dad's!

The boy's truck...Russ's truck.

Don't let these pictures fool you: Matt did plenty of the driving!


And normally Lizzie doesn't sit in the back.
Russ followed along right behind them, which is a good thing because...

Whoa! Lizzie almost takes a dive due to her brother's
unpredictable starts and stops. Those crazy grade-school drivers!

AuntDeanna Jones

3 June 2000, Deanna and Valancy

Today is my sister Deanna's birthday. As I explained to the boys that we were calling Aunt Deanna to sing her Happy Birthday, Ethan said, "We should just look her up on noblecollection.com, because they probably have pictures of her there or something...you know, 'AuntDeanna Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark'!
Matthew and I had a good laugh over that one.

That's me on the right, Thanksgiving 1981 so I was six years old. Deanna is in the high chair, and almost a year old. She used to stand up in her high chair and shake her bootie around and sing "Bootie bootie, bootie bootie!" She was hilarious.


I just love this picture, so I threw it in here. This is my mom and Deanna, probably 1982. I think Mother made that litle purple jumper Deanna is wearing.



I thought Deanna was so cute. I loved having a sister.
My hair isn't short here, it's just up around my head in braids.


This looks like Deanna's second birthday. Look how young my mom looks. She was young! She was only 28 and Deanna was number 5! Dang, I'm 33 now and I only have 3 kids.

Mississippi Madness

So, I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, and for anyone who is wondering why, it's because we are busy going mad in a motel in Mississippi. Russ had an airspace class to attend here at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, and at the last minute we decided to come with him. After all, that's part of the beauty of homeschooling--freedom to roam.

We have had fun playing on the beach, although not in the water, which is just too cold since it IS December. What were we thinking? Anyway, this week is better than last, since we've been able to meet and talk to actual people. We went to Russ' instructor's house (Randy Abernathy) for a BBQ and enjoyed being out in a more woodsy neighborhood. Randy has a four-wheeler and I drove the kids around his property. He has about 2-3 acres I think. We also met his lady friend, Charlene, and her son Seth who is 13. We hung out with her yesterday for most of the day. She's about my mom's age, and she is really nice. Southern hospitality at it's best :) She let the kids play with her kittens, Seth's toys and even help her decorate her Christmas tree. She even watched Lizzie for an hour or so while I napped on her couch.

Today we plan to go to Beauvoir, the Jefferson Davis home (President of the Confederacy), which is just a mile down the road from us. We are staying at a Holiday Inn on Beach Blvd. The beach is literally just across the street from us, and we can see it from our hotel room. There is a lot of damage and construction here, still 3 years after Hurricane Katrina. Some buildings and attractions are entirely gone. There is a children's museum here, about 4 miles away, where we plan to spend a few hours today. It is pretty fun, and has an awesome group of tree forts outside. I'll upload some pictures later.

Today (Wed. 10 Dec) is our last full day, and tomorrow Russ finishes by 1:00 p.m. and we head out. We'll go through New Orleans and then get home by Saturday night. We have to be back to church Sunday morning so we can say goodbye to our friends Sven and Chelsea Lundberg (he is also our branch president and she is my visiting teacher). They are going on vacation and then he deploys for 4 months to Honduras while she goes home to Arizona. Then they PCS to North Carolina. They are such great people, so fun to be with and certainly a staple to our branch. We'll be sad to see them go. We also just said goodbye to Brandon and Julianne Mackay after Thanksgiving, about whom I could say all the same things. Our boys played together all the time. We're losing everybody! I guess that's life in the military, but in some ways you never get used to it. I just think that I will see all my friends again sometime, I just never know when or where. Keeps things interesting. Plus, now I can always check blogs and see what everybody's up to.

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season. In the meantime, I smell a dirty diaper!!!

Silly Friends

Our friends and neighbors, the Mackays, are moving next week. Their boys, Levi (5) and Noah (3) play with our boys all the time, so I took some fun pictures with them today. I printed this one on some t-shirt transfers and made little t-shirts for each of them to remember their friends in Del Rio.

Lizzie on the trampoline yesterday...she was having lots of fun trying to walk around on there by herself. It was so funny how her hair sticks straight up from the static electricity. When the boys were younger and their hair was longer (bowl cut), their hair stood up like that too. It always makes me laugh

Lizzie ponders the scientific properties of static electricity...

and concludes that really
she just wants her mama to quit laughing at her hair
and taking pictures
and just get her off this darn trampoline.

Halloween 2008

The first part of the evening we went to Russ' squadron
and trick-or-treated around the offices.

Then we went to the library for a Halloween storytime.
Lizzie was a little witch for these first two activities.

Ethan is about the cutest little boy scout I've ever seen! He's wearing Russ' old Webelos uniform that is loaded down with patches. He was going to be Harry Potter, but I would have had to make him new costume parts again and find his wand, so this was a last minute inspiration.

Matthew is wearing a karate gee I bought at the thrift store for five bucks. He was going to be the Monster Book of Monsters (from Harry Potter), but that would have taken a lot of work, and I opted for easy.

He made an awesome karate kid!
Those are spiders in his hands.

Lizzie is wearing a fairy costume. After the kids and Russ came back from trick-or-treating, Lizzie hung out with me. She liked to try to grab candy out of the cauldron. Check out that spider--it's as big as her! Some kids wouldn't even come up to get any candy because they were afraid of the spider.

It was a fun Halloween. I was a witch, because originally we were all going to be Harry Potter characters, and I was Professor McGonagall. But also, just because that is the type of character I really identify with lately. heh heh heh

Russ was creeping people out and making them laugh
in his John McCain mask. A friend took this picture.

Kittens!

For our latest homeschooling adventure, we've been reading about cats this week. Last weekend at the District Campout, a teenage girl from another branch mentioned that they have kittens that needed homes soon. That got me to thinking...our hamster isn't much of a pet. We don't really interact with him much. We need something to love. So, I talked it up to Russ, and...the rest is history.

Today we got kittens: Cinnamon and Sugar. The reddish one (Cinnamon) is the runt of the litter, but very friendly. He is so tiny!













The whiter one (Sugar) is bigger, and already loves the scratching post.

They are soo cute, and the kids love them. When we visited them yesterday, and Lizzie first saw them, she said "Oooooo! Ooooo!" That's what she always does when she sees a small fuzzy thing that she wants to hug. Usually it is just a stuffed animal. She must hug every stuffed animal she sees. But, she's been very good with the kittens, not grabbing them or anything. She leans way over to see them closer and holds her hand out, even makes patting motions, but doesn't seem to actually want to touch them just yet. Ethan likes to hold them, of course. But Matthew is the one that is absolutely in love with them. Actually, we sort of got them with him in mind, as a type of therapy for him. Something for him to cuddle and hold, have quiet time with and just enjoy the peacefulness of petting them. He is very protective of them.

I'll get some pictures of the kids holding them tomorrow. I need to go to bed. Yay, we have kittens! We love cats and dogs, but cats are a little easier to take care of, so... :)) More difficult than a hamster, but more lovable, too.

Politics

Russ and I were raised republican, and we're LDS, so we come from a largely conservative background. However, I don't recall much politics being discussed as I was growing up. Russ' brother married a girl whose family is strongly democratic. I respect them alot, so that makes me more interested in figuring out what I really believe. We've had a bishop we also respected very much who was a Democrat.
Russ and I don't get television, so we have to read news online to learn about the issues. We're trying to be a little more responsible and read up about the candidates. Especially since we have to send in our ballots soon (we vote in Washington state). If a moderate is someone who may vote for either party, depending on the candidate or situation, then I guess we're moderates. We are leaning toward Obama, because we like his health plan and financial plan. The thing holding us back is the fact that he may appoint Supreme Court Justices that will have long-term consequences on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.
I'm just throwing this out there, because that's what we're thinking about right now.

Tag--Seven Random Things About Me

Seven random things about myself. Hmmm, it's all randomness. Off the top of my head...

1. It's almost midnight and I'm writing seven random things about me instead of going to bed. (Russ donated that one). I hate to have to go to bed. I wish sleep were optional instead of necessary. There is so much to do, so little time to do it. Even when I was in kindergarten I remember not wanting to lay down on those little rugs and take a nap. Who does? Actually, now I love a nap and I love sleep--after I've gotten plenty of it and I'm feeling good from it. But, I never like having to stop doing things to go to sleep. Besides, it's not always restful, because my dreams seem so real that it's like living another life while I'm sleeping. One year I wrote down my dreams every morning. It bugs me that so many people think they don't dream, when the fact is that everyone dreams, it's just that most people don't remember their dreams. Russ used to think this, but after two years of listening to me tell him my dreams every morning, he started remembering his. Ha. You just gotta wanna.

2. I am a sugar addict. Hopefully someday I'll be able to say "recovering sugar addict". I've noticed that other cultures think our sweets are too rich or sweet, and American's tend to think the same about other cultures' sweets. At least I've seen this in China and Japan. It's just a different type of sweet. Everyone thinks their own sweets are best. Like me. Lizzie is my sweet and I'm addicted to her. I could just eat her up. And I never want to be recovering from that kind of sweet.

3. I love ideas. I collect ideas. It's my hobby. I love to go into the hobby section of WalMart and just imagine the possibilities of all the things I could make. I can and have gotten lost in WalMart and other hobby stores (JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, Michaels), which leads to number 4...

4. I have ADHD. This is why I can get lost in a store for so long. I have spent over 5 hours in WalMart at a time, more than once. The first couple of hours are fun, but after that it's more like compulsion to look at everything. Like every isle in the store. Almost. I usually skip the soaps and perfumes because they give me a headache. And I usually don't go in the electronics or automotive section. But, in general, it's like everything is interesting and has equal pull on my attention. WalMart is an ADD person's nightmare. And heaven.

5. I have always wanted to be a photographer and a writer. I would like to write children's books. I've even planned a few, but I'm not really serious enough about it to actually take the time to do it. Maybe someday.

6. Autumn is my favorite season. I love to breathe the cool, crisp air as I take in the multi-colored trees. I love trees. Some of the best places I've found to enjoy the autumn is, in no special order, Minnesota, Utah, Alabama, Virginia and Tennessee. Also Japan. Maybe because they all have so many beautiful, deciduous trees. I love to feel cool, much more than being hot. And yet, I've spent a lot of my life in hot, humid places. That's one reason why we'll live in North Dakota over Louisiana.

7. I can swallow a whole bunch of big pills/vitamins all at once. I noticed that I hold my left hand up in the air palm up, like I'm waiting for someone to put something in it while I swallow my pills or vitamins. I do it without thinking and then I notice and feel silly and put it down. I've done this for years. Ever since I started swallowing vitamins. Russ can't even swallow a multi-vitamin, but I can gulp a small handful at once. I even successfully taught my 5-year-old son how to swallow a pill, again proving that you just gotta wanna. And now, I'm going to bed. Even though I don't really wanna.

Homeschooling update #2

Great news from our little corner of the world! Haha, well, it's great news for me. We have had three great days in a row of homeschooling! I don't know if we ever matched that even in public school. It turns out that I needed to provide the right motivation. Because, really, what is more fun than playing with your transformers all day or reading Harry Potter books every free second? So, to pull Matthew away and get him to accomplish his lessons in a reasonable amount of time (like before 5 pm??) this is what I did. I got out a couple of baby food jars and told the boys that for each lesson they completed/participated in, they each got to put one marble into their jar. Later, each marble can be redeemed for 15 minutes of computer time. {I got this great idea from Ericka, one of my homeschooling friends here in Del Rio}. Well, that was an immediate reward, kept them going, and didn't involved sugar. Ethan likes to try free online games. Matt likes to go to Transformers.com and watch old webisodes of the original cartoons, or just look at all the different Transformer toys that are available. Although I really can't stand to see him sitting there drooling over more Transformers, it is working. Today they both got done before lunch. We start after breakfast with a morning devotional: prayer, sometimes a song, and then I read a few verses of scripture and we discuss it's meaning and how it applies to us today. Matthew did his Reading, Math, Science, Health, and Social Studies. Ethan does all the same subjects, only modified to his level. I'm actually really enjoying it.

This afternoon, I left the kids home with Russ while I went to the dentist to supposedly get a small cavity filled. I ended up with a root canal! That was fun. My lip is only now, five and a half hours later, returned to it's normal size and feeling. Happily, I didn't have to wait for it to get really painful before I got it taken care of. The dentist was telling me how much pain it was when he was up all night with a tooth needing a root canal instead of a filling, and how I was being saved sooo much pain. I believe him, of course, but I couldn't help thinking "Oh please, I have had three babies. Pain? Bring it on." Nevertheless, I VERY glad to report a pain-free root canal, something unheard of until recent history. As we learned in Social Studies this morning, during Colonial times in America, there was only one cure for a painful tooth. Visit your local blacksmith and let him YANK it out. Fun, fun. Thank goodness for modern medicine. Well, some modern medicine anyway.

What are the odds?!

Okay, so Russ and I were playing Yahtzee tonight, and I rolled a Yahtzee on my second turn. It was five 4's. Then, in the next game, his first turn, Russ rolled a Yahtzee--also 4's. Then, the very next turn, I rolled a Yahtzee of 4's. So, considering that these dice are not loaded (they're the very same dice we've always used for this game), what are the odds of that many Yahtzee's being rolled--especially the two right after each other of the same number. In one game there are 13 turns. Figure that one out, if you dare. Nikki, Ed, we're counting on you! No pressure though. (Nikki and Ed are our genius sister and brother-in-law who pontificate about numbers for a living).

Wait, it gets better! We just played a tie-breaker game, and I rolled a Yahtzee of 6's, and then a few turns later I rolled a Yahtzee of 4's! So, the odds of rolling a Yahtzee of the same number (4's) in three consecutive games, and whupping Russ' butt. Let's hear it folks. I want to hear some replys!