The 4th Bathroom

There is a fourth bathroom in our house that has been banned ever since we bought the house. It's a half bath that is located in a not very smart place. It's upstairs, right off the family room and kitchen. Since it's in such a public place, the user would not be permitted much privacy as I'm sure sound would travel exceptionally well through the thin wall and into a heavily used part of the house. The bathroom's location is one reason it was banned, the second reason is because the toilet, like everything else in this house, had "issues". It didn't flush. Rather than deal with the toilet issue, we simply locked the bathroom door. I've always wanted a mud room- a place where the boys can put their shoes, backpacks, coats, etc., but I have yet to buy a house with one. When the boys come home from school, they dump their stuff in the family room and we walk around it all evening. Earlier this month I got an idea- why not convert the unused/broken half-bathroom to a mud room? We could cap the toilet pipe, install a bench there (with storage underneath), and put hooks on the wall for backpacks, coats, etc. The sink could stay or go depending on the final plan. I presented my plan to Dan who quickly rejected it and promised to work on the toilet during his holiday time off from work. Last week Dan replaced some toilet parts, did some practice flushing, and declared it "fixed", Well, we soon discovered that it wasn't fixed- it could move water, but that was about it. So Dan went and bought some "clog" dissolver. Two treatments later, no progress was being made. Today, Dan decided to snake the toilet. The snake wouldn't go down very far, so Dan decided to pull the toilet and snake it in reverse. The snake still couldn't do its job. At that point, knowing that something was jammed inside the toilet, Dan decided to take extreme measures. Dan took the toilet outside and tried to salvage the tank (but it broke); then he took the bowl to the top of the retaining wall, threw it onto the rocks, then went to Home Depot. Jonathan took it upon himself to destroy the tank.Dan bought a new toilet at home depot. The base of the NEW toilet has been providing entertainment for Miles and Nolan. See the open door in the background where Dan is standing? That is the banned bathroom! With a couple of hours, it should be functional, but still banned, except in the event of an emergency.

Seriously?

***Pee-pee/Poo-poo post disclaimer***

I need to get inside the head of a certain 3 year old. The child has been completely potty trained since October; that is until about 2 weeks ago. I am ready to wring his neck! About 2 weeks ago he started to randomly poop his pants. Now he has progressed to consistently peeing and pooing; not in the toilet, and not in his pants, but on the floor. What is his deal? He's dry all night, but can't be bothered to use the toilet during the day. Yesterday we went to the store and bought more reward/reinforcement candy for him to keep in the jar in the bathroom. It's not leading to the intended results. This morning Miles opened up another Christmas present. It was Candyland. We "played" a game of it. I thought he liked it, but evidently not. Dan just went in the kitchen and found that Miles used the game board as his toilet. I guess he showed us how he feels about Candyland.

He's a Man Now?

Nolan's been growing some man-fuzz on his upper lip. Against his will, I decided it was time for it to go. It took some prodding, but he was reluctantly convinced. Since he wasn't thrilled about the razor he got in his sticking, he decided to perform his first shave with an electric razor instead. Mission accomplished; the fuzz is gone!

'Jing's Traditional Christmas Picture

Stupid cat. Still wrecking my trees. Maybe next year I'll put up a cactus.

A New Toy for Me

I bought myself a new camera a while ago (beginning of November, I think), but I am now just finding the time to learn how to use it. I chose the Nikon P500 because of its amazing optical zoom. It's got a 35x optical zoom. I was having fun with it the other night. I set the camera on a tripod and started shooting so I could appreciate the full range of its zoom capability. For example, here's a boring shot of the living room. Notice the chair? Yipee! Here's the same shot, but using the full range of the zoom. This time, the entire picture is the weave of the chair. I love it! Truly, such a powerful zoom isn't practical for everyday use. The camera has to be on a tripod to use the full zoom range because even with the camera's image stabilization feature, I can't hold the camera steady enough in my hand to get unblurred pictures. But now, if I ever want to get an close-up of an aphid on one of my rose bushes, I can do so from further away...

The 15th Ward

Our ward combined with the 15th ward for Christmas Day services. Since we invaded their time, they ran the service. The chapel, overflow, cultural hall, and both foyers were filled to capacity. Audio feed was available in the RS and Primary rooms. It took 6 priests and 17 deacons to administer the Sacrament. The 15th ward does somethings a bit "different"- most uppity and showy. The 15th ward members were dressed to the 9's- monster sized bows and furry stoles on the girls, and ugly faux-hawks on the boys. Botox was evidently recently performed on many many women and men. The program was in color and in such a fancy font that it was nearly impossible to read. Someone had "esq." printed next to his name. They even changed the name of one of the songs sung. I could go on, but why? Church with the 15th ward was educational; I'm just glad that my own ward, as uppity as some people in it try to be, has been outdone and put to shame by the 15th.

Dear Amy and Sean,

Thank you for the "lovely" gift you gave my family for Christmas. The ornament you left us is lovely, but is not something that will be treasured for years to come. Its charms were instantly noticed, yet not appreciated, but not nearly as annoying as you hoped.I agree that anonymous giving is the truest form of giving, but this year you are busted. Although I am sure that this gift was given with the kindest intentions, unfortunately, it does not go with my Christmas decor and is available for pick-up at your convenience.

Love,
Laura and the boys

Earlier this month, Amy and Sean dropped by for a visit after Sean's work party. After they left, I noticed a cricket chirping sound coming from the entry/living room area of the house. The chirp was soon followed by a "watch beep" sound. I noticed another odd sound as well. I assumed that Nolan had set a timer on his iPod and that it was chirping/beeping to remind him that he was done with something. I called him upstairs and asked him to shut off his iPod. It wasn't his iPod timer. As I pondered the beeps and chirps (it chirped at the :07 and :37 minutes based on the clock on my computer), I remembered seeing a product online that emitted chirps and beeps. A quick Google search found a lovely, small, green item from ThinkGeek that emitted those sounds. Since Sean had just come from his techy work party, I assumed he'd been given one and had passed the gift on to us. According to ThinkGeek's website, the batteries in the device last for approximately one month. I decided that it wasn't irritating enough to hunt for the device and that we would ignore it until the battery died. The next day, Nolan was practicing the piano and told me that the beeps were coming from the Christmas tree in the living room. Since the item I thought I was looking for was small and green, I reconfirmed my decision to not hunt for it in a large-ish green tree. A lightbulb went off in my head and I went back on ThinkGeek to see if they had a Christmas version of the device. I immediately found that they sold the item pictured above imbedded with the chirping device. Knowing what I was looking for, it took me about 15 seconds to find the above item in the Christmas tree and remove it. Now I had to decide what to do with the ornament. I decided to let it sit on my kitchen counter and not mention it to Amy and Sean. Many days later, Amy called to see if she could stop in again. She was coming over to help me wrap Christmas presents. I took the ornament and put in back in the tree, but made it look like it had fallen off the branch and on to a lower branch (it only chirps when it is hanging). Not long after Amy arrived, I heard the chirping again and saw Amy smirking as she heard the chirps. I acted like I didn't hear a thing. After she left, I removed the ornament from the tree again. Amy came over one more time before Christmas and I had to hang the "chirper" back up, hoping that my lack of acknowledgment of the chirps was bothering her! Well, yesterday Amy stopped in and I showed her the lovely gift she left us and retold the saga of the "on the tree and off the tree" ornament. Evidently, Amy and Sean thought that perhaps we had hearing loss. Amy has agreed to take the ornament back so she can pass it on to some other unsuspecting person next year.

Christmas Breakfast

Peanut Butter M&Ms are the best breakfast ever. Yum!

Nolan's New Talent

Nolan has a new talent, in honor of his favorite DCI group, the Cavaliers, Nolan can play the trumpet upside-down. The Cavaliers had upside-down tenors, trumpets, and drum major!

Christmas Eve

Traditionally, we spend Christmas Eve with Dan's family. I used to put on a "production" dinner, but it's a much simpler affair now. This year we went over to Dan's parents' house and met up with his parents, Aunt Liz, Lynn, Dave and his family, and our niece Emily and her family. Julie and I brought soups, Lynn brought chips, Emily brought bread and fudge (she makes awesome raspberry fudge), Liz brought more chips, and Bona made breadsticks, a cheeseball, and pumpkin pie. After a political discussion free dinner, we gathered in the living room for the traditional Christmas hymn play/sing-a-long. We had Parley on the organ, Bona on recorder, Dan and David on violins, Robert on guitar, our brass section with Nolan on trumpet and Joel on French horn, and Jonathan on B-flat clarinet/A-clarinet/saxophone. Everyone else was supposed to be singing while the littlest ones kept themselves occupied. It was loud. Really loud. And sometimes not too harmonious. I had to go into the hall and Lynn had to go into a back bedroom and shut the door. After we sang every verse of every hymn, starting at 201 through 214, David read Luke 2 and then it was time to go. Miles was so wiped out from no nap and a busy evening, he actually slept in his own bed!

Christmas 2011

Christmas fell on Sunday this year. Our church service time was shifted to 11 a.m. Since I have 2 older boys and a much younger boy who doesn't "get" Christmas yet, we decided that we would all sleep in, eat cinnamon rolls for breakfast, attend church, and then open gifts. The plan worked perfectly! Miles woke up on Christmas morning and I told him it was Christmas. He responded, "Jesus!". Then he went into the living room and said, "Presents! Santa!" So after church we came home and changed clothes, then opened the gifts. The boys always start with their stockings. This year I tucked huge-on-steroids carrots in their stockings as a joke. Nolan was not amused with the razor he found in his stocking (he's ready for a monthly shave).After the stockings were emptied, the boys went to the tree. I think that they were pleased with their gifts. Jonathan got a new clarinetand Nolan got a trumpet!Jonathan was thrilled with the new pink socks he got too. Nolan chose carburetor cleaner for Dan.
Like I said, I think the boys liked their gifts this year!
So where was Miles during all of this? Well, he spent most of the time looking like this...I thought that this might be the magical year where he was excited about Christmas and wanted to be a part of it. Nope. He was happy watching his brothers and eating the Nerds from his stocking. Dan helped Miles open a present. It was his race track. He really liked playing with it! Christmas day ended with Miles opening 2 presents and happily leaving the rest under the tree. Yesterday he got up and opened 2 presents- his gift from Nolan, and his auxiliary percussion set from Pumpkin and Superman. I put 4 of his wrapped gifts away to be saved for later. There are still 2 presents under the tree for him and 3 things waiting in his stocking. Maybe next year will be the "magic" year!

Happiness is...

...getting both emails and snail-mail from a university that you actually want to attend! Jonathan is a happy boy.

72-Hour Kits

In theory, I update our 72-hour kits around Christmas time every year. I didn't get to it last year, so the 72-hour kit inventory was a priority this year. Miles' kit graduated from formula, a bottle, diapers, and small-sized clothes to a sippy cup, "real" food, underwear, and a little bit bigger clothes! Nolan inherited Jonathan's 72-hour kit clothes while Jonathan got new sweats- brown and orange (because, evidently, a lot of people are getting sweats for Christmas as the store didn't have any other options for Jonathan in his size; in fact, the bulk of the sizes remaining were XXL and larger!). The food was inventoried and sampled for edibility. Then I had to go out and replace all the food. Many people keep MREs in their emergency kits. My mother-in-law's 72 hours emergency food consists of a case of Pork and Beans and a can opener. While there's nothing wrong with either one of those food options, I go the route of "food my kids like means one less thing to have to worry about during the emergency situation." But, wow!; it's expensive to do the food "my way". I buy the single serve boxes of sugar cereal for breakfast. There's apple juice to go along with it. Jonathan and Nolan will be getting their nourishment from Ramen noodles in the styrofoam cup and peanut butter crackers. There's beef jerky, spaghetti-o's, black beans, barley vegetable soup, Thai chili spiced tuna, oatmeal for Dan, Ritz crackers, fruit snacks, Cheese-itz, fruit cups, squeezy applesauce, trail mix, gum, hard candy, and Oreos, among other things. Jonathan and Nolan each tell me what they want and I buy it. Since frozen fish sticks and Lunchables aren't shelf stable, I worry about finding foods Miles will like. This year, I figured that worst case scenario meant that he will survive off Oreos, fruit snacks, and candy.

Advent Calendars

My big boys are growing up and some of the "magic" of Christmas has been lost. Advent calendars have always been part of the excitement of Christmas. This year, there are 3 advent calendars out, but they have been seriously neglected. In past years, the boys have raced upstairs to "beat" the other one in putting the block in the tree, or the light on the tree. They have religiously keep the candy count-down advent up to date. Not this year. According to the "block in the tree" advent calendar, today is December 20; the candy advent claims it is December 19, but the "light on the tree" advent is up to date! I bet Nolan noticed it was off while he was practicing the piano yesterday and corrected it while burning up the practice time. Such a bummer; not because the big ones are growing up and Miles is too little to care about the advent calendars, but because I have to try to remember to keep them up to date!

Miles' Menu

The other night Miles was in bed and was babbling about cooking. I asked him what he wanted to cook and without missing a beat he said, "Pizza, ice, and green milk."

Midway 2011

Earlier today we returned from our annual Midway pre-Christmas escape! We leisurely made our way up to Midway on Sunday evening. We checked in, cranked up the heat in the condo (“Mom, are you going to make it feel like Hawaii in here?” -Nolan), then plopped down in front of the TV and started watching Return of the Jedi (which was followed by The Empire Strikes Back). Miles was happy wandering around and looking at the fire. He got really excited when he found that the kitchen was equipped with a blender. He then got busy playing “Will it Blend?”. The blender was just an econo-blender…I’m so glad he accepted this blender and that he’s not a BlendTec snob. Monday morning we got up, ate, and went swimming. The Big Ones enjoyed harassing each other in the pool. They also practiced their belly-flops. Miles discovered that he could trust his lifejacket and will now “swim” the length of the pool and jump in "unassisted". Miles also liked showering-off after swimming. He is a hot water hog and pushed his brothers out of the way so he could dominate the hot water. The boys wanted to go to Dairy Keen for lunch because they wanted to play with the nifty soda fountain machine there. Some pretty interesting (and awful) concoctions were mixed- Peach Sprite, Orange Lemonade, Lime Fanta (all by Jonathan), Vanilla Root Beer, Grape Sprite, Cherry-Vanilla-Dr. Pepper (all by Nolan), Orange Diet Coke (sick!), Lime-Cherry-Vanilla Diet Coke (Laura’s), Raspberry Dasani-Red Powerade, Cherry Lemonade (Dan’s), and “White Ice” (which was Miles’). Yes, of all the options of drinks that were available, Miles wanted “White Ice” which is plain ice. At the order counter, Nolan was having a hard time deciding between the ¼ and ½ pound bacon cheeseburger. He went for the ½ pounder then was disappointed that the burger had 2 patties. What did he expect? He said that 2 patties was "too much meat". At lunch, as Dan put it, Miles learned the “true purpose of ketchup”, rather than eating ketchup from a bowl with a spoon, Miles dipped his French fries in the ketchup and ate them! After lunch, Miles got to take a nap, Dan telecommuted, Jonathan and Nolan played some DS game, and I made cookies! It’s so nice to be able to be complete bums! Monday night, we went swimming again. The 3 big boys soaked in the hot tub until they were over-heating then ran back to the condo shirtless to my paradise of warmth. That’s Jonathan’s favorite part of the Midway trip. Tuesday morning consisted of sleeping in then a last swim before we had to head back home.

Books

I've been reading quite a bit lately and I've read some good books! Here's my reading log in a nutshell...

Seven Daughters and Seven Sons- Barbara Cohen (young adult fiction)
An adaptation of an ancient middle eastern folktale. Delightful! And the boys get what they deserve in the end.

Unbroken- Laura Hillenbrand
Amazing story about an American soldier held as a POW by the Japanese during WWII. The story took a little long to wrap up for me, but it was still an incredible book.

A "polygamy" manuscript by someone
This is an unpublished book written by a lady who married a "normal" boy who was raised in a polygamist family who assured the author that he had no interest in being a polygamist. As time went on, his views changed and he desired, against his wife's wishes, to take additional wives. This is the author's story about how her marriage fell apart and how her family and life were nearly destroyed by this man's determination to seek the lifestyle he desired above all else. Truly amazing. I hope the author someday publishes her book.

Falling Leaves- Adeline Yen Mah
The author's autobiography about being the unwanted child in a Chinese family. She chronicles the abuse she endures and her triumph over the "demons" who tried to destroy her. Interesting read. Heartbreaking. At the end though, I was mad at the author for her behavior and attitude.

The Day the World Came to Town- Jim DeFede
Sometimes, I just need a "feel good" book. This is my type of a self-help book. Really, there's nothing "deep" about this book- it's a "restores my faith in humankind" read. The book tells about what happened in the small community of Gander, Canada and the surrounding areas when they were unexpectedly expected to accommodate thousands of passengers diverted to Canada when the U.S. airspace was closed immediately following the attacks on 9/11.

Inheritance- Christopher Paolini
Finally the "Eragon" series is complete! This book is taking a beating (sort of... 3.5 stars) by the series' loyal fans, but I thought it was pretty good. I thought the book was well thought out and flowed well. I think the reason readers don't like this book is because its ending isn't "happily ever after." I found the ending frustrating, but interesting, and, with retrospect, more satisfying that if Paolini had taken the "easy way out" and written the feel-good ending that I think so many readers wanted. I just went on Amazon and looked at the star-ratings of all the Eragon books... the 2 I liked the best have the lowest reader ratings. Interesting!

Moloka'i- Alan Brennert
I just finished this book last night and loved it! This book is 97% sad and heartbreaking, but fascinating. It's about the leper colony on Moloka'i and follows one girl's/lady's near-lifelong ordeal of living with leprosy.

After reading Moloka'i, I decided I need to read a mindless/happy book next. I've picked out The Goose Girl. I just counted the books remaining in my "must read" stack... 11 books left in that pile, then on to my "I want to read" stack!

Finally, an AWESOME Merit Badge

Nolan is in the process of completing merit badge numbers 43-47. One of these is finally "worth while." I am finally personally benefiting from a merit badge. Nolan is working on the Cooking merit badge and he is required to cook several meals! Today for lunch he made me a quesadilla, peeled me an orange (which I hate doing because I don't like the "white stuff" under my nails), and got me some water. For dinner, Nolan made black bean soup from scratch and apple-blackberry crisp. I love having a kitchen slave! Too bad he'll have the badge done later this week; it'll be awesome while it lasts!

Winter Band Concerts

This year we got to attend 2 concerts on the same night! Nolan's concert was first. His band played "Christmas Sing-a-long." He's on the riser, 5th from the left (or 4th from the right).

Jonathan's band concert was right after Nolan's. His band combined with the school orchestra and played "Sleigh Ride". Jonathan was also in a saxophone "choir" that played numbers as the bands were transitioning. Last year took a piano piece that I played and arranged it for a saxophone quartet. Jonathan's arrangement of "Cool Mule" had it's worldwide premier last night!

Verbs!

A new speech milestone for Miles has been reached! He is starting (as of today) to use verbs! We have been working on verbs for more than 3 months. It completely surprised me when I heard him use verbs in 3 sentences today. All 3 had to do with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (his current YouTube obsession). The first sentence was, "I want 12 beans." He's never said "want" before. The second sentence was, "I watch Tootles." The the third sentence was "Goofy running." While to most people those 3 sentences are complete gibberish, since I am the co-Mickey Mouse Clubhouse watcher, they make perfect sense to me.

Worse Than a Bunch of Girls

All my adult life I've heard about girl drama and that I should be thankful that I have boys so I don't have to deal with "all the drama". Well, either Jonathan is friends with a bunch of girls or boys are no different. Okay, it's not all of Jonathan's friends, but there is one little girl-boy who I just want to slap upside the head. Here's the most recent scenario... Mr. DramaKing is a co-clarinetist in the THS band. He's first chair and Jonathan gets to sit next to him. Mr. DramaKing is very insecure and has to be "best" or his life sucks. THS put on a musical a couple of weeks ago and Mr. DramaKing was in the pit. Jonathan was not. Mr. Morris exempted all those in the musical from the required sectionals this term. Section leaders are in charge of sectionals. Jonathan asked Mr. Morris who was supposed to run sectionals for those who were not in the pit. He was told "You are." Well, that's not sitting well with DramaKing. Jonathan is aware of DramaKing's insecurity and has tried to involve DramaKing by running the sectional schedule by him, inviting him to come and run the sectionals, and to see what DramaKing wants worked on at sectionals. DramaKing sent Jonathan a nasty Facebook message last night telling Jonathan to stop doing DramaKing's job. He's the boss and wants that to be known. "I appreciate the sentiment, and I'm glad you want to help, but I need to do this. Instead of doing all this stuff without me and interrupting me when I make comments, please try to hold back and let me do it. If I need you to do things for me, I'll let you know." Well, isn't that nice? I've had it with DramaKing. Oh, and not only is he DramaKing, but he's MeanBoy too. As I've been reflecting on this latest issue, I remembered that he got another kid "blacklisted" last year because the other kid took on the role of section leader of the Tenor Sax section in the marching band and DramaKing couldn't be in charge. DramaKing gathered his posse and and talked smack about the other kid and now the other kid is disliked by many, many bandies. Thus far, other than working through this incident with Jonathan, I am not getting involved, but if this keeps up, Mr. DramaKing had best watch out or else he may encounter MamaBear (and DramaKing had better stop trying to suck up to me and coming to me for life advise because I have no more positive vibes to give him).

District Honor Band

The Alpine School District started something new... an honor band! The band directors nominated students from their bands to be in the group. They met for 2 days after school and on Saturday morning before putting on a concert Saturday afternoon. Jonathan was selected to play in the honor band. He had a great time! According to his facebook status, "That was such an amazing concert. Thanks to Kirt Saville, John Miller, Christopher Cheney, the rest of the clarinet section and all 89 musicians involved for making it the best three days of my life!". Jonathan loved playing in a large band where all the musicians were "good." The honor band rehearsed for about 12 hours, then 7 of the songs they practiced were chosen for the concert. Here's one of the pieces they played--- "Americans We" by Henry Fillmore

And here's "Gallop" by Alfred Reed

Costco List

Miles deserved a special treat today so I took him to Costco. No, I didn't buy him anything for a "treat", going to Costco was the treat. We admired the milk in the walk-in refrigerators, then watched the rotisserie chickens spin 'round and 'round, then we walked through the refrigerated produce, and wrapped up the "Tour de Costco by Miles" with a gaze at the apples. Miles was thrilled and I was thrilled that for once, I stuck to the Costco shopping list and got out the store only $19.11 poorer!

A Visit to the After Hours Clinic

Last night, one minute Miles was watching something on the computer with Dan, then the next minute, he was crying/screaming and yelling "stuck". He was jamming his finger up his nose as well. I looked over and Dan looked perplexed as he was looking at Miles. Miles kept crying and shoving his finger up his nose. I asked Dan if there was something up Miles' nose. He said "maybe". I got a flashlight and peered up his nose, and way up high in the left nostril, I could barely see something gold reflecting the light from the flashlight. Miles had been playing with a small, gold bead (he says it was a "bouncy ball"). Evidently, part of his playing involved shoving the bead up his nose. I called Aly and asked her if she knew of any tricks to extract the bead from the nostril. She said to plug the "vacant" nostril then blow puffs of air into Miles' mouth and hopefully the air would force the bead out. I tried it. It did dislodge the bead a little- enough so that it was easier to see with the flashlight, but the bead was still stuck. I called the on-call doctor's office. When I told the receptionist what the problem was, she laughed and told me to bring Miles right in. Dan took Miles; Nolan went along to keep Miles' from jamming his finger in his nose and pushing the bead up higher in the nasal canal. At the doctor's office, Miles had to be restrained, then the doctor dug and fished around with a pair of tweezers and extracted the bead and sent the bead home with Dan (gee, thanks). That was last night's adventure. Today Miles has repeatedly told me, "all done bouncy ball nose". I hope he takes his own advice!