Gooooooaaaaaaallllllllll!!!!!!!

I did it.

Today.

Finally.

Took over a year.

But I finally made it to my goal.

Lost 23 pounds!

And feeling very proud of myself.

An early birthday present to myself.

Aren't those the best kind?

'Cause I know I really earned it.

Blood, sweat and tears.

Now I have to keep it off.

I'm trying to make myself capable of a 5K this summer. That should help, as I am a pathetic runner.

But I can do it.

Just watch.

Hot Tubbin'

Aunt Kellie's family came up to visit us. Well, they came to ski, so we went to visit them at their hotel. It was nice to see everyone and let the cousins visit with each other.
We decided to take advantage of the opportunity to go sit out in the hot tub.
I got in with the kids because Burke couldn't find his swimsuit. (How convenient).

We started with a bag tied around Adrienne's cast, but lost the bag later when we noticed it was actually holding the water in.
Adrienne decided that Aunt Kellie and cousins Hannah and Becca were the greatest. We almost had to leave her there to live with them forever.
In the end, we convinced her that coming with us would be okay.
It was a great evening, thanks guys!

Irish Eyes Were Smiling

We had a fun St. Patrick's Day.
For breakfast I made green french toast, green smoothies and gave them green vitamins.

Then I went all out for dinner:
Green mashed potatoes, green bread, green asparagus, green limeaid,

and this fancy schmancy jello that took all day to make, and was not eaten until after dinner because I forgot to get it out of the fridge (grrrr, I hate it when I do that). I hade made stew as the main course, but that isn't very Irish-y so I didn't take any pictures of that.
But I made cute little shamrocks with kiwi on the plates. Nobody recognized what they were, but I felt very imaginative anyway ;).
For dessert, I made some chocolate cookies filled with mint ice cream.
MMMMMMM.....
They turned out well. I was excited for that because it was a new recipe but now I can't find it.

Nathan informed me that I was the coolest mom ever, and Adrienne said it was the best day of her life.

I wish it only took a little green food coloring to make everyone so happy.

Hey! Let's Go Bowling

We went bowling a couple of weeks ago. I figured out that bowling is not my strength. I think I should have had them put up the guards for my turn too.
Maybe I should have used Adrienne's technique:
It seemed to work for her. The boys also had a pretty good showing, except for one incident where Kade threw (and I mean threw) a gutter ball. The guards were up. And it went in the gutter. I didn't know you could do that. And darn it, I didn't get a picture.
Nathan was pretty good once he tried a smaller ball.
Annika was mostly there for the food. She would throw the ball and then run back to the table to eat her pizza without even checking to see how many pins she knocked down. There's a girl with the right priorities.
Of course, Burke ended up being the bowler of the day.

I think Adrienne had the most fun when she discovered the hand dryer.
We had a good time, and more importantly, everyone could gloat that they all beat mom!

Finally...Moved In

We spent Saturday cleaning out the garage.
Not exactly our idea of a great time.
But...
It needed to be done.
We had lots of stuff in there that we didn't need anymore.
Like moving boxes I wouldn't let Burke throw out when we moved in (5 years ago).
Because I hated it here. I had left my friends, my awesome ward, and my self-confidence in Michigan.
I just knew we were going to move again soon, so I didn't let him get rid of the boxes I would need.
I guess I have settled in a little better.
And I know I can always get more boxes if I need them... ;)

Annika was sick, so we let her stay in and watch the Disney Channel all day while we worked.
The boys also caught a few minutes of Snow White when they sneaked in from time time.

We got everything cleaned out, found the sandals Burke got me in Brazil, made two trips to the dump, one to the thrift store, swept, sprayed, and hung things up. Now we can walk around in there. It looks great. And now we have officially unpacked... for now.

As a side note, I ended up going to the maturation program with Nathan at the school two weeks ago. It was hilarious. I have never heard so many giggles from 10 and 11 year old boys in my life. The dads there were pretty giggly themselves.
After the program, they passed out little booklets for the boys to refer to for questions they may have had and not asked.
On the way home, I encouraged Nathan to read through the booklet and see if there were anything he had questions about. He rolled his eyes and said he would never open the book, it was too embarrassing. I checked my rearview mirror 30 seconds later and found him flipping through.
He felt comfortable enough with me to ask a few questions (thankfully) and then reminded me how embarrassing it all is.

Since then, we have tried to keep an open dialogue and keep it light. There has been a little teasing from time to time, mostly from me and his dad.

But Saturday, Nathan got a laugh.
We asked him to stack some 2x4's along one wall of the garage with some help from Kade and myself. It was hard work to get them just right so they didn't fall down. When Burke came and checked them, of course they toppled. We looked at Nathan and Kade (of course, I didn't own up to the stacking job). Nathan sheepishly told us that it was too hard for him right now because he hasn't got all of his grown-up muscles yet. We laughed and I told him I did have my grown up muscles and I still couldn't do it.

It wasn't a lot of fun, but when we walked out Sunday to go to church, the boys were so proud of themselves. I think the pride of workmanship is worth as much if not more than a day of goofing off.

Love those boys, even without all their muscles yet.

#45

Kade has to write in a journal at school on an assigned topic. Then he brings it home at the end of the month and I get to read it. I came across this entry and was impressed with it. Here it is with misspellings and all:

February 22, 2010

I would choose my Dad as the next president because he is the best man I have ever seen. I think he is always having fun and he never is that mean. I think he has a great heart because of my Grandpa. So he should be the 45th president. I wish he would be the president my Gradpa would be very proud of my dad.

I think I would choose him too.

Arrow of Light

Nathan earned his Arrow of Light last week. To celebrate, we had an amazing pack meeting with some special guests who put on quite a show for us.
After the other boys got their awards, the dancing and storytelling began.
They did a great job, and got the boys (at least mine) excited to earn their Eagle Scout award.

Nathan's grandparents were able to come to the meeting to support him. We appreciate it-- Thanks!
At the end of the dancing. One of the young men told a story about the arrow of light and the feathers that correlate the seven rays that come from the arrow. Each represents a value that a young boy should try to develop. It was a great thing to watch, they spoke right to Nathan and he was feeling pretty special.
At the end, they did a special "Snake Dance" that was for everyone. If they came and tapped you, you were obliged to join in. They got all the kids and lots of the parents (our meeting was quite small).
My girls loved it, but the boys weren't quite so sure. They ended up joining the dance and had smiles by the end. Of course, chanting the SpongeBob Squarepants song while dancing around holding feathers tends to make you giggle. We're so proud of Nathan. Congratulations!

Engineers

Burke got to share all the engineering chops he has with a bunch of 10 year old boys who were up for the challenge.
His assignment was to help them pass off their engineering requirements so they could earn their pin.
He went the extra mile...
They learned about the power of pulleys:
Then they got to build and learn about catapults. Burke built each of them their own catapult.
Then they got to test fire their catapults.



When we were planning this little activity, I mentioned that I thought it would be interesting if Burke could show the boys as simply as possible how an engineer could use a formula to calculate how far the catapult could throw the object.
I didn't realize that keeping it simple doesn't jive with engineering. I knew we were in trouble as soon as he asked the three 10 year olds and Kade if they knew what sine, cosine and tangent were. I could feel my own eyelids getting droopy....
After a few calculations, they figured it all out and were able to move on to the good stuff...
Burke's job:
Rockets.
Of course, just the water, compressed air, and soda bottle kind.
But pretty fun, nonetheless.

Beauty Sleep

A diva in training?

Armed, But Not Yet Dangerous.

This is the splint Adrienne got Sunday after her initial visit to the doctor. She thought it was pretty cool...until about 10 minutes after we got home. It began to itch and she was trying to eat her dinner with her left hand. The nurse at the clinic did cover the ace wrap with some pink coban to keep Adrienne feeling like a princess. It worked, but was really dirty by Tuesday when we took it off.She got her hard cast on yesterday. The doctor said that a break of her sort takes longer than the usual 4 weeks. He expects her to have this cast on until April 20th.
She got pink, and it is a sight. You almost need sunglasses. We gave her arm a good scratch before they put the new cast on. I told her she better get all her scratching in because she will not be able to do it again until after Nathan's birthday. The nurse who put it on told us afterward that it was the smallest cast she had ever done and was nervous about it.Adrienne has figured out that she now has a harder cast than the last one, but she hasn't figured out that it can be used as a weapon the way Annika did. Hopefully that will never come up.

I was hoping to get some family pictures taken for my own birthday this month... I guess we will wait on that one for about a month.

My Poor Baby

By "My Poor Baby" I mean my daughter, not my poor laptop that has been neglected while my internet is down and the dumb guy is more interested in sleeping than coming to fix it. I am currently at the library waiting for the co-op I participate in to open so I can order since I am not able to do it at home (grrrr).

Back to my poor daughter.
Adrienne was playing at the park with her siblings and her dad while I was home cooking 40 lbs of chicken (don't ask).
Apparently, she was running a race with Annika and Annika was pulling ahead. Adrienne tried to put it into overdrive, but she just has little 4 year old legs and couldn't quite do it. She took a tumble.
Burke said she cried and cried, which should have clued us in because she is the toughest of all our kids. She doesn't cry unless it is serious. Burke picked her up and saw a small (pencil lead) drop of blood. He brought her home, cleaned her up, and gave her a bandaid. We didn't hear any more about it through the rest of Friday or Saturday. In fact, we left the kids with a babysitter Saturday evening.
Sunday morning Adrienne came to me and told me she couldn't unzip her pajamas because her hand was hurting.
I took a look and was horrified to see a massive black and blue bruise with swelling across her little hand.
So what did I do?
Took her to church, of course.
Poor girl. What a mom she has.
I contemplated what to do all day and finally decided to take her in after talking with my sister (an MD with a cooler head than mine.)
Adrienne was great. Cooperative, sweet, and enjoying her one on one time with mom. We had lots and lots of time for books as we waited for the doctor to come. Adrienne was in heaven.
The doctor ordered x rays and a sucker with princess stickers to boot.
Yep, broken.
The hand bone beneath her pinky finger.
We're following up with an orthopedist on Tuesday.
For now, Adrienne has a soft cast on with a hard splint to one side. She has already discovered the power that a hard splint can wield on a little arm. So did Kade.

I will try to get some pictures posted when and if I can ever get the dumb internet guy to wake up and get over to my house...

3...2...1...Blast Off

We went to the last test firing of the last shuttle booster last week. It was an amazing and sad experience.
It is the end of an era.
In more ways than one.

We are not fans of the current president at the moment.
Hoping we keep the job that pays the bills.
Grrr.

But
It was really fun to be able to go see daddy at work. And the firing is an awesome two minutes of absolute power. Poor Adrienne was scared to death. She thought it was too loud and complained that she could feel it "rumbling" in her chest. I guess that would be scary for a four year old. The video is a little jumpy because she kept grabbing my legs while I was taping it. She finally let Burke pick her up and hold her during the firing. It is so far away it takes about ten seconds for the sound to reach us where we are standing.

This is the smoke trail that was there when it was over.
The really interesting thing was that it was an overcast day so on the way home the soot and smoke that was in the air came down as muddy rain. Adrienne thought was was pretty cool. I wasn't that excited, I had just gotten my car washed.

Pizza, French-Fries

Nathan's class went skiing at school last Friday. Because he is so benevolent, Burke took the day off of work to help the teachers keep the kids in check. The resort gave the kids a free rental, lift ticket and lesson. Nathan got to learn how to make his skis do the "Pizza, French-Fries, Pizza French-Fries".

I think the lesson was better than the one I got the first time I went.
With this guy I really liked.
I crashed. Bad. It hurt. Bad. I wanted to cry. SO Bad.
But I sucked it up and nursed a sprained thumb for a month.
**I digress**

My guys had a great time and even had some male bonding going on.
Burke said Nathan was pretty good by the end of the day. Good enough that they went back to the rental shop and got some poles. Nathan thought he looked cooler (is that a word?) with poles.
They had a fun afternoon and since Burke drove separately, they were able to stay all day. We are thinking of giving it another go sometime; Nathan really enjoyed it. I don't know if we dare take the girls though. They are truly fearless and would probably out-ski both Burke and me.