Raking for hire

I am proud of my kids. Today Emily's friend Sadie came for a surprise visit from Idaho. After a joy filled 30 minutes they decided that they were bored and came to me asking what to do. I responded by telling them to go rake leaves (I was somewhat joking). They leave the house.

They come back in and ask if they can charge a dollar to do it. I say yes and the next thing I know they are going door to door asking all the neighbors if they need help.

I am glad that they aren't just plunking down if front of the TV.

I am glad that they are learning how to market themselves.

I am glad that they are raising their own money.

And lastly, I am glad that I don't have to rake.

I hate raking.

Now, off to the dollar store because its burning a hole in their pocket....

No words...

I really don't have much to say on this besides what in the hell am I doing living in a neighborhood with rats? there is a good explanation....we have a huge field behind our backyard but still....

I am quite freaked out

and to add insult to injury this is not the first one we have caught

Maggie just wants a pig in a blanket treat

and Emily? She takes after her dad.

even though she looks just like me I'm not claiming her if she continues to find interest in this

**special note: This was not found inside my house. it was outside, Thankyouverymuch.

Compost and Hoarders

This evening I told Garrett that he couldn't play tomorrow until his room was picked up. Good kid that he is, he went directly to his room and cleaned it. This kid is great at cleaning rooms. After about 10 minutes he comes out with his blanket and says "time to throw pinky stinky away" and proceeds to throw it in the garbage. I am in shock. It took me a good 2 years to get Abby off her bottle, Em still has Sess (her baby blanket), and it was close to impossible to get her to part with her binkey with the boat on it.

Abby hears me praise him for making such a great choice and runs up the stairs to see what is in the garbage, then runs in her room to get Emily.

"Mom, how can he just throw that away?"

"Can we keep a piece of it?"

Uh, whatever...

These two have a hard time throwing away their Happy Meal boxes.

So the night continues...the girls reading in their bed and Garrett getting read to.

Time for prayers...

We go in the girls room and Emily has these huge tears running down her face.

"Dad, I feel bad for pinky stinky. I have a little part and Abby has a little part but I feel bad that nobody wants the big part. Isn't that wasteful, shouldn't we put it in the recycle bin? I think we should use it as compost"

Jeff: "Thats a...well...its a great idea Em, we'll use it for compost."

Abby: "Lets give it to the homeless shelter!"

Me: "Weeellll, we can't give it to the homeless shelter because it doesn't operate as a blanket anymore...you know...all those holes, I'll go pull it out of the garbage and put it in the compost pile."

sound of crickets chirping

Em: "Umm, Mom? We don't have a compost pile but we could start one."

So the blanket is going to the compost pile...the one they have at the Layton Dump.

I have a problem...

I'm posting this hoping that I'll get some feedback since I don't know if I need to call the psychiatrist or not. Before I start I do know that I have two other children that generally don't get posted about because they are a mothers dream come true. Abby is working hard keeping up with the sixth graders in her split 5th/6th class and I can actually see how strong and smart she is. She has also started cantering in her horse lessons, something she said she'd never do. In fact she wanted to quit lessons after the first time she cantered at the beginning of summer but the Horse Whisperer (Cathy her teacher) pushed and pushed and now she is super beautiful when the horse is cantering with her long legs and its fun to see her self confidence grow.

Emily is also dreamy...she is doing great in school and making new friends since her best friend moved to Lava Hot Springs. She is also thriving in her horse lessons (how could she not) and her love for nature astounds me. The other day I found a larva like maggotish looking bug crawling on the counter and it wigged me out. She calmly walked up to me and said it was just a grub she found as school and it must have gotten out of its cup. Its cup? yes, she puts all her creatures in the kiddie cups (don't drink out of my kiddie cups unless you've looked in it first). So as you can see my children are filling me with joy...wait...oh, the purpose of this post.....

Garrett.

What to do with this one?

His life is one lie after another.

Each day there is a new one...

"Today we flew to Texas during class and a kid kicked me in the eye on the airplane"

"I rode a bull, his horns were as long as my arm, while I was in Texas" (this to his primary teacher)

"I scored 16 goals at my soccer game"

"I can do a flip on my bike"

"I fell and broke my leg and had to spend the day in the office"

"There was a kid that pooped his pants and his mom had to come get him"

"There is a girl in my class and her mom made her walk to Texas"

"Every Friday my teacher is taking us to Texas"

"My teacher said we could eat school lunch today and we had pizza"

"My best friend doesn't like his mom so he bought a new one"

These are just a few I can remember off the top of my head. Yes, I have checked out all the ones that needed to be checked out and they are all untrue.

Is this just a boy thing or do I need to have a talk with him?

I don't want to curb his imagination but I also don't want a compulsive liar on my hands. I can only imagine what he's told his teacher (who he has a slight crush on, she is from Texas).

Jeff and I lay in bed at night and laugh but should we be more serious about this? I think about the best story teller I know (Jeff) and I am inclined to let him develop his story telling abilities and go with it.

I am a little bit worried though.

Its a beautiful day to....paint the deck?

Garretts latest....

This morning he hauled all my acrylic paints upstairs INTENT on painting his baby pumpkin. I asked him if we could wait until a later time in the day because I want my house somewhat picked up before I start any projects. He didn't like that.

Silly me because after I used my mean voice I thought it was over.

Wrong.

While I was in showering he climbed up the counter, took the blue, gray, and white paint, mixed it all up, and used a paper towel to paint the deck.

I know it might not look like much but its enough. Trust me.


So I called Jeff
Me: Oh you'll never believe what Gilly just did!
Jeff: sigh, I can only imagine.
Me: HE PAINTED THE DECK! You know, the deck that I stained last year? With paint? I mean, honey, this is not coming off.
Jeff: Did you ground him and put him in his room?
Me: uh, no. We are going to Fat Cats.


Where he proceeded to hit the jackpot and win like 3000 tickets. It was so adorable because he thought he broke the machine and he started giving out tickets to the crowd gathered around him.
So here I sit..mad but not mad.
I mean, he is pretty cute and he said the only reason he did it was because he thought I'd like it.
I guess he'll be sanding and staining tomorrow...(this from Jeff, the meanie)
I'm a sucker.

Gilly boy

This is what was roaming the neighborhood the other night. Can you imagine him at 16?

oy vey.

Lotoja

You know how I am organizationally challenged?

Well, I'll give you one guess as to who forgot to bring the camera to LOTOJA.

Thankfully my great friend Elise remembered hers and so pictures will follow soon....

So, Jeff did fantastic. Their team took 11th place. I had the best time ever, and I'm not just saying that. We had fun.

There is something about hanging out with people that compliment your personality.

Although I probably need to apologise to everyone in the car for telling dirty jokes.

I can't help it.

huh?

This is one of my favorite pictures.

What is it you say?

Its Garrett taking a picture of the back of his throat to make sure his tonsils aren't growing back.

I love the pictures of random hands, toes, eyeballs, all the things the kids capture when they get their hands on the camera without me knowing.

sigh....

I need some help...I must be going through a little bit of empty nest syndrome...as you can see I have blogged like three times in the last three days and that says so much. I am sad. My baby is gone half a day which really isn't much change from last years pre-school hours but as I was tying his DC shoes a thought hit me....next year it will be all day and I'm not ready to surrender him yet.

But thats not all that has me blue.

My sister just came to meet the birth mother of her new baby and whenever Rachel is around then gone we all feel the emptiness.

I am so happy for her but wish she didn't live so far away.

So you see...one minute my life is full and fast and event packed.

The next it feels a little empty and quiet.

I don't like a quiet house, my home is usually packed with kids.

I guess I'll have to get a job.

Or find a new author.

School

I feel bad that I haven't posted these yet....

School is fantastic so far. They love it and I love that they are adapting well to their carefully picked teachers.

So far this school year not much has changed with the girls...Emily still insists on wearing a horse shirt every day, Abby is trying to figure out her style, and Garrett just wants to look like his friend Austin.

The one thing that I'm worried about is Em reports that she is encountering lots of boy bullies...she says "they just think they are at the top of the food chain!" After close observation I think Em might be at that sensitive age.

Kindergarten

Today was Garretts first day of Kindergarten.

As if the day wasn't hard enough...I look outside to this sight...

As the song from fiddler on the roof is screaming in my head...

sunrise...sunset

he is still my baby though

Tonight he whispered in my ear that he thought he is a little bit sick because he hung his backpack next to a girl and it got girl germs on it.

peaNUT

This is peanut

with and emphasis on the NUT

I don't get why his package is bigger than any other part of his body.

No I didn't purchase this...a friend needed to get rid of him...if I were to purchase one it would definitely be a female. Because if a human had a nut sack 4x his body size there would most likely be a media circus outside his house.

Our Family is Growing....

There is going to be a new additon to the Jones Family. Here is what Garrett thinks we should name him:

Can you guess?

Oh Canada!

Canada holds a special place in my heart. And not because they are our neighbors to the north or because they say eh? all the time. Going to Canada holds a place in my heart because going there helped me accomplish on of my dreams. Ahhh, your probably thinking that I'm going to say something sweet like going to another country with all of my family is one of my dreams eh? Nope.

Going to Canada let me accomplish the one thing I never thought I'd do...

Drive in NY by myself. Now, I know it wasn't NYC but still...NY is NY and driving there is a feat I never thought I'd face. Here is my story: (I'll make it short)

The morning we were leaving the theme was...Do you have your passports and/or birth certificates?

Yes

We are in line to go through the border when my heart freezes with fear....I slightly recall getting up in the night to take the kids birth certificates out of my purse and put them in the suitcase so they wouldn't get wrinkled.

I check my purse...no birth certificates.

We can't turn around at this point because we are merely yards from crossing the border.

Did you know that getting your kids into Canada without proper identification is a little easier than getting them out?

Thanks to our Immigration Attorney (Jeremy aka: Sarge) we found this out. I knew my kids would be slightly scarred if we were detained (which we would have been) so after dropping everyone off at MarineLand I turned the blue bullet (our awful rental car) around and headed into the mean streets of NY.

Just me, my mom, and the best creation on earth:

a GPS.

Here is the rest of our trip to Canada....

Niagra Falls....

The US side of the Falls

The kids on Maid of the Mist...notice Em without her hood on...she thinks she is so cool.

Jeff showing off his goods...

My family with the Falls in the background...

Em with her favorite Dudley Doo Right bobble head

Em with this creepy statue that we found in the bathroom

Abby next to a gigantic moose...and her Coke that she can't live without

These three were like this the entire trip....inseparable and hilarious

Em eating her favorite chocolate covered strawberries...

These two were like two peas in a pod...

okay, call me crazy but we were in the middle of this crazy busy street and there lying by itself was this shoe. I mean, who loses a shoe and doesn't notice it?

Now we are at MarineLand...I missed most of these pictures cause I was driving like a mad woman through the streets of New York.

Here the kids were getting on Dragon Mountain which is the worlds largest steel roller coaster. I loved this ride...

Gilly and Lilly watching a walrus

They have this great killer whale show where without much notice the whales swim up and wave/splash you. Everyone ran back...except Em...she leaned INTO the tidal wave

Gilly petting a Beluga whale

Em petting a Beluga whale

Moments before Gilly threw up he went on this ride...

And this is everyone walking back to the US of A

The blue bullet

I promise I'm almost done blogging about my whirlwind of a vacation.....maybe one more post...or two

Duffs Famous Wings

One night we decided to order wings from Duffs.

Duffs is famous for their wings...their saying is this: Medium is HOT. Medium hot is VERY HOT. Hot is VERY, VERY HOT.

Needless to say, these daredevils decided to go all the way and try Suicide and Death.
This is Jeff trying Suicide which is hotter than Hades.
The legend goes that Duffs used to have a contest to see who could down the most Suicide wings in some ridiculous time frame. They had to stop doing that because people were ending up in the Emergency Room (and not from eating too much).

And now you see why. This is Jeff after he tried ONE Death wing. Seriously, you could see the sweat dripping off their foreheads.

The next morning we were dealing with the burning hoop (if you don't know what the burning hoop is think about what happens when all those hot wings come out....ouch).