The Brown's Sanitarium

The Wonder of it all....

2012-01-14T14:03:00.000-08:00

Lately Ike has been wanting to try something new. Something we have never had in this house before. Not because of personal reasons or dislike. Basically because it costs too much for me to really justify. But I am seriously considering of finally buying it. Just once though.

What is this new thing?

Could it be a new video game?

Maybe the new wii 2?

Possibly the iPad that I too even covet?

Nope. None of the above. Sorry, we are just not that exciting.

What has caught his curiosity and taste buds is..........

Yes, we are a simple people. HA HA HA. Ike really wants to see what all the hoopla is over this bread. What makes it so wonderful. Now growing up I got to enjoy this fabulous bread. My mom would go to the day old bakery and buy them out. No, seriously. She would buy so many loaves of bread then take them home and freeze them. Even after being frozen the bread was soft and squishy goodness.

So I went to the market I usually shop at around my house and low and behold, they did not have Wonder Bread!!! I was stunned.

I am guessing I am gonna have to break down and go so Safeway to find it. Then my children can experience the pure bliss of eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Wonder Bread. Hope the memory stays with them for a while because if they think I am gonna pay $4 for a loaf of bread on a regular basis then they are out of their gourds. (Which is a condition I have suspected for a long time.)

New Years 2011

2012-01-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

This New Years was a quiet one, by our standards. I am sure the neighbors would disagree.

We lit up a nice big bon fire and roasted hotdogs then just hung out. The eight of us. It was good. Took pics of everyone doing there thing. Nothing profound. Unless you are me. Then it is. I take nothing for granted. The fact we are all here, happy, together, in a loving safe home.

Happy New Years.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-29T11:42:00.000-08:00

This year we had christmas at the Reneer's. As promised, I let the Anna and Maria be in charge of the photo documentry. In order to understand these pictures you need to down 15 pieces of fudge, be hopped up on christmas excitment and have your best friend and cousin at your side. Now hold on tight and enjoy the ride.

This is Anna's "O.M.G!" look.

Daniel at the top of the stairs. My parents have a very firm NO PLAYING ON THE STAIRS RULE. My children have a very firm rule that ignores that rule.

This is Jaylee. She is the kids cousin and also Anna and Maria's best friend.

This is Jaylee and Maria. For some reason they are huging a pole. I don't know why. Pretty sure the sugar made them do it.

Still hugging. Maybe it makes the room stop spinning.

Uncle Ricky. Notice blur of girls swirling around him. This happens to Uncle Ricky a lot.

What christmas lights look like when you are running past at 80 miles per hour.

The one clear picture. What an adorable picture it is too. This is Linda's youngest, LouCylle with my mom, aka Bumpski.

Anna showing Maria that yes, she can poke her brain. It is squishy.

Hi, Aunt Kathryn.

Aunt Kathryn with Jaylee and Anna.

Bestest Buddies.

Aunt Linda

A quick shout out to the Christmas booty under the tree.

More present pictures.

Jaylee with a stocking.

And this ends our Christmas evening tour. No small animals were harmed during this photo montage. If your surroundings look blurry to you after reading this blog, don't worry this is completely normal. Bend over and place your head between your knees and breath deeply a few times. It is very important though to remember not to pass gass while doing this. Don't ask me how I know this but the Dr says the knot on my head should go down in a few days. I was lucky I did not get hurt any worse.

Christmas morning with the family. I love that I don't have to be in the pictures.

Isaac's Christmas List

2011-12-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

My kids usually don't put a lot of stock into making christmas lists and mailing them off to santa. sometimes they will tape them up to the wall, but even then it is only one or two kids. Ike is one that dreams big. The list he comes up with every year shows this. It also shows Santa that Ike has not be on the nice list for several years. In fact about 9 years straight.

1. Lego, Queen Anne's Revenge

only a mere $119.00 at your local Walmart

2. Ipod

$179 for the 8g. model

3. DSI not an XL

$169 he saved me a few bucks by downgrading from an XL

4. Art Supplies

Very reasonable request. He must have been suffering from lack of oxygen for this to have slipped in.

5. Paints with the color Brown

I am very concerned why brown must be included in this paint set. He has mentioned he need for brown quite a bit. He also like to draw pictures of poo. Possible connection?

6. Gun

Another year of him dealing with dissapointment.

7. Bowie Knife

Only if Jake gets one too. And how ever dangerous you think Ike is with a knife, triple it and you will have Jake's skill level.

8. Katana

Only after you pass your ninja training. And we do not know of any ninjas offering training.

9. Beaker, Test Tubes, Flasks

Hmm, this sounds safe. Why not allow him to do chemical experiments in his room. Oh, wait. Because odds are Jakey would not be waking up the next morning.

10. Survival Gear

Now this will come in handy seeing how Ike's dream in to live in a concrete bunker built into the side of a mountain. *mental note, make sure future spouse of Ike gets the booklet of all of Ike's past christmas lists.

11. Nuclear Power Plant

I told him that this will make all his hair fall out and his nether regions shrivel up. He seemed unphased by these facts.

12. Power in the middle east

We will start off small, I plan on just giving him our power bill and see how he deals with that first.

13. The Moon

Sorry, Bill Gates already owns this.

14. Happiness

Cheese. Need I say more?

15. MONEY!

Cannot buy happiness.

Thank you for reading along. Hope you enjoyed.

Christmas Letter 2011

2011-12-22T09:24:00.000-08:00

Well I have sent the card to those that needed to get it and now for your reading pleasure, or displeasure, here is our family christmas letter for 2011.

December 2011

For this years Christmas letter I asked everyone to tell me what their most memorable event, that can be shared publicly, of 2011 was. So this letter will not include stories of heroism, excellent grades, stellar citizenship or really much of anything else I usually make up in my other Christmas letters. Now that you have been warned please lower your expectations before reading this letter because I know I lowered mine before I wrote it. On a side note, thanks to my going back to college and succeeding in writing I can now use semicolons with confidence. AH HA!
Daniel, age 15, favorite memories were getting his own room! No longer does he have to share a mess, er, I mean room with his younger brothers. He also got a very cool authentic Tiki mask at a yard sale. He also got his learners permit this spring and passed Drivers Ed with minimal damage to those around him. I cannot claim the same victory. He also got to go to the ocean for two weeks this summer and dug holes so deep that he could sit in them on a camp chair and still not be seen. Daniel was also very pleased to be asked to join the Bio Med Tech class at school. This is not a class you can just sign up for, you have to be invited to participate.

Ike, age 12, went to his very first boy scout camp. When I asked if he had any memories to share he said, “What happens at camp, stays at camp.” Being his mother for the past 12 years has taught me not to push a topic when a statement like that is said. I will only be shocked, horrified and the mental pictures will keep me up for nights on end. Isaac is also sporting a totally awesome new scar on his elbow. Which is good because it gave him some *street cred as he headed off to 7th grade this year. *Street cred meaning his body tried to fight the street and the street won. Ike also learned to boogie board at the ocean this summer and by the end was riding more waves than he swallowing. I see that as a huge success. He also dug holes in the sand about the depth and width of a joggers leg. I am gonna let your imagination take over on this one. This winter he did wrestling this year for Chase Middle School and made the varsity team. Good job, Ike!

Jakey, age 9, is our middle child. In fact I completely forgot to include him in this letter until I noticed only four kids were spotlighted. Jakey's most memorable moments are quite a bit different than his brothers. First and foremost, a good day for him is a day that his brothers do not notice him and therefore he does not get mauled. Secondly, a good day for him is a day that he does not get caught doing half the things he has done that he is not suppose to do. I say only half because luckily we catch him about half the time, at least I like to think we do. He likes to set his brothers up for getting into stuff that really he did and then just quietly walk away. When his is not hiding or plotting he can be found in his favorite room. No, not the bathroom. That room involves soap, his arch nemesis; nor does it include his bedroom. That room involves Ike, also his arch nemesis. Jakey's can be found usually in the Lego room. Yes, we have a room in our house dedicated just to legos; we have thousands of dollars of legos in that room. In fact the most valuable thing we own is legos. His highlights of the year include our trip to Seattle for Brick Con which is a huge Lego convention. Lego geeks from around the world show off all the amazing creations they have made instead of holding down a steady job. It truly inspired me. It inspired me to make sure my kids never grow up like that. We also stayed at Matt and Jenna Hanes' house, my brother and sister in law on Dan's side of the family. Jakey's other highlight was going to his cousin, Jimmy's birthday party while we were there.

Anna, age 6, did not have a lot to contribute to this letter. I just thought you should know that. She stated that Hello Kitty is the best and that she loves her. And that her favorite thing to do is to go to church BBQ s. So I guess that sums up Anna. Hello Kitty should not get too comfortable at the top of Anna's list. Lots of things have been up there over the year. Strawberry Shortcake, Barbie, Fancy Nancy books, Maria, bunnies, her bestest, best friend, Peyton, glitter and her brothers. I wonder, did you notice what I noticed that was missing from her list? It was ME!

Maria, age 6, loves to dance. She feels I am holding back her ballet career by not enrolling her in Julliard school of dance. Luckily we were able to buy her love by making a totally cool Hello Kitty pinata for her and Anna's birthday party. Maria's favorite things are Hello Kitty and glitter. So as you can imagine when she got a glittery Hello Kitty shirt she just about peed her Hello Kitty panties. She also loves a good BBQ and of course a nice steak. Well at least we call it steak, to her it is chicken. All meat is chicken, just in different colors. Grilled steak is black chicken to her.

On August 13, my sister Regina's birthday, I remarried to Benjamin Guhl from Palmer, Alaska. I am pleased to say that at the time I am writing this he is still here. I am sure he will eventually chew through the rope, but until then I will welcome the company. Yes, I know, Alaska is a long ways away to find someone but after reading this letter you understand how I could not look for anyone closer for fear they already knew my children, or worse yet......me.

Mom, this year has been one of finding routine and enjoying my altered family. I know it seems weird to call it altered but that how I interpret what we have gone through. Dan is never far from our thoughts and we talk about him everyday, remembering special things he liked to do or special memories we have of him. Ben is awesome in so many ways, but one that attracted me to him the most was that he is not intimidated by these memories of Dan. In fact he encourages them. Making sure to make Dan's birthday a special day for the kids and I, or keeping close tabs on me and being there for me on Dan and I's anniversary. I had sixteen years with Dan and we added five children to our family. Ben and I have many, many years ahead of us to make wonderful memories and five great kids to raise. To have a partner here with me to make that happen is a blessing I never did expect. So when you pray to God for an answer and he tells you to trust him. Do it. I did and it is one of the best choices I ever made.

Spokaloo

2011-12-19T12:39:00.000-08:00

For those of you not in the know, Spokaloo is a end of season wrestling tournament. This is the Jr. High level between 9 schools. In other words it is a really, really long day spent watching hundreds of wresting matches. Ben and I packed snacks, lunches, games, and activites for the kiddos. Anna and Maria played with my Ipod. I did not pay much attention to what they were playing, instead I enjoyed the fact they were happy and entertained. At the end of our adventure I checked my Ipod to see that it had an additional 233 pictures on it.

So for you viewing enjoyment,

Anna and Maria's impression of Spokaloo.

Anna showing her sister her new birthday shirt from her Grandma and Papa Brown.

Maria showing her new birthday shirt from Grandma and Papa Brown.

Maria pretending to be tall taking a picture of Anna.

Anna's scrunched up angry face. We see this one around the house a lot.

They discovered the ability to see themselves and take pictures.

I LOVE this one.

What in the world is this a picture of?

The inside of Anna's mouth.

Extreme close up of Anna.

For some reason they felt the need to document the snacks being eaten by the people next to them.

Cheesy Mc Cheese.

Oh and they did take a few pics of their brother. Gotta remember he was the reason they were there.

And now back to the Maria show. This is the glow board Grandpa and Bumski Reneer got Anna. Just an FYI, awesome gift for those wonder what to get the 5-8 yr. old in your life.

More of Maria. I have about 50 shots from this. If I flash through them it makes a short film of Maria drawing a picture. They learned about the video mode shortly after this

The glow board....uh....glowing.

Anna insisted I include this picture of her knee. It is pink. She has pink pants on. If you doubt this I can show you the other 15 pictures to prove it.

Her first few attempts at taking a picture of her knee were a bit shaky. I guess it is harder to take a picture of ones knee that I anticipated.

I have 30 pictures of the persons butt infront of us. I can understand accidently taking two or three, but thirty? That causes one to pause and wonder why.

So I hope you have enjoyed the girls take on Spokaloo. Ike did not do as well as he hoped. He was really nervous seeing how this was his first time in a tournament as big as this. I wish I could have helped him settle down so his nerves would not have gotten the best of him but he learned from this experience, as did I. From now on Anna and Maria will be incharge of the camera on all our outings.

Miss Anna Banana.

Happy Birthday Daniel James Brown 11-14-66

2011-12-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

A bit late on this post. The pictures were on Ben's camera because I forgot to pack mine. Anyways........

As we do every year, we celebrated Dan's birthday. On his actual birthday we had Dan's favorite dinner of grilled steak and his favorite cake of Death by Chocolate, not for the faint of heart. Because it is winter and gets dark at 3 pm here we had to postpone the trip up to the cemetery until the following Saturday.

That Friday and Saturday a snow storm decided to blow in. Ben and I discussed what should be done and came to the conclussion it was worth the snowy drive out to Cheney and the hike up to Dan's grave site. You see, the hill is super steep so you cannot drive a car, much less a huge van, up there in the winter or spring when the dirt road is still muddy. So we bundled up the kiddos and took what is normally a 20 minute drive and stretched it out on an hour.

Here they are all heading up the hill. The wind was not too bad this time, but the snow was really coming down.

Trying to keep my face warm.

Anna, in the pink, and Maria, the purple blob on the ground, made it about 1/2 way up before passing out. I love Maria's look of completely giving up and telling those around her to go on with out her. Anna was a good sister and stayed by her side until mom came.

Three boys took their sister's directions literally and left her.

When we all got up there together and took in the beautiful sights around us a snowball fight broke out. Daniel and Ben each took cheap shots at me. The younger three made snow angels for Daddy and Ike took turns white washing and then getting whitewashed.

The people that were sledding in the fields across the road from the cemetery were a bit perplexed by the kids romping around the hills. Don't worry, they were just visiting their dad.

Brick Con

2011-12-12T16:18:00.000-08:00

This October we to a trip to our Mecca, the BrickCon in Seattle. We are all level 7 lego geeks. Jakey is well on his way to becoming a level 8. So when Matt and Jenna told us in January about this lego convention that comes in October we were sold and immediately started making plans to go.

It is a Washington state law stating that if you go to Seattle you must, and I do mean MUST take a picture of the space needle. The first thought we all had was, "Hmmm, I thought it was bigger."

In the courtyard there is an amazing fountain. It puts on a really cool show with music and everything. It was so cold that day that that the water was warmer than the air so it created some really cool steam which you can sorta see around the dome in this picture.

What you cannot see is the look of wonder and awe on Jakey's face. All I can say is that I saw a lot of very pale people here, could have been the Seattle enviroment or the fact that they did not get out of their mother's basement very often to interact with real people.

What was fun on these huge displays is looking for the out of place characters. We saw a lot of Darth Vaders and Luke Skywalkers hiding in Harry Potter sets and city streets. What do you see in the picture below.

Just a really cool skyscraper in one of the many city scapes. One actually had a working minature movie theater.

In the kids corner they had a these awesome tables for kids to sit at and create with endless amounts of Legos. Jakey and the girls had a blast here. Daniel and Ike were very dissapointed in the prices of the sets and parts there. As were Ben and I. $3 for one mini figure??? Highway robbery. I would have said Lego highway robbery but we could not afford the pieces to even built the lego highway to get robbed on.

All in all it was such a fantastic trip. Loved staying with Matt and Jenna and their kiddos. We even got to go on a date and Daniel and Ike watched all of the kiddos. Jenna and Matt got a taste of the joys of having live in babysitters. They are coming over during Christmas break and we cannot wait to see them all again.

Ike's parenting plan

2011-12-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

Yes, it scares me just as much as it scares you to read "Ike" and "Parenting" in the same sentence.

As we just finished watching the Polar Express. Our first time in HD and I must say, "WOW WEEEE!" it was amazing. The father at the end of the movie lovingly refers to his son as, sport. Ike comes up with the clever idea that he is going to have three kids. Nickname one, Sport, the other, Tiger and the third, Loser. Then let them figure out who is his favorite.

I really wish he would keep his clever ideas to himself, they just make Ben and I worry all that much more about him.

2011-11-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

This is Ike's fourth match. His team when against Glover Middle School. They won. His second match was against Northwood. It did not go as well for him and I have decided that a video does not need to be posted of that.

His third match was against Sacajawea Middle School. He won that by what is known as a near fall. That is when you have your opponet in the the pin position for certain amount of time but cannot get his shoulders to both touch the mat. Ike had the boy like this when the final buzzer rang. Ben has the video on his camera and I need to pull the card out and up load it. I was unable to attend due to parent teacher conferences but Ben and my Dad did show up in support.

He has four matches left this season.

Ike's first match. Chase vs. Shaw

2011-11-13T20:50:00.000-08:00

Ike wrestles for Chase. He has been wrestling since he was in kindergarten for the local H.S Jr wresting program. He was super excited when he made varsity. I was not excited when the coach asked him to lose 3 lbs to join a lighter weight class at 105. Ike does not have much to lose on him to begin with.

The next day was fast Sunday. Ike prayed that he would do good in wresting this year and make varsity, then started his fast. He was so pleased when he came home Monday from practice and had lost the 3 lbs. "Wow mom!" he exclaimed. "This fasting stuff really does work. I am glad you made me do it or I never would have lost those 3 lbs." oh man. so not the point I was trying to get across.

Ike was super nervous for his first match, as was I. But as nervous as I was I know Ike's was more so. He was pacing and jumping in place. And other times just sitting very still. He is really glad he has the same wrestling coach he had for the last two years and Coach Vaughn was super happy to see Ike go to the next level of wrestling. It has given Ike confidence to be around someone familiar.

Man, he looked so much older than his 12 years down there with his team mates.

Chase Middle School won this match against Shaw. They only had two boys that did not win their matches. Ike got the fastest pin of the night. Next Tuesday they are going against school that has a much tougher wrestling reputation. I just pray he continues to do the best he can and be proud of how well he is doing and not get too frustrated when things don't go as well as they did this time. I keep telling him that it is not whether you win or lose but how much heart you put into your match.

When he got into the car to come home there were two people on his list to call right away. His Uncle Matt and his friend/coach Lon Page. That, to me, is pretty cool. We also had another tradition from SJW of going out to Mc Donalds after each match. Well SJW only has four matches in a season. This year he has much,much more. Aunt Amy came to the rescue this week and treated all of us to a lovely Mc Donald's dinner. The kids, and by kids I mean me, were super excited. Thank you Amy.

Jakey's 9th Birthday

2011-11-12T13:03:00.000-08:00

Oh man I have been neglecting my four faithful readers. I am so very sorry.

Jakey turned 9 on November 1. For that day he had a pizza cookie delivered to his class with a Lego Star Wars Jedi Star Fighter Pilot on it. I thought it totally rocked. Until several kind observers asked why in the world I would put a lego guy in a bikini on a gigantic cookie for school. Dang it! I looked at it again and they were right!!

On Friday the 4th, he had a bunch of friends over to play and I made Wookie cupcakes for them. Ben does an amazing Chewbacca impersonation. One kid quickly pointed out, "Dang, I thought all this time the dude was is costume. Turns out it was just your step dad before he shaves." I told Ben to go put a long sleeve shirt on. He was scaring the kids. ha ha ha

Then on Saturday he had is birthday party with his Grandparents and family. I was so tired and burned out on parties by then. Next year we are doing ONE party. On the day of his birthday. Those who can make it, Great! those who can not can stop by when it works for them. I am getting too old and this family's schedule it getting to hectic.

Jakey with Grandma Brown on is THIRD party.

Jakey and his buds with his Wookie cupcakes.

One Wookie.

Lots_o_Wookies staring at you.

Bikini lego man. I wonder if I am now banned from bringing in Pizza Cookies for kids birthdays after this little fiasco?

He had a great time and is caught up on birthdays until he turns 12.

a very cool experiment for you to try amongst yourselves.

2011-10-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

What you are looking at is a raw egg without it's shell. I just blew your wee mind, didn't I?

Take one egg and place it in cup and cover it with vinegar. we used applecider but I think white would work better because it is more acidic. Let is set for 24 hours. Keep checking on it though. It is cool to see the chemical reaction between the egg shell and vinegar. It is fun to poke at too. Rinse it well to get the remainder of the shell off and "VOILA!" I wonder what would happen if you boiled this. Would you have a yummy hardboiled egg you would not have to peel?
In class Daniel's teacher bounced her egg from about a 4 foot drop. So we wanted to see if Daniel's egg would also bounce. The video shows that.

This is why I think that white vinegar would have worked better.

You have now reached the end of this educational program. Have a good day.

I have not posted since october 9

2011-10-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is basically a post on how i have not posted since october 9th. Ben was stunned when he saw that just now. I felt shame. well something close to shame, my cold, heartless nature actually keeps me from feeling true shame. He also works great as a spell checker.

our day is early morning seminary, mile long walk, hustle off to school for me. Ben getting the kiddos on their way. Depending on the day he is then out the door to work or home whittling down piles of dirty clothes and making super yummy dinners and cookies for when we all get home. On days he works we both get home close to the same time. then 30 minutes later kiddos start filing in. Homework being done by all. laundry getting put away, dinner getting started,kids getting to various evening activities or worse yet, us having to go to parent meetings so we can pretend to be involved. HA HA HA oh and lets not forget the copious drs, dentist, and specialist appointments that come with this time of year, then kiddos off to bed, me doing more homework and then the both of us crashing by 9 pm because the thought of staying up to 9:30 exhausts us.

So no, have not had much to blog about. Kids are doing good is school. Not fantastic, but we are working on that. And they are so pleased with the prospect of having Ben and I "all up in their business." Well actually they did not say this but the eye roll implied a lot.

Ike starts wresting on Monday. Have a physical for him scheduled for Thursday. Yes, I will be posting pictures with that blog update. Then all five have a dentist appt on tuesday, and then Friday Maria has an eye drs appt.

Sometime in there I have to keep up with my studies because I think i will cry if i get below and A on anything. Seriously. And I think Ben doesn't want to witness the mess of me crying to he is doing all he can to help me study and understand what is going on in Math and Biology. Yes, He is a friggen good man. Yes, I know I totally lucked out. Yes, I know eventually he will catch on that I know this and will use it to his own advantage. Mwaa Haa Haaaaa.

Well it is 10 pm. I have not done my nursery lesson for tomorrow, but that is okay because they are three and can be bought off with cookies. Or maybe I just want to bring cookies so I can eat them too.

Hello long lost friend

2011-10-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have been negligent in my blogging. But I have a very good excuse. You see I am taking a writing class in school so hopefully as I learn proper writing skills my blogging will improve and you, the reader, will be edified instead of mystified by my blogs.

Now on to the real topic. Ike caught a fish. He first this year. He is a good size fish too, as you can see. He is a brook trout. I don't know if the fish knows this, but now you do.

Ben taught Ike how to kill and clean his fish. Jakey wanted the head for dinner.

No, I did not let jakey eat the head for dinner.

Here he is scooping out all the guts with his thumb. I really hope he takes it serious now when I tell him to wash his hands.

Ben is showing him how to cut off the fins.

Ike, demonstrating his fin cutting prowness. And he did not even knick a finger!!

I did a bit of season to Mr. Brook and fried him up in a bit of butter. But really when a fish is this fresh there is not a lot you need to do. They taste fantastic.

I do think that Ike is hoping to catch one that is more than three bites next time. I would not mind him catching one for me too. :)

And so ends our fishy tail. This sentence is called the concluding sentence. Do you know why?

Chase Middle School Open House

2011-09-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this by saying Ike was grounded before the night even started for completely other reasons. This just may keep him grounded for the rest of his life.

Tonight was open house. We, the parents, were to meet at the school at 6:30 with about 13 billion other parents. No I am not exaggerating. I am never one to exaggerate, especially when it comes to facts.

We were to go to his home room and there the student was to make out a copy of their schedule and then the teacher would hand it to us so we could go and meet each teacher and get a 10 minute run down of the curriculum for that class.

Here is a copy of Ike's schedule he made for us. I noticed two things right away. I will let you study this and then see if we both came to the same conclussion.

Well, did you figure it out?

1. There are no classroom numbers. The #6 is there because I asked his home room teacher to direct me to the next class of his.

2. It is barely legible.

Well we made it to 2nd period and luckily the staff member that was subing in for the sick teacher also noticed some oddities.

1. He put lunch down as his 3rd period.
2. He did not put down a teacher for his 6th period at all.

So this clued her in and she pulled up his real schedule and quickly scribbled it on the back of the original.

Yes, my son, the one who is grounded for finding my hidden key, unlocking my bedroom door, rifling through my dresser and desk drawers and getting candy, who got caught sneaking his DS into his bed after he was grounded.........

MADE A BOGUS SCHEDULE!!

I will admit I laughed. I laughted a lot when we found this out. The teacher was really impressed. In fact she does not know of any other student who has done this.

What really makes me wonder is this....

a. he is a very good student
b. he is doing very well in school.
c. he does not have any tardies in any classes.

So why did he feel like messing with us? What was the point? Was there really even a point? Probably not.

I will just chalk it up to another experience of raising this batch of hooligans.

This old dog learns some new tricks.

2011-09-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

This is our snack tote. All things needed for after school snacks. Microwave popcorn, cookies, crackers, graham crackers....well you get the idea. The trouble we have ran into in the past is RAIDS!! yes, we live in a houseful of raiders.

So Ben and I came up with this nifty, Yes we are so cool we use words like nifty. This has saved us lots of $$$. and i looooove saving money.

What is this marvelous idea? Well wonder no more.

It is a footlocker with a padlock on it. They can only get into when I unlock and I stand there and watch what they pick out so I can lock it back up immediately afterwards. Now you are wondering where do I keep the key to this magical box.

On my key chain so that way when I am gone they cannot clean me out and hide the evidence all over the house in nooks and crannies. Which they have done and will do. I know all about this because, dear reader, I did the same thing to my own mother. But usually it was frozen cookies and twinkies. The woman froze everything. But we got the last laugh. We love eating frozen chocolate chip cookies and hostess cupcakes. Mwaa haaa haaa!

I submit exhibit A. Wrappers left over from raiding hidden in a nook or crannie. I am not really clear which one this is.

As you can see I am as pleased as punch with this new arrangement. Been using it since august with stellar success.

All in the family

2011-09-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday I did an "all call" on Daniel's room for dirty clothes. Especially practice gear. His pads and practice jersey were in the car at the time. I asked if I needed to wash the jersey also. Yes, I see this as a mistake now. Why did I even bother asking. The answer should aways be YES. But he told me not to worry. He jersey is protected by his pads and therefore never actually makes contact with his skin.

Fast forward to the next day. I need to get something out of the car that had fallen down on the ground in the back. This position put my nose dangerously close to the aformentioned jersey and pads. I blacked out.

So into the wash the jersey went. The pads were hauled out to the driveway to experience fresh air and Febreeze. Now they smell like lilacs drenched in B.O. A few hours in the sun did seem to refresh them quite a bit.

This morning before school the girls were goofing off with them. Maria tried them on first. She was so cute I just had to get a picture. Anna had other ideas.......

This is Maria's dazed and confused look. Poor baby. You will notice Anna's blur just out of the frame of the picture.

Anna greeted her with a flying tackle.

Anna then tried them on and Maria.......gave her sister a hug? Just must have a concussion.

The cutest powerpuff defensive tackle ever!!

Sweet!

2011-09-09T16:46:00.001-07:00

I can post from my iPod now! This rocks.

First Day of School 2011

2011-09-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

I cleverly posted my pictures backwards for your viewing pleasure.

The girlies have Ms. Riebe this year. She is new to us, but not to the school. All the boys had the same teacher, Ms. Baugher. I have a feeling she was done with the Brown's.
Headed off to school. Jakey rode his bike the whole 1/2 block. Maria is in the Hello Kitty backpack and Anna is in the Spongebob.

Jakey age 8. Jacob has Ms. Fielding for his third grade teacher. She also taught Ike when he was in third grade.

Jakey being silly for the camera.

First grader....Maria sporting a lovely combination of purple and pink!!

and announcing first grader.....Anna! She was mad because her shoes were not fitting just quite right, but smiled anyways. Of course she wore pink because it is her favorite color.

About a year ago Ike desided he is too cool to smile in pictures so every picture I have of him he has this obnoxious look on his face. I cannot wait until he is much older and sees all this pictures I have of him. He we very excited to go to Chase Middle School this year. He has the same homeroom teacher that Daniel did. He came home with lots of exciting stories and has high hopes for the year to come.

My elementry school students.

I have been seeing this smile so much more lately. I love it! Here is my big sophmore, Daniel. I cannot believe that he is in 10th grade already. Yes, this highschool thing is flying by way too fast. He is in football this year. Plays defensive line and seems to be enjoying himself. It does help that he signed up with his best bud, Forbush, so they have eachother.

So there you have it. The first day of school. Well today is the second day of school, but oh well. Spent yesterday afternoon going through piles of paperwork. Classroom rules, homework rules, student expectations, volunteer applications, yada, yada, yada. Ordered my school books today. Got all four of them used from Amazon for $130 which I was so happy with considering that one book alone costs $152 from the book store. Now to get my notebooks, pencils, binders, pens and what not in order. Maybe I will have Ben take a picture of me on my first day of school. ha ha ha

17 years

2011-09-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

Today marks the anniversary for Dan and I. We would have been married 17 years. Wow. That seems like such a long time. Funny how when he was alive we had a terrible time remembering our anniversary. We did a good job on the 5 yr and 10 yr mark. Made sure to do something very special like a weekend away. But all the other years it was usually forgotten until middle of the day then I would scramble and make us a special dinner. But the past two years I have remembered. I have remembered for weeks before it arrives. I have pondered it much these past few days. There is sadness and thoughts of ,"what if".

On one hand I am very happy with Ben. He is a fantastic man. Seriously I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop because he really is an answer to my prayers, which I did not even know I was asking for. If that makes any sense. But I still love Dan. Very much. I don't see that ever changing. Yes, Ben knows this and he totally understands. (see what an awesome guy he is) So what I feel is guilt. Wonderful, familiar guilt. How can I be so happy with this wonderful guy and still be so sad, missing Dan on our anniversary. The heart is a weird thing.

Ben has asked if there is anything special I would like to do to commemorate this day, but I know if I focus on what it is I will be weepy all day long, and yet it feels wrong to force myself to not aknowledge it. Ugh. I cannot win. So maybe this post is my aknowledgement of it. Thank you Dan for 15 wonderful years.

Now to go make the kids breakfast because they are all starving and then get Daniel's stuff dried for practice and him out the door, get the last minute stuff packed and ready for the kids to go back to school and start in on my list of things I need to start school. So basically spend this anniversary the same way Dan and I did when he was alive. :D

Honeymoon? Let's take the kids camping!

2011-08-28T16:49:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick photo preview of our week. I will post an album on facebook which should take just under a week to upload.

Well we took our annual camping trip this summer. Not even a wedding was gonna get in the way of that. Lucky for us, Ben is an avid camping but refused to call what we do camping due to the fact there is running water, an out house, and food that we did not kill ourselves. well pooh,pooh. Our regular campsite, Outlet Bay, that we have gone to for the past 13 yrs. was out of service due to repairs. Yes, odds are we caused the damage. So after we sat there in our van stunned for a few minutes we headed out in search of a new campground, which apparently real campers don't use those either. pashaw!

Reeder Bay became our home away from home for the following week. Now you may thinking about pitying the poor souls at Reeder Bay but fear not! We had nothing on the group two campsites down from us. They played the bagpipes every night for about 30-45 minutes. No, they did not keep this melodious music to just themselves. They packed up the back of the truck and drove around campsites sharing the love.

We worked good as a team getting the site set up so we could hurry down to the lake. Really my sole purpose of camping. Daniel, Ike and Forbush had their own tent and then Ben, Jake, Anna,Maria, and myself had another tent set up as far away as possible (all of 10 feet) from the boys stinky tent.

Anna enjoying her sandwich and a bit of a rest from playing in the water.

Ben grabbing a much needed powernap with Maria keeping him company reading her favorite Fancy Nancy book. What? You don't know who Fancy Nancy is?? Well go look her up. Every 5 yr. old girl loves Fancy Nancy.

Ben teaching Ike how start a fire with one square of TP and flint. Because I really the kid needs to learn how to start fires in variety of ways. ha ha ha

Jakey and the girls chilling on their side of the tent after dinner.

A very blurry picture of the girls. I needed to clean my camera lense.

Hanging out at the site #7.

Picking wild raspberries coming back from swimming. On Friday night we had breakfast dinner. Berry pancakes, eggs, corn cakes,bacon and sausage. Yum Yum the kids easily ate 60 pancakes that night. It was insane.

My co-pilot.

The three youngest usually ate at the little table because we could not all fit at the picnic table.

Yet, another blurry picture of the girls.

All in all it was a very sucessful trip. We did not have any rain this year. In fact it was blisteringly hot.

We found some amazing hiking trails and got some beautiful pictures from there. I will also put those in the facebook album.

Yes, I know I have not posted a blog about our wedding. Thank you for your gentle and not so gentle reminders. I promise to do that posting next. :)

Stuff I cannot make up, even in my wildest dreams....

2011-08-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

Ben and I went to our first Football Booster Club meeting just to get info on what is going on this season. Turns out I almost missed the First Annual "Huddles and Heels" event. GASP!

I have been so busy trying to keep up on the current events via "Ladies Home Journal"

So Huddles and Heels is a chance for us ladies who are just baffled by this complicated game called "Football" As the very kind lady pointed out, "Now we will no longer bother our husbands with annoying questions while they they are trying to watch the game." Ben knows me well enough to actually grab a hold of my leg just to make sure I was not going to jump up and throttle the chick.

Not only is it an evening with Coach Sharkey, yes that is his real name. But also wine tasting and a lovely fashion show from a local boutique put on by the cheer leaders!! I don't know about you but that just seems like a evening of FUN,FUN,FUN!!

The coach will be there to give us one on one attention and explain the game and answer all our embarrassing questions about the game so we don't have to look silly in front of our husbands. SERIOUSLY....THESE ARE HER WORDS!!!

And all this humiliation only costs $20!!!!

So all you clueless women out there who don't want to appear stupid about football in front of there dear sweet husbands and much less pester him with annoying questions not to mention WINE!! and a lovely fashion show put on by cheer leaders to further damage our fragile self esteem.....this night is for you! I hope they choke on a stiletto.

Introducing the newest member of the family. Thank goodness I did not have to birth him.

2011-08-10T12:12:00.001-07:00

Blogger is being a pain in the butt and only allowing me to post one picture at a time and then has the nerve to take f o r e v e r to up load it. grrr

i have a few minutes so i will work with what i got here.

This here is Mr. Benjamin Guhl. He had the crazy idea to marry me and in so doing become the step dad to my brood. Just proves that he is just crazy enough to blend right in.

We finally found a camp chair big enough for him at Big 5 but sadly it was not for sale. Anna and Maria wanted a chance to sit in the chair and this is also a rare picture of Ike smiling for reals and not just trying to look cool.

We went to Spokane's own Highlands Games. Hmmmm, how do discribe the event......we will go with "Less than impressed." Ike, Jake and Ben tried out the archery tent. They had big q-tip shaped arrows and you tried to hit some poor sap dressed up as a knight.

Jakey got a bit of instruction.

umm, i don't know who is shooting in this picture. I think it was Ike.

We also got to try genuine Haggis. The real deal. It smelled, less than appetizing. Looked a bit like a gigantic sausage. I guess that is because that is what it is. Jakey took a sniff and gave his to Ike. Daniel ate the girls samples. Ben had no desire to try it because he had already experienced the pleasure of haggis. I got to try some. The pictures are on Ben's camera. I will try to get them up loaded tomorrow. I went into this with a game plan. Bite and swallow. The haggis knew of this game plan and came up with a plan of it's own. The moment I bit down it exploded into thousands of little bits of guts, organs and things i tried not to identify inside my mouth. forcing me to pick it out of my teeth and cheeks with my tongue. Well played, Haggis. Well played. P.S Daniel and Ike loved it. They said it tastes just like my mom's meat loaf. HA HA HA HA

Okay, This time it's for reals

2011-08-08T10:04:00.001-07:00

Okay my fellow readers. Sorry I have been so remiss on posting. We are very busy working on projects around the house. Romantic I know. But when we got back from California the shower was running really slow. So that was our first project. Then we needed to fix the liner on Big Red. It started falling down on our way to California. Next was a rack to hang all the cast iron pots and pans so we can free up shelf space. Between the two of us we have a lovely selection. Right now as I type Ben is putting up hooks in the bathroom so we can hang our towels up, I never got around to putting those back up after the remodel, and finishing the trim on the bathroom door.

So on Thursday the Stoddards stayed at the beach house and we wondered off to that day's Culteral Enrichment activity. The Long Beach Aquarium. It was so much fun. We had booklets that we got to emboss at each attraction. Because the aquarium was so large, at least for us, it let us know that we had seen everything there was to see by the time our "passports" were all stamped.

They had a jellyfish touch tank. Touch tanks are where you can pet the sea creatures. Jelly fish are surprisingly solid.

And fascinating to watch.

One of the tanks was three stories tall. It was so beautiful. Sadly the pictures do not do it justice.

This is the "Papa/Grandpa" sea ray. I think I see why the three little ones were so sure it looked just like Vertie and Rick. His top lip is frilled so it looked like a mustache and he looked like he was smiling because of the gills on either side of his mouth.

This is the shark touch tank. No petting the ray! But there were plenty of sharks to pet. I was surprised that all the kids enjoyed petting the sharks.

Here is Maria showing some love to Mr. Sharkie.

They had touch tanks with sea anenomes, star fish, sea urchins, sea slugs, and lots of other fun and bizzarre sea life.

Trying to get caught up.

2011-08-03T21:25:00.001-07:00

i am too tired. i will try again tomorrow.

Number 513 of my wishlist checked off

2011-07-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday evening at 5:15 pm my mom and I went to the Crab Cooker. I guess this was a place that she and my dad went to a few times back in the day, before they had kids, and still had hopes and dreams. Idid not take my children, knowing they would not appreciate the crab. Instead I ordered pizza for them. They were so excited about getting pizza that is actually delivered to your door. Don't they realize all the pizza they get is delivered to their door......by their MOTHER! :)

We split and order of Alaskan King crab legs and crab cakes. Came with a side of cheesy mashed taters and slaw. Very good taters and slaw. But the star of the show was the crab. Served with lots and lots of butter.

Yes, I admit it. I looked.

You are served on paper placemats on paper plates with plastic cups and plastic utinsels. Very, very swanky joint. Water is served only upon request.

Surprisingly we did not try the "worlds best clam chowder" because it was Maine clam chowder and mom and I both prefer New England style clam chowder.

We both walked home full as could be. And then proceeded to have terrible nightmares all night long. Weird. We concluded it was because our bodies were not used to such rich food. I have come to the conclusion that I need to eat like that more often so my body can adapt.

One week already?

2011-07-23T19:15:00.001-07:00

we have visited lots of local spots in between getting sunburned at the beach. for a few days we had a very strict "No slapping anyone on the back." rule. One of our stops was Balboa Pier. It has a merry go round which the girls flocked to almost as fast as they flocked to the cottoncandy.

Daniel and Ike did the ferris wheel. it took me 12 shots to finally get one of their cart. Ihave a lot of the cart behind them.

They have a nifty nautical museum too! With Ike's love of fishing he was more than happy to pose with this giganitic fish. I am stunned I finally have a picture of him smiling!

Jake

Maria

Anna is at the wheel.

They had touch tanks too. the kids got to touch starfish and sea slugs. i was all for the starfish. as for the sea slugs.turns out i like them as much as their relatives, the land slugs.

one of the MANY model boats they had. the kids had a lot of fun looking at these.

I have a variety of bedmates. The other night i walked in and was suprised by this princess. I love how she had herself and blanket all laid out just so and how her toes are peeking out.

Then on another day we went to Balboa Island. The candy shop and toy store were very popular stops. Of course we had to get a picture of Bessie. The girls were more than happy to pose.

Anna magnifying her magnificent smile for me. I did not notice this until i uploaded the pictures.

Maria begging me to take them out into the ocean to jump waves.

An end to another wonderful day of playing on the beach. Ice cream out on the patio. :)

Ike burying Anna.

Anna and Maria building castles in the surf. I guess they have not gotten the gist of the primary song, " The wise man built his house up on the rock."

Well as you can imagine i have a lot more pictures to share. I will try and get those posted soon.

Pickles anyone?

2011-07-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

This post does not contain any cute or clever pictures. So those of you who still don't read books that don't have pictures will have to ignore this post and wait for the next one.

Wednesday morning Maria was in the fridge looking for a snack when one of the door shelves fell off. She freaked out, because this is not the first thing she has broken in this house, and started to cry. I went over to assess the damage, and mental rack up how much this is gonna cost me, and was pleasantly surprised to see it would be an easy fix.

I stuck Maria in the corner of the kitchen because the fridge door being open blocks the doorway out of the kitchen. As I was jimming the shelf back on I knocked off a jar of dill pickles. It landed on my foot and broke. Maria quickly shouted that it was not her fault. My mom, realizing I was in way over my head, started to come over. Luckily Jakey beat her there. As he walked by he felt the need to say, "Mom, the pickle jar broke." I calmly stated that I was aware of this fact. Then once he realized that I probably was he then asked, "Can I have a pickle?" I was stunned for a moment then answered back that no he could not have a pickle at this time because they are all over the floor and my foot and chances are they have shards of glass mixed in also.

I see a bright future for him as an EMT.

An update from the road

2011-07-20T07:51:00.001-07:00

This post reminds me of writing a letter home from camp because really I am posting this to keep my family in cheney up to date. so.....

Dear Mom and Dad, Katie,Amy,Jenna and Susan,

We made it to the beach, but no worries lots of adventures were had along the way. We went through the John Day pass on the way to Reno. It is a very twisty, turny, windy road. I think you know where this is going. Luckily only one kid barfed. Poor sweet Maria. She gave us plenty of notice to pull off the road and shove a towel under her chin. So the mess was at a minimum. Anna started feeling cruddy too.

The scenery was lovely, but i will not be going home that way.

We stopped for lunch at the John Day museum. They had creepy mannequins. They scared the girls. By girls I include myself.

They had a dress up box so the girls tried on some hats. the first picture I took of Anna had her blinking. So I asked her not to blink this time. The following picture was the result of this request. I think I am gonna get this one blown up and framed.It makes me smile everytime I see it.
Maria looking saucy as always.

Just hanging out and looking at everything. there was a lot to look at. They liked the two headed calves.

We spent the night and all day friday in Reno with the Lindh's. It was a much needed break after driving through four states in one day. Anna and Maria spent the evening and night barfing and having other digestive problems. Just too long of a car ride for them I think. They were feeling like their spunky selves by Friday. We went and took the kids downtown. Had to get our picture taken in front of the famous, "RENO! Biggest Little City in the World" sign. As you can see when Lanae and I get our families together we make quite a crowd.

The kids were less than impressed with the smells inside the casino. They said they would much rather smell the exhaust from the cars on the street. Yes, we took them inside a casino. Circus Circus does free circus act every hour. Good thing it was free because the kids were less than impressed.

So we took the kids walking down the the "river" and I use this term loosely. It was more like a large shallow creek. It was moving fast but nothing like the rivers they are used to seeing at home. It was hot and they did have a lovely water feature. The kids started out looking at the water, then sticking their hands in it and before I knew it, they had a full blown water fight in which I got nailed twice!!

They came back and played boardgames, chased lizards and basically became wonderfully lazy. It was a wonderful afternoon.

We also went to a park near Lanae's house that morning. All of the kids, yes big ones too, had a great time. They all played tag and basically took over the huge four story play structure they have there.

Anna, Maria, and Sarah.

Obligatory family picture infront of giant frog. I like how it looks like Ike and Bumpski are having a stare off. One of many.

Daniel took his turn at the wheel to. I only let him drive for an hour at a time. Which was more than fine with him. Driving Big Red is not easy at highway speeds. The winds tend to push her around.

The crew totally at ease with daniel at the wheel. Wish I could say the same! Ike is in the back passed out.

We are at the beach house. Having fun collecting shells and jumping in waves, and of course sporting some fantastic sunburns!!

A wonderful success at failing

2011-07-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

I know, what a fantastic picture to start off this blog with. No, Geoff is not the failure. If anything I consider this picture of him to be a stunning success. Geoff was the newest member to our merry band of travelers that thought it would be a great idea to bike from Seattle to Portland.
So we, (Anna, Monica and I) met up at Geoff's place for a wonderful carbo loaded dinner of homemade seafood fettuchine. Due to un forseen circumstances and a misplaced cow Anna was not able to join us that night. We ate, then thought it would be a fantastic idea to draw on eachother cool pictures for the race. Geoff did my race number on my leg.

Turned out pretty cool. Too bad it was short lived. Yes, the marker lasted longer than I did. ha ha ha

Anna, Monica and I camped out in the parking lot in BigRed so we could be at the start line bright and early. Meaning 4:30 am. It was early. But none of us were anywhere near bright.

Here we are at 10 mile water stop. Oh the look of hope and joy on my face.

This is mile 25. Breakfast time. We hit here right before 8 am. I was feeling pretty sick and the thought of eating food repulsed me. I watched my friends chow down and was digusted. Hmmm, something is not right here. I normally am a huge fan of eating.

There are no picture from the lunch pit stop. As most of it was spent with me bent over in the bushes vomiting. I ran out of water five miles from our lunch stop. Kept trying to keep fluids in me but I kept barfing them up. I was very, very angry and frustrated at myself and my stupid body. So I placed a call to Carlos, trying my best not to cry. ( I totally cried) He called his buddy Scott because I was quite a ways away from, well, pretty much anywhere. Scott drove an hour down from Olympia to drag my sorry butt and bike back to his place where Carlos, Rachel and their kiddos drove three hours to bring me back to there place. Scott's house was really nice, the bedroom he put me in was really nice, the carpet was really nice. Oh how I prayed everytime that I would make it to the bathroom and not black out in the hallway.

So I hung out with my brother and his family Sunday, getting updates from my friends on the trail which sadly, made me cry because I wanted to be there, accomplishing something! Instead of trying to hold down a friggen cracker!!

Rachel drove me back to the U District in Seattle around 10 pm to meet them and drive them back to Geoff's where we crashed.

Monday started early for some reason. So Monica and I headed down to the piers to get a look at downtown Seattle and play the dorky tourist. Turns out I do dorky really, really well. Anna was not able to join us for this adventure either do to the mis placed cow from Friday. I now know why I don't eat beef. HA HA HA HA

Nothing important about this picture. I just loved the irony of it.

It is a picture of fishermen on a boat. Yep, told ya I was good at being a dork.

We went to Pike Street Market and saw someone buy $707 dollars worth of salmon. Not hard to do at $18 a lb. Tasted some delish smoked salmon that was $30 a lb. Monica and I figured the sample alone was about $5 worth of salmon. Yes, I did lick my fingers.

I am getting better at dealing with my failure of not finishing the STP. But I have to be realistic here to. First off I did a triathlon 14 days before this race. Secondly I promised Daniel I would come back alive. He was worried who was gonna cook meals for them. I am so happy for his concern.

My very first triathlon sprint. Lake Padden Tri (Try, try, and try again)

2011-06-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

Warning. This post has picture of a middle aged fat lady in a wet suit and swim wear attempting (and succeeding) to do really stupid stuff.

This was my transistion area. The goal is to be here as little as possible. I don't have my transition times yet but i think the longest i was there was under 5 minutes and that was getting out of the wet suit and putting on my running gear.

This is me in the ever so sexy wet suit. I am so lucky I could not see this picture until after the competition or I would have spent the swimming portion in the car, under a tarp, weeping softly to myself.

We all go to wear these lovely neon green swim caps. They said it was for visablility. Daniel quickly found a flaw in their plan. As he witnessed several swimmers going under. "Once they go down, mom, you can't see the swim cap." Hmmmm.

I trained a whooping one week for the swim. And only because I am cheap. I did not want to spend the money of an actual gym membership and I did not want to pay for two weeks.

About 50 yards into the swim it occurred to me that I am tired, I am in over my head, and I am tired of having water splashed in my face, nose, mouth and getting kicked. Really tired of getting kicked. The water was less than warm. A lot less. 99% of the swimmers had on wet suits too. 99% of the swimmers in wet suits looked a heck of a lot better than I did. Luckily, I did make it through the swim. I found my pace, and found my happy place and took it one stroke at a time. Exetremely happy to see the shore and have my feet touch solid ground.

I covered myself in Body Glide before I put on the wet suit and the stuff worked fantastically. The suit slid right off. Hopped up on the bike and was off! I really, really love that they started the course off on an up hill. Just like I really,really, love this picuture of me.

About 10 minutes into the ride I realized that I am very, very wore out. My legs are noodles and I am breathing really,really hard. I felt myself panicking again just like I did in the water. I had to remind myself of my goals, first was to hydrate while I rode and the second was to make up for lost time in the water.

DONE!! you can tell by the ecstatic look on my face how happy I was to be done. I reached my goal of under two hours. I did not die, vomits, pass out or crash. those were my other goals of things NOT to do.

I can say at this point and time I do not see myself doing a full triathlon again. First off the training takes up a lot of time. Secondly, it is insane. I am used to doing crazy. But insane was a whole new gig. They do have a relay team option. Any one wanna sign up?

I was worried my kids would be bored during the race. But no! They got to see people drowning and being pulled out of the water, people wiping out on bikes around sharp turns, and someone got hit by a car! They did not get to see the actual accident but did witness the clean up. I would call that a successful day.

Road Trip!!

2011-06-27T09:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had a Triathlon sprint at Lake Padden which just happens to be down the road from my brother's house. WOW! how handy is that??

well on the way over we stopped at the usual points of intrest...every friggen rest stop between Spokane and Bellingham. There are approx. 10. Of course we stopped off at Vantage and took in the lovely sights.

Kids by native american pictographs.
My little Maria cheesing for the camera while eating cheesy gold fish crackers.

My crew.

After the race Carlos, Rachel and the their kiddos took off to a wedding so I took the kids down to Larrabee Bay and let them check out the tide pools.

The found lots of little crabs and limpets.

Anna with her collection of sea shells

Maria found a purple sea star at the end of this out cropping of rocks.

Jakey with his pet crab he tried to take home.

My merry band of travelers.

It was a nice weekend. Very busy, but we had great weather, which is amazing for that side of the state. I get to go back again on the 9th of july. the kids get to stay with friends. I am sure they will be happy to not have to make the trip again.

One Year

2011-06-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

This song has been my anthem for my year. It is funny yet, sad.

I cannot believe it has been a year. There were times I did not think I would make it to this day. But I guess I had no say in the matter. Life continues, Needs had to be met. Obligations, church callings, kids, family. The world does not give a break to the greiving. In some ways it is good. It is important to stay the course. In other ways it is incredible frustrating and sometimes....JUST NOT FAIR!

So I have been thinking a lot this past week on what I have learned through this past year.

1. I hate the word, "should" I have heard it a lot from well meaning people. They don't know how much it grates on my nerves because I don't want to hurt their feelings.

2. I am tired of people saying they know exactly what I am going through. And then proceed to tell me how they have witnessed someone else close to them going through the greiving process. They have no idea what I am going through. Grief is a very personal and selfish thing. I don't want to hear how hard you have it with your husband working too much, or how tired you are, or how busy you life is. Therefor they know....exactly how I feel. Because I am willing to bet.......you don't. And in complete and total honesty, I hope you never do know exactly how I feel.

3. Why, oh, why to people have the need to tell me when they hear a story on the news, or through the grapevine of some other young mother that has lost her husband. Believe it or not, it does not bring comfort, peace or a feeling of, "Gee I am so glad that's not me."

4. There may be stages of grief but they don't stop once you reached the last one. They loop. Around, and around and around. Lately I have been so angry inside I could just punch someone! When I get like this I have learned to keep to myself and not to socialize with others much. Other days, I still want to cry, and cry and cry. But like I stated before, life continues, chores to do, children to care for and obligations to meet.

5.Going through the grieving process is a personal journey. Many will tell you how you should be feeling and coping and put expectations on you. You will let them down, and dissapoint them. I have learned to get over this. I cannot grieve for them or on behalf of them.

6. I no longer want to hear how strong I am. That I am a trooper. That I am doing so good keeping it all together. It makes me feel so bad because I am not strong, or a trooper and I am not keeping it together very well at all. It is just a personality I put out there.

7. To portray myself as having it all together. I have found when I am struggling and floundering and let those close to me know it, they tend to panic. It is not something they are comfortable with. So I keep it in.

I cannot believe it has been an year. well not quite one year. In ten minutes it will be a year. and then.....another year begins.

The new and improved tree fort.

2011-06-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, I want all my readers, yes all three of you, to appreciate what I went through to upload these pictures! Stupid blogger kept losing them after I would upload them. This is round 4 and I finally had to resort to uploading one and a time.

We built a tree fort several years ago. This past spring it finally colapsed. With Ike on it at the time. No worries, the fort was not too badly ruined. We were able to salvage several pieces. I cannot say the same for Ike.

My dad came over for two afternoons and helped built a bigger, better and stronger tree fort. That one quickly exploded so had to settle for this one.

The man himself. Yes, he is muttering to himself in this picture. I think he is saying, "Put down the dang camera and help me pull this nail out of my finger."

Our fabulously patched together floor. We reused plywood and siding that we had laying around. Some of it was already painted with chalk board paint. now they can play tic tac toe, dots, hang man, or leave threating notes to eachother. I am voting on the threating notes.

I got the license plate collection thanks to a moonless night and several un-suspecting neighbors.

Daniel got to use the, BIG DOG, as grampa liked to call it.

Securing the floor.

All that is left is to put up the railings. Several sleep overs are already planned. Anna Nelson and I call first dibbs!

Isaac's Graduation Video #2

2011-06-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

And now for a break from our regularly scheduled program.

2011-06-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well Blogger is not really thrilled uploading vidoes. I got one up and will try to get more of them up.

Isaac graduated from Hamblen Elementry last night. Yep, he is a middle schooler now, and so very excited to move onto Chase.

Vertie, Barb and Katie were able to come and share in the festivities. It was very nice to have them there and I know it meant a lot to Isaac.

Getting his certificate from the prinicipal, Dr. Forsythe with is teacher Mrs. Justice.

Standing up with some of his classmates.

Anna playing with the camera. The kids were sorta bored. They really drug this out. So I let each of the kids take turns playing with the camera. The girls took pictures of our family. Jakey took pictures of the people behind us. I don't want to post them because I don't know who they are but what cracked me up is that they actually did poses for these pictures.

The Hamblen Elementry 6th grade class of 2011

Our traditional family photo outside the school. Yes, Ike is just thrilled to have his picture taken with us.

Jakey bumming a ride off of Aunt Katie.

Papa and Grandma with Ike. The also bought him a new bike for his graduation. WOW!! He rode it this morning the moment after he got dressed.

the powers that be

2011-06-09T18:23:00.001-07:00

i would like to meet the man or woman that came up with idea that we (the consumers) would want our love of ice cream mixed with digust of snotty noses.

tidbits from girls school program

2011-06-09T08:01:00.000-07:00

How to give a CAT a pill

2011-06-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

I must say I did not come up with this. I shamelessly stole it from my friends facebook notes. But I laughed so hard I knew I had to share it on here as many of my friends and followers are avid cat lovers. I knew they would get a kick out of it.

Pick cat up and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.
Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.
Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away.
Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.
Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from yard.
Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.
Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines and vases from hearth and set to one side for gluing later.
Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.
Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink 1 beer to take taste away. Apply Band-Aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.
Retrieve cat from neighbor's shed. Get another pill. Open another beer. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with rubber band.
Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Drink beer. Fetch bottle of scotch. Pour shot, drink. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus shot. Apply whiskey compress to cheek to disinfect. Toss back another shot. Throw tee-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.
Call fire department to retrieve the friggin' cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil-wrap.
Tie the little bastard's front paws to rear paws with twine and bind tightly to leg of dining room table, find heavy duty pruning gloves from shed. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of steak. Be rough about it. Hold head vertically and pour 2 pints of water down throat to wash pill down.
Consume remainder of Scotch. Get spouse to drive you to the emergency room, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order new table.
Arrange for Humane Society to collect mutant cat from hell and call local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters.
How to Give a DOG a pill
Wrap it in bacon.

well, i was not expecting this.

2011-06-08T19:58:00.001-07:00

What is that on Jenn's stove top??

Isaac thought it would be fun to have a candle outside while we were sitting around the fire on Sunday. I decided that it was prolly not the best idea. He walked in the door and set it on the back burner and ran back out.

Monday morning......

I fire up the skillet and fry up some sausage and eggs for breakfast. As I remove the skillet I see the remenets of Ike's candle melted in a pool in my back burner. It had rolled under the skillet so I did not see it. Not really wanting to deal with it at the time I wondered off onto bigger and better things.

When it had cooled I scraped it all off.

Just random pictures of the homestead. (where we Reneer's grew up)

2011-05-31T08:33:00.000-07:00

To say that this is the place we grew up would imply that some maturing went on as well. Let me be the first to say that growing up and maturing are two totally different things. No maturing whatsoever took place here.

My mom is probably cringing as she see these pictures of her home. You see, this was taking in early May before she got all her flowers planted. I will have to post an updated picture with all her "color" as she puts it.

The girls room is the window on the far left. Window in the lower center is the kitchen.
The back of the house. Window is to the boys room. yes, it was very handy to crawl into when you had been locked out of the house. Below is the storage shed for pantry items and freezer.

Just some random shots of the creek. Still running high from spring.

Nope. Jakey did not catch anything this time.

The girls spending the afternoon doing one of my favorite activities. Watching water go around a stick in the water.

Neighbor's dam broke this winter. Is currently reaking havoc on my parents meadow.

You have got to be kidding me??

2011-05-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

I went to get a nice cold glass of orange juice. You know the kind, where the beads of condensation trickle down the sides of the glass while you drink it. It sounds so good your mouth waters in anticipation. Yes, I had high, high hopes for this glass of deliciousness.

only to open the fridge and find this..............

I am not ashamed to say I wept openly. I an ashamed to say that the child that left this did not feel any remorse. He thought (no names will not be mentioned as the guilty is a minor) that I should prolly go to the store and buy some more orange juice if I wanted it so badly. OUCH!

a work in progress

2011-05-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

The kiddos and I have grand plans for Dan's plot. Yesterday was phase two. Phase one being placing the headstone.

The soil is clay. Not clay like or containing a lot of clay. It is 100 % clay. We could make some lovely pots if we cared to. So we brought up some manure and potting soil and blended it in.

It is also very windy and arid up on the hill and I do not know the watering schedule there. I chose plants that would like full sun and little water once they got established. Getting them established is going to be the tricky part. This is where Barb is going to come to the rescue.

You see our "little" project turned into a family project when Vertie, Barb, Amy and Katie joined. I was so glad have them all there. Barb has some great ideas for plants to add and Vertie and I have some ideas for a bench also. He is going to check so see what exactly the plot size is.

Yesterday was the best weather we have ever had up there. Sunny and no wind! What a pleasant way to spend a morning. Daniel helped amend the soil while Ike ran through the hills riding a rake. Then girls had fun looking at all the bright floral arrangements set out for the holiday and picking up worms.

Ike and Jake went with Papa to get pizza so could all meet up back at the Brown's for lunch.

Ike's moment in the spotlight

2011-05-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

Isaac was one of about 50 students in the Spokane School District that was chosen to have his artwork on display at the School District office downtown. I was a very proud Mama.

So I loaded up the six kiddos. Drove downtown. Found great parking. Unloaded the crew. Went into the building, looked as picture for 10 minutes. Loaded everyone back in the car. And headed home. No, they did not keep their hands to themselves. No, indoor voices were not used. Yes, I was frazzled after the excursion.

And now I present for your viewing pleasure, Trees in Despair, in pen and ink, By Isaac Brown

Drive By??

2011-05-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

Daniel was a victim of a drive by walking home from school last Friday, May 19,2011.

Some one drove by and threw this at him

Smacked him right upside the head. I guess you could say he was touch by the Spirit.

We were trying to figure out what exactly made this man decide throw this at my son. Some of our theories,

Was he trying to spread the word of God one concussion at a time?

Or was he actually disgusted by the word of God and throwing it away and Daniel's head was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

I like to think of it as "drive by proselyting".

Things to be grateful for..

It was not the Old Testament
He was not a Mormon because a Triple Combination would really pack a wallop.

messes

2011-05-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

My house is full of messes. I cannot keep up with it. Came home last night from being at the temple and snapped! I gave them each a list of what needed to be done. I came home to nothing being done! I WAS TICKED!! My solution.....

keep them in their rooms until it is time to come out for breakfast and get ready for school. their rooms are trashed, of course, so they do have plenty to keep them busy. Right now I am listening to Ike and Jake fight, as usual.

My dog, not wanting to be left out, decided to barf in the hallway and in the tv room. You are prolly wondering what is the signifigance of those two areas that she chooses to barf in them every friggen time she pukes? They are the ONLY places with carpet in my house!!! So have been able to spend my morning listening to my children fight while scraped up dog barf trying not to gag myself and shampooing carpets.

No. I am not in a good mood. Thanks for asking.

A bit closer towards my goals.

2011-05-16T19:01:00.000-07:00

This last Tuesday I had to take a college placement exam. Everytime I thought of taking this exam a four letter word kept popping up in my head. No worries. It brought such fear I never said it out loud. But I will spell it for your reading enjoyment. M A T H Yes, I know, it is a very dirty, dirty word. I feel dirty just spelling it. I did okay on the reading, and writing. Sure not college level but I will be in class 99. Um, math i scored a touch lower. and by a touch lower I mean I did not come close to touching level 99. In fact I am not even level 92. infact i have to take FOUR quarters of math to get where I need to be!! Oh well, I can do it. I have to! And if push comes to shove I will pay Daniel or Ike to do my homework for me. :D

I will be taking English 99, Math 91, and Biology 241 this fall quarter. As you can tell I am super excited to get this next chapter in my life started.

Mothers Day

2011-05-09T07:39:00.000-07:00

My daughters made books all about me at school and gave them to me for mothers day. I did not know we had so much in common.

first, my favorite color is pink, which is also Anna's favorite color.
second, my favorite color is purple, which is also Maria's favorite color.
third, my favorite food is spaghetti. Also happens to be the girls favorite food too.
My favorite thing to do is to cook for them, to take care of them and washing the dishes.

Wow. those are best things ever! they also drew adorable pictures with each activity.

Jakey made me a card with coupons in it. every coupon says the same thing. NAP. He knows me so well.

Ike also made me a card on Sunday morning. Which is amazing because he was very busy Sunday morning keeping the little ones out of my room so I could sleep in. He threatened them with death or dismemberment. I know this because the girls know how to call my cell phone now. they snuck the phone into their bedroom and called me saying, "Mommy, Isaac is going to hurt us if we wake you up." Then I heard Ike in the background realising what the girls were up to. the phone was dropped, screaming followed but soon faded as they ran back into the tv room.

Ike's card...

Happy Mother's Day!

there I said it.
Now you can go about doing your chores that you do everyday anyways, but with a smile on your face.
What? this does not seem sincere?
Here, lets try this...

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!! LOVE YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!

"OOOO's" added for extra emphasis.

Love, Ike.

On a totally un-related side note. Why does 35 mph feel so fast when my son is driving? Riding around with Princess Princess the other day as she ran a stop sign and backed out into on coming traffic. I did not even flinch. She was impressed. What can I say? I am the mother of a teenage driver.

the CAKE OFF!

2011-05-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

And now for the story behind Ike's two birthday cakes.

My dad offered to make Ike a cake for his birthday. I did not want him to worry about that. I am his mom, although Ike denies this fact, and so I would gladly make his cake. I told my dad thank you for the offer but I got this one. He shot back with, "What? You think you can make a better cake than me??" Uh, Duh. Of course I can. And so he said the following two words......"It's On."
Seriously?? I mean did he seriously think he stood a chance against ME?? I spent many an afternoon, (*many,many years ago mind you) eating frosting by the tub. I would like to think I know a thing or two about cake by that fact alone.

So I made a quadruple layer german chocolate with a sweetened layer of cream cheese filling in between each layer. I choose german chocolate because that is what the birthday boy wanted.....or so I thought......
Turns out I misheard him. He said he wanted anything BUT german chocolate. OOPS! so being the good sport I am, and knowing my dad was prolly going to make a german chocolate cake also because that is he specialty, I called and let him know of my mistake and to change his cake making plans. A poor sport would have let him continue with his plans setting him up for failure, but I was so secure in my spot as winner I kindly threw him a bone.

Well I show up with my masterpiece to be greeted with a 9x13 yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I was stunned. Did he think so little of my cake making abilities that he thought he could win with this? Or did he just assume I would eat the cake before the contest? (a very real possibility) Oh he has stories. Yes, he has excuses of a grand german chocolate cake that he spent all week making, even traveling to Germany to learn the proper technique but having to throw it out last minute due to an ill timed phone call.

But I think the following picture shows the clear winner here. On the left is my cake. On the right is......well you get the idea.
Will this be the end of baking contests between the two of us? No, it will not. He is a glutton for punishment. ha ha ha ha

*okay, maybe not many,many years ago. but it has been a few days!! Don't judge me!!! :D

Ike's Birthday Bonanza

2011-05-01T09:22:00.001-07:00

This is the sleepover/ up all night gaming/ gorging themselves on junkfood/ tp'ing/ crew.

This picture is Ike. Through and through. You wanna know my Ike. Just look at what he carries with him at all times. Well there is one thing missing in the picture. That would be his knife. I have a feeling it was in his pocket at the time this picture was taken. It is always in his pocket. My washer can attest to this fact.
Ike wanted to spend his birthday with his friends sharing what he loves to do. Fishing and hiking. The fishing is lousy this time of year, but I think the all had a fantastic time.

This is a close up view of their "prime" fishing spot.

Here is the scene from across the creek. It was truly a beautiful spot to be.

Ike and his birthday cakes. Yes, he had two cakes. More on why that was in the next post.

Happy Birthday my little boy. 12 years old on May 4th!!

A rare sighting in the Brown home

2011-04-29T12:19:00.001-07:00

What you are looking at is a boy with a permit to learn to drive. But more importantly you are seeing a real, genuine happiness on his face. I have not seen that for a very,very long time.

A Brave New World

2011-04-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

I find myself developing unhealthy habits as a passenger.

Clutching my purse in my lap to keep me from grabbing the steering wheel.

Holding the "OH CRAP" handle that is above my door. (this works well on corners)

Pushing my foot so hard on my imaginary brake that I think I sprained my ankle.

Giving instructions in a ridiculously calm voice. Like the one you use when you are trying to convince someone not to jump.

I have also seemed to develop a severe lean to the left. I only noticed this though when we are driving by cars that are parked on the right side of the road. This lean almost always is accompanied by a cringe and purse clutch. I like to call this the "trifecta of not looking panicked."

J E L L O

2011-04-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do something new with this years jello side dish. i remember my friend, Monica, making something similar to this several years ago and thought i would give it a try. i learned some new tricks and that it takes pretty much all day to do.

the kiddos had a lot of fun eating it and i like how bright and cheery it looked on the table. made me think of the 60's and 70's when jello was in it's heyday and could do no wrong.

easter....saturday??

2011-04-25T18:38:00.001-07:00

We had our Easter luncheon on Saturday this year due to everybody's schedule. The usual fare was served.

Ham
Potato Casserole
Brussel Sprouts
Glazed Carrots
Green Salad
Croussants
Jello
and Strawberry Cheesecake

We played host to the Brown's this year. Here are a few of them at the table getting ready to dig in.

My Mother in Law,Barb kept me company in the kitchen.

This is my youngest sister in law, Jenna and her darling hubby, Matt. She looks so happy becuase she did not get any sleep the night before and neither did her kiddos. She had a very long day. Matt is happy because....well, I dunno why. lol

Then on Sunday morning we got together for the Easter Egg hunt. I divided up the park in half. One side had eggs easy to find for little ones and the other half was set up to challenge the boys.

Alana found an egg! Unfortunatly it was a real egg. She was only interested in the plasic ones filled with candy.

Ike teamed up with Ray.

Daniel and Jakey made up the other team.

out of the 23 hard boiled eggs I hid only 8 of them were found. I am thinking there were some very happy skunks and raccoons that night in the park.

All in all I hope it was a successful holiday for everyone.

A Brave New World

2011-04-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

That's right folks. We have a driver in training in our house. The first of many. Daniel started Drivers Ed last Monday and got his permit last Friday. On the way home from the DMV I stopped at the local high school parking lot, which was empty, and let him drive around. He did pretty good. I only kissed the windshield once!

On Saturday we had the Brown's over for Easter. Aunt Amy, wanting to be the cool aunt. tossed Daniel the keys and asked him to drive her to the store. He was stunned. Looked at me, I said yes, and they were on their way.

Amy sat back and asked Daniel how he likes driving. He responded, "I dunno, this is my first time." Amy immediately sat up straighter and quit being the cool aunt and into panicked aunt. ha ha ha! Daniel tried to put her at ease by stating that he is getting the hang of the difference between the white line and the yellow line.

Later that day Grandma, Aunt Sue Sue and I went for a ride with Daniel. We only had one near head on collision. and that was only because he still is working on staying in his lane on a right hand turn. Sue Sue gave him the wonderful advice of just yelling out the window "I AM SORRY" as you drive by. Let's hope it never comes to him having to take driving advice from Aunt Sue Sue. :)

Sunday he drove BigRed to and from church. It became a very spiritual experience for us. We have never prayed harder as a family. I told the kids the first and most important rule is that no one talks. The only person allowed to talk when Daniel is driving. So as he took the right hand turn at 20 mph. I could hear the bodies as they hit the windows as the van careened around the corner but to their credit....they were quiet. just muffled "umphs" And even cornering at 20 mph he handled the van better than my sister, Regina, did. she screamed the whole time. At least I think she did. I honestly could not hear her over my screaming.

The rest of the turns he did at a wonderful 10 mph. I really like having all four tires on the road. Daniel drove Sonic (the ford explorer) to and from seminary this morning. he blew through one stop sign and thought a two way stop was a four way stop. I can't wait until he gets some time behind the wheel with an actual instructor. I think I am about to stomp through the floor boards on the passenger side where the brake should be.

My most favorite smiles

2011-04-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

My favorite part of kids losing teeth is when the loose the front two teeth. The girls have followed a pattern to losing their teeth. First Anna then Maria a few days later. They have lost the same teeth in the same order. I dunno if that is just how teeth fall out or if it a freaky twin thing.

Okay, Maybe not my brightest plan.

2011-04-19T17:27:00.000-07:00

So Anna Nelson, who I now think does not care for my well being, talked me into signing up with her to do this bike race from Seattle to Portland. Yes, Portland as in Portland Oregon. I was hoping maybe Portland was some street in Seattle. Turns out it is not. Well maybe it is, but that is besides the point because the Portland we are suppose to ride bikes to is 204 miles away.

I got the information packet for this fantastic race yesterday in the mail. I saw the map and my heart soared!! It does not look that bad. Look at all the stops. And all the first aid stations. Plus there is food along the way. How bad can it be if they are gonna feed you?
then i noticed this in fine print at the bottom of the map.

I cried. Yes. Big ol' crocodile tears. Sobbed.

Along with some ridiculous training schedule. 150 mile rides to prepare for this race?? Who has the time? Not I!

Placing of Dan's Headstone

2011-03-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

On March 11th Barb, Katie, Susan, Amy, Jenna, Rick Reneer, Frances Reneer, Dennis Dipo and Diane Dipo joined the kids and I for a wonderful yet heartbreaking event. We placed the headstone that Tyler Forbush and Daniel made at Dan's gravesite. Close up of headstone. The angel depicted is angel Moroni. He will blow forth his trump and signal the first ressurection.

Sweeping off all the sand from packing in the pavers. My dad helped me set the headstone in and level out the pavers. My mom helped put the jigsaw puzzle of pavers in place.

Ground was a tad bit muddy.

We go up and let off balloons with messages to their dad when we visit. We shared that tradition with our extended family this time.

Lovely hike back down to the cars.

Derby Days

2011-03-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

There is only one and thankfully only one day a year that you walk into a church gym and have your nostrils assaulted by the heady sent of graphite powder and testosterone. Jakey did his car to like like our Explorer. He named it the Daniel James Brown because the Explorer was Dan's car. He took sixth place. He was ecstatic. What a fun kid.

I swear he does not have to go to the bathroom in this picture. He posed this way on purpose.

Gotta love pinewood derby. Me, I just love the fact that I am counting down to my last Pinewood. Three left to go!!!

Playing Catch Up

2011-03-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

So I have been neglecting my blog. I feel like I have to censor myself to much sometimes to keep from hurting someone that I just don't know what I should and should not talk about.

Lets keep it to the kids.

Daniel had fixed three laptops and a pc while hanging out back in the "lab" my nickname for his room. i am just glad he is not trying to catch things on fire for the moment. i walked in one day to see ashes all over the bathtub. I called him in and asked if he had any idea what could have happend here. He had the cajones to tell me "no" while still holding the blow torch. i was rendered speechless.

Ike is in the middle of his sixth wrestling season. that is what keeps me the busiest right now. practice two nights a week then Lon comes over on thursdays to work with Ike and Ryen. Ike has had to really fight for position this year. he is in the top 11-12 yr old bracket. He has a hard time finding someone who will wrestle him at practice to he usually is pared up with a 7th or 8th grader. He did chip a kids tooth last week. He also got pinned for the first time this season last week. He got up, clapped the guy and on the back and told him good job. I was so proud of my boy. It was the highlight of the match for me. Well that and when he slammed this one kid to the mat and pinned him. This kid was horrible, he has a foul mouth and no one like to wrestle against him because he cheats and cries when he does not get his way. He did a number on Ike's neck and chin.

Jakey has is first Pinewood Derby coming up. Which means he follows me around the house begging to work on the car for the past month and swearing everyone else has their car done by now and has had several practice runs on the tracks their fathers have made. i told him, "Yes dear, but those boys don't get to touch their cars." lol

Anna and Maria both have loose front teeth. I need to post their pictures. They look just like Nanny McPhee. They have desided to out grow their clothes. (insert un happy face here)

okay, i better get this posted. i have been working on it for four days now. sigh.....

i promise i am gonna try to make more time to get this caught up and running better.

Emotional Mess

2011-02-28T08:13:00.000-08:00

This March I get to have my sister in law, Jenna come for a visit. I am very excited. Well the weather is starting to get better, at least it was before this last snow storm. So figured with all of Dan's sisters in town I would make the arrangments to place his headstone that Tyler and Daniel made for me for christmas.

Well between calling the Brown family and cemetery (a lot) getting everything arranged for the placement, (who knew you had to do so much?) I have been very emotional lately. I tear up easily. It seems like the girls are really missing their daddy a lot lately too. They are needing lots of snuggles and daddy stories. Which is reeking havoc on my emotions that are floating around just below the surface. I am finding myself having to censor my thoughts more so lately so i don't appear to cry at just random times.

But on the other hand, i am so glad we can do this while Jenna is here. And i will be happy that dan will be able to have a proper headstone now instead of just that little marker. granted it would be best if i did not have to go and place a headstone at my husbands grave in the first place because it would mean that he was still here with us.

okay, that is all i can type right now.

Happy 15th Birthday Daniel

2011-02-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

Well Daniel managed to drag out his birthday for a whole week. Started off on Feb. 12 with a birthday party with the Brown's.

Then on the 18th we loaded up a handfull of friends and I set them off in the woods to campout for the night

And finally on the 21st we went to Cabelas to get him the fishing gear he wanted for his birthday and then that evening had the Christensens over for Turtle Cheesecake. His favorite pie.

Here they are all loaded up and ready for adventure.

They went out to the Reneer's to camp out. The boys had to haul in their gear by sled.

Came back the following day to pick them up and found this lump on my mom's couch.

The rest were outside enjoying the beautiful day and snowmobiling.

Next kids turn.

Daniel very kindly took his sisters for a ride. Anna went first and took the "hold on tight" rule very seriously.

Maria went next. I will post a video of her ride in a bit.

Thank you Grandpa and Bumpski for giving Daniel a fantastic birthday with his friends. The boys all had so much fun they are already planning another camp out next month.

Daniel had to write is own autobiography.....that is all i can say.

2011-02-14T15:08:00.000-08:00

Feb, 21,1996, I was born, and the general quality of life everywhere improved.
I have been a demolitions guy from birth and even before my first birthday I had literally shattered every piece of fine china my mother has ever possessed. I also possessed an excellent taste for politics, as evidence I immediately killed the only other rival for my affections at age two, when I recognized my moms 15 year old palm tree as such.

I was a fairly naïve child and in the fist grade spent ten minutes with my middle fingers raised and pointed at the teacher asking her repeatedly what it meant. Why was my interest in that field of sign language piqued? It was because one of my fellow detainees in Mrs. Baughers first grade class flew the bird and was taken away. I wondered what it meant and was eventually given the answer. ****. This is what she screamed at me just as I was starting to leave. Needless to say she was taken out of teaching for what the principle called a: “potty mouth.” I tried to get several other teachers fired in this same manner but this merely got me in deep trouble.

More recently was two summers ago when I got my first “real job”! This was merely a small time job with a small concrete company who will remain unnamed out of concern for the sensibility of the reader. In this job I was told I did “man’s work” but I did not do it merely for the man’s work I did it for the man’s wages! Unfortunately the company went under shortly after employees stole a large amount of the equipment.

The most recent and most unfortunate in the chronicles of my life was this summer. At the beginning I had my father suffer through a long lingering death in a medically induced coma in a hospital bed. Then I went to camp grizzly as a C.I.T. and did far more work than I was entitled to while at the same time becoming the least favorite person amongst the staff. Then my mother slaughtered my favorite dog and most loyal friend Shilo a poodolf after she started to roam the neighborhood. Then my anorexic lizard Spiderman finally underwent paralysis and died another slow lingering death.

Daniel Brown died on February 14th 2011 at 12:01, after being brutally beaten to death with a coat rack by the now incarcerated Emily Torres, the culprit claims that she was lost in pure loathing after the victim presented the “worst anthology ever” she claimed to be “seeing red” and also reported: “ I know I said it was impossible to fail a poetry unit but that was simply an inexcusably awful anthology”. May he rest in pieces. (Six total)

Epiphany

2011-02-14T14:07:00.000-08:00

First off that I even know how to spell epiphany is an epiphany to me!

Anyways, I had a few tough weeks awhile back trying to meet everyones expectation of me as a grieving widow and newly single mom.

I burned some bridges. Usually that is a bad thing, I know, but it made me reflect what I really want? What are realistic expectations to have?

As it turns out, I don't have to make everyone happy. I am not a bad person if people are mad or disappointed in me.

The ONLY people in this world that matter to me are my five beautiful children. My whole point of existing is make sure they are happy and secure in who they are and my love for them. Everything I do is to make sure they are thriving! May not be how you would handle it, but I don't care anymore. I just don't care. Checked my list of things to do, and caring what you think or feel is not on it. So thppppt! ha ha ha

Wow, I am so much happier as a mom. I am more relaxed, I am trusting myself, and I am laughing again. Not a forced laugh so others would not worry, but a real sincere laugh.

So there will be people that feel neglected because I am not giving them the attention they are used to, or feel hurt because i cannot drop everything and jump to their rescue, but that is not the Jenn I can be anymore. I had to really evaluate my list of important things and it turns out it is a short list. Daniel,Isaac,Jacob,Anna, and Maria.

We are going to be okay. Better than okay. We are going to be fantastic!

Proud Mamma Moment!

2011-02-10T07:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, there are a lot of moments through out my career as a mom that I get to deal with the not so proud moments of raising this pack of kids.

This blog is a tribute to many of those moments. In fact just Saturday I caught Daniel and his buddy with can of spray paint poised over the fire. NOT A PROUD MOMMA MOMENT!

So I am thoroughly enjoyed last night. The three younger kids were at the Christensen's. My sister in law,Katie came to share in the moment with me.

Ike and his troop did the flag ceremony.

Ike earned rank of Scout and he Tenderfoot last night. Along with a variety of merit badges that did not include, knife throwing, fire arms, or snares. which is odd because he practices those a lot at home.

Yes, this is an actual picture of Ike hugging me in public. I am thinking of getting it framed.

Daniel earned himself quite a few new patches too! He is still one shy to advance to rank of Life Scout. We need to get Citizenship in the Community.

Daniel talked about his geneology merit badge.

He also led the scouts in the scout oath and law.

Ike and his troop retiring the colors.

They taught the boys how to make rope last night. I and realized the cosmos hate me. I have spent year. literally years trying to keep rope out of my house because of Ike's love of snare and nooses and lack of his love for his little brother and stuffed animals.

and now.....THEY TEACH HIM HOW TO MAKE IT HIMSELF!! fantastic.

A taste of spring...

2011-02-06T20:01:00.001-08:00

We had our first nice saturday of the winter. No snow on the ground and it was sunny and warm. well, warm by our standards.

So I did what my parents did to us on the first nice saturday of the year. Made my kids go outside and start cleaning up. For some reason, no matter how clean the yard is when it starts to snow, by the time the snow melts it is trashed.

The only thing that made it worth while to them is that we started up the firepit and burned leaves and trash.

After we got done cleaning we went to our favorite store, Northweast Seed and Pet. Played with cute and cuddly animals and bought crickets.

Came home and detailed the cars because they have been neglected since it has gotten cold. And the kids got the fire going again in the back.

Ike put down blankets for all the kids to kneel on and we roasted cocktail wieners and steak.

This was one of the few days where I went to bed feeling I finally got it right. To bad tomorrow is gonna come and kick my butt. :)

A bit of summer in the dead of winter

2011-01-27T11:52:00.001-08:00

Thanks to a generous donation from a relative that wanted to say anonymous I was able to take the kids to Triple Play. A local indoor water park with lots of other activities too.

There was the wave pool, two water slides, hot tub, (mommy's favorite) then outside the water park there is laser tag, miniature golf, bowling and rock climbing wall.

sorry i don't have more pictures. I was sorta busy just keeping up with the crew instead of snapping pics. i need someone to follow us around just for the sake of taking pictures. ha ha ha

This picture is my all time favorite one! Jakey is his own man. he does what he wants and really just does not care if he does not fit in with the crowd. This is the outfit he had on for the day. And dang it he is PROUD! so am I.

Seattle

2011-01-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was one of my "get away" weekends. And I am grateful for the many friends that watched my kiddos so I could get away.

I flew to Seattle to visit my sister in law, Jenna, and her adorable family. I can honestly say it was a blast. We did not do any big trip or adventures. Just hung out and talked. I love her little kids. And luckily they tolerated me too.

Here we are doing "Boom, Bang, Fire Power!" Check out the gun show on Alana.
Getting some kisses from Alana.

Mr Jimmy. Lover of fast cars, but not fast shopping carts.

Lil Miss Alana!

I flew in friday around noon. I almost missed my flight there but luckily i am a fabulous sprinter, even in heals. ha ha ha. Got to SEA TAC and Jenna and I could not find eachother. She swears she was parked right where i was waiting but i think her car was invisable. =D

went to her place, she got me a yummy lunch from subway and then put the kids down for a nap and she let me take a nap too!! That is one of my all time favorite hobbies.

I cannot wait to have her come visit us in March!! Maybe I will let her take a nap too. And it will be longer than 30 mintues. ha ha ha

The Snipe Hunt

2011-01-16T13:03:00.000-08:00

Last night Ike took Ray Ray and Jake on a snipe hunt. It was their first. They were excited and scared at the same time. Ike informed them how dangerous snipe hunting was. That would be in great peril.

Both boys came running to me for confirmation on the existance of this alleged snipe.

A good mother would tell them that snipes do not exist and they are just a fun prank that older brothers like to pull on younger brothers.

But as we all know, I am not a good mother. I saw an opportunity to have three less children in my house for at least 30 minutes. I was not going to let this chance pass me by!

So I sat them down at the table and told them all about this dreaded snipe that roams the woods by our house.

It is small and very quick.
It loves cookies so eat cookies so you will have the smell on you. That helps attracts them.
It takes on the shape of what it is hiding next to. Ex: rocks, trees, shrubbery....
Their saliva is poisionous acid and they spit when scared.
Their eyes glow green when a light is shined on them. Don't look at them in the eyes!! EVER!!

And with those wise words of advise from a seasoned snipe hunter I sent them all out the door. I got 20 minutes of quiet. It was fantastic!! Sadly they did not catch anything. Ike saw a few out there. I see another hunt in the near future.

2011-01-15T09:21:00.000-08:00

11 step program for those considering having children

Lesson 1
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2 Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3 A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive) Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4 Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5 Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out. Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6 Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7 Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air. You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9 Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10 Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11 Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

My sister in law, Jenna set this too me. It is very accurate on almost all parts. Personally though I prefer shopping with a goat.

2011-01-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

Daniel's version of a thumbtack.

Physics Alive and Well

2011-01-13T10:52:00.000-08:00

Ike gave a lovely demonstration for me and my dinner guests last night. He and the neighbor boy took a length of rope, tied a noose on one end and put Jakey's dog, Maddie Out, in it. I must say that Ike ties a very nice noose. They then proceeded to loop it through the basketball hoop and onto the bumper of BigRed.

They had it set up so that as I backed out it would cause the rope to go taunt and then slowly pull Maddie Out up and hang him. It was even timed in such a way that Maddie Out would reach the perfect height as it came into view of my front window. I am so proud of my boy!! That is truly amazing.

Yes, we had to do it last night so everyone could watch and laugh and clap. He and the neighbor boy were so pleased with themselves. I loved watching the pride in their faces.

Dan would have loved this. I am so glad my children got his brains! I know he was watching us and laughing right along.

Whew

2011-01-10T20:19:00.000-08:00

Well we have a fresh start!

First off I am actually doing very well. The list I made helped me realize I am doing a good job.

The kids are thriving and happy. We talk about Dan all the time. We joke about him, share favorite stories and tell each other what Dad would be saying at that particular moment. I guess one time he threaten to attach shock receptors to boys um "nether regions" if they did not pick up the dog poop faster and quit fighting. I did not know that!! ha ha ha ha

Thanksgiving and Christmas sucked. A lot. I am not gonna lie. I was in hell for that month. I tried to keep it together for the kids and do all the traditions that we normal do, but i was emotionally dead inside. New Years was okay. Dan never liked having people over and staying up til midnight anyways, so i know he did not miss that party much. =D

I am going to visit my sister Jenna for four days at the end of this month. I am so super excited to see her cute family and her new house! and of course, lets be honest here...a break from my wonderful children!! (gasp, did i really just say that?)

Well the house is quiet and I am gonna watch some of my new favorite show, Big Bang Theory. Dan would have LOVED it. and prolly gotten the jokes alot better than i do too.

A List

2011-01-06T23:30:00.000-08:00

I have been told a lot lately of the things I "should" "would" and "could" be doing. How I am not doing it right.

So a wonderful friend, Kathryn Rush, told me to make a list for myself of all the things I am doing right.

I get my son to seminary every morning on time.
We have family scripture study every morning.
We have family prayer and eat breakfast together.
My children are dressed appropriatly for the weather and for school before they walk out the door.
Homework is done and library books are found.
Class snacks are made and delivered cheerfully.
Mom attends each party so that child can feel special.
Play doh is played with and finger paints are used liberaly in this home.
Children come home to a clean and orderly home.
Clothes are washed and folded and waiting for them to put away.
Food is always readily available to them.
Each child has a time to tell me about their day and what they are needing.
Lists are made and promptly taken care of.
Friends are welcome at all times.
If need be mom will be the chaperon to for a movie date. I won't even sit by them so they can still be "cool" in front of their friends.
Reports are always worked on as a team effort.
I make my children help out around the house and especially with each other.
Dinner is made by me every night and we sit as a family every night to eat it and discuss the day and any concerns.
When I am busy with one child it is not un-common for me to ask another to read the girls their bedtime stories.
Yes, the girls get stories every night followed by prayers.
There is a bedtime routine that all must follow.
When I do go out, and yes I do go out. I do so between the hours of 8 pm to 10 pm.
Occasionally I will go out before that. And that is perfectly acceptable to have Daniel babysit..
We go to church every Sunday.
We are active in our callings.
I make sure the boys are there on Wednesday nights and participating in the scouting program.

So for those to think that my life does not revolve around my children. I DARE them to try this routine by themselves for a week. I will more than gladly give them the chance.

new set up

2011-01-06T14:54:00.000-08:00

This blog will be going private. Those who would like an invite to continue following the "Real Brown Sanitarium" please leave a comment so i can add you. thank you

Monday already

2011-01-03T08:27:00.000-08:00

Well the children are heading back to school today.

My reason for living is walking out the door

I will be lost until they get home

hugs and kisses

love

jenn

Happy 2011

2011-01-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

Had a wonderful New Years with good friends and family. Lots of good eat and fun. Older kids spent the night sledding while the younger ones stayed in a played Just Dance.

2010-12-31T09:36:00.000-08:00

Another Beautiful day at home.

hug and kisses

love
Jenn

2010-12-30T12:35:00.001-08:00

There is sunshine in my soul today!!

hug and kisses

love
Jenn

Dearest Readers,

2010-12-29T20:54:00.001-08:00

I hear that you all want more amusing stories from Brown World. Well guess what? There is not any. But I am not allowed to say that. Oh no! I am not allowed to say I am having a hard time as a mom. I am not allowed to say I am overwhelmed. I am not allowed to show any sort of emotion that shows that I am not doing Freaking Fantastic!! Because the moment I show any sort of emotion that does not agree with every one it is thrown back at me in such a hurtful way that I MUST be wrong for feeling so. So I will say what you all want me to feel.

I am so fullfilled as a mother. I have no desire to have any sort of friendship or even leave my home for that matter. I love being home 24/7 with all five of my wonderful, adorable, beautiful children. How could I EVER want for anything more in my life? I am completely blissed out. I am complete. Why should I even bother to try to do anything at all to find happiness for myself? That is just complete selfishness. This is not about me. I have no needs, no wants or desires. I am a perfect mother. I am at that constant beck and call. I have no need for hobbies. Those are for women that cannot find fullfillment in their children. I will be all happy, happy, joy, joy!

So I really hope you enjoy insincerity as much as I do. This is going to be a fantastic blog! hugs and kisses to all.

love
jenn

I am begining to think I am not the best influence on my children.

2010-12-24T10:46:00.000-08:00

So Daniel has had a stomach bug. He was up puking on Tuedsay night. By Thursday he was fine and dandy. This morning he informed me he is "shooting bile out his butt" and was worried that it is more than just a flu bug. I told him that is totally normal and laughed. He said "I would not laugh if I were you. You are gonna have to wash out the skidmarks" I quickly quit laughing.

BUT, MMMMOOOOOOMMMMMM.......

2010-12-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

some mom's thrive at being a "mom." i am not one of them. don't get me wrong, i love my children a lot.but winter break is hard. it is cold, wet, and snowy out. my house is roughly the size of a postage stamp and i am sick. i have a terrible cold. my body hurts, my head is filled with snot and i wanna just go hide in my room until school starts again....in TWO WEEKS!! We get on eachother's nerves. I can bond with my children, but i prefer if other people were bonding with them right now. There sweet little voices are like nails on a chalk board right now. All their questions are making my head want to explode which would result in just another mess for me to clean up. Please pray for me and my children, that we shall make it through these next two weeks without any lasting, emotional damage.

Another establishment that we leave with our heads hung in shame

2010-12-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

The girls wanted to go here for their birthday dinner. Bonus, I did not have to cook! Double bonus, I don't have to buy them anything other than a drink. They have all you can eat free peanuts. I only have to feed the three other thugs.

Anna started feeling unwell right before we left. She felt warm when we sat down. She ate like a trooper. I spent the time shuttling girls to go potty, get refills, get more peanuts, get ketchup for their brothers fries they were snatching. Basically doing everything but eating.

Then "it" happened. It was pink, her favorite color, and well I was glad I had not eaten. Anna barfed 3 times! all on the floor, but in a different spot eachtime. Yes, I saw the look of horror on the other diners faces. I sent Daniel to the counter for re-enforcements. We tried to make a quick escape. Ya, that just does not happen with this crew. Nor were they quiet about it. It does not help that I was laughing to myself as we left.

As we loaded back up into the car to go home and open up birthday presents Anna stated, "That was the best birthday dinner ever!" I love my kids!! They make this blog possible!

Remiss

2010-12-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

It was brought to my attention, very subtly, that i have been remiss in my blogging. I am so,so sorry. Really I have not had a lot to laugh about lately. This holiday season is kicking my butt. Turns out I am not a fan of having my butt kicked. But that is a topic for another post.

Last night Raquel, our large, white, hairy dog that loves to shed, and she is very good at it. Anyways she comes in at night. Last night she came in with a wad of crap stuck to her fur that was the size of a tennis ball. NOT KIDDING! Daniel noticed it first. I cornered her in the kitchen. For some reason me calling her with fear in my eyes and a large scissors in my hands made her very nervous. So I had to make Daniel straddle her backwards, hold her hips with his thighs and pull up on her tail. (ya, it did not look any better than it sounds) I went at her with a plastic bag covering one hand and scissors in the other. I had to set up shop next to the trash can because I kept on gagging. No, sadly, the poop was not frozen because that would have helped with the smell. This clump was firmly attached though. I gave her a nice "privacy cut" and told her what went on in this kitchen can never, ever be discussed among us again. We still cannot look each other in the eye.

Connoisseur

2010-11-25T05:42:00.000-08:00

so due to budget cuts at the Brown house we had to change our brand of dog food to what ever was on sale and I have a coupon for. I received gripes and complaints for this change on the menu. AND NOT FROM THE DOG! It was from the boys. Yes, the very same boys that refuse to eat 90% of the food I actually prepare with love and resentment. Last week I bought some Kibbles and Bits remembering how happy Raquel would be because the dogs and the commercials were always so happy to eat it and woof out the theme song. For those of you too young to remember I posted a link. http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=8088

But what I got was a list of complaints about the lack of flavor and texture from the boys. One in particular who shall not be names because he is always has a weapon on him somewhere and I really don't want to be on "that list."

What they wanted back was Costco's brand of dog food. In the lamb and rice flavor. Well they are just gonna have to wait for a coupon for me to purchase it just like the dog.

Now on to another topic, dog treats. also a debate in our home. Papa and Grandma like to spoil Raquel and bring her goodies when they come over. Shhh, it is mainly Papa that does this. Tee hee.

Here is the review from the snackers. They said that although Beggin' Strips smell just like bacon they do no taste anything like bacon. In fact they taste really bad. So no Beggin' Strips.

But Pup-peroni gets five stars. They said not only does it smell appetizing, it tastes really good too.

So folks, there you have it. You and I both learned something today. I learned that I am knocking myself out cooking gourmet meals for kids that would rather eat dog food and you learned how to make your pooch one very happy, well fed doggie.

Disney on Ice

2010-11-18T07:41:00.000-08:00

A very good friend, who insists on hanging out with us even though she knows my kids, took the girls and I to Disney on Ice last night. We have never gone to something like this. I did not tell the girls until 30 minutes before we left, which turned out being 30 minutes too early. Diane brought her grand daughter along too. Turns out three 5yr olds is the perfect age for this. They clapped, squealed, and were on the edge of their seats for the whole two hours of the show.
This is Anna just after Arial, her favorite princess, took to the ice. I think she may have peed a bit in her panties.

This is Maria after Ariel took to the ice. I love how excited they were.

And of course Ariel and her Prince.

Clapping after the performance.

This is a lousy picture but it has all the princess sitting around the fountain with the fairy godmother on top.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Diane for a wonderful evening. The girls did not pass out till 10:30 last night. They were so wound up. But I am positive they had the best dreams ever.

November 14,1966

2010-11-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

This is the day Dan was born. This would have been his 44th birthday. I let the kids plan what to do to celebrate his birthday. I personally would have liked to have done nothing. Sounds awful I know, but I am really good at avoiding hard situations and hoping they will just go away.

The kids were so excited to plan his birthday. They decided on getting Dan's favorite cake, a four layer chocolate monstrosity from Costco. It is so rich and chocolaty. He loved that cake. Well really he just loves cake, but this one was is favorite. They also wrote notes with birthday wishes and we went up to the grave site. Now I will be honest with you, I have been there once shortly after the funeral and have never been back. Sounds terrible, but I honestly don't care what you think. The kids released balloons with their notes and watches them go up into the clouds. I was fine as long as I did not look down. Later I found out that Daniel really wants to go out there more often so I need to suck it up. We came home and had cake and ice cream.

My sister, Kathryn, came down from Republic. She said she was here just for a visit. Now people of the internet, in all my 12 yrs of living here she has never stayed just for a visit. I know she was a spy my mother set here while she is away in sunny California. But I must admit that even for a spy she was really nice and I enjoyed spending time with her alot.

I did think of taking pictures of our activities but the bile rising in my throat let me know that was not a good idea. So this post will just have to be pictureless. Someday I will post a picure. He site is beautiful. He is at the top of a huge hill that over looks miles and miles of fields. It looks over the road he ran on as a highschooler and the hills he and his sisters used to sled on as kids. It is a familiar place to him. okay, that is all i can write. bye

A Whole New Respect.

2010-11-11T20:13:00.000-08:00

Jakey got this gun for his birthday. It is a really cool gun. At least until a dart gets jammed in it and it locks up. Then it is not a cool gun at all. It is a @#!&% gun. You see this gun is held together by 23 screws of varying sizes. Wednesday afternoon I gained a whole new respect for the children in China that put these guns together. I had to take it down into the smallest of pieces to get the two jammed darts out. I was rather proud of myself when I put it back together and it worked! Granted it took 45 minutes to do. I proudly told Jakey when he came home from school. He responded with a shrug and a mumbled, "thanks mom." I wish I had the gun in my hand at the time. Grrr.

jakey's baptism and birthday party

2010-11-07T17:19:00.000-08:00

Yep it was a pretty exciting day for Jakey. Our very dear friend and former Bishop, Dennis Dipo did the honors of baptizing Jakey. He and Dan had been good friends for years and Dennis was there with me constantly for Dan's last days. He is truly a good man. And it does not hurt that he has a connection with Cyrus O'Leary Pies. Mmm.

I really struggled posting any pictures of myself because I truly hate them. But, I know that this post is not about me, (for once) it is about Jakey!

While I had the kids all looking respectable, and trust me that does not happen all that often, i thought that it would be a good idea to get a family picture. I wanted to do this before the baptism but time got away from us. So here we are and yes, I know my face is a mess. Yes, I cried, but seeing Jakey so happy really lessened the pain.

Now on to the PARTY!! And Jakey loves a good party, especially when it is for HIM!!

The present of the day was his DSi XL. what? you don't know what that is? go ask your kid or grandkid.

The nerf wars in our house get pretty rough so Ike and Daniel got Jake a new semi-automatic nerf gun that hold 35 rounds. Poor kid still does not stand a chance.

Here is Grandpa Reneer and Papa Brown.

It really was a fantastic, bittersweet day for our family, but I can't help but think that all of our fantastic days will be bittersweet from here on out. I am so thankful for the gospel, I am so very thankful for the Atonment and very much grateful for the plan of salvation. It brings me great peace to know we are and always will be a family.

Lonely?

2010-11-06T19:16:00.000-07:00

How weird is it? I am in a small house surrounded by "my" five little darlings. Well okay, darlings is stretching it a bit. And I have found myself getting lonely. Not just bored. I mean ya, we all get bored with the day to day grind. But I am missing my companion in the day to day grind. Someone to whine and complain to about being bored. I am missing laughing with others. Turns out I really love to laugh. It makes me feel so much better. I am trying to keep busy. I am working on my needle point like I am suppose to, but turns out needle point does not talk back. And it rarely makes me laugh. If I had the chance I would go out everynight just to talk and laugh with other people. No worries, I am not going to do that. This is just another adjustment for me. One, that for some stupid reason, I did not predict coming. Heck, we have not even talked about it in counseling. So for the time being I need to relax and take it one night at a time. Just like everything else. I am sure this too shall pass. I am so blessed to have so many friends around to put up with me.

I am dumbfounded.

2010-10-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

So Daniel (14) gets up at 5:30 monday morning for early morning seminary. (Religous class)

He stated, "I am gonna kill Jake."

WHAT??

He continued his thought which impressed me because he struggles with that anyways. He was really focused. "He got into my night vision goggles and now he must pay with his life."

I try to diffuse the situation because I am fairly fond of Jakey. " Now Daniel, you don't know it was him for sure. You have a lot of siblings." Please let Jakey be innocent for just once.

"Mom" he sighs, "He is wearing them on his head."

Crap. Even I would have to say that is pretty damming evidence.

So Jake wakes up. Well sorta wakes up. I ask him if he got into Daniel's goggles. He confesses without a fight. I can only assume because he was still asleep just trying to make it into the tv room to watch cartoons.

I asked if Daniel may punish him for his crimes. He agreed. At least I think he agreed. It was pretty garbled.

Daniel picked the kid up under his arms, and put him out on the front stoop and shut the door. Now this is 7 am. It is cold out! I go and open the door to see Jakey still standing there. I haul him in and set him on the couch infront of his cartoons. He may and he may not remember this morning events.

Seriously folks, i just can't make this stuff up.

2010-10-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

5:00 pm. the phone rings. It is the kids school district. I was not panicked. This is the third time I had heard from them this day alone.

School:Mrs. Brown?

Me: Yep.

School: Your dog is loose.

Me: Oh crap.

School: Inside the school.

Me: (edit thoughts.) oh crap

School: As you know this is not the first time.

Me: Dang, they have a good memory.

School: We cannot catch her. She has no leash or collar on.

Me: And yet you know it is my dog and have my phone number on speed dial.

School: Could you please come down and get your dog out of our school.

Me: Do I really have to?

so I grab the nearest rope. Because of Ike and his love of tying his little brother to things. The only rope I can find Ike has already tied into a noose. Perfect! 'cause when I see the dog this is what I am gonna need. Daniel commened that the rope did not look good. I said, "We are beyond trying to look good. These people already know us too well."

Dog is home. Child who let dog out of backyard and NOT TOLD ME is still alive. So all in all it was a success. I just wish I could find the kid that let her in the school!

warning, this post includes wine.

2010-10-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

well more like whine.

I have had a roller coaster of a week. I really thought I was getting better at coping, but then we did our annual family pictures. Some kids really struggled with it and as the photo shoot when on I started to notice the gap in my family more and more. By the end it was all I could do to not break down in front of the kids.

Then Saturday, I had the wonderful opportunity to watch my friend's kids while she and her husband took out their endowments and got sealed in the temple. I loved watching her girls. They are just wonderful. But I was shocked at the gaping hole that got opened up in my chest when I dressed myself in my whites to go into the sealing room with the girls (I got to hold the baby!) It hurt, physically hurt. I felt awful because here was there special day, and I was a mess. By the end it was all I could do to get out of that building and into my car! I had to pull myself together for the kids. I feel like that is all have been doing this week. Just pulling it together. Well today I couldn't. My heart was broken all over again. I physically hurt. The whole in my chest was tore open all over again and refused to be covered. I am a mess. I fell into bed and hid. Called my in-laws to pinch hit for me. I could not even pull it together enough for to take care of my kids. My mother in law had to drag me out of bed. I did not go willingly. I would much rather sleep through this until morning and wake up and start my routine again.

I did not realise how lucky I was to have someone tell me I am doing a good job, or that I look beautiful today, or that took me no matter what or at least look at me with love. Not the way a child looks at their mother, or the way a mother looks at her daughter. It is a different kind of love. With out that I am losing confidence in myself, I doubt myself a lot, and in general just feel and look like crap. Now, I know I cannot expect someone to give me back my confidence about me, that is something I am going to have to find in myself. I just don't want to. I would much rather wallow in self-pity, thank-you very much.

so right now I hurt, it is fresh, it is open and it sucks. Please let this pass quickly. Please,please,please.

Why you should never leave a Reneer un-attended. EVER!

2010-10-19T15:37:00.000-07:00

So if you leave this guy, the one in the picture who is gouging out his eye with the wrong side of the hammer, yup. turns out you get what you pay for when it comes to family help.

He organized and labeled all of Dan's tools on Saturday. He did a great job organizing. The room has honestly never looked better, but apparently he still thinks I am an idiot. So he labeled things, everything, you name it, it has a label.

Some labels are more practical than others......

Yes, Carlos, because I have never seen one of these before.

Surprisingly, this can does contain screws.

Good thing he labeled this. I never would have figured it out.

Somewhere in bikini bottom Spongebob is crying.

Technically these are shelves. So there Mr. Smarty Pants.

To be honest I am very grateful for all the help that came on saturday. It was great to be surrounded by family and friends. We got so much done in one day. It would have taken me weeks by myself.

A letter to my personal trainer, Doug

2010-10-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

Dearest Doug,

I know I am mouthy, obnoxious, lazy, sarcastic, and less than pleasant to deal with twice a week, but really is that any excuse to make me unable to walk? I know you missed me on Tuesday, but there is no need to make me think of you all weekend long as I try to walk up a step, stand up, or sit down (a favorite activity of mine) I am sure to you physical pain is all part of the program but for me, a wimp by nature, pain is something that should be avoided at all costs. Especially if I am the one in pain. I am sure you will read this, feel terribly sad, and be nicer to me on Tuesday. Or this will backfire and end in a horribly, fiery death for my quads.

this is beyond Calgon

2010-10-14T09:22:00.000-07:00

The following took place in the 10 minutes i was in the shower. I know, what was I thinking? Showering before 10pm? well don't worry, i won't be showering again for a long time.

Ike has been practicing his hangman's noose. he has mastered it finally. at least that is the conclussion i came to when i walked in to seeing two cabbage patch babies, one stuffed dog, a stuffed fairy cat hanging and him working furiously away at another stuffed dog. children were in tears. Where does this kid find the rope? seriously!! i don't keep the stuff in the house for obvious reasons.

We are in the middle of a bathroom remodel. so of course all lights, shower pans, and fixtures must be packed in styrofoam. EVIL, EVIL stuff! Maria got a chunk and went into her room and tore it to shreads. now this would be messy in and of it's self but i will be honest with you. their room is not clean. it was all over stuffed animal (ones that were not alread strung up),dress-up clothes, toys, duplo blocks (static attraction un-real), and bedding. it was a huge mess!! and as you know, the more you sweep, shake, and vaccum the more they get attracted to walls, you and your vaccum. i think i got their room and the hallway cleaned up but every once in a while i run across a little styrofoam ball rolling by. the war rages on and i am probably gonna lose but i have to try.

so to wrap it up, that was 4o minutes of my morning. and Maria is grounded for the next two days.

No. I am not ignoring you

2010-10-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

Just been very busy with home projects. But don't you worry your pretty little head i am taking pictures of the progress and will have a wonderful story to put together for you soon. At least i hope soon. I am tired of cold showers.

going down

2010-09-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

Ever have those moments when you think you have it all together than BAM! You get the wind knocked out of you? You get up, dust yourself off, think to yourself, "wow that sucked." and move on. right?

well for the past three months I have been getting the wind knocked out of me on a daily basis. everyday, no matter how hard i try to keep things working, keep the kids up on homework, keep my house together, do my callings, and be there for friends and family by the end of the day I am five steps farther behind than what I was when I woke up that morning.

The first few times I bounced back up, dusted myself off and tackled the problem. Sat down, came up with a solution and a plan to reach that solution and put it into action because that is what you do. It does not solve anything to sit around and mope and watch the house and children fall down around you.

Each time you get knocked down, no matter how resolved you are, it gets harder and harder to get back up. You get physically tired, you are emotionally drained and yet before you can get all the way up, the next hit comes and BAM! you are back on your back again. Does not matter that you are not up, children gather around you asking you to fix things, find things, feed them, resolve fights, then there are things outside the home, sports, church, scouts, activities all that need your attention. So you struggle to get up on your knees, thinking to yourself, "I have to do this. It must be done." Then BAM! You get knocked back down again. What is the point of getting up anymore. I cannot win. I cannot do it anymore. I have no more fight left in me. I don't want to care anymore. I don't want to plan anymore, I don't want to find solutions because guess what? It is all a load of crap. It doesn't matter what I do. I will never get ahead. I will never solve it all, IT WILL NEVER STOP COMING.

so I surrender. I am not strong. I cannot handle this. And I AM DONE.

A huge milestone!

2010-09-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

I have struggled for sometime finding a healthy routine for myself and my family. Thanks to the wonders of Celexia it is getting better. I did not mop my floors yesterday! AT ALL!! this is huge you see, because it has been months since i have been able to not do that. i wrapped myself up in the comfort of housework until i was suffocating and others around me were struggling because of the stress i had put on myself and the un-realistic expectations i had for those around me.

i have found myself becoming un-wound. we hung out around the fire the other night for no reason at all. yesterday we went downtown and went to Brittles, fancy candy shoppe. (you can tell it is fancy because of the extra "pe" in it's name.) then we went and rode the carousel in Riverfront Park and walked over to the library after that. It was a fantastic afternoon and i did not have the stressful thoughts of all the housework that i should be doing and that i am getting behind on by not being on schedule. the house did not collapse, the children did not suffer, and i still had time to go hang out at Hobby Lobby with my BFF in the evening.

i must say, i am loving this whole new schedule!!