MY VERY FIRST "PAST BLAST"

6.25.08

Woo's parents and a lot of his siblings write a weekly email, and even though they usually just have humdrum stuff in them, I enjoy reading them to see what people are up to. Last night I was thinking that maybe I should do something like this and send it to you guys **my family and friends**, especially since email is a comfortable and accessible medium for me (as opposed to the phone). If you don't like these just tell me that you want off the list, or just quietly delete them when they come in to save me from shedding bitter tears.


We are doing pretty well. The weather has been great--80s with frequent rain, so our plants and garden are looking nice, and the house is a pleasant temperature.

The app has quit taking up tons of Woo's time, so he's been coming to bed at a decent time and watching the kids for a half hour in the morning for me again. But we're not rich yet, and may never be.

We went to the zoo last Monday for family home evening. Herbie loved the animals. Ruby kept saying she was hungry. She really wanted some of that fun food they sell at the zoo that everyone else was walking around with. Moses slept.

Ruby has all of her letters down really well. I guess I should start teaching her the sounds each letter makes so that she can start sounding out words. She can occasionally count to 12, but frequently gets hung up on the number 6. 1-5 and 7-12 are great.

Ruby loves to pretend that she is someone else. In the past two days she's been President Monson (where she wears one of Herbie's suits), Herbie (where she wears one of Herbie's T-shirts and some of his shorts), and Chuck (a kid in our branch--no costume).

Herbie's taken Ruby's lead in taking on other roles. His favorite the past couple of days has been Woo (he calls him Dad). Herbie, as Dad, rides his bike to work (around the house), parks it in the basement (his bedroom), rides the train (sits in the closet), and is sick or is having a bad day (lies in bed). Luckily, President Monson has been on hand to administer medicine on those instances when he's in bed.

Herbie picked up a biting habit from another little boy in nursery, but I think we've got it taken care of. It's been quite a few days since he's bitten anyone.

Moses is now eating every 4 hours instead of 3, so that has been nice for me. He's awake more, and a lot more responsive. He greets us all with a wide grin when he sees us.

I started putting Moses on the potty last week, but I think I accidently trained him into thinking that I want him to pee when he's lying his back. I started giving him the signal whenever he would pee months ago (usually when he was lying on his back), but now when i set him on and give him the signal, he struggles, but doesn't pee. As soon as I lie him down to do something else, he pees and smiles at me. **I did EC with Herbie and Moses. Worked like a charm with Herbie. I seem to have messed it up with Moses.**

I recently decided to spend a half hour working out in the yard after the kids go to bed. Woo has been coming out with me, and we've got quite a bit done in just a week. Our corn, tomatoes and beans all look good, and we may actually get all of our poison ivy killed off this year.

I am also teaching seminary this week. I'm still working with the previous seminary teachers through the summer. They held seminary on Sundays during Sunday School, so that's when we do it. I've only actually taught twice so far, so it's taking me awhile to figure out how to adjust my teaching to high school kids. I'm used to teaching adults not teenagers. Anyway, hopefully, I'll get it right this week. I've got two personal stories that ought to keep them from snoozing while reading parts of the Book of Joshua and questions I think they can answer.

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PAST BLASTS are weekly emails I wrote to family and friends over the past 5 years. Pictures are contemporaneous with the email, but have been added later.

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PHOTO BLITZ: OUTSIDE!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

I've really been itching to read some novels lately, so I decided to do something new for my birthday this year -- a week long reading binge. Of course, it couldn't really be a complete binge, I have people I need to keep alive and give attention too, but I got a tall stack of highly recommended books from the library, and planned to lose myself in a book in my spare time. I started out strong, reading 5 books in 2.5 days, and loving every minute of it. (How is it that I've never read Jane Austen's Persuasion before??) But I got bogged down by the beginning of Code Name Verity, and although, I finished it, I didn't find it to be as amazing as everyone else did. And then I was done, ready to return to my usual life. I didn't make it a week, but I got enough reading in to be satiated.

Herbie was an elephant in the 1st grade opera. They must've learned something from last year because the operas were shorter, and much more enjoyable for everyone. The kids definitely peter out at about the 10 minute mark, and probably most of the audience too.

One night I overheard Herbie praying by himself. I couldn't hear most of what he said, but I could tell that he was praying, and he went on for quite awhile. I did finally hear some words clearly, and heard him pray about something that is definitely important to him. I love that he prays on his own about his concerns.

I also love when he gets sent up to his room to cool off, and a slow, brooding melody from the concertina or harmonica drifts down to us.

Herbie (explaining the facts to his little brothers):  

Ginger ale is made of gingerbread.  

And ale. 

Which is water.

Herbie, it appears, is now capable of sleeping in. Ruby still can not. She doesn't seem to have enough time in the day to do all the reading and paper folding and running around outside and playing with friends and writing stories and building things (and so on) that she would like to do. I'm glad that school will be out soon!

Here she is making origami "claws" and then stacking them to make a surprisingly sturdy sword.

Moses (on Ruby's arrival at the park): 

We beat you here ruby!! 

We went way TOO fast! 

The police almost pulled us over! 

(seeing Woo laughing) 

I saw a policeman behind us!

Moses: Mom, do you like snakes, 'cause I'm making snakes for you! 

Chelsey: Umm ... I guess. 

Moses (changing his mind?): I hate snakes!

Moses: Mom, we've cleaned up! Can I pick a movie now? 

Me (hoping for some variety): Ok. But, you can't pick Cars. 

Moses (disgusted): I don't even want Cars. 

(But, the mere mention of the word made him reconsider.) 

Why can't we pick Cars??

Ruby and Herbie are usually the ones who give us the correct answers to our random questions, but Moses has been surprising us lately.

Woo: Do you guys know what the most common way to die is? 

(Ruby and Herbie rack their brains.) 

Moses: Getting shot! 

Woo: Good guess, but no. 

Me: That's actually very rare. 

Moses: Getting sick! 

Me: It's a kind of getting sick. 

Moses: A fever? 

Us: No. 

Moses: A heart attack! 

Us: Yes!! Good job, Moses! 

Herbie: I was about to say that.

One thing I learned this week is that if you have a three year old get something stuck up their nose, they are not going to be much help in getting it out.

Me: Where is it Linus, is it in this nostril? 

Linus: Yes! 

Me (pointing to the opposite nostril): This nostril? 

Linus: Yes! 

Me: Ok. (Trying a different tact) How big was it? (making a circle with my fingers) Was it this big? 

Linus: Yes! 

Me (changing the size of the circle): This big? 

Linus: Yes! 

Me (changing it once again): This big? 

Linus: Yes!

In fact, they won't even tell you that they've stuffed something up there for several days, and you'll realize that that stinky breath you've been smelling is actually coming from their nose. 

I was ready to take him in to the doctor, but steady-hand Woo equipped with his iPhone and tweezers got it out.

Linus is just as helpful in a game of hide-and-seek.

Linus (to Woo): We playing hide and seek. 

Moses (from other room): You can come. 

Linus: Upstairs? 

Moses: Yes. 

Linus (to Woo): Where is Moses?

Do you remember this dress, Grandma? I think you made it. It's been worn by me, Ruby and now Penelope.

One of Archie's little quirks is that he does not like his eyes covered. His first few days of life, he wore a little, knit hat. One day he was crying, I walked in the room to see the hat over his eyes. I pulled it off, he took a deep sigh, and settled back down to sleep. 

Because of this Archie is slightly more work than no work during church. I was able to carry the other kids in a covered carseat, while they slept during church, until they were about 6 months old. Archie hates his line of vision to be obstructed, so I can't cover the carseat (unless I want him to cry), and he doesn't sleep during church. He does sit there calmly, but it's not quite as easy as a sleeping baby.

Moses: Mom, why do we think Archie is so CUTE?

Did you know that Amazon sells Lays potato chips? 

And that they'll ship them for free if you spend at least $15? 

And that they'll get there in just 2 days? 

Woo does.

HERBIE AND HIS FATHER (2006)

PAST BLAST: ANNUAL HAIRCUTS

5.24.09

Ruby, Herbie and Woo got their annual haircuts for FHE this week.

Herbie was terrified of the buzzer so I had to do it by hand. I was not excited, but it went fine.

I cut Ruby's quite a bit shorter than I was planning, and took about 5 snips total. Surprisingly, it looks pretty good, and she's gotten tons of compliments on it.

It reminds me a bit of the short haircut Lyndy used to have, and I couldn't help thinking of the similarity when she came out of her room the next morning wearing leggings and a t-shirt.


Moses has been a sporadic walker this week. I thought he would just pick it right up, like the other kids had after their first success, but Moses prefers to get to most places fast, and walking just isn't cutting it right now. For a couple of days there, he would only walk for his Dad. Whenever he'd see him, he'd stand up and walk a bit.

Moses is at that very inconvenient for church age: 12-18 months. Too young for nursery, but there's no way he's going to sit on our laps or on the floor quietly for 3 hours. Sacrament is fine, but it's exhausting wrestling with him or following him all over the other 2 hours.

Herbie mentioned Grandpa. I asked him what he does.

"He works."  

"Works?"  

"He works... And he vacuums!" 

**My dad does, in fact, do a lot of vacuuming around the house.**


Herbie is really, really good on his skuut. He rode gracefully down a long curved hill at the cemetery with his feet carefully held inches from the ground. He was so pleased with himself, but then lost all his confidence when he took a curve too fast (Woo had just been teaching him and Ruby how to race) and slid into a fence. After some hugs, he opted to walk the bike home.

Ruby spills all to anyone we meet at a playground. She usually opens by telling them the names of everyone in our family. Then she will mention something from that day that's on her mind, and then she'll say something religious that makes absolutely no sense like, "I'm President Uchtdorf!" or "When I'm older I can ride on that swing, AND I can be baptized!" or "Heavenly Father loves it! We will die, and then we will live again!"

Most people just nod their heads.

I chuckled for a while after Steven stumbled out of the bedroom, ordered Ruby to go wash her face, sent Herbie off to do something else, and then realized what he was doing, "That's right kids, I'm up, and I'm ready to micromanage!"

Remember when Woo thought that having his app in the top 20 (in his category) was his ultimate goal? Well he's been there easily for the last month. But, of course he can't just rest with that.

Woo has spent no money and no time on promotion, but he's doing so well because of his excellent customer service. People just want to help him after he's answered their questions, or listened to their concerns.

I (and the kids) went running twice with two girls from church. It was pretty fun. I'll probably start running once a week with one of them. I felt really good at Ultimate this week. I even started scoring goals and outrunning Woo when he was guarding me (he may or may not have sliced his bare foot on something near the end of the game... )

One of the girls there convinced me to sign up for a 10K tomorrow. The distance doesn't scare me, the pacing does. I have no idea how to run a 10K, but I'm not going to learn without doing it a few times. 

Wish me luck! **read how that went here**

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PAST BLASTS are weekly emails I wrote to family and friends over the past 5 years. Pictures are contemporaneous with the email, but have been added later.

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PHOTO BLITZ: HAPPINESS IS WAKING UP IN A TENT