Surviving softball

Lucy waiting for Haley's practice to end

Lucy has really been a trooper with her two big sisters playing softball this season. She has to endure 4 practices and 2-3 games a week. That translates to aprox 10 hours a week of trying to stay entertained at the ball field.

Sometimes she gives kids rides in our wagon. Sometimes she brings baby dolls and her stroller. Sometimes we bring one of our dogs and she walks it around the park. Although there have been a few melt downs she has been great about keeping busy and staying out of trouble.

Last Saturday at her game Haley was playing in the outfield. Shortly after the game started Haley was playing with the grass and reaching into the air like she was on a hallucinogenic. When she came back to the dug out I went over to see if she was OK, she said " Ya, but where's Ruby and Lucy?" I pointed to where they were sitting and she ran over and handed Lucy a lady bug. Haley told the girls that they were all over the grass and she was trying to catch some for them to play with. Ruby and Lucy were thrilled and immediately named the bug Ali and asked her to get more. I told Haley that I really appreciated her thoughtfulness but she had to stop looking for lady bugs and get her head in the game.

Haley's team lost by 2 points but she didn't care, she just kept talking about all the lady bugs on the field.

Bouganvila, Bouganvila!!!!

Right now the bouganvilla is in fullbloom in our area and oh so beautiful.  

I remember as a kid my Dad pointing out different flowers to me, teaching me their names and a little about each flower. The 1st one that I remember learning about was a snap dragon and I thought it was so cool. By the time I was six one of my favorite things was to walk around our garden pollinating the iris.

So a while ago I started teaching my kids about different flowers, starting of course with snap dragons. No flower has gotten them as excited as bouganvilla. 

Today on the way to and from church Eric was able to experience the joys as all three girls at the top of their lungs yelling BOUGANVILLA every 3-4 houses.

weekend project

Ruby's teacher asked all the kids in her class to bring a clean white t-shirt to school for the Zoo field trip.  The day I worked in her class I helped all the kids put tons of rubber bands on their shirts to prepare them for tie dying.  She dyed all their shirts olive green then they had big white circles all over them. On the day of the field trip I realized that every 1st grade glass had done the same thing but each class had been assigned a different color.  I thought this was a brilliant idea and would be great for family reunions, girls camp etc.  

So when I was in Target I picked up white t-shits and shorts for each of my girls and decided to try tie dying with my kids.

It was so easy and fun. They all had a blast and LOVE their new outfits!

Mom- Haley reminded me once again that "Grandma didn't like tie dying in the 60's and she still doesn't like it!"

I am one happy girl!

After several hours on the phone with Verizon and a borrowed modem from another softball Mom, we finally have access to the internet without having to wait 10 min for one page to load! Life is good!

The Opal update

*****Due to DSL issues I have not been blogging. Our internet connection is so slow I can't stand using it right now.  I have received several complaints about not updating my blog so here is a post that I typed in 2 months ago and never published.******

If you are not a dog person, this post will seal the deal. I knew Opal was going to be a lot of work, but there have been some situations I never saw coming.

The big concern was of course potty training. She will go all day using the doggie door and not have one accident. Then Eric will get home and she will have 3 accidents in a matter of a couple of hours. Clearly she didn't understand self preservation. As of today she is doing really well and well, accident free as long as she is not allowed upstairs.

Another big problem was coprophagia... she was eating her own poop. So disgusting. I read on line that this is not uncommon and to sprinkle red pepper on the poop after they go they will not eat it and get out of the habit. It has worked really well... for a while.  Then she decided that she didn't mind the extra flavor.  We are now trying pills from Petco that as supposed to stop it, but no luck yet.

The biggest trial for me was getting her to sleep through the night. Every night for the first 2 weeks she would wake up around 4am and want to play. I didn't want her to wake everyone up so I would take her downstairs and sleep on the sofa. After 2 weeks of sleeping on the sofa the unthinkable happened.

****This is your warning**** If you are pregnant or have a quick gag reflex stop reading here. You have been warned.

One night (while sleeping on the sofa) Opal started scratching on her kennel door so I opened it up. She quickly ran into the kitchen and out the doggie door all by herself. I was so proud of her for going outside, that when she came back in I lifted her up to the sofa and was saying "good girl" when she proceeded to lunge forward to lick my face. I do not ever like dogs to lick my face, but especially not when the dog has just been outside eating her own poop! Yes in the middle of the night, half asleep she licked my face with her freshly poop coated tongue. I started gagging and almost threw up.

Luclily for her I am a forgiving person and allowed her to live.

While that was the WORST Opal experiencebut here are a few that were not far behind.

Coming home and finding holes chewed in 3 of our chairs...
Then a few days later realizing that she had been teathing on base of our breakfast table.

The good news is that Max and Opal have become great friends... most of the time. He is still not thrilled with her jumping on him to try to get him to play with her constantly, but he loves having her around.

Displaying art work

I love art, but I especially love art that my kids have made. A while back I posted about this masterpiece, but not all of my kids art gets matted and framed. Here are a few ways we display the beautiful creations that come home each day.

The Art Gallery

I purchased magnetic wall strips from HERE and use them to hang artwork all down the hallway. I bought nine of them on sale and put them end to end in two rows down our upstairs hall.  They have some that are similar at IKEA for .99 cents each HERE, but they are black and I have no idea how long they are. 

The hidden Kitchen Gallery 

Our kitchen is too small to have artwork on the walls so one of my favorite places to hang it in on the inside of all the cupboard doors. I love opening the doors to see their creations!

 
One art tradition that we have in our home is when each girl turns 5 years old they get to paint a "real" portrait of our family on stretched canvas.  I talk to them for a while about how to plan it out and and trace it with pencil, other then that I stay out of the creation process.

Haley worked on her painting for about 2 weeks every day after school. I broke my no suggestions rule on Haley's painting. I strongly encouraged/forced her to paint Ruby and Dad holding hands.  Everyone else was together (notice little Lucy on my shoulder) and Ruby was out there alone.  Notes about the paining: Eric has a surf board under his arm.  The red dot above the Sun is Saturn. There is a is a big waterfall on the left and a sprinkler near Ruby putting drops of water all over the sky.  There are six of her signature butterflies that she drew constantly at that age.
Ruby finished her painting in about 3 days. I love that every one is happy and in the air including Max and her late Guinnea pig Ariel. I love her perspective on how tall Eric is and how long his legs are. While she was painting this she made sure she put lipstick on all the girls, but commented that Dad did not have lipstick, just lips.  She spent her time making sure she had everyone's hair and eye color just right.

I can't wait until next year to see how Lucy interprets our family and hang her painting next to the other two!

You can see how I archive these fine pieces of art after they have served sufficient time in the Art Gallery HERE.

The bike race

Saturday after Ruby's game I told the girls we were going to see a bike race. They all complained and said that sounded boring and they wanted to stay home.







They had a blast at the race.
On the way home they went on and on about how cool it was and how they wanted to go ride their bikes.

Historic Home tour

Today we took a little field trip to Kimberly Crest. It is an amazing estate, almost castle like that has a ton of history. Tonight when the girls were telling their Dad about the house here is what all three girls thought the highlights were:

The main occupants of the home over several generations were three women. 

The front door is really the back door. 

They have fabric on the walls instead of wall paper.  

There is a bell under the dinning room table to call the servants to come. 

There are HUGE Koi fish, frogs and turtles on the ponds.  

Lucy also mentioned the large bowl of jelly beans.  

It was interesting to hear what they remembered and thought were the highlights.

I snapped this photo because I have noticed that my girls tend to line up in order of age subconsciously.  A few month ago a man at church commented to me that every sunday I walk in with my "3 little ducks" behind me.  He said that they are always lined up by age and asked me if I had them do that.   Are you kidding me? I am making sure no one is sneaking in worms or lady bugs and that everyone has underwear on, the least of my concerns is what order they are waling in .  But since his comment I have noticed they do this all the time. 

The girls loved the grounds with all the flowers and ponds. They kept striking poses and asking me to take their photo.  This photo below is so deceiving,  the house is really large. 


Tonight after dinner Haley said "Mom, thanks so much for taking us to Kimberly Crest, that was really cool".  I must say they enjoyed this historic home tour a lot more then I ever remember enjoying stuff like this when I was a kid. 

Spring Break

Spring break has officially started so we headed to LA for the day with some friends. 

1st we went to the LaBrea tar pits and the Page Museum.  Even the stinky smell of the tar could not ruin the beautiful weather. There were a few schools there in field trips and they were filming too so it was a little crowded, but not that bad.  While Ruby and Lucy were just looking at everything Haley was reading all the descriptions and stories.  I need to take her back, she really loved it.

"Rancho La Brea is one of the world’s most famous fossil localities, recognized for having the largest and most diverse assemblage of extinct Ice Age plants and animals in the world" Description stolen from their web site.

Columbian Mammoth

Ancient Bison

After we left the Museum, we went to lunch at Andre's Restaurant (6332 W 3rd St, LA).  Then walked across the street to the Farmer's Market for dinosaur shaped donuts at Bob's. 
The kids were all tired and ready to had home, but we couldn't help taking a long detour to go by M&L Fabrics in Anaheim on the not so way home.  As a result of this detour we ended up in horrific evening traffic, so we decided to stop by our friend Jackie's new house on the way. Even though we got home super late and everyone was tired and cranky, overall we had great day.

Easter Sunday

Talk about a bad photographer... I did not take any photos of the girls in their dresses before church and all the photos I took of the egg hunt at Ken and Natalie's are terrible. So just to document that we did do an egg hunt here are a few photos.

Today Lucy discovered that if you take one of those punch balls (balloons with a large rubber band on them) and place the rubber band around your waist under your dress then position the balloon at the rear of your dress you can run around for hours talking about your big bootie! 

Busy Saturday

My life is pretty much consumed with softball right now.  With both Haley and Ruby playing we have four practices each week along with an average of two games a week.  So this morning was all about softball, both girls had game and both teams did great.

I take tons of pictures at the games but our last name and city where we live is plastered all over the hats and shirts, so with a little retouching here are a couple of photos from today.
What does Lucy do during their games?  She gives random children rides in her wagon.  After the game she pulled Haley and Ruby all the way home. That little Lucy has serious muscles!
After we recovered from our hours in the sun we filled the rest of the day with easter crafts.

We blew out some eggs and hard boiled the others.  The hard boiled eggs dyed with regular egg dye. The hollow eggs we painted colorful tissue paper on and filled with colored rice to make confetti eggs.  Grandpa Ken was a good sport as I think we had most of the confetti eggs thrown at him!

Haley has loved weaving in her art class at school, so after we finished all the eggs Haley made a loom out of cardboard and started weaving.  
After all our art projects we made the Resurrection cookies right before bed. The girls were so into it, I could not believe how well it went.  Although when I let them taste the vinegar to see what they gave Jesus when he was thirsty, Haley would not taste it at all. Ruby thought it was disgusting and needed water right away. Lucy brought the bowl back to the table and kept licking it off her finger... she won't eat strawberries but likes to drink vinegar? 

Easter activity for TONIGHT!

Grandma Natalie called me today with this Easter activity and we are planning on doing it right before bed. I wanted to post about it now to give anyone else the opportunity too.

Annie's "Resurrection Cookies" 


~Also known as Easter Story Cookies~

This is a great recipe to teach your Children the REAL story of Easter. That the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior is not dead but has Risen. We serve a Risen Savior......

You will need:

1 cup whole pecans 


1 teaspoon vinegar 


3 egg whites


a pinch salt 


1 cup sugar


a zipper baggy


1 wooden spoon


scotch tape


Bible

Instructions:
These are to be made the evening before Easter. 

Preheat oven to 300F.*** (this is very important --- don't wait until you are half done with the recipe).

Place pecans in zipper baggy and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces.  Explain that after Jesus was arrested.  He was beaten by the Roman soldiers.  Read: John 19:1-3

Let each child smell the vinegar.  Put 1 teaspoon vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross He was given vinegar to drink. Read: John 19:28-30

Add egg whites to vinegar.  Eggs represent life.  Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read: John 10:10&11

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand.  Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl.  Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers,and the bitterness of our own sin. Read: Luke 23:27

So far the ingredients are not very appetizing.  Add 1 cup sugar.  Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us.  He wants us to know and belong to Him.
Read: Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. Read: Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3

Fold in broken nuts.  Drop by teaspoon onto waxed paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read: Matthew 27:57-60

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and
turn the oven OFF.

Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door.
Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read: Matthew 27:65-66

GO TO BED!
Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read: John 16:20&22

On Resurrection Sunday (Easter) morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie.  Notice the cracked surface and take a bite.  The cookies are hollow!  On the first Easter Jesus' followers were amazed
to find the tomb open and empty. Read: Matthew 28:1-9

St Patrick's Day

We had a great St. Patrick's day!Artwork by Ruby

I loaded the girls lunches with green food and dyed the water in their water bottles green (I can't believe I didn't take a picture).

Then for dinner we had green fettuchini, peas, salad, green jello and of course more green water.
After dinner I gave the Family Home Evening lesson using Alma 37:6.

I showed them how small the bottle of food coloring was that I had used to make EVERYTHING green by just using little drops. We talked about how a few kind words can completely change the environment of the home and how each of us...even though some are relativity small can have a huge influence on our family.

Then of course we headed to Mc Donald's for shamrock shakes!

Lilly Lane

I received my super cool pendant from Lilly Lane and I love it!

I wore it to Young Women's (a church thing) and all the girls were oohhing and aahhing. I had a hard time getting a photo that shows the detail, but each letter is separate and 3 dimensional.
The back has a quote that I love because it reminds me that I need to just do it instead of waiting until I feel like it. This is exactly what I need to remind myself everyday of my goal to "remodel".
You can order your custom pendant here. Their items are extremely reasonably so hurry and place your order before they realize they need to raise their prices!

THANK YOU LILLY LANE!

Say what?

3/2/08
Ruby: "I am going to save up lots of money, because I want to have
a dog when I grow up."
Haley:  "You can't say that."
Dad:  "Why can't she say that?"
Haley:  "She doesn't know."
Dad:  "What do you mean she doesn't know?"
Haley:  "Well, she may not make it."
Dad:  "What do you mean she may not make it."
Haley:  "She may get sick and die or something."
Dad: "Haley, I am sure she will make it."

2/1/08 "You should just get your boobs cut off"- Eric while studying Mammography book.

2/9/08 "Where is my hooker?... I can't find my hooker anywhere!" Ruby while looking for a hanger.

2/12/08 In a small waiting room full of people Lucy asked me "Mom, is there a baby in your tummy?", I answered no. Then Lucy proceeded to poke her finger into my muffin top and say "Yes there is, look how big your tummy is!"

Fall quilt exchange

If you don't quilt... I forgive you.

If you do quilt... check out the latest block exchange organized by my amazing friend Jackie
http://theblockexchange.blogspot.com/

Allergy conversation with Doc

For the next 8 weeks I will go into the allergist every week to be skin tested for tons of things. 

I had an appointment today... here is the conversation I had with the Dr. as he was poking needles into my arms.  Fyi- the red words are my thoughts.

Me-"So Doc I have been religiously following your strict diet and my sinuses have not changed at all.  Can I stop restricting so many foods?"

Dr.- "I can tell you are following it because you look so good" 

(you are lying, between Lucy and the puppy I did not sleep from 4 am on and I feel like dirt)

"You will feel so good that you will never want to stop eating this way"

 (That will never happen)

Me- "But I really have not noticed any changes"

Dr.- "Oh, you have got to give it at least six months before you start to notice a change to your sinuses. (s i x   m o n t h s?) You have got to let the tissue swelling go down, you have some serious damage done to your sinuses because of all the infections, you need to give it time" (you have GOT to be kidding. I will weigh 80 lbs in six months and be suicidal. Sinus surgery is sounding good to me now)

"Actually this is how you should eat for the rest of your life" (Ok- I'm out. I am so freaking done with this diet, you can stop talking now) "Our bodies were not made to eat so much sugar and wheat, you really will never want to eat those things again you will feel so much better..blah blah blah blah" (I can't wait to get home and eat lunch) blah blah blah blah blah blah (I would rather take 5 pills every day for the rest of my life then eat like this)

Eric (yes he was there)- So Dr. Let me get this straight, this was not a temporary diet, this needs to be permanent" (Oh stop rubbing it in Eric, this is not funny, it's over!) 

So after the appointment I went home and ate 3 handfuls of wheat thins..... 

now I feel much better!

What am I eating?

Jill commented on my last post asking me this question. I find myself asking the same question.

I am constantly eating, because I feel like I am starving. Everything I eat seams so dry. I am used to lots of sour cream, cheese and butter but I can't have any of that right now. Here is a sample of what I have been eating:

Shredded chicken on lettuce with apples (pureed in the food processor) as the dressing. I cannot have any mayo or salad dressing.

Black beans with creole spices and white rice. Sometimes I go crazy and add some salsa!

Corn chips and salsa. I eat this all day long

Grilled chicken

Tons of fruit. I have been averaging 5-7 pears a day 3-4 apples, lots of carrots, cucumbers and red bell peppers.

6-7 egg whites (hard boiled) a day

That's pretty much what I have been eating for a week now.

In reality, this is totally completely awful and last night I had a mental break down because I can't imagine doing this for 3 more weeks.

Trying to be positive... my kids are eating lots of fruits and vegetable because that's what our fridge is full of.

Since this is my year to "Remodel" I am finally doing something about my allergies and constant sinus problems. After meeting with the Allergy Doc and going through testing, he feels that my allergies are food based and not environmental. I had already cut out sugar which has been huge, but now the Doctor is asking me to significantly restrict my diet for approx one month. He gave me 4 pages detailing what I CANT eat and just this half sheet with what I can eat.

I am already eating no sugar, now no wheat products or dairy!!!! I live on dairy products - I feel like I have been told that I cannot eat ever again.

After walking around the grocery store reading labels forever, I am feeling emotionally over budget on this remodeling project. So help me if I am allergic to dairy...

You may be wondering if I have lost any weight with my dietary changes- Yesterday Lucy asked me if I had a baby in my tummy because it was so big... apparently I am gaining.