The Mind of a Four Year Old

Joseph is four years old and he is so amusing! His primary teachers are a young married couple expecting their first child in a week or so. He came home to tell us how his class got to touch her large tummy. I asked him if he felt the baby kick, he said no, the baby was asleep. So I asked him how her tummy felt and he informed me that he did not feel her belly because he did not want to wake up the baby! Then yesterday in the car he was talking about primary and he mentioned that he thinks the baby has fallen out of her tummy now, oh if it were truly that simple!! A few weeks ago we were at Target shopping and we ran into them. Joseph gasped and said, "They are here at Target" He was shocked to see them outside of the usual church setting and could hardly say hello. From there we went to Winco, and guess who we ran into? Yep, we saw them again and once again Joseph was shocked to see them!

We have the soundtrack to the movie The RM and if you have not seen this movie, I highly recommend it. It is hilarious and my entire family LOVES this movie. Anyway, the soundtrack is church music that has been redone in a mainstream manner. Very fun and upbeat. It is one of Joseph's favorite right now and every time we go anywhere in the van, he wants me to turn it on. So I do. And he sings along with every song he can, though his favorite is the primary song Give Said The Little Stream. And when he doesn't know the words to the other songs, he often makes them up. I think he is just like me. When I hear a song I like, I am not truly happy until I can learn the words and sing along. So what is my deal anyway? Why is it I can sing every lyric to every sappy 70's love tune that played during my years in retail, even when I haven't heard them in 15 years and yet I am a bit fuzzy on the order of the states on the east coast. I felt bad about this for years because my husband would make fun of me for not knowing my states as if I was an ignorant grade school dropout. So when Jake had to learn the states and capitals in 6th grade, once again I learned them all right along with him, but just four years later the fuzziness is creaping back in and yet I can still sing every line of "Midnight at the Oasis"(send your camel to bed...yes that really is the next line). In trying to be a good citizen of this wonderful country, should I take the time every couple of years to brush up on my US geography, or is it ok to be one of those people in those poles where they say, "75% of people poled don't know the capital of South Dakota"(I just looked it up, its Pierre, but then YOU knew that didn't you?)...Oooops, this blog entry is not about me, its about Joseph, so back to him....

Sometimes I steal glances to the backseat and strain to hear his sweet little voice singing along. The look on his face is always so serious, probably because music is such serious business to him. I often turn on youtube and play music there. Lately we were introduced to a song that is a blend of Love Story and Viva La Vida(the link is on my facebook page if you are interested, I haven't figured out how to get it here yet). It is an incredible song played by a piano and a cello. Joseph always asks for the Piano and Jello song. And then he runs around in circles, his feet hitting the ground in time to the music. We also play a lot of songs by the SilverSun Pickups, which he calls the SiverSun Hiccups. My little Jeterinarian may also have a future in music!

Oh yes, Joseph is also a rotten egg. It is true. Whenever we go anywhere, do anything, get in the car, go through the front door, he always says in a sing song voice, I'm the rotten egg, you are the winner! I don't know why he has the idea that being a rotten egg is a good thing, but hey, it has stopped a lot of arguements with the 7 year old, who does NOT think being a rotten egg is cool. She happily agrees with him that he is the rotten egg and peace is continual in our happy home....HA! Yeah, they find other things to fight about, but at least its never about being a rotten egg.

I love Joseph's sweet little mind. He is such a fun little boy and I feel blessed every day that I am his mother! I was thinking recently, what if Richard and I had not decided to have children together. My youngest would be almost 15 now. I would probably have finished my schooling and have been a nurse for several years now and I am just certain I'd be very skinny...HA. Life would be so different and possibly so much easier, but happier?? No! When I think of all I would be missing out on I am so grateful Joseph and Annalina came along. I would not give up the experience of being their mom for anything!!

Summer Fun....Part 2`

So the biggest news of that last week of school was Richard was home with us ALL week long. Tektronix had their first furlough, a week off with no pay. Fun stuff! This may be the first of several for this year. We spent Monday organizing the garage and it looks so much better. It was really nice having Richard home! On the kids first day off from school we took them all to see UP in 3D. I was a little skeptical about the 3D part, the last movie I saw that way was Spy Kids 3D and it gave me a headache. But instead of cardboard glasses, they hand out nicely sanitized glasses that are like sunglasses. They were comfortable. The movie itself had a very sweet story and the 3D was not just for a few special effects, the entire movies was in 3D and it was done beautifully. I highly recommend this movie to anyone. Go see it, you won't be sorry!

Adrienne has taken an almost full time job this summer babysitting for a family that has two kids ages 10 and 7. She loves the kids and is having a fun time caring for them and there is no diapers or spitting up to deal with, a great perk. Each day they take a walk to one of the nearby schools to play. She works each day from 8:30 -2:30 so she has her evenings and weekends free which is important for teenagers! I am proud of her and am glad she decided to take the job. She will be able to put away some good money this summer!

Jake is running a couple times a day and will soon be meeting up with the cross country team to run with them. Other than that, he is somewhat bored so far this summer. I am encouraging him to invite friends over for movies of video games and hopefully can take him to the pool for some open swims. He and Richard leave for Scout camp in just a couple weeks and he is excited for the classes he signed up for. As luck would have it, the week of Scout Camp is another company wide shut down, but at least there is the option for vacation pay. Tek is pretty much eating up all vacation pay with forced shut downs, so it is nice this one coincided with a week Richard already needed off. I am getting prepared for that week by not having the kids in swimming lessons or scheduled activities. I think we will just have a lot of unplanned fun!!

Summer Fun!

School was out for all the kids last Wednesday! Thursday I had to pick up my 30 pound bucket of strawberries. Each year the stakes in the area get together and order in mass quantities from a grower in the Salem area. Its a great way to get Oregon berries without all the work. They come picked, cleaned, sliced and ready to go! So Megan came over to help me with them. We made some freezer jam, our first attempt ever and it turned out wonderfully. We had a fun time visiting and Mom even came over for a while to help, although the pectin I was using had different recipes than she had ever used. I froze a bunch of the berries and will thaw some more out when my raspberries come in a couple of weeks. Megan and I will go crazy making jams! We may even try to can some so as to save on the freezer space. I am still big on the freezer cooking thing!

Adrienne had a Laurel campout on Friday night and they had asked Richard to go along as a priesthood leader and help out. Adrienne asked me to come along too. So I did. I have not camped since I was pregnant with Joseph. It was not a pleasant experience for me, nothing like stumbling to the bathroom through the dark trying not to trip and wake up the campers all around me while being absolutely certain bears were waiting around the corner! Our matress lost its air so sleeping was not comfortable at all. I cried the second night and told Richard I never wanted to camp again. But hey, I was pregnant. I decided this one night trip would be a nice trial run to see if I could actually stand camping. And guess what??? It was fun! We had two great campsites and we weren't too far for the bathrooms. And we were just a short walk from the beach! It was beautiful. It rained all day before we left so I was sure we were in for a wet night. But except for a drop here and there it stayed dry the entire time. Hopefully we will get a chance to take the whole family camping someday soon. The whole time I kept thinking, I wish the other kids were here!! But they were having an adventure of their own spending the night at Aunt Megan's house. They even got to go to Chuck E Cheeses, what could be better?? I really appreciated Megan's willingness to temporarily double the number of children in her home. From three to six is a big jump, so THANKS MEGAN! I LOVE YOU!

Jane, Kelsey, Crystal, and Adrienne

We got home from camping and headed down to Monmouth for Uncle Rich's retirement BBQ. It was great to finally see Rich and Renetta's beautiful home and their yard is to die for! They had cherries on their cherry tree and strawberries in the garden(I didn't check to see if the kids left any for you Renetta, sorry if they ate them ALL!). It was a fun night and Joseph actually fell asleep in the car on the way home and that NEVER happens! We are looking forward to another visit with Rich and Renetta in early July when my BCF Jill(Best Cousin Forever) will be in town! Can't wait!

The kids had so much fun in Renetta's backyard, this was the best photo I could get!

Today began swimming lessons! Joseph is in the catfish 2 class and Annalina is a goldfish. They both did very well. I am so proud of them and have so much fun with them! Summer is good. OK, so its only the first week out from school, my tune may change, but for now, summer is GOOD!!

Oh Happy Day!

I went in to wake up Annalina this morning for school. She was lying in bed reading a book!! I went downstairs to start breakfast and make lunches and there was Joseph on the sofa...READING A BOOK! Yippee! As a mother who adores reading there is no better sight than seeing both my little ones reading(or attempting to read) books! My two older kids do not have the passion for reading I do. My husband does not either and I get a lot of flack from them about how much I enjoy reading! So my hopes are now high that maybe Annalina and Joseph will be my reading buddies! My idea of a great vacation is sitting on the beach...with a book. Or relaxing by a warm fire...with a book. Or sitting in a hot tub...with a book. Maybe someday I will get to try lounging on a cruise ship...with a book! You just never know!

Take Me Out Of the Ballgame....

This weekend is Annalina's t-ball tournament. And she couldn't be happier. Not to be playing t-ball, but because the season is almost over! She has been a bit bored this year and here is what she had to say about it when I asked her. "I like the part where you hit the ball and run, but I don't like the part where you have to use the mitt". She gets very bored when she is out on the field and has a tendency to pick grass, play in the dirt and do various yoga poses rather than pay attention to the game. She is only seven, so I suppose I understand. But I am torn about how to feel. I love to watch my kids play sports. Whether they are good or not, I love to see them try! Although if she chooses not to play next season, which she has told me is the case, just think of all the evenings and Saturdays that will free up! I think I will take the registration money(if I can find it in the budget) and sign her up for a couple of community classes. She loves the Yoga class and has shown interest in taking the begining Karate class. The photo below pretty much sums up her feelings about t-ball.
She also is not sure she wants to play soccer in the fall. Her comments on that one were, "you have to run a lot, and it makes me tired". Sounds like a teenager thing to say does it not?? We play soccer at the church. It is not sponsored by the church, but someone organized a soccer club and word spread and now there are over 130 youth playing there in the huge church field. And while the Hillsboro Soccer League charges $100 per player and has required fundraisers, this little group charges about $3.50 for t-shirts for the kids so we can tell the teams apart! Joseph is old enough to play this year and so I am trying to decide whether to sign him up on his own or just pass this year on the whole thing. As it stands, the final Anatomy & Physiology class I will be taking in the fall will be an evening class, so it might be just as well if we hold off a year on the soccer.

We are starting swimming lessons in a couple of weeks. They are a bit tough on our budget and I almost decided to pass on that this year, but Richard thinks its really important that the kids learn how to swim, and he is right. So just one session this summer and Joseph is SO very excited! I told him classes start after school gets out. He thought I was talking about his school and was a bit bummed out when I didn't take him right down to the pool the day preschool let out. So that will be a highlight of the summer. I am sure we will find lots of other fun and free things to do too!