Malachi's Birthday Party

Well today was Malachi's birthday party (only a few weeks after his birthday!). We had a train theme. Everyone arrived and began by singing songs about trains (Down by the Station, Dinah blow your horn, Little Red Caboose). Guests included Levi and Emma , Shelbie (CTR 5 class), Noah (church friend), Samuel (CTR 5), and Owen (son of my friend Kary who works with me). After the train songs, we put on hats and bandannas and it was ALL ABOARD the (imaginary) train, and we chuggachugged around the room. Since it was the "OLOGY" train, we stopped at the following five stations: the Zoology station where we learned about cats and tried to listen to Naomi's heartbeat (not very successful, even though we had a good stethoscope), the Archeology station where we learned about solving puzzles and the kids all put together a 35 piece floor puzzle, the Ichthyology station where we learned about fish, including the fact that the spotted climbing perch can breath oxygen and climb on rocks out of the water (!), the Entomology station where we looked for bugs through magnifying glasses, and the Paleontology station where the kids dug up plastic dinosaur eggs that folded out into little dinosaurs. Then the kids each took blindfolded swings at the train pinata that Talia and Malachi had filled to the gills with candy earlier this morning. It was only fitting that Malachi's swings finally broke the thing! Then the kids had train cake and ice cream and Malachi enjoyed opening some presents. Fun times. Enjoy the pictures!

Malachi

Had to share two pictures of Malachi. First he's giving Dad the big thumbs up and I just couldn't resist sharing this pic of it! He was happy about Dad's famous waffles. Ron made waffles last night for dinner for the kids and they ate waffles in a constant stream for about an hour! Tonight I made dinner and Malachi said he loved it a googolplex. He was cute...until later (duhn duhn duhn...suspenseful music plays)...when he ate (?) a marker or somehow got it all over his face. A picture, in this case, is worth a thousand words.

Dancing Children

My kids love the Beatles. They've been listening to some music in their carpool with our friend Seth, and now they love the Beatles. So I told them that tonight, once they got in their pajamas, they could dance to some Beatles music. Here they are!

In other news (sugar poll), I lasted till Friday night at 6:30. Almost 96 hours! Starting again, today, I'm going for a full five days - that's Monday through Friday of this week. I can live with that...I think! I just want to develop a bit more self-discipline so I'm practicing. The eventual goal is moderation and doing what works for me specifically (since I think I may be more sensitive to sugaration). (yeah, that's the technical term for physiological and psychological effects of sugar, har har)

Talia Cuteness & Malachi Skating Boy

Talia loves her Dad. Ain't she sweet. I asked Brandon if I could take lots of pictures of him this way like I do of the little kids. He just looked at me. I'm sure you can imagine.

Today we went to Trader Joe's and stocked up on frozen veggies and tried their new organic mango lemonade (YUM!). Next we went over to Toys R Us and Malachi spent his birthday money (from 4 Grandmas!) and bought some skates and a helmet and protective pads. It took him about 14 hours (okay I exaggerate) to gear up, but when he did...boy did he look great! Check it out!

Answers to Brandon's Misery

Yes, it's true -- we may have an answer! Brandon found out today that the biopsy for h. pylori came back positive (celiac was negative). So he's got a prescription for a 14 day treatment. Hopefully that will do the trick, since he starts college in one month. Exactly.

Yes, August 19 is the day that Brandon is supposed to show up for freshman orientation and move in. Classes start on the 23rd. If you want to know more about his school, it's at www.wpi.edu

As far as the sugar thing goes -- so far, success and we're at 70 hours and counting. The first day was by far the hardest.

Today it RAINED lots and lots and Talia and Malachi were out in the rain, jumping in a huge puddle we have in our driveway. They were completely soaked and now they are in the tub, playing with the plastic care bear and princess they got bubble bath in for Christmas last year. And now I hear wailing...time to "review" how to be nice to each other...gotta go!

38 hours and counting

Here's a picture of our newly designed Primary bulletin board that I'm so proud of! The tree is out of fabric and stuffed. Soon there will be cute little plastic butterflies all over the place, since the kids get to put up a butterfly for each week that they read their "I'll Follow Him in Faith" Scripture stories (our very own summer reading progam).

Hmmm. I see that a number of you think I can go 5 days without sugar. Wow. You are either really afraid to put down what you REALLY think, or you have more faith in me than I do. Either way, I'm actually inspired! By the way, I'm talking about no sugar, no flour, nada. And I have to say, it was tough last night, especially when, while cleaning the kitchen last night, I picked up a plastic bag that Ron brought home from work, containing cookies. Mmm tempting. But in a serious fit of self control I just moved the bag. Mornings and afternoons are much easier. It's the after 5 time of day that gets me.

In other, more exciting news, we spent some time weeding yesterday. Our snapdragons (Malachi's pick for seeds) are blooming now, and all but 2 sunflowers (Talia's pick) are also blooming and looking fantastic. We still have lettuce growing, which is hard to believe this late in July. There are a few tomato fruits on the vine, growing, and a few squash flowers. I put a couple pinwheels in the garden beds and this seems to discourage critters.

If you haven't yet, check out how you can customize your own igoogle desktop. Blazing with cool. I have a tab for "to do" and for email, learning, relaxing, etc. If you want to see what I've got, I can "share" the tab with you -- just email me and ask!

No news yet on Brandon..hopefully tomorrow night I'll know more, after his follow-up appointment. He actually made it out of the house yesterday and went to a friend's to play D&D.

Brandon Update

He's still feeling sick. Didn't go to church yesterday despite hoping to. The earliest we will find out anything is this coming Friday and that's just me calculating 10 days from his colonoscopy. In the running are: h.pylori, celiac, giardia and post-infections IBS. None of these seem to completely fit...but hopefully we'll find an answer soon! In the meantime, Brandon is enjoying NOT his bed, his room, his computer, Zelda, vomiting, nausea, and stomach pain. And to top that off, his sleep schedule is completely messed up because the stomach pain keeps him up so often. The highlight of the week is that he asked me to cut his hair a couple days ago. And he taught me how to fish on Zelda Twilight Princess. That was pretty durn cool!

Welcome to the world of blog...

First post...let's see if I can do this too! Here's some pictures to begin with.