TESTOSTERHOME

Elias' Eagle Project

2011-11-19T17:57:00.000-08:00

Today was Elias' Eagle Project day.

We made work tables (picnic tables) for the Spring Creek Greenway Nature Center's Outdoor Classroom.

Everything was set up in stations.

Jude thought he was a pretty good helper with the pencil behind the ear.

The Scouts worked really well for about 40 minutes... then there was some messing around. I'll just say that pretty much everyone has dark stain splattered all over them.

Assembly had a bit of a learning curve to it.

The little tables turned out to be quite sturdy.

Now I really want to make one for us!

They're not actually crooked. They were just stacked on top of each other to fit in the trailer.

Here is the final product! Delivered to the Nature Center! Seriously proud of Elias and all the hard work that went into this project. Also, so grateful to the generous friends and neighbors who donated funds and time. He has had some amazing Scout leaders here in Texas who've really helped him along the way. I had no idea how INVOLVED an Eagle project was. One down, three to go!

First Visit to Rio

2011-11-14T16:33:00.000-08:00

Tami is going to have to post the pictures again once I write this. She can post whatever ones she would like. I was finally able to visit Rio for the first time. It truly is a beautiful place. I only spent a few days there but I was able to eat some of the local food, (which was outstanding), visit the stores and check out a few places to live.

Rio is as expensive as everyone said was. If you want to live an America life in Rio and have all the same things, it is going to be very expensive. If you are willing to live more like someone in Rio and eat the local foods, drive the local cars, etc., it is going to be much more affordable. I didn't check the price of speedos and bikinis but they should be very cheap. We stayed right across the street from the beach and if you pay by the amount of material that goes into the suit, they would be giving them away.

I was able to look at two different places. One was a house and one was a condo. The condo was directly across the street from the beach. It had an amazing view but I'm not so sure we want our boys waking up every morning to the other view that comes along with the beach. Plus, I'm not so sure Tami could handle the boys in such tight quarters without a yard. It was very nice though.

The second place I looked at, fit our lifestyle much better. It had an outdoor barbeque that used wood and coals instead of gas. I think that's about all I remember about the place. I'm sure Tami will post a few pictures. The house is in what they call a condo community so it is all gated with guards 24 hours a day.

The realtor also took me around to look at the stores and compare prices. We went into Walmart just to look at some of the things they had and to be shocked at what they would cost. Brazil has a very high tax on everything that is brought in from out of the country. It is definitely an advantage to buy local.

Lastly, the day we arrived we heard that the police where going into one of the favelas to take it over and get all the drug runners out. They had already captured the leader of the group as he was trying to sneak out of the neighborhood in the trunk of a car. The good news is that they closed the American school down, the bad news is that they had to do it for fear of stray bullets and anything else that might happen if a gun battle broke out. They took tanks into the favela. From what I have heard, it was a fairly peaceful raid.

Other than that, Barra da Tijuca is absolutely beautiful and we are getting excited about the move. Hopefully, we will have our visas in time to move right after the new year. One more thing. All the condos and house have maids quarters which is a room and then a bathroom that is kind of separated from everything else. We already have four little maids that were born into their jobs so we are going to keep that open for anyone that would like to come visit. The plane tickets are expensive but the housing will be free.

Photos From South America

2011-11-06T17:28:00.000-08:00

Bogota, Columbia

Bogota picture from my hotel room.

Quito, Ecuador

Lima, Peru

Rio de Janeiro

2011-11-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

Tami and I committed to starting our blog back up so that we can post pictures and keep some type of log of our adventures in Rio. I'm sure most people know (because of Facebook) that we are moving to Rio right after Christmas. I am traveling to Rio, Argentina and Bolivia this week. I will be able to spend time in Rio looking at places to live and checking out the local Walmart for Tami. She wants pictures of every aisle. Most people are really excited for all the local markets with fresh fruits and vegetables, breads, fish/meats, etc. Not Tami, she wants the comforts of Walmart. We have been told that about the only thing that is similar to the Walmart here and there is the name.

The boys are getting registered for school. They will be attending an American school in Rio. The entire population of the school is less than Elias' 8th grade class at his school. Did I mention that the school in Rio is K-12? It will nice to be in a smaller school atmosphere but have all the curricula of a much larger school.

Jude already knows exactly what Rio will be like. He has watched the movie and knows exactly what to expect. He still wants to know what language he is going to speak when he is talking to his friends. He will probably be the one who picks the language up the quickest.

We are currently going through the visa process and getting all of our paperwork completed so we can move. I am the most excited out of everyone. I can't wait to get down there. The boys are excited but they are a little bit nervous at the same time. Tami is all nervous and a little bit excited. We are going down during the summer and right before carnival so it should be an exciting couple of months.

I will post a few pictures of my last travels to Venezuela, Colombia, Equador and Peru once I find them.

Long Time No See

2011-09-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

It has been forever since I've blogged. I've pretty well given up on it. I know I need to be better so I'm going to start slow.

Jude: Turned 4 this week. I'm so sad that my baby is so big and yet not baby hungry at all! He started a new preschool this year and is loving it. Just twice a week for 3 hours but that's a perfect amount of time for me to get my shopping done alone. He is still a crazy, funny and sweet kid.

Silas: Is about to be 7, in the 1st grade and still ornery! The whole 3rd child thing definitely rings true for him. He's very competitive, sensitive and feisty. He loathes his brothers and loves his friends. He can't wait until he's old enough for contacts. We are trying to find something for him that will be "just his thing" so he can have successes that won't be compared to the other boys.

Isaac: Just earned his Arrow of Light in Cub Scouts and will soon be old enough to start the regular Boy Scouts of America program and is really excited to get going. He's a great student, self motivated, organized and clean. He's playing basketball, on the student council, starting trombone in band and loves spending time with his friends. Great friend, crummy brother!

Elias: Is in the planning process of his Eagle Project and I think he's nailed down an actual idea. He's hoping to finish that out before the end of the year. He's running cross country, playing basketball, playing piano, taking spanish classes and self learning to play the ukulele/classical guitar/electric guitar. He does well in school but drives me crazy with his procrastination! He is always volunteering to watch his brothers so Caleb and I can go on a date and that is awesome. He's beginning to show small signs of being a rotten teenager but we are staying on top of him so far!

Caleb and I are still doing boot camp every morning at 530am. The rest of our time is consumed with kids' activities. We're going to go dove hunting tonight at the lease. Caleb bought me my own shotgun (and I had to get some cute girl camo and snake proof boots) so I will be getting in on the action this time too. Should be interesting!

Elias...

2010-11-15T06:42:00.000-08:00

... is pretty good at being noncommittal this week.
Example 1: "Mom, will you check to see if I have a sore throat?"
Example 2: "Mom, what is something really important to me?"
Example 3: Caleb: Elias, what are some things that you need to improve in your life?
Elias: Basically, everything Isaac just said.

Is this laziness? teenagerhood? what?

Kwik Karma

2010-11-09T16:38:00.000-08:00

Silas and Karma are becoming good friends. Frequently when Silas has done something mean to his brothers something bad happens to him right away. Today is another prime example of this theory. Silas is home from school today with pink eye. After his Dr. appointment we stopped at a grocery store to grab a few things. I got out of the car, Silas got out and Jude was still in the car messing around. Silas begins to tell me, "Jude's out and on his way into the store", (LIE) and slammed his door shut right on his thumb. It instantly had a pool of blood form under the nail. It hurt him really badly. So as we sat on the curb and hugged it out I had to giggle to myself. Thank you Karma, for taking a turn to teach Silas a life lesson!

Halloween~Warning, Picture Heavy!

2010-10-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure this is the first time in YEARS that Caleb's helped with the pumpkins.

Isaac and Elias cleaned their own pumpkins.

Even Jude attempted to de-goo his!

Jude really wanted his pumpkin to smile so that everyone else would smile when they saw it too.

Silas made up his own design.

On our way to the neighborhood Halloween Carnival

As we were walking out the door Isaac decided he wanted a costume...black eyed peas it is!

Jude waiting in line to make a spider lollipop.

Caleb found his kindred spirit. Both have been wearing this same t-shirt for years. Caleb is a Halloween Scrooge!

The older boys helped Jude play the games and make the crafts.

Silas found his classmate Scott and played with him ALL NIGHT!

Trunk or Treating...absolute CHAOS!

Jude came up with this costume this morning all on his own. I can't remember what crazy thing he called it. I'm calling it Scuba Steve.

Tonight we had the missionaries over for dinner. I declared a cupcake eating contest. Jude ate the most with 3 and Silas the least with none. You might think Jude would have won but Silas is the true winner for listening to his stomach that told him he'd had too much sugar today already! It's now 9:15 and we've had NO trick or treaters. Kind of nice! Happy Halloween!

Pizza Oven

2010-10-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

Last month we decided to finally get a pizza oven built. It was finally complete are ready for use yesterday. This is the Chicago Brick Oven before it was mounted.

Under construction. The thing on the bottom is a wood box. The boys really thought we should be able to build fires in there. Sorry, no chimney.

Setting the oven in place.

All done! We had to let the concrete set for few days first. We tried it out last night and it was awesome. We made lots of mistakes so hopefully the next use will be better. The nice thing is that it's an oven, not just for pizza. So if we lose power after a hurricane we'll still have the ability to cook.

Last nights recipe winner was a sliced mozzarella with fresh tomatoes on sun dried tomato pesto sauce! This was Isaac's birthday dinner choice. Be sure to see his Birthday pix below.

Isaac is 10

2010-10-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

Isaac is 10 now which means that the Zimmerman birthday season is finally over until July. Hooray!

We took Isaac and a couple of his friends to Main Event for some Laser Tag and bowling.

The boys kept thinking we should have the bumpers put down but I'm pretty sure they would have had 90% gutter balls without them.

Being the sweet brother that he is, Silas made this Birthday card for Isaac. Isn't it wonderful that he's learning to spell? (Translation: Suck Isaac, Isaac NO, Isaac Suck).
Isaac managed to have his birthday festivities last for days. Friday, cupcakes to school and party with friends. Saturday convinced us to let him open gifts from us a day early. Sunday, actual birthday, special meals and cake. Monday morning...singing and blowing out candles~somehow we never did that on the other days. Oops, more my fault than his. For some reason blogger isn't letting me upload the pix of him blowing out his candles this morning. Must be some sort of punishment for my forgetfulness! Oh well. Happy Birthday buddy!

Roasted Lemony Veggies w/ Couscous

2010-10-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

I made this dish for dinner last night and it turned out awesome. It was a great way to incorporate a ton of fall vegetables into our meal. I highly recommend it!

Ingredients

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped basil

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

2 large tomatoes, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound) peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks (about 4 cups)

1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 pound red-skin potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 cup baby carrots, halved

1 cup couscous

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir together lemon juice, basil, parsley, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper. Slowly whisk in olive oil; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, squash, potatoes and carrots. Sprinkle mixture with remaining 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Drizzle with prepared lemon dressing and stir well to combine.

3. Pour vegetable mixture into a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish and cover with foil. Bake at 375 degrees F for 35 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake another 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

4. When there is 10 minutes bake time remaining, prepare couscous according to package directions. Remove vegetable mixture from oven and carefully stir in couscous. Serve immediately.

Super Six/Sick Silas

2010-10-08T11:12:00.000-07:00

Silas is 6 now...finally! He just couldn't stand being five. He wanted to be 6 like Maddie. I haven't had the heart to tell him Maddie is 7 now. Our schedule on Tuesday (actual date of his Birthday) was crazy busy so we celebrated the night before. On the day of his Birthday I got a call from the school nurse 5 minutes before school let out saying that my Birthday Boy had just barfed. Ugh! Good thing he was already able to enjoy his cake and presents.

He ripped through his gifts so fast it was a whirlwind of flying paper and bows.

Silas made my life easy by wanting a rainbow chip cake that he wanted to decorate himself.

We love Silas so much and have been so proud of his efforts and advances in school. He's been stubborn about learning and has wanted everything to be on his own terms. In addition to being stubborn he's very competitive. On the Meet the Teacher night Silas noticed some kids in his class reading. He was initially intimidated but quickly decided to get serious about school. We've been playing flashcard games with his numbers, letters, sounds and sight words everyday after school. In the last 7 weeks he's gone from knowing about 10 letters (uppercase only) to sounding out and reading his beginner reader books to me every night. He loves school and has really given his all to do well. Happy Birthday Silas!

Weekend of Sports

2010-09-26T05:36:00.000-07:00

Pre race jitters

Elias had his 3rd Cross Country meet on Friday. We've decided that CC is so much nicer to watch than football. The races last less than 20 minutes and when your child is done racing you can take him home. Caleb noticed that in general the parents of runners are much thinner than the parents of football players. Guess we don't fit that requirement but Elias is still thin. His time at the second meet was better than this one so we won't talk about that (other than to say that his coach had him run 6.5 miles the day before...ummm that's not how you prepare the day before a 2 mile race...hello).

This was at the beginning of the race when he still had steam.

Almost done... now he looks winded.

Silas had his first soccer game on Saturday. His team only had one 20 minute practice the Wednesday before so they were not very prepared. The ages for his team are 3 to 5 so he's the oldest on the team. Sadly, this is his first time ever in an organized sport. I know GASP! Last year was a rough year for me which put most extracurricular activities on hold. Well it didn't matter that it was his first season cuz he rocked it. The kids all get equal time on the field so when he was out the other team scored like crazy on us. When he was in he scored like crazy on them. There are a lot of cry babies on his team which drove him crazy. Parents were literally shoving crying little kids out to the field so they could stand in one spot and not move. When Silas came out and was watching the other kids have their turn he said to me. "Why are my teammates just standing there? They're not even trying to get the ball." Even a 5 year old noticed.

Pregame picture.

Silas throwing the ball in from the sidelines.

Sweaty boy at halftime. It was 90 degrees at 10am.

Pep talk...love the little girl in pink shorts.

Coach's wife spraying the kids down to cool off.

September

2010-09-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

Elias got braces...I took a photo with my phone and magically deleted it somehow. He only has bracket on the uppers for now. They will be adding the lower ones later. He chose alternating blue colors to show school spirit...GO EAGLES! Elias was originally going to play football this fall but joined the Cross Country team instead. He's never been a runner so this was a shock for all of us. He's stuck with it though and showing great improvement. He ran a 7m30s mile the other day for his personal best. Caleb had me buy a stop watch so he can challenge to a mile race on Sat. morning. We'll see how that goes. Elias tried out for Off Season Basketball and made the team as well. This was a REAL shock to us but we couldn't be any prouder of him. He seems to have adjusted really well to Junior High.

Isaac started and quit a YMCA soccer league last week. We signed him up for the 8/9 yr old team. His first practice was last Wednesday where he was the only older boy and had little teeny girls as young as 5 on his team. Ummm that's not safe and for sure not ok. As we walked on the field he got a look of his team. Sharing the field was a tackle football team with boys about his age. Yeah, pretty sure playing pansy soccer with the fru fru girls while watching an intense football practice wasn't going to work out. It's too late to join the football team but he wanted off that soccer team whether or not he had any other sport for a replacement. I don't blame him. He's doing awesome in school again this year and has amazing teachers.

Silas began Kindergarten and we all had our fingers crossed that it would work out. The first 2 days he wasn't buying into the structure and rules but by day 3 he decided he loved it. He's done really well adjusting to his new life and complains every Saturday when there's no school. I got a voicemail on Friday from his teacher letting us know how great he's been YAY! Then I got a note yesterday that he "spanked" another boy who'd been naughty to him. He's just a living example that for every action there is an equal or greater reaction. Maybe Jake won't dump Silas' chips out next time.

Jude's 1st day of preschool.

Blowing out his candles.

Feeling pretty awesome with his weedwacker toy.

Ready for his surgery.

Jude turned 3 and was pretty excited about his Birthday. I had planned on making his dessert for our Sunday celebration of his Birthday. At about 8:30 Saturday he told me he needed a race car cake....ut oh...He was expecting a character cake of some kind. Oops. Caleb and I put Elias in charge and ran to Kroger and bought a sweet dragon cake that met his needs. While he were singing to him we had to keep lighting his candles. Guess he didn't know that you're supposed to wait til the end of the song. Yesterday was finally his inguinal hernia repair surgery. Luckily we got bumped to the 1st case of the day so we didn't have to keep him fasting for long. They gave him some medicine that made him tired and amnesic so he wouldn't remember being wheeled away from me. He was like a wasted, drunk 3 year old. He was hilarious. The best thing he did was hold his hands right in front of his face and turn them back and forth and asked me with very slurred speech, "Mom, why are there no toys in my hands?". They went in to repair his hernia and explore the opposite side to be sure it looked healthy... Sure enough they found a second hernia as well. So grateful we waited for a Pediatric Surgeon! The one we were seeing in Idaho wasn't going to check the opposite side. He's recovering very well. He's refusing all pain meds today and is happy and getting around.

Taking Jude on a "choo choo ride". Good thing he won't remember what they were really taking him for.

Snuggling Dad in the recovery room. He was SO agitated waking up from the anesthesia. He was angry, screaming and thrashing around for 20 minutes.

I just got back from my weekend in NYC with my bestie Kris and had an amazing time. We were so proud of ourselves for being in charge of all our own travel without an agency and getting around like pros. Kris wrote a great post with all her sweet pictures so I'll put the link to her post here for you to check out our trip. http://herewecomevietnam.blogspot.com/2010/09/260-breaking-it-down.html

Crazy Summer

2010-08-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

Before Tami and I were married, she showed me a picture of her all dressed up in hunting clothes holding a pistol with a scope. Without asking much about it, I assumed (and we know what that makes out of you and me) that she enjoyed the outdoors. After our first September camping trip just over a month and half after being married, I started to ask her questions about her outdoorsiness. It actually started out as a pretty big argument because we camped when it froze outside. Anyway, she told me that in the picture all she was really doing was modeling because she didn't really like doing that kind of stuff.

I have to say that I am really proud of Tami right now. She was completely out of her element this summer but was willing to do it because she knew how much it would mean to the boys. Instead of just putting up with it for the summer, she actually learned to really like it and ended up having a great time. The boys got to see and do things that they would never be able to do in the city. For one, the suburban broke down and we had to get towed into a small town in Eastern Washington. They didn't know vehicles broke down. They got to be stranded in the middle of the lake when the boat broke down. They hauled drinking water from the marina, hauled garbage out to the park, fixed the boat motor, put a new garage door opener on the boat house, lit fires, caught fish, cleaned fish and ate fish, learned to wake board, ski on two and slalom, hauled, split and stacked wood, drove boats, learned to dive, worked at a gun show, went to Silverwood, road fourwheelers, played with cousins and aunts and uncles, went to church at a small branch and most importantly, spent a lot of time with grandparents.

After all the things the boys did, you would expect that they grew the most. The crazy thing is that Tami seems to have grown more than all of them. She became very indepedent and helped the boys with just about everything. Before this summer, she knew boys and the types of things they liked but I think she now understands boys and is willing to do whatever it takes to teach them and challenge them in new areas. I better post this before she gets a chance to read and then delete this. We will be posting more pictures soon.

We Must Be Getting Old

2010-07-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

Elias turned 12 last week. Wow do Caleb and I feel old! The thing he wanted most for his birthday is a .243 hunting rifle. We were unable to purchase a gun in Idaho because we're not residents here so we owe him one as soon as we get back to Texas. Turning twelve is monumental on it's own but in addition he was also ordained a Deacon on Sunday. It took a little work to get all the proper documentation to have him ordained outside of our home ward but thanks to a great Bishop in TX and great Branch President here in ID it all went smoothly. The Branch President wanted us to do it before church started so that Elias would be able to help support their small group of young men pass the Sacrament. We thought that sounded like a great idea. So 5 min. before church started Elias went up to sit on the front row and asked what he needed to do. He was basically told, "your isle is that one" and that was it. I have to say he did great with basically no instruction. I guess he actually has been paying attention to how things are done. I'm sure in a couple weeks when we get back to Houston he'll get a thorough instruction session. In RS meeting the lesson yesterday was ironically on the Priesthood. The teacher was an awesome lady who in looks and mannerisms reminded me of Kathy Bates. She made a comment that for some years now she's been a widow and not had the Priesthood in her home. She said that there is a marked difference from the time when the Priesthood was there and when it wasn't. It occurred to me that as Caleb travels (which is frequently) our family has missed that presence in our home as well. I'm so excited that we'll now have Elias as a Priesthood holder to fill in for Caleb when he's gone. It won't be long before Isaac is right there too. We're so proud of Elias and the decisions he's been making. It's sad to think that he's 12 now and we really only have 6 more years with him before he'll be off on a mission and then to college. Guess we better make the best of these next few years!

Vacation and Anniversary

2010-07-16T00:36:00.000-07:00

I think Tami is just about to the end of her rope at the cabin. She has learned more things this summer than she ever cared to know about boat motors, snakes, fishing etc. For some reason, none of those things were ever on her list of things you must learn before you die. After talking to her on the phone tonight, I can tell that she is pretty frazzled and we may have stayed a little long this year. She keeps telling me that we only have 2 weeks left at the cabin. That makes her pretty happy but I could spend every day up there.

We were on vacation one time over our anniversary. We were having so much fun in the water that I completely forgot. Tami didn't forget but she made sure she didn't say a word until I was just about asleep from the crazy day of water sports. She leaned over and said, "Happy Anniversary!!!" Those are not excited explanation points, they are mad ones.

This year, I decided I better do something early or else I would forget. I did get a little coaching from a friend so I can't take all the credit. Tami won't be able to read this until I get to the cabin with my phone so while she reads, she will find out that I got her two tickets to see Wicked in New York on September 18th. Happy Anniversary Tami. I can't believe we have been married for 13 years.

Just Pictures...lots and lots!

2010-07-11T09:39:00.001-07:00

I don't have a lot of time to blog so I'm just going to post some pictures. We're sitting in the burb outside the Indian Reservation IT center stealing some free wireless so I'll update later.

Operation Relocation/Extermination

2010-06-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

Got snakes? We've got a lot less now than we did a few days ago. Caleb's not afraid of much but snakes would make his top 3 list if he had to make one. North Idaho snakes are harmless yet still creepy. Every time we head onto shore we hear or see snakes in the grass. Caleb decided it was time for the boys to relocate a few of them. He made this decision while he was out of town however. So I put the boys on the task. Elias became self proclaimed "spotter" and Isaac was the snake wrangler. After an hour or so they had caught 6. Ewwww! We put them in a bucket and took them over to the State Park in our boat and released them. Later that same day they went after it again and caught 10 more!!! I'm not talking about a large square footage hunting area either. This load we hauled out in the boat and let go "near" shore and watched them swim. They went all directions. Several chased after the boat, some went for the bridge and a few headed toward shore. With the water temperature barely above 60 degrees we're not sure how many made it. Survival of the fittest I suppose. We've taken out 3 more now for a total of 19 snakes! Nasty!

The boys are completely in their element here. Thursday they decided to become "swamp loggers". There were a lot of large logs floating in our bay so they waded, swam and kayaked working very well together I might add to get them to shore. I wasn't sure what Caleb would think about them bringing in all those logs and cluttering up our beach but once he came in on Friday he was pretty pleased with their work. The wood will actually make great firewood so he helped the boys beach the rest of the logs and then cut them with a chainsaw. Now he'll need to split it and have the boys stack it in our wood shed. Sounds like a lot of work for "vacation" but that's the kind of stuff Caleb LOVES doing.

We've successfully accomplished 3 weeks of living on the lake. After this week Caleb will be taking a week's vacation. We're all excited for that!

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy

2010-06-16T22:11:00.000-07:00

It's cold people! Everyone up here keeps saying that this is not the normal June temps for Idaho but I'm thinking we skip June next summer and concentrate on July and a week or so of August. We're adjusting well to the way of life up here. I have no idea of the day, date or time most of the time. I can now drive the boat without feeling so nervous and anxious. I think we've got the cabin stocked and organized well enough and the boys are quite the fishermen. We still have no legal way to get the grey water tank pumped (the septic company who were going to accommodate us went belly up so that's in limbo right now for all the float homes) so we've been conserving our waste water and using biodegradable camp soap. We let very little water actually go down the drain. Don't think having a shower put in was a waste though. I just line the entire bottom of the shower with buckets and catch as much h2o as I can and then empty the buckets on shore (using only camp soap of course).

Jude: Loves to "fish" which means he takes his fishing pole and smacks it in the water and scares all the real fish away. Jon took time to rig his pole with a hook and bobber. After about 3 minutes we decided a bobber would be plenty special. He and Silas bathe in a large bucket and think it's awesome because with the two of them the water goes up to their necks. Jude is confused about where he actually lives. He keeps asking "Is this Maggie's lake cabin? Is this my lake cabin?" He loves riding in the boat, fishing and having fires. He's already burned 3 holes in his nice new speedo life jacket that I make him wear every minute of the day.

Silas: Is so ticked that he's not old enough to be in the boat when just Elias and Isaac go out. He too loves fishing but gets his line tangled ALL the time. I'm thinking of only allowing him to fish for 1 hr. a day until he can fix his own pole. He still hasn't caught anything so we'll see how long his patience lasts. He is really good at kayaking and feels like hot stuff when he's out on the water alone. He attempted to learn to ski but the water is way too cold for him to be patient with his efforts.

Isaac: Is a good fisherman. He's up to 4 crappie (horrible name for a fish even though it's pronounced croppy). Jarom taught him how to clean and cook the fish so he pretty much eats everything he catches. He is however going to have to be better about where he disposes the leftover parts! Frank brought down a little 8hp fishing boat that he and E have learned to drive and they put around the bay, throw out their anchor and fish. I say "put" with some reservation. I told the two boys to go out and practice driving in the bay but to stay within 100 yards of the house so I could help them if they needed it. Isaac drove first. He went straight out and started spinning doughnuts like he was on a jet ski or something. I, of course, was calmly jumping up and down waving my arms to get him back in for a lesson on keeping the throttle at a very low setting. The kid has no fear. He's been extremely helpful with all things boat though so that has been nice.

Elias: Has an ongoing competition with Isaac. They are keeping a fish count and whenever one brother is ahead you can't stop the other from fishing. Elias has completed all the dirty work required for the fishing merit badge. Last night he caught a good sized large mouth bass. The boys were so excited to eat it so I went to build a fire. As they were cleaning it Isaac all the sudden began jumping up and down with glee. He ran over to me at the fire pit and said, "It was pregnant and the baby survived!". I gave a quick lesson on how fish don't have live birth... duh. It apparently had just eaten a little baby fish that survived the cleaning process. The boys put the baby back in the lake. It only swam for a few minutes then keeled over. I guess it was all too much for the little one. Elias was quite proud of his accomplishment. It was the biggest fish caught so far. He's a lot more cautious than Isaac so maybe if the two of them stick together they'll even each other out.

I'm heading to Houston on Friday since Caleb can't make it down this weekend. The boys will be spending time with their grandparents up here in Idaho. I'm sure they'll be ready to get back in the action as soon as I'm back!

Day 1 ~ Fun but overwhelming

2010-06-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

We made it. We're here with everything.

The cabin is sweet. The boys are in HEAVEN.

They absolutely love it here. I'm overwhelmed but will adjust I'm sure. I at least learned how to drive the boat a little before Caleb left.

We're in Moscow for church and I'm going to be buying more food and supplies in the morning before I head out.

I'm not used to this "boat needing to warm up" idea but I'm resourceful so hopefully we can make it go.

Elias and Isaac are watching The Three Stooges with my Dad. Jude and Silas digging in the sandbox. I'm enjoying potable water from the tap and Caleb is flying back to Houston.

Can't wait for him to come back next weekend.

Isaac's Year End Ceremony

2010-06-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

Today was the third grade Awards Ceremony and man was it ever BORING! I had Jude and Silas with me and right at the beginning Jude snuck over to a garbage can to spit out his gum and a parent jumped right into his seat while he was up. That ruined my chances of keeping the boys off of each other. ARGH, last time though because Silas will be in all day Kindergarten next fall! Oh yeah, back to Isaac's day...The Principal announced the awards for every student in the third grade...wait it went more like, 1. Say Child's name. 2. Everyone clap. 3. Say awards earned. 4. Everyone clap 5. Place metals around child's neck. 6. Everyone clap....for EVERY SINGLE CHILD! With around 80 3rd graders it was over an hour long. Yippee! Did I mention that the Principal, who is a very nice woman, has a voice that sounds like she's cooing at a baby? Anyway, back to Isaac. He earned a lot of awards and without having him home from school yet I'm not sure I'll remember them all but I'll give it a shot 1. Completion of 3rd Grade (yes this was an award and the only one that some of the kids received). 2. Perfect Attendance All Year Long. 3. All A's Honor Roll All Year Long. 4. Citizenship Award. 5. Principal's Award. 6. Science Award & 7. Student Council (which he wrote and delivered a speech for and was elected by his classmates.) To say that Isaac is thriving in his new school here in Texas is an understatement. He's adjusted so well and we're extremely proud of him. He's made a good group of friends which was a process for him that he took seriously. The first probably SIX months we lived here I'd ask him everyday if he was making friends and who he was playing with and what he did at recess. I was sad that he had to leave his good friends in CO and really hoping he was finding new ones. We went through several boys that started out his friends and then he 1. Heard them swearing and dumped them. 2. Saw their conduct sheet with any color on it besides greens (given for good behaviour daily) and dumped them. 3.Thought the only thing they ever did at home was play video games and dumped them. It's been fun to watch his screening process as he found his way to some good kids with the same values and morals as his. At first, when all the "dumping" was going on I was a little worried there wouldn't be anyone left but that's not the case. BTW, he didn't formerly tell these boys they didn't make the cut. He would just come home from school and tell me the unfortunate things he found out about them and then he'd move on. What a trooper. I never had to move and make new friends my entire school career so my heart hurt for him in this process. I have to say he came out on top. YAY Isaac. Now, being the worrier that I am I was afraid his buddies might move on and forget about him while we spend the summer in ID. Luckily, Miguel will be spending a month in El Paso with his Grandma and Austin leaves only a few days after us for Minnesota (his Dad plays for the Vikings and they'll return when the season is over). Connor will be here all summer but I think their friendship will survive the distance (lol). I took a couple of pictures with my phone (my good camera is packed and ready to go to ID) so they're not great. Especially the one of Isaac and Austin. Though it's taken/taking a while we are beginning to feel more and more at home in Texas.

Old Friends New Friends

2010-05-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

Ever since we moved to Houston, there has been something missing in my life. When we lived in Denver, I became very close to someone like I never have before. Tami wouldn't normally be okay with this type of relationship but for some reason, she felt like it was okay for me to be emotionally attached to her. Every time we were together, it seemed everyone was happier. Conversations were easy, friendships were made and everyone seemed very satisfied just being around her. Even Tami wasn't concerned about the relationship because she benefited from it too.

We have been in Houston for over a year and I haven't been able to replace my friend. I thought I would be okay emotionally but for some reason, I haven't been able to get over her. We tried to replace her but the spark just wasn't there. We have been searching for quite some time and just yesterday, Tami finally consented to let me have her back. I can't believe how good I feel. This whole time, I thought it was just Houston and maybe we just didn't fit in here. I now realize that I had a hole in my life that needed to be filled.

I know many of you reading this are thinking that this relationship is unhealthy for our marriage. Maybe you just don't understand. Tami can't fulfill all of my needs so I had to look elsewhere. She bought me gas grills, she bought me charcoal grills. We even tried cooking over an open fire. It just wasn't the same. She finally broke down and bought me another Traeger grill. We used it tonight and I can finally say, "I'm back!!!!! I'm a grillin' machine!!!" In our neighborhood, it seems like there are a lot of old men with young wives. I already have a young wife. I just needed a younger grill with more options. The new one has electric start and a thermostat controlled temperature. Whenever I get bored with her, all I have to do is choose a new flavored pellet. Just so you understand, I included a picture of me holding her for your enjoyment.

Denial

2010-05-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

As many of you know my Uncle passed away last week. I've had a hard time knowing just how to grieve for this. I haven't seen him for two years so not being able to see him isn't a new concept for me. Everyone knows that to grieve is to feel pain so I've been avoiding facing the truth and trying to just consider things back 'home' the same as always. So while in my denial I begin thinking of my Aunt, cousins, etc who don't have that option and think that somehow my survival technique is an unfair cop out to what their suffering through. I was doing pretty well at being stoic until today when I read a poem that my cousin wrote in his honor:

A Poem for RJ

I'll never forget all those warm summer nights that followed the days of cold water fights.

Or the man at the center of every one, my dad's older brother, gramps oldest son.

you could see that big smile all over his face as his Harley pulled up to visit our place.

And it wasn't to long before he got hold of you and each of us knew what we had to do.

We cried,

Mercy mercy uncle J I think that's all I can handle today, I'll be ready for more when you come back again but until then I love you my friend.

I have never felt pain like I did on the day that I learned from my sister he had been taken away.

I fell to my knees and begged the lord please, don't let him be gone without one final tease.

I thought of my aunt and my cousins too, My heart swells with love and sorrow for you.

As we carried his body aloft in the air past the uniformed brothers and sister all there.

I thought of the times he held me in the air and tossed me higher than any would dare.

With a mind full of memories and soul of unrest I removed the flower that was pinned to my chest.

I placed it back on top of the box dyed tan, near the truest of banners "The most Wonderful Man"

And I cried,

Mercy mercy uncle J I think that's all I can handle today You'll be waiting for me when I come back again but until then I love you my friend.

~ Mark Walker~

I don't know what more I could add to express my sorrow for those of us left behind. I know this poem was sent to me today to help me release the emotions I've been suppressing. Thanks, Mark. I know RJ is in a better place. He'll be sorely missed. RJ, when it's my turn to die I fully expect you to be waiting there for me with a rib poking tickle to make me feel at home.

Rex J Walker 1951 ~ 2010 Rex J Walker, 58, of Pleasant Grove tragically passed away Thursday, May 20, 2010 from a fall while working at Timpanogos Cave. He died in the mountains where he loved to be. Rex was born May 30, 1951 in Coalville to Rex B and Margaret Stark Walker. He married Kathleen Hansen on August 7, 1970 and they were sealed for time and all eternity in the Manti Temple. Rex is survived by his wife Kathie of Pleasant Grove; four children: Jennifer (Mike) Bascom, Pleasant Grove; Lauresa (Brandon) Peterson, Grantsville; Jimmy Dan (Natalie) Walker, Monticello and Sherylen (Quin) Wilkerson, American Fork; 15 grandchildren; parents; siblings: Carolyn Winterton, Cheryl Hughett, Barry Walker, and Garry Walker.

Elias' Solo

2010-05-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

"I work solo mio." Anyone recognize that quote? It's from Cars. Ever since Elias auditioned for and got a solo for this choir concert I've been saying it a lot. We've been pretty nervous for him this week since he's been fighting off a cold. We were all really hopeful that it would all clear up for tonight but on the way over to the school this evening he was blowing his nose like crazy to the point that both his ears plugged up. When he told me they were blocked I said, "ut oh!". He didn't understand my concern. I had to explain to him that if you can't hear you can't stay on key. "Nuh uh, I'll be just fine laauuuaaauuuahh." OUCH!! We spent the last few minutes before we walked in trying to get him to pop his ears... I was really nervous, him, not so much. He gets up there and sings solos without even getting 'shaky voice'. I did hear a bum note or two but according to him if you don't know the song you won't notice...hmmmm I guess that theory makes him feel good. I'm really proud of him and glad that he's so confident! So without further adieu, I now present to you Close Every Door from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat featuring Elias Zimmerman!

I'm Just Sayin'

2010-05-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

Ever since we saw that GIANT wolf spider in the garage last fall we've had sticky traps set up near every door out there. These particular traps have only been out for 2 weeks and are filling up quickly! I occasionally take a peek to see what we've collected and found this pretty horned beetle today. I googled it to find out about them and this was the number one article that came up...

"Beetles with the biggest horns have the smallest testes, say scientists who show that in evolutionary terms you can't have it all."

I thought that was pretty hilarious!!

Since I had my camera out Silas decided to pose.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers who are in prison right now. This is what Silas brought into the bedroom this morning for Tami. (notice he chose the most coveted piece of bread that usually ends up in the garbage at our house) He woke up at about 5:45 and got her warm water out of the tap and a piece of bread. How can you not feel loved with something like this? It truly is the thought that counts in this instance. Since Tami isn't in prison, we decided to make her crepes with fruit and most importantly, whipped cream.

We had Stake conference today and we were trying to keep the kids quiet. Silas was having a melt down and Tami leaned under the bench to ask him to pout quietly. He said, "I'm mad at you. You've never brought me breakfast in bed!!!" I guess he can have bread and water tomorrow morning in bed.

Since it is Tami's day, she gets to choose everything. We had 7 layer dip for an appetizer and then we made chicken fajitas for lunch. We will follow that up with a tres leches cake. Don't go thinking that we went over board on all the cooking and preparing. Sam's club did most of it. I guess Tami wanted to add a little Tex/Mex theme to Mother's day.

The nice thing about Mother's day is that we really never have to get Tami any gifts. She usually has them purchased weeks ahead. She has always been an efficient gift buyer but at first I had a hard time with her buying the gifts for herself. Now that we have been married awhile, I really appreciate it. She gets what she wants and I don't have to shop. That is what we call a win win. I have to add that it is a win, win, win because Tami just told me that there is another win. She doesn't have to pretend to like something that I got her. Happy Mother's Day everyone!!!

Pine Wood Derby Texas Style

2010-05-08T06:09:00.000-07:00

I'm sure there are some Pine Wood derby fanatics in CO who would roll over and die to see a derby run this way! Isaac had a blast. There were no EXTRA rules taped to his box so Caleb helped Isaac do some of the tricks that he learned back in his derby days. The boys were able to put their own cars on the track and pick them up at the end. Isaac ended up with 3rd place. Not too shabby considering we forgot to even start the car until 2 days before the race!

Eat My Words

2010-05-04T19:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, I need to eat my words. Tami is making me apologize to Elias. I mean, I want to apologize to Elias. He tried out this morning and got the part. He will be singing, "Close Every Door" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I'm assuming someone other than Elias and Tami actually now what that is. The only reason they know is because of You Tube. Oh yeah, this was supposed to be an apology. Good job Elias.

Update on the kids

2010-05-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

Let's start with Elias. He has really been into choir lately. He loves singing and he recently performed with an honor choir that took kids from all the local schools. It was a great performance. I couldn't believe that kids could sing together like that and sound so good.  At home he really likes to sing with power. I call it yelling. Anyway, he came home last week and told us that he was going to sing a solo for the last concert. Tami and I were very excited that he had been chosen. My excitement was gone once I found out they were singing show tunes. Tami was still very excited and she was ready to invite people to the concert when we found out that Elias wasn't actually chosen to do the solo. He was "chosen" to try out for a solo.  He has been practicing every day and Tami told me that if he was on American Idol, she could hear Simon tell him, "I feel like you are shouting at me". It's a good thing football starts soon. He really needs some balance in his life.

I'm trying to think of something nice to say about Isaac. He is really good at teasing his brothers. He is excellent at pestering everyone until they cry. When he is separated from everyone, his brothers get a long great.  I'm not sure what happens but his scout leaders, school teachers and his friends parents all tell us that he is a good kid. Either we have completely different definitions of 'good kid' or he has two personalities. I'm not sure which one I want to be true. He is the most excited about spending the summer in Idaho. He loves to explore and just check things out. I think he has climbed every tree in our back yard, caught frogs, toads, lizards, beetles and just about every other type of crawling things. We did convince him not to catch snakes because he doesn't know how to identify which ones are poisonous. If you ask me, they are all deadly and that's why we have to kill all of them.

Silas has really been wanting to ask Jesus some questions. The most important question is, "Can we have Christmas every day so that I don't have to wait all year?" "Why does my mouth always have to be wet?" He is definitely our most creative.  Tami asked him to help her potty train Jude. She gives Jude a prize and Silas a prize every time Jude goes to the bathroom.  I can't believe it but Jude goes to the bathroom about 20 times a day. Silas has gotten so good that he now says, "Jude are you ready to go to the bathroom?" Once Jude tells him that he is ready, Silas says, "Would it be easier if I didn't go in there with you?"  He is hourly rate just shot through the roof by only doing about a 1/4 of the work and still getting the same prize.

We walked into the living room this afternoon and found beautiful red marker art all over our floor. Jude doesn't normally color very long before he gets bored. We realized today, that he gets bored because he doesn't have a big enough canvas. If you give him the entire floor, he can spend an hour or so covering every tile and making sure he outlines all the grout lines. As mentioned above, Tami is in the process of potty training him and he has been doing a really good job.  He gets really excited about peeing outside.  We were cleaning the garage yesterday so he told Tami, "I want pee on trees. I want pee on grass." We thought it was great because he was telling us that he had to go.  He stripped down and then said, "I want poop on grass."  He was rushed inside immediately. I'm sure our neighbors are forgiving because they have dogs that poop in their grass but for some reason, people get weird when it is kids.  I'm not sure how the double standard started but it's okay for people to treat their dogs like kids but if you try to do it the other way around, all heck breaks loose.

I have been kind of lacking with blogs lately and Tami has been doing all the work. I guess this catches me up and I will be blogging more next year.

Crawfish Again

2010-04-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

Elias doing the Bungee trampoline.

Today was our neighborhood Crawfish Boil. I was not excited about going after attending the neighborhood Trunk or Treat but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. This event was so well planned and all the entertainment was included with our food ticket prices. The weather was gorgeous, tons of fun things for the kids to do, food was great and music was just right too. We went early so we didn't have to deal with lines or drunks!

Silas on the boucny slide. He and Jude LOVED this and for a long time they were the only two on it.

Caleb with a big 'ol crawfish tail. He really missed this while we were in Denver.

Isaac loves crawfish too. I have to say that they are really pretty whey they're cooked. Love the color.

Jude was more into the snow cones and cup cakes.

As usual I was camera lady so there are no pix of me. Not always a bad thing!

It's Potty Time

2010-04-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

I've been saying for months that I would potty train Jude after Easter and hope to be done before we leave for the summer. Easter came and passed and yet I didn't have the motivation to get going. We finally decided to make a trip to the Dollar Store and buy a bunch of junk and prizes and make an attempt at it. We only really started on Tuesday but he's been doing great. Not done yet but really good progress. Between him squeezing out only drops of pee so he can get the next prize and Silas "cheering him on" for prizes our bucket is nearly empty. Every time he goes we all sing (Pee pee, pee pee in the potty, la di dah di dah di, pee pee, poo poo poooooooootttttyyyyy), and do a dance and then let him blow out a candle and pick a prize. So far he's still motivated. We'll see how this next week goes!

How's that for a poop face? Deep in concentration. I have to say that it's pretty exciting knowing this is the last time I'll have to potty train a child!

All Tuckered Out

2010-04-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is the picture Caleb just sent me from Elias' Scout campout. Apparently camping with the Scouts is the same thing as a slumber party... up all night. This was today after no sleep and a 5 mile hike. I'm sure Caleb has all sorts of stories to share about it when he gets home but whether or not he'll put them on here is questionable.

Work?

2010-03-30T14:52:00.000-07:00

Somehow this is what Caleb calls work....hmmmm. He's having his staff meetings at a fish camp. He promises me that work is actually getting done but then sends me a picture like this. What's a girl supposed to believe? HA.

Zimmerman Brothers

2010-03-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

Caleb's brothers, Gabe and Jarom came to visit us this weekend. We had a ton of fun with them here. Friday we had a crawfish boil which the boys loved. The most fun part for them was playing with the crawfish I think. At one point Jude was holding a crawfish and Gabe asked him what he was going to name it. Silas said, "Gabe, don't ask him that. You'll attach him to it." I guess he's picking up on his parent's animal/pet aversion. Boils are a lot of work and quite a long process. We were lucky to have Tanny and Claire (native Louisianans) here to show us all their tricks. Saturday we went to the Houston Rodeo. The boys all loved it. It ended up being a good night as they had the $50,000 prize rides in all the categories. It was crazy though because during one of the bareback bronc rides the horse dumped it's rider and fell on him, breaking the cowboy's leg. Then they tried to make the horse stand up and it was clear his hind legs were paralyzed. It was a little intense there for a while. Silas fell in love with the idea of mutton busting and thinks he needs to do that next year. Today we went to church and celebrated Gabe's 33rd Birthday. Basically we've eaten all day long...It's been great having family visit!

Silly Silas...again!

2010-03-17T05:43:00.000-07:00

Monday morning I was driving the boys over to a friends house for an air-soft war. The boys play in the woods and now that it's warming up I was handing out the appropriate motherly advice... watch out for poison ivy/oak/creeper and be on the lookout for snakes. Isaac asked me if he saw a snake and ran away, would it chase him? I began my "probably not" answer when Silas popped in with, "that's a stupid question Isaac"! Then Silas and I had this convo...

Me: Silas, there's no such thing as a stupid question.

Silas: Yes there is.

Me: No there's not. If you don't know something there's no shame in asking about it.
Silas: There are too stupid questions.
Me: (getting irritated) No there's NOT.
Silas: Does a fart talk?
Me: ....hmmmmm, ok, I guess there is such a thing as a stupid question.

The photo is of Silas getting the mail for me last week. If you ever want to avoid bills let Silas fetch the mail. There's a good chance it will never make it to the house!

Pix

2010-02-24T16:56:00.000-08:00

Angry Faces

Loves

Watch out.

Good night.

Sweet sunrise while waiting for the bus.

cheesy

Isaac's science fair project....3rd place!

Freezing fisherman.

Isaac has the best luck.

Success!

He even removes his own hooks.

He caught TWO fish.

Full time pole fixer.

Isaac, my turn, my turn!

Silas gave up and went to play on the playground. The FIRST cast on his pole, Jude caught a cat fish.

Honor Choir

2010-02-13T16:32:00.000-08:00

Elias' choir teacher strongly encouraged Elias to try out for the CISD Intermediate School Honor Choir. Last Saturday was the big day. I was amazed with how STRICT the auditions were. There were over 300 kids trying out for 50 spots. Once you arrived you were given your number and audition time slot. The kids were not allowed to use any electronics once they walked in the door so there could be no more practicing. After they made the no electronics announcement there were some people singing in groups to practice. Shortly after that they announced that there could be NO singing in the holding room either. They had 3 different tryout rooms with 4 judges in each. There were not a lot of boys trying out so I thought that would give Elias a leg up until they explained that the judges would be behind a black curtain and they wouldn't see any of the auditioners. There went that theory. So the kids were lined up in their order and taken to their assigned room. When it was their turn they walked into the room and took their place at the mark and set up their music. They were not allowed to speak so the judges would never hear their speaking voices. An assistant would ask the singer if they were ready and if they were they nodded yes. Once the music began there was no starting it over. The kids were given a score and the top 50 scorers made the choir. It was a crazy process but fun to see. So, why all the details??? With no MALE advantage at all Elias earned a spot in the choir!!! He's singing ALL the time and it drives me crazy when it's during a meal, movie or conversation but he's really a good singer. Last week at church I noticed he was singing the alto part to the hymns and I was so jealous because I NEED to sing alto as well but don't know how to read/hear music. Guess I can follow along with him. When Caleb and I were first married we joined the Church choir. I was pretty sure the altos on either side of me were totally annoyed that I was there always on the verge of throwing them off pitch! So here's to Elias getting Caleb's musical skills!!

Mop Chop Shop

2010-02-07T17:49:00.000-08:00

Last night Caleb decided it was time to cut all the boys hair. I was sad to see Jude's curls go but it's not his first haircut so I know they'll grow back. He does look like a little man again.

I hardly even recognize Silas with this buzz cut. He looks a lot like Isaac I'm thinking. Silas was watching me write this post and was put out that were not more words under his photo. He says, "I love Maddie, I promise Maddie I'll come get her to come back to Texas so she can come and live with me and my brothers, forever I love her."

Isaac's been sporting this look for a little while. In fact he didn't really need it cut again but was feeling left out. I didn't want to spend the time cutting his hair unnecessarily so I said he could cut it himself. He was all over that idea. You can't really mess up a buzz but it was hilarious to see what all needed fixed when he was done.

Oh yeah!! No boy was left untouched by the clippers! I have hated Elias' hair long. It made me think "duh doh di dee doh" every time I saw him. He still wanted it long but when we offered him cash to cut it he sold out pretty cheap!!

Here's the man who started all the cuts. He cuts his hair like every 6 weeks so that's not a new concept. Jude was refusing a photograph here. He thought by hiding his face I wouldn't get a shot of him. HA! Turned out to be a better shot of his cut after all. I think I filled half my trash can with hair. Oh BOYS!

One Trick Pony

2010-02-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

Finito! Terminado! Done! My goal at the beginning of this week was to make ONE curtain. With nine windows in need of coverings the whole job seemed a lot overwhelming. So, Wednesday I made one for the laundry room (it's plain white and the same design, not photo worthy) and then decided that same day during Jude's nap I could bust out two more SMALL ones for the bathroom windows. After that I had the bug to get it done. I can't stand knowing I've started something and not just work my tail off to finish. Plus I converted my office into my sewing room and didn't want to have to keep getting out and putting away all the supplies. So ever since then I've had a one track mind. And I'm sure you've noticed that the style is the same on all of the curtains I made. Thank you to Kris for pointing out that most people all have panel curtains on their windows so I'm not concerned. We do have panels in the bedrooms so there is some variety in the home! I'm so sick of sewing and my machine is sick of being used. By the end of my project I was sweet talking, dirty talking and kissing my machine to keep it going! I love the end of a big project like this because it makes my regular daily chores look appealing agian!

...more curtains

2010-02-05T17:40:00.000-08:00

Curtains

2010-02-04T10:53:00.000-08:00

I've decided it's finally time to get the windows in all the living areas covered. Yesterday I began/practiced on the laundry room and a couple small bathroom windows. Today I did the living room. It was the one I was most nervous to do. Four down, five to go!

All Things Isaac

2010-01-29T20:05:00.000-08:00

Today was ALL about Isaac. I was not looking forward to having to go to all of his ceremonies today but realized quickly that this is actually a great thing to HAVE to go to. The day began with the All A's Honor Roll Breakfast. He works really hard to keep good grades. His LOWEST A was a 96%, the rest were up from there!

Here is Isaac standing next to his art work that was one of only a few in the whole school that was selected to be displayed in honor of the visiting children's author, Laurie Keller.

Isaac and the only other boy in his class to make the A Honor Roll.

Later this afternoon the school had their Hall of Fame walk for the students who'd earned ten behaviour stars. They don't give them out too easily so Isaac was very excited to finally get ten! He and his good friend Jaks made it in the club at the same time. The kids did a parade around the school while the other students all came out and SCREAMED for them. They really felt like rock stars.

Isaac and Jaks are the ones making eye contact with the camera.

The last half of the day was on Caleb's watch so there are NO pictures. Tonight, Isaac earned his Bear at Pack Meeting. I opted to stay home with the other kids because I didn't think they had enough time to get his patch. So he's now a Bear! Lastly, he earned the Gold award for the uniform inspection. At every Pack Mtg. they have a uniform inspection and they give awards for the top three most correct, neat uniforms. Isaac takes his presentation very seriously and was finally rewarded for it. So even though it was a long day of honoring Isaac it was worth it. We love him so much and are so proud of the young man he's becoming!

Old Town Spring

2010-01-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

Caleb's sister Maggie is here for a few days so we went to Old Town Spring to do a little shopping and found some fun places for pix.

Kris, here is the hot pink house you have to come back for!

Silas' mouth was full of gum.

Here are some more pictures from our day. I normally don't like buying anything there but found a fun shop that was having a 50% off everything sale. A girl can't turn down 50% off (and no sales tax)!

Work Hard & Play Hard

2010-01-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

We started our day with a big breakfast to gear us up for the work ahead of us. Jude has remnants of his food on his face.

...and more remnants of lunch here.

This is what we did...laid sod. Caleb has a coworker who just bought a new house but is having a pool put in next week so he didn't want all the newly laid sod to go to waste. So the boys all went and pulled up the grass, loaded it in the pickup and then we all worked to get it down here. It was quite a bit of work and we still could use A LOT more.

We had a fire to get rid of all the leaves and sticks we raked up so of course we had to have hot dogs and marshmallows.

Combination of smoke in the face and over tired baby.

The perfect golden brown!

Time to wash the pickup...I think he just finished saying something like, "put down the camera and pick up a sponge."

Everyone needs to wash their transportation.

Now time for PLAY!

The ants are back to work.

We left our awesome Rainbow play set in Denver and traded it in for a tree swing.

Getting ready to release the underdog.

There he goes!

Can you believe how long his hair is? I mean, can you believe that we've allowed him to let it get that long? I keep telling him I like it short and he says he doesn't care. Must be part of the tweener stage.

Isaac loves climbing this tree.

New (to me) Camera!

2010-01-22T13:42:00.000-08:00

I finally got a new camera. I'm not promising great pictures but am hoping for a significant improvement!! Yes that is Jude with his shirt off outside in January. It was in the upper 70's today and he pretty much strips down to his skivvies all the time anyway.

Jude loving the outdoors on this gorgeous clear day.

I was trying to get some good pics of Silas and he was giving me some really awkward smiles. I was complaining about his unnatural smile and he told me that's how all Zimmerman's smile...true.

Peek a boo!

Love this one of Silas. I told him to stop smiling and this is what I got!
So, expect more pictures with our posts. I'm really excited. Caleb never knows what to get me for Christmas so the last few years he's wised up to the "here's some money to get what you really want" gifts. I used that to buy my camera from my bestie!! Thanks Caleb and Kris!

Naughty Boys

2010-01-20T14:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Jude was in my room harassing me while I ironed clothes. He started playing with the charge cord for our spotlight. I saw him pretend to plug it into my elliptical machine. After a minute he said to me, "Mom, fire fire!". He was quite excited. I decided I'd better go see what he was talking about. When he touched the connector of the charge cord to a screw on my elliptical it shot out sparks...sure enough, my two year old made a fire! Scary...

Also yesterday, I had a disturbing conversation with Silas. Went something like this...
Silas: Mom, guess what the most ticklish part of your body is?
Me: Your feet?
Silas: Nope
Me: Your armpits?
Silas: Nope
Me: I give up, what?
Silas: It's your penis (giggles)
That was the opener for our conversation about NOT tickling our penises. It seriously never ends with the boy!

Christmas

2010-01-19T12:26:00.000-08:00

Our Texas Christmas was a lot of fun. It was really relaxing to just hang with each other and do our own thing. Caleb and I were pleasantly surprised that Elias and Isaac could actually give us a run for our money with board games this year. It was actually fun to play with them. We struggled getting into the Christmas spirit without having snow to take us there but I think we managed to pull it off in time. When all the Christmas songs that mention snow don't apply it made it a little tricky. Everyone down here says we'll get used to it...we'll see about that.

As usual we put up wrapping paper so the boys couldn't sneak into the living room. They love running through in on Christmas morning as well.

Here are our pictures. Unfortunately the quality is bad. I think it's about time we invest in a new camera. Ugh!

Jude~isms

2009-12-31T06:27:00.000-08:00

One of our family traditions on Christmas Eve is to drive around looking at homes decorated in lights. Jude LOVED this! Every time we passed a home that was decorated Jude would exclaim, "Mom, I found Christmas, I found Christmas!". I have to say, the amount of homes with lights here was kind of disappointing. However, there was one neighborhood by our church that rented a bucket lift and every home went ALL OUT! Tons of people were always driving through with the car lights off to get the full effect. There, Jude was "finding Santa Claus, and snowman too". He was a lot of fun this Christmas. On Christmas morning when he realized that we were finally allowed to open presents he went crazy opening anything he could get his hands on. When he's hungry now he'll get a plate out of the cupboard and bring it to us and say "dinner, dinner". Guess that boy likes a home cooked meal more than snacks.

Merry Christmas (mostly Grandparent material)

2009-12-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

The boys were dressed in their Sunday best and gathered to sing some Christmas songs while they waited for me to get ready for church...only took longer cuz I had to grab the camera!

Away in a Manger
Picture a Christmas
Christmas Bells
Silent Night
Guard Him Joseph
Mary's Lullaby

Silas Again

2009-12-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

Tami is still in New York and I am playing Mister Mom. I was changing Jude's diaper this morning and I told him that he needed to stop pooping in his pants and start pooping in the potty. Silas heard me say it and came in and said, "Yeah Jude, you need to stop that. Your body is a temple and you shouldn't get it dirty like that. Temples aren't supposed to be dirty."

At work, I have a membership to a golf course and the kids get memberships so they can go swimming and take golf lessons etc. We went and got our ID cards on Saturday and Silas was very excited. He told me, "Dad, I have never been a member of a country club. I am really excited to be a member" (On a side note, I have never been a member either and I really don't fit in there) He has asked me every day since if we can go. I don't think he really knows what people do there but he is just excited to be a member.

Sweet 'n Sour...

2009-12-11T09:22:00.000-08:00

...describes Silas perfectly. He can be the sweetest little boy one minute and crazy, naughty or downright evil the next. Perfect example: Last night we went to Elias' choir concert. Just before the choir began thier first number Silas leans over and whispers to me, "Mom, if they suck we can throw trash and things at them". Fast forward 2 hours to bedtime where I'm tucking him in and he says his prayer, "Gladful that we can have Christmas and celebrate Jesus' birth". Love that little bugger!

Hog Hunt

2009-11-23T16:57:00.000-08:00

I'm sure everyone already saw the pictures on Facebook so I won't include the blurry pictures I took with my cell phone. Elias had a fun hunt and was able to shoot a 175 pound boar. Now that I gave away the ending, I will fill in the details.

We have been out hunting several times and Elias hasn't been able to shoot anything. He loves hunting and I could see that he was starting to lose interest. We were hunting at a friends place (who is the definition of Southern hospitality) and we weren't able to take a shot at anything. They took us over to a ranch that does hog hunts. The ranch owner loaded us up on his Kawasaki Mule and gave us a great tour of the ranch. Elias absolutely loved it. The owner was telling us stories the whole time.

He has one place that is about 40 acres and I think he had about 20 hogs on it. I could have those numbers switched around. Anyway, he called it the Honey Hole. It was the place that everyone went when they werent able to get a hog during their hunt.

Before we went in, the ranch owner told Elias that there was one boar in there that might charge. He had a pretty mean disposition. Then he told him that if the hog charged, get behind a tree and wait for the hog to chose a side and then jump to the opposite side of the tree. I asked Elias after the hunt if he was scared. He told me that he was totally freaked out.

We spotted a bunch of hogs down below us and walked down to where we were within 30-40 yards of them. There was a nice little hog that was standing right in front and I thought that would be a perfect one for him to shoot. He was further down the hill with the rancher and they were picking out hogs. The rancher crouched down and put his hand on the tree with his arm straight out so that Elias could rest the gun on his arm. Elias was shaking like crazy. I kept thinking he was going to shoot but he didn't. The pigs started moving and a great big boar stepped right out in front of all the rest of them. You pay by the pound and I kept saying to myself, "don't shoot that one, find a little one." About that time the rifle goes off and the biggest one drops.

He was really excited and pretty nervous too. He hasn't stopped talking about it since it happened. The rancher was extremely good with him and I would recommend Langley Ranch to anyone that wants to go hog hunting. They have a great website at http://www.texaswildhoghunting.com/. Elias' picture should be there soon.

(I, Tami, added the photos for those of you who aren't facebookers.)

Work Shirt and Bald Eagles

2009-11-07T16:56:00.000-08:00

I realized today that I have a sissy job. I was with the scouts for the morning so Tami and the kids were going to clean out the weeds, trees and other things growing along the side of the yard. Tami told the boys to go put on work clothes so they could help out. Silas walked out of his bedroom with a button up shirt ready to go "work". When Tami told me the story, I realized that I officially have a pansy job. He didn't know that a work shirt should involve flannel.

We were driving home from Sam's club today and Silas was on a roll. He had cut part of Tami's segal palm and we were telling him that he shouldn't do that. He told us that he didn't like it and it poked him so he took the shears and cut the plant. His brain told him to do it and as long as he didn't like the plant, he was going to continue to cut it. I told him that if he cut the plant, I was going to shave his head bald. He immediately came back with, "that would be awesome because then kids would call me a bald eagle." For some reason, I don't think I won that argument.

Renaissance Festival

2009-10-25T05:14:00.000-07:00

I thought Tami was going to do a post on the Renaissance Festival but I guess she hasn't had time. It was the first time I had ever been to one. Tami used to go to the one in Moscow, Idaho and it was just a bunch of hippies selling arts and crap but on a very small scale. We have been hearing how great the Ren festival is here and that everyone should go because it is a lot of fun.

Let's start out with people watching. It was the absolute best people watching ever. I can't even start to explain how weird people are at this place. I got tired of hearing My Lady, My Lord, etc. I can't believe that grown ups actually speak that way without laughing. Oh yeah, and every plus sized lady with boobs had them squishing out of the top of whatever they were wearing. If that wasn't sexy enough, the hairy arm pits topped it off. And if that wasn't enough, the smell of the costumes had to get you going.

The kids wanted to go on rides but every one of them was home made and had some type of leather straps holding them together. I'm sure the quality control was outstanding but they were just trying to make it look dangerous. Needless to say, they did not go on any rides.

Everyone out there was trying to sell something. I felt like I was walking in downtown Denver with all the beggars. The only difference is that we got to pay $25 per adult ticket to have them do it. One poor guy tried to sell us some pickles. It was hilarious, Tami actually said, "Oh gross" (out loud) before she could catch herself. The guy was extremely dirty and smelled really bad (part of the act I'm told) and Tami just couldn't hold it in.

A lot of people had a funny smell to them. The incense didn't quite cover the smell that they had. I couldn't quite place my finger on the smell. One time when I went to work with a detective friend of mine, one of the ladies took me to a special locked up closest and showed me these green balls of grass or something like that. It smelled very similar to that. I'm sure it was just the local plants out there.

We stayed for about two hours. We had to eat a smoked turkey leg and an elephant ear. To get those we had to listen to some guy say, "Thank thee me lady" to Tami. Tami took some pictures of several people and we will post them. Be forewarned, you aren't seeing the half of it with the pictures. You must go and experience it for yourself.

Our Own Personal Glee

2009-10-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

Well not exactly. Elias had his Fall Festival Choir performance. They had all the choirs that are in feeder schools to Oak Ridge High School and all the ORHS choirs perform. It was a fun night. The HS choirs were especially awesome. The Men's choir was so good and definitely inspired E to want to keep singing. For some reason I can't get the best "Glee"-like performance to upload. Maybe it's for the better!

PS. It finally worked. Here's the most "animated" one.

Made Tami's Day/Week/Year?

2009-10-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it is already happening to me. We were at church today and someone admitted that when we walked into church for the first time, he thought I had four boys and an older daughter that just didn't quite fit into the family. Yes, you guessed it. That daughter was Tami. He was not joking about it either. He was really trying to figure out how everyone fit in the family. I know she was young when we got married but she is only two years younger than I am. I am going to blame it on good genes. Her mom and dad both look much younger than they are. I tried to blame it on the wonderful lifestyle that her graying husband provided for her, but having four boys makes that impossible. Living stress free like she does must help out quite a bit. (If you don't know Tami, she stresses out about everything and I don't stress about much of anything) So that can't be it either. I actually took it as a complement too. I always joked with Tami that when we were older, people would mistake her for my daughter. I guess that time is now. It came much earlier than I thought. The good thing is, I can still have a trophy wife when I am in my 60's and it will be the same person that I will have been married to for 40 years. It wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't rubbing into my face the whole time. She is feeling pretty good about herself right now. She was always confident but now she is downright arrogant about it. I guess that is the price you must to pay to have a trophy wife.

Water Leak

2009-09-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

Last evening/night we had a GREAT BIG South Texas rain storm. Somehow in the middle of the night Silas snuck in at the foot of my bed and stole my blanket. This morning he was telling me that he came to my bed because water was "shooting out of his bed". I disreguarded his story thinking that he must have just heard the rain and thunder in his sleep. He IS quite the vivid dreamer. He kept telling me that it had really happened. Then I began thinking maybe he wet the bed. Last night he fell asleep at 5:30 while in his room on a time out. He slept the rest of the night which really made me worry that he'd wet his bed. I investigated his clothes and looked all around for abandoned pee pee pants that he might have hid. Nothing. Then I went to make his bed and there was a HUGE wet spot. WTC!?! I did the ol' motherly sniff test and it was clean. OH SNAP! Are you kidding me? This brand new house has a leak? Oh I was ticked. Our builder is probably bankrupt by now. He's not fixing the few things that were supposed to be done before closing and isn't answering emails or phonecalls. So I'm thinking dang it, we're going to have to find and get this fixed. I climbed on the top bunk to feel the ceiling and try and figure out where the water was coming from. Everything was dry and nothing looked suspicious. I'm completely at a loss now but not dropping my investigation. A pool of water that big came from SOMEWHERE! Knowing that Silas went to bed so early I questioned if he'd gone to the bathroom in the middle of the night and gotten himself a drink? There were no cups around so I doubted that. Elias has been sleeping on the top bunk while Maggie has been staying with us. I decided to ask Elias if he took some water to bed with him last night. He said not exactly...hmmmm what does that mean I ask. "Oh, well my ankle was hurting so I brought a bag of ice to bed." He told me a couple days ago that in PE he punted soccer balls the whole hour and that his ankle was sore from it. I told him he was just out of shape (and a sissy). I guess he decided to take treatment measures into his own hands. He's so over dramatic!!! I blame him for Silas being in my bed!

We Trashed the Place

2009-09-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

I am back from Idaho now and I think everything on the house is almost complete. We are still waiting on the lease agreement with the State Parks and Recreation department. We are complying with everything so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The people we bought the house from were very nice. They were an older couple that had been in the cabin for a lot of years. They hadn't even been able to go for a couple of years because of their health but their daughter has been using it quite a bit.

I had to leave early but the daughter still wanted to have one last hurrah before they turned it over to us. For liability purposes, I called her and told her that she couldn't stay at the cabin and she needed to come get the rest of her stuff. Let's just say, she wasn't too excited about not being able to have a huge party there the last weekend. I know, I am totally unreasonable not letting some total stranger party at our house while we aren't there.

My brother in law Jon, his mom and my dad went out to the house today so that the lady could come get her stuff. I guess they showed up completely drunk and were not happy about the changes that were made on the house. It was probably a good thing I wasn't there because I have a tendency to lose patience very quickly when people are drunk, yelling and screaming and being rude. I was told by both Jon and my dad that it was a good thing I wasn't there. I dont really know what they meant by that. The people said that I had no respect for history and that I had trashed the place. I think they meant that I had detrashed the place.

Jon and his mom helped me clean out all the old stuff. They worked like crazy and we took literal boat loads of stuff to the dock and loaded two pickups completely full of stuff. We had couches, cupboards, rugs, knick knacks and all sorts of other stuff. Jon cleaned up the beach area and helped me fill in the old outhouse. (that isn't a job that you ever want to volunteer for by the way). We got rid of a lot of stuff. Float houses are kind of funny, if you take weight out of them, they float better. If you add a lot of weight, they tend to sit lower in the water. When we were done, I couldn't even close and lock the door because it had shifted so much.

The next day, Harvey and Cheryl (Tami's parents) came down and completely cleaned the house. Cheryl was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floors on the entire main floor. Harvey was cleaning light fixtures, knocking down cobwebs and cleaning windows. It really opened the whole house up and it now seems very big.

I really don't want to be rude, but.....we did not trash the place. I know it has to be hard to see something that you grew up with be completely changed in a matter of 2-3 days. The drama is now over.

PS(from Tami) Caleb is much more PC than I am. Let's just say he gave you the rated G version of how the daughter and her boyfriend behaved when they came to get their CRAP!

Our Own Private Idaho!

2009-09-23T08:19:00.000-07:00

It's official, we are the owners of this float cabin in Idaho. Caleb is in ID now. He signed the papers on Monday and has been working on cleaning it out, buying a boat and getting it ready for winter. We bought it from a couple in their 80's so it's had years and years of accumulation. The couple has a daughter (with boyfriend and kids) who seems to be having some separation anxiety with the place. She was PLANNING on spending this coming weekend there with the fam to get a few more things (ie one last hoorah). Caleb, Jon (BIL) and Jon's Mom spent all evening gutting the place so he's going to be calling her today to let her know that she can come get the things she asked for but staying is not an option. They took two HUGE pickup loads of junk to the dumpsters last night. He's going to be changing the locks today. Even though there's tons to do initially Caleb is still really excited. Our plan is for the boys and me to spend our summers there and for Caleb to take quite a bit of vaca and come on the weekends as much as possible too. It's located in a really quiet bay on what is officially called Lake Chatcolet in Heyburn State Park but is connected to Lake Coeur d' Alene. You either have to hike a couple miles along the beach to get to it or take a boat in. So Caleb spent most of yesterday morning aquiring this...

It's just a little jon boat to do the running back and forth but it also will make a great fishing boat for the boys with the trolling motor and outriggers. I'm hoping I can keep Caleb from buying a ski boat at least this first year. Our kids are really small and light so I'm sure this one will work to pull them tubing, wakeboarding and skiing. Maggie's husband Jon's, parents have a cabin in the same bay which is how we learned about this one in the first place. So, we already know some neighbors!

There are some new plumbing requirements being implemented by the state that we are having to accomodate right now (no more outhouses and grey water must be pumped to a tank on shore) but we've got a plumber coming this week to take care of the tank and Caleb and Jon filled in the ol' one holer yesterday too. I'm sure you're thinking then where do you go to the bathroom?

Let me introduce you to the INCENOLET. All stand up pee'ers shall use the woods for such purposes. All sit down jobs are done on this beauty. Once complete you press a pedal that drops the liner down into the incenorater where everything is burned to ashes. It's vented to the outdoors so I'm hoping the "cooking" smells go right on out the vent. Then once a week you dump the ashes.

Boat garage and beach area.

Caleb took this pic on his cell for me. Just a few minutes from the Marina is this lovely place. You can't read it but the sign says, "Meadow Family Nudist Resort". That's right a family nudist resort just a hop skip and a jump away. Jealous?

Best one of all. Caleb kicking it on the dock, enjoying the view. It doesn't get better. However, I noticed that I can only see his shoes and socks. Do nudists still wear shoes when the terrain is rough? HA j/k

ps don't miss my spider post below!

Spiders, Trees and Pizza

2009-09-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

Big Momma's Boyfriend!

This is what was in my entryway (outdoors) this morning. We failed to kill the Big female but I was determined not to let this male go! Caleb's in ID so from way up north he instructed me to spray it with the hose and then smash it. In theory that's a great plan. Here's how it all played out. First I took a picture. It was on the wall so there was no way to lay anything next to it for perspective. I'd say leg span wise it was 3 inches across. I put on my hiking boots (nothing open toed) and got the hose out with the nozzle set for a hard spray. I sprayed him down and he rolled a few feet, opened up and took off running! FAST! This is where the screaming begins. I'm chasing the dang thing around as he rolls and then opens and runs around like a hundred dash sprinter. I couldn't convince Jude to stay inside so I had him stand 15 ft. away thinking that would be a safe distance. At one point the hidious thing came pretty close to him. We repeated this sequence of events a few times... spray, roll, open up (scream) and run. I finally got him cornered and sprayed him continuously for about a minute. When I finally let off the spray he stumbled out a little slower pace than he'd previously been going so I swooped in and stomped him... POP! yes I said POP! That's the sound and feel it made. I kept spraying and stomping and screaming at him for the next few minutes. When I realized it was over for sure I had to spray the carcass off into the woods. It was a huge, horrible, gross thing. I really hope the neighbors weren't out!

There's something about boys/men and clearing land. Caleb got the boys all excited about cutting down some trees out back. Yes, that's Elias with an axe. Caleb actually tried to talk to me about letting Elias run a small chainsaw. That converstion didn't. Last too long.

Isaac using a hand saw.

The boys working together to try and fall a tree.

It got snagged up top so Caleb had to step in.

Another fun Aunt Maggie adventure. Our church starts late on Sundays so Maggie helped Isaac make pizza from scratch.

Poor kid can't have a dog so he had to make a pizza shaped like one.

Jude observing.

That's about all our TX adventures for now!

Catchin' Up

2009-09-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've actually written words on a blog entry so I thought I'd add a few tonight. Jude's Birthday was good and he loved his toys. The only thing left that is baby about him are the diapers. He's speaking really well, he can physically do all the things his brothers do, and he's got a strong willed, terrible 2 personality. It was really sad for me today to get him 2T clothes. No more counting his age by months.

The boys are really liking their schools. Isaac is running to be a homeroom representative for the student council. He has to deliver a speech and the class will vote for one boy and one girl. He has come up with his speech and campain already. He wrote what he plans to say the other night and it turned out great. He's going to say things like, "I plan to make the work fun by helping to plan it", and "I would like to give new students tours because I am a new student and know what it's like". All very diplomatic things. His final sentence is "besides, if you vote for me I'll give you a Hundred Grand" and then he's going to hand out cards that say vote for Isaac and have a mini hundred grand candy bar attached to them. He came up with that plan ALL on his OWN too. I think we may have a future politician on our hands!

Elias was signed up for baseball but we realized on the way to our first practice that it was going to take an hour and a half of JUST driving every time, not to mention the 2 hr. practice. Caleb is going to basically be gone for most of the season so we decided to pull him from the team. He was ok with the decision as we just got a membership to the Woodlands Country Club and promised lots of golfing and tennis in return. We can't wait til next year when he can do sports through the Junior High.

Silas is as TURDY as ever! We were running around today doing a bunch of errands. At one of our stops I was carrying Jude into the store and noticed he had something in his mouth. I hadn't been giving him food so I was really concerned about what it could be he was chewing on. I kept asking him what he was eating and he wouldn't open his mouth. Finally Silas let me know that he had gum in his mouth. I had only given gum to Silas so you might be able to guess now where Jude got his gum. In the past Silas has been known to just spit his gum out on the floor of the car when he's done chewing it. I guess putting his ABC gum into Jude's mouth is a step up from his usual.

Caleb's sister Maggie has been here since the beginning of September on a 4 week medical rotation at a Hospital downtown. The boys have been LOVING their one on one time with her. She has taken the time to do something special with each boy on several occasions. They are going to be really sad to see her go. I think Maggie will probably breath a sigh of relief when she pulls out of our driveway for the last time.

Caleb is flying up to Idaho tomorrow to sign papers on a lake cabin we're buying, sight unseen! We've seen pictures and his parents went to look at it for us. We're not worried though. As I told Caleb, we wouldn't have bought it without his Dad's opinion anyway. We're totally excited and plan to spend our summers at the cabin. Fishing, skiing, hiking, biking, having fires and spending time with extended family (plus the Jeffers have promised to visit for a couple weeks EVERY summer too).

Caleb and the boys started to clear some of our wooded and weeded areas today. Let's just say there were young boys using saws and swinging axes... NIGHTMARE for me. I'll post pictures later!

Jude Turns 2!

2009-09-13T17:40:00.001-07:00

2009-09-09T10:12:00.001-07:00

OH DADDY!

2009-09-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

We cleaned out the garage this morning and look what began running across the floor! I just happened to have the camera in my hand and set my car key down to give it perspective. They say daddy long legs are very poisonous but don't have big enough mouths to bite. I'm guessing this sucker could have clamped on!

Oh Texas bugs, how I hate you!

In case you didn't know...

2009-09-04T06:10:00.000-07:00

...an ENTIRE bottle of hair thermal protectant/gloss dumped on the bathroom floor creates a slimy, horrible mess. I was way too mad to take pictures. Jude had just scaled the kitchen cupboards and dumped some things. I was cleaning up that mess when I heard him SCREAMING in my bathroom. Came running in to see what was up and slipped and fell on my can. Jude was one greasy mess and couldn't even get up. He kept trying and falling down which scared the crud out of him. Elias came running in to see what the commotion was about and fell on his can too. I've sersiously scrubbed, mopped and used every degreaser product I own (over 8 times) and it's still slick. Jude will be 2 on the 13th so I guess I should expect him to be terrible.

Tami's B-Day and Sushi Hana

2009-09-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

Soft shelled crab roll

My blondie brownies. I really was happier than I look.Jude with humidity curls.Maggie letting Jude help.Our Sushi line.Veggie sushi roll~HA!King of sushi eating and making.Fancy rice on the outside roll!

Disclaimer...we had the camera on the wrong setting ~ hence the fuzzy view!

Saturday I turned 32! We didn't do much as we were expecting company but I spent the morning shopping it up with Isaac... I had a fun at Hobby Lobby with him. He was great and carried all my purchases which included a 6 ft. ladder and an area rug. Yes I got a ladder for my Birthday. It's one of my favorite gifts! Caleb has his super duper heavy one that I hate so I wanted a light one for indoors only. LOVE IT! Caleb made my FAVORITE dessert...Blondie Brownies and they turned out perfect. Caleb and I are going to re-celebrate my B-day another day. Jon and Maggie came VERY late that night (not the company I was referring to earlier). Maggie is doing a 4 week rotation at a hospital here in Houston and will be staying with us. She took Silas out for a special afternoon of exploring and sushi material shopping yesterday. She found a fish market close to our house so last night for FHE we had a sushi making party. It was so much fun! The boys LOVED creating their own rolls with shrimp, tuna, salmon and soft shelled crab. I tasted a tuna roll and it was good but created my own veggie roll which I LOVED...is it still considered sushi when there's no fish?

You Can Milk Anything With Nipples

2009-08-26T12:49:00.001-07:00

Silas had his dogs "feeding each other" this morning. If you look close you will see 6 dogs all drinking milk from another dog. It's one big breakfast train. The biggest dog is getting shafted though. It took great effort to not let him see me laughing at this set up. True to Silas form!

Texas School Days

2009-08-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

So the day finally came. The boys have been back in school for 3 days now. Isaac loves riding the bus and has fit into the new routine seamlessly. We finally got E's bus situation figured out today. The bus was apparently coming 15 minutes earlier than it should have so we missed it the first two days. He's pretty emotional but says everything is going well. It's a big transition for him to move to a new state, ride a bus with 5-8th graders, have a locker w/ combo and adjust to rotating classes all at once. He's being a trooper and staying positive on the outside even though I know it's a little stressful for him. He has baseball tryouts this Saturday and will soon be playing fall baseball and hopefully making friends that will be in his school. He's totally bummed about missing football this season but next year he'll play on the school team on a gorgeous field at a beautiful school. The schools here are a lot stricter than in Colorado. Yes Ma'am and yes sir's are required. Late assignments can only receive a max of 70% grade. You have to have a school issued window permit to pick up your child. If you miss school for anything other than illness (which has to be proven with a Dr's note), you're ability to do make up work is very limited. Dress codes are strict and heavily enforced (no short shorts, spaghetti straps, flip flops, tanks, earrings that hang below the lobe, etc). Hair can only be natural colors (brown, blond, red, black). I know I'm missing many more criteria. That being said, the schools are awesome. I know they'll get a good education. Elias tested into the Gifted Program and has most his classes with the gifted community. The band started in 5th here so he would have to have private lessons to catch up to them. Piano isn't an option in band or orchestra so he's going to do choir instead. We don't have time to maintain two instruments. Getting him to practice one takes a herculean effort in itself. We gave him the choice of band and no sports or choir and sports. He of course chose the latter. But if anyone tries to tease him for choir he has the excuse that his p's made him do it in exchange for sports. I think that's acceptable. He's a pretty good singer (when he turns off his opera voice) and has a good ear for music so I'm hoping choir will be cake for him! I think I found a piano teacher for him who will come to OUR house for lessons! Can NOT tell you how this excites me. Also think I found a violin teacher for Isaac right here in the subdivision. Also, his bus driver just got a SWEET,new, pimped out bus with AC! E's bus is still the old Sweaty Betty. All in all I think we're beginning to wrangle this here state (knock on wood).

Going Crazy!

2009-08-20T15:02:00.000-07:00

I don't understand all my friends saying how much they'll miss their kids once they're back in school. I'm going absolutely crazy with these four boys at home. We're not used to the heat yet so the boys last about 15 minutes a day outside. This leaves them in the house the rest of the day. They're over each other, I'm over them fighting, and we're all over the tension. I'm really excited for everyone to get a little space from each other so we can appreciate our time together again! I'm nervous for them to start new schools with no friends but am hoping by the end of next week we'll all be happy and comfortable in our new routine.

Pull ups

2009-08-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

Isaac 3 Elias 0. At least it is easy to improve from 0. I do have to admit that I probably couldn't lift my sloppy body one time either. I never have been good at pull ups. In fact, I always hated them and I think I still do but I will never do them again to find out.

Elias is now signed up for news letters that come out from the Airforce Academy. They start sending things out when they are in the sixth grade. We got him all signed up and then they send a confirmation e-mail out to make sure everything is correct. Elias checked his email and said, "Dad, I got an email from the Airforce Academy". He thought it was pretty cool. This may give him incentive to work on his pull ups, sit ups and push ups.

Sibling Competition

2009-08-15T13:09:00.001-07:00

Elias has been working on some of his scouting stuff and this morning we had him do his push ups and sit ups to see how many he could do. Elias did his and once it started to hurt a little bit, he quit. He only did 15 push ups and 16 sit ups. Isaac decided he wanted to try it out too and did 20 push ups and 70 sit ups. After Isaac blew Elias out of the water, Elias wanted to do it again and try a little bit harder. He ended up doing 33 sit ups and that was all he could do. They moved onto the standing long jump. Isaac beat Elias by about 2 inches in that too. Isaac is quite a bit more intense than Elias in most things. We still have to do pull ups and the 1/4 mile run. That should happen today too and then there will be another update.

Caleb's Favorite

2009-08-11T20:13:00.001-07:00

It's been another LONG summer

2009-08-11T09:51:00.000-07:00

I thought last summer was a long one because we moved houses and had to stay in an apartment for a month. This summer has turned out to be a repeat only we don't have friends down here to hang with...so I can truthfully say I'm looking forword to school starting. There will be less fighting/wrestling, much easier shopping, and hopefully the boys will make some friends. I'm hoping to find some ME time in there somewhere also. Enjoy the song I'll be humming for the next few weeks (thanks Vicki for reminding me of it)!

Marketing Genius

2009-07-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

Either we have been living out of boxes for too long or McDonald's is incredible at marketing to young kids. Jude isn't even two years old and every time he sees the golden arches, he starts saying his version of fries. It wouldn't be so bad if the condo we were staying in wasn't so close to a McDonalds. When you pull out of the gate, the first thing you see is the big yellow M. I have been trying to figure out the best way to market our bits. I guess we need to get life long customers when they are only a year old. The hard part will be deciding who is going to end up being a drilling engineer.

Pool Time

2009-07-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

We've been going to the pool everyday. You'd think the boys would get bored of it but that hasn't happened yet. Silas has NO fear of the water and has been doing front and back flips into the water from the side. His head comes within inches of smacking the wall so he's been banned from doing it. However, I keep catching him in the middle of the act. Yesterday the boys were practicing their synchronized jumping. Jude's still terrified of getting all the way in the water and spends most of his time hanging from the hand rail or throwing toys in for the boys to fetch. We bought a sub-skate board for the pool today that the boys are dying to try out tonight. Silas has been trying to "surf" on the water by wearing his flip flops. I'm hoping the under water skate board will at least be better than his shoes!

Holy Cat Fish!!

2009-07-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

Last week Caleb promised Silas that he would take him fishing if he stayed in his Sunday school class. After church he came up to me so excited that he'd earned his fishing excursion. We bought some night crawlers today and Caleb made good on his deal. Silas was too scared to go out on the dock so Isaac took the first turn. Within 10 minutes it was clear he had one on the line. His pole was completely bent over about to snap! I caught a glimpse of the monster and for REAL it was a monster! We had to run get the net to get it out of the water. Isaac was so proud of himself. Now all of a sudden he LOVES fishing. Silas wasn't so sure he wanted to go after seeing that fish. If you keep up with our blog you might remember that not too long ago he caught a little fish and he was terrified of it. Elias didn't want to fish after that either. We could never get him to admit whether he was scared of catching a fish that big or just scared that he'd catch one smaller than Isaac's. I do have to say it was so exciting and I'm sure we'll be fishing more often while we're here in the condo. Isaac was ticked that we didn't keep it and eat it. We definitely could have had several meals out of him but we don't have a good knife to fillet any fish here with us. We're all excited for our fishing future down here now!

Jude's Vocabulary

2009-07-19T16:52:00.000-07:00

I've discovered Jude's tastes by the foods he asks for. Here are the things he requests on a regular basis:
*fries (fwys)
*doughnuts (donuhs)
*cake (take)
*cookies (titis)
*candy (tanny)
*otter pops (duce - same word as Juice. I mean really, otter pops are best when they're melted down to the juice anyway)

I really need to teach him words like carrots, apples, chicken, etc!

~House update-We are under contract with the last house I posted pictures of. We should close on the 31st of July. Our house in Colorado is set to close on the same day. We're praying that both houses close smoothly!

Elias is officially a Tween!

2009-07-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

The house situation is still completely unresolved so I'm going to blog about something normal.

Yesterday was Elias' 11th Birthday! Caleb's out of town this week so we celebrated it on Sunday. His big gift this year is Caleb taking him on a wild hog hunt in the fall. He got several hunting type gifts to help prepare him for the big hunt. I can't believe we have a tweener now. In a lot of ways it's obvious and in others he's still a little boy. I'm gonna hang on to the little boy part for as long as possible. He's a great kid who always notices when I need help and volunteers readily. He's so tolerant and helpful with Silas (who can be a major pill). He's so easy going and can adapt and go with the flow without effort. He loves sports and playing family games. He brings so much joy to our family. We love you Elias! Thanks for choosing us as your family!

The new New House

2009-07-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

This is the house we're going to make an offer on. It's on a wooded acre lot. 20 min. to Caleb's office and 20 min. to the airport. 15 min. to The Woodlands mall...everything we need!

Farewell Colorado

2009-07-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

By this time tomorrow night, we should be out of Colorado and on our way to Houston. We have lived in Colorado for 5 years which is the longest we have ever lived anywhere our entire married life. I have to say that this is our toughest move.

Elias had to say goodbye to all of this friends at baseball tonight. They have been playing football, basketball and baseball together for quite a few years and they are a great group of kids. Isaac is sad too. It is really nice to have your best friend live right across the street. I think they played together almost everyday and always had a great time.

The neighbors are going to be excited to see Silas go. He usually terrorizes everyone and everything around him. I'm sure it won't take too long to make a name for himself in Texas.

I'm not too worried about Jude because he is in a world of his own and won't ever really notice that we made a change.

It is going to be hard to say goodbye to all of the great friends that we have made here in Colorado. We knew the day would eventually come because Houston is the center of the universe for the energy industry. We just didn't know it would be now.

If you are ever in Houston, look us up. Who knows we may even have a house by then!!!

Update

2009-07-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

Things have changed quite a bit since I last blogged about our move. The house we were planning to buy with the sweet pool was broken in to and after a very scary week we were able to get out of the contract with them. Not without them threatening to sue us first. They ended up keeping our earnest money but finally agreed to release us from the contract. Last Friday our house here in Colorado officially went under contract too. The offer wasn't great but to be able to sell our house in a down market is a blessing. As I speak the movers are packing up our belongings and about shut me down on my computer. We have another house in mind and as is consistent with our history, it's a repo and the bank hasn't let us know if they've accepted our offer. It usually takes a while for them to get back to you so we know not to be too impatient yet. Patience is NOT one of my greatest qualities so we'll see how we sweat this one out. We'll be staying in a condo on Lake Conroe until we find our home so at least we should have fun while we're "homeless".

"Driving Distance" is Relative

2009-06-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

Five years ago when we moved to Denver from Houston Caleb was so excited to be within "driving distance" of Idaho where both our parents live. I bought into that line for the first trip. After sixteen hours of driving I soon realized I'd been duped! So, since we've lived here we've driven to ID 1-2 times a year. I HATE road trips. I don't care about the scenery. I get soars on my arms from reaching into the back of the car to "handle" the kids. Quick stop food makes me feel cruddy. We often drive at night to ease the burden on the children. I'm the first to admit that Caleb usually drives 14 of the 16 hours but when it's my turn to relieve him it's usually in the middle of the night. I get double vision while driving at night. Yes, on several occasions I've convinced Caleb to let us fly. Once I flew with Silas while he drove the boys up. The trip is torture. I am so HAPPY to say that our move back to Houston officially puts us OUT of driving distance!!! From here on out we're frequent flyers!

MJ Part II

2009-06-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

To clear the air, I haven't LOVED MJ for quite some time. Yes, I bought BAD on RECORD (yes that was back when I only had a record player). It was the first album I ever bought with my hard earned paper route money. The above photo was a poster on my bedroom wall that I drooled over. That was the Michael that I loved. Seriously, I can probably sing every one of his songs, chorus and VERSES! I know he's been really weird, messed up and freakish these last 10 yrs. or so but I do have to say that I Tami Zimmerman, am a Micheal Jackson Junky. As with all Iconic deaths, I'm going to suspect that MJ's just in hiding and not really pushing daisies.

Tami's Childhood Hero

2009-06-26T06:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, it was Michael Jackson. She even did some of his dance moves last night in his memory. I can't believe Tami hasn't already blogged about this but she must be too upset. When we found out that he was doing concerts in London, Tami really wanted to fly over and go to one of the concerts. Let's just say that I wasn't going with her. I never have been a fan of Michael Jackson but if you take a look at our CD's (so outdated) every single one of his songs are in there. I'm sure Tami will add to this in some way but I thought I would get my comments in first. For the record, we are on opposite ends of the spectrum on Michael Jackson!!!

Happy Father's Day Dad

2009-06-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

First of all, I need to preface this by saying that my dad will be completely embarrassed by this blog. He doesn't like attention drawn to him in any way. He would rather just go about life working and serving behind the scenes so that nobody would know.

One of the best things my dad taught all of us was the value of work. He wanted to make sure that all of us not only learned how to work but also learned to enjoy working. I need to include serving in this paragraph as well. We attended every ward service project that there was. When they asked for volunteers, my dad was always one of the first ones. If he wasn't able to be there, he would volunteer us to go with someone else. I know it isn't easy to teach kids how to work and I think of all the grief, time and money we cost him while learning to work and I am absolutely amazed at his determination. I have already given up many times trying to teach our kids.

Another great lesson that my dad taught us is personal responsibility. He taught us from a young age and then built on the principle throughout our lives. We never had a curfew growing up. We didn't need one. I came home really late one night (early one morning) and my dad woke me up about 2 hours later and told me we were going to work. Let me just say that owning a logging business definitely helped teach work and responsibility. It was extremely physical work and doing that work with only 2 hours of sleep was miserable. I dont think I ever came home late again. To this day, I am still a morning person and I can't stay up late.

Even though Tami and I have been married for almost 12 years, we still seek my dad's guidance with important decisions that we have to make. When we get in a situation that we don't know how to handle, Tami always says, "you need to call your dad. He always knows what to do." I still call him when I have to make tough decisions at work. He is the most level headed person I have ever met and is always a good sounding board.

My dad has always been an extremely hard worker. He would work long hours and 6-7days a week if necessary. To still spend time with all of us, he would just take us with him. I think my favorite 4th of July was going in the mountains (another benefit of logging) and working on equipment most of the day and then celebrating the Fourth that night. He found ways to spend time with his family while running a very intense business.

Even during all those long days of work, he made time to attend every single one of my highschool games no matter where it was. Some of the best times I had were traveling from Boise back to Coeurd A'lene after a football game or basketball game. I would try to stay up as long as possible so that we could talk. These were our PPI's. Sometimes he would even trust me to drive while he slept (I'm sure he kept one eye open). There were times when we would get back from the games early Saturday morning and then go straight to work. This carried on to college too when he came to almost everyone one of my games. The closest games were 4 hours away.

I know this is a very long blog and I could go on for quite some time but I need to make sure I have some left over for next year. Happy Fathers Day Dad.

Watch Out Criminals-----and Everyone Else

2009-06-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the year, I took a class and applied for my concealed weapons permit. I finally got it a few months ago and I haven't carried one time. I told Tami that I needed a new pistol first so we went and bought me one for Father's Day. I also sold a pistol and rifle and that went toward the gift.

She was giving me a bad time because I spent the time and money to get the permit and never carried. I didn't have the right holster but I thought I could just carry it in my belt on my back. I didn't have a shell in the chamber and figured it would be a good trial.

The first place we went was a grocery store. We pulled up in the parking lot and I got out to get Jude out of the other side. As I was walking around the back of the pickup, I felt the pistol start to slide down into my shorts. I don't remember what I said but I grabbed the back of my shorts and Tami started laughing. She said, "That looks like Silas when he has to go the bathroom really bad." There were people all over the parking lot and I'm sure they were thinking that I had just loaded my shorts right there in front of everyone. I opened the pickup door and backed into it and had Tami shield me. The pistol had fallen perfectly into the inseam of my shorts so I had to shake it out one of the legs. Once I got it out, I slid it under the seat and left it. For some reason I haven't packed it since.

Rumor Has It...

2009-06-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

I've witnessed firsthand now, how a rumor can spread like wildfire! I know this announcement comes as a shock to NO ONE, but I'll say it anyway... We're moving to Houston! For real, we told about 3 people of our move (as we had to wait for the news to be formally announced within Caleb's business community) but you'd swear it was posted on our foreheads by the amount of people who were in the know. Well, I think I may have some news that you might not have heard yet. Caleb has been promoted to U. S. Region Vice President, Smith Technologies. It's a very exciting career move for him. We feel very blessed to have this opportunity. Everything is moving forward very quickly. Last week my Bestie, Kris, watched our boys for a few days while Caleb and I went to find a house. As has been the case with all our homes, we feel totally frustrated in the search until we walk into "the one" and then we both just KNOW that it is our house. We've never had to deliberate over several places, it's always a case of the one and only for us. So, needless to say our new home will be perfect for our family. We didn't check out the church but do know that it's a pretty close drive and found out once we were under contract that our Stake Center is an hour and a half away in College Station. We'll just hope to be team primary teachers!!! We leave in 3 weeks on July 8th. Anyone looking to buy a GREAT house, ours is for sale!! I have to put in a shameless plug for it...4182 sq. ft, 6 bedroom, 4 and 3/4 bath, half acre lot, formal dining, loft/office area, TWO laundry rooms, exercise room w/ rubber floors, 2-3 storage rooms, Large media room w/ surround sound and wet bar, formal living, MUD ROOM w/ built in storage (I'm going to miss this the most), Granite throughout, 5 piece master bath with huge walk in shower and huge jetted tub, cedar lined walk-in closet, top of the line rainbow play set, dog run, 10 fruit trees, berries, grapes, and garden pots (all on drippers), 2 ovens (1 electric, 1 gas), gas range, lrg. over sized island w/ sink and bar, butlers pantry and tons of storage in the knotty alder cabinets, 220v in the over sized 3 car garage for a welder and work area in the back hmmmm... I know there's lots more but I already made a book on the house details. Here's a link to the listing for those who might be interested... Click Here. I've had lots of peeps wanting to see the new house so click HERE for a slide show of the new place. So, now that we can talk freely of the move I'll probably have more things I can blog about!

Fishing

2009-06-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

Silas was very concerned last week because I had never taken him fishing. He didn't want to go to his primary class so I told him that I would take him fishing if he went to the class. This week I had to pay up.

It was really sad that the boys didn't even have fishing poles. We had to buy poles and worms and then we headed out. The first day we didn't catch anything. I didn't really care because my end of the bargain was complete. I didn't say that I would take him catching. I really don't like fishing but I enjoy catching. Somehow though, he guilted me in to taking them fishing again on Saturday.

We got a lot of bites but one of the funniest was when Elias had a fish on his line. He must watch too many fishing shows on TV. He was pulling as hard as he could and then he would let the pole down and real as fast as he could. While he was doing this, he was backing up the bank. You would have thought he was trying to real in a world record sword fish. Of course we didn't make fun of him for that one at all.

Silas was reeling his line in and after all the false alarms of "Dad, I think I have a fish", I wasn't hurrying over to see what he had "caught". When I got there, he really did have a fish on his line. I guess he never quite realized what was going to happen once the fish was reeled in. We tried to get a picture of him with his fish. He was going to hold the line but as soon as the fish flopped, he screamed and ran away. We couldn't get him close to the fish to even take a picture so Isaac had to hold the fish steady for the picture. He also held the fish as we tried to get the swallowed hook out. The poor fish didn't make it. If there are any expert fisherman out there, "would it have been better to just cut the line and leave the hook in?"

Markers and Monsters

2009-06-05T05:24:00.000-07:00

Silas and Isaac really like to draw. As a result I'm always finding markers, pens and pencils around the house. The boys were in charge of Jude the other day and this is what he managed to do under their watch. For some reason when I stripped him naked and put him next to the wall he got pretty sad/embarassed. Almost all of Caleb's family came and visited over Memorial weekend. We didn't get out as much as we planned due to the rain but Caleb's siblings have no problem making up indoor games with the kids. Gabe's specialty is "Monster in the Mountain". He hides under a blanket and grabs anyone near and pulls them all in the mountain. We had a blast. It was so nice to have everyone here!

Isaac's Acrostic #2!

2009-05-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

Last year in school Isaac wrote me a great acrostic poem for Mother's Day...

M -Mother
O - Outstanding
T - Terrific
H - Heart
E - Eat
R - Rabbit

and here's this year's...

T - Takes care of 4 kids.
A - Amazing cook
M - Makes doughnuts to(o).
l(I)kes kids but hates animals. Even fish!

He sure knows me well! Although I know he doesn't think I'm an amazing cook as he almost never eats what I make!

Another Silas!

2009-05-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

Pretty much all our posts lately have been about Silas and the naughty things he does. However, this time I'm referring to Jude. Silas was a major climber as a baby. Jude is apparently no different. He climbs on all the chairs, tables, the platform on the play structure (and does spinneys once on top), the ladder for the monkey bars, end tables, top of the back of the couch (where he turns on the gas fireplace and adjusts the thermostat), on top of the baby grand piano, on the bathroom counters (no toothbrush or razor is safe), on the desk (accessing scissors, permanent pens, etc.), on all the weight equipment, on the top bunk bed, and NOW at 19 months he climbed out of his crib!!! It's been a constant challenge child proofing this house for him and I've been surprised that he hasn't even tried to get out of the crib because he's been capable of it for a long time now. I guess the easy bed and nap times could be over now. He was ticked when I put him to bed last night because he had seen Caleb's basketball and really wanted it but I didn't let him take it in his crib. About 2 min. later he came toddling out of his room with that "I'm FREAKING awesome" look on his face. I took him back and tucked him in and then ducked down to see if I could catch him going for a repeat. This time he resigned himself to staying put so then I was crouched down, totally trapped in his room. I had to wait a few minutes and then quietly creep out. I'm so not ready for my baby to be in a big boy bed!

Physics Phrom a Phour yr. Old

2009-04-30T05:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday during my daily Taxi duties Silas started a very educational conversation with me...

Silas~"Mom, I can have really high pressure when I pee. All I have to do is push with my belly and I can make it really high. I can also slow it down too."
Me~"When your pressure is really high does everything still land in the water?"
Silas~"Yes."

Whether it really does or not is debatable. I was impressed with his proper use of the word "pressure" in his lesson.

Later that night he had been playing out front so I went to check on him. He was climbing all over Caleb's Jeep just waiting around for Isaac to play with him. I noticed a wet spot on the garage floor. I asked him where the water came from. He looked at me really puzzled and said "What water?" I pointed at the puddle and he got a knowing, embarrassed look. I said, "that's not water, is it?" "Nope,it's pee". He then informed me that he just couldn't hold it long enough to make it in the house. I got the hose out so I could spray the mess away and he got really excited and offered to wash it up for me. Normally I would make him attempt to clean up after himself but I KNOW if I'd let him use the hose he'd be peeing everywhere in hopes that he could play in the water. Every day is an adventure with that boy!
PS~ Is it pretty sad that I think I've had the opportunity to post that very same picture with regards to Silas before?

Crystal Light... Anyone?

2009-04-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

This evening Elias came down and said that Silas had brought a glass of Crystal Light up to his bathroom but that it wasn't spilled and looked fine. Caleb's OOT (out of town) so by the end of the day I'm worn out and I didn't think I needed to check on the situation. However, when I tucked the boys in I found a little different story than what Elias had reported. Silas had made himself a BASIN of Crystal Light (fruit punch, bright red flavor I might add)! The empty packet was tossed on the floor as proof the sink was red stained nearly to the top and there were fine, red, powdery crystals all over the place. Don't worry though, he "cleaned" it up! He opened up his soap dispenser and dumped out all the remaining soap to clean up the whole sight! He can be soooo naughty and then so sweet at the same time. Ten minutes before I discovered his mess he said a bedtime prayer that went like this..."Dear Heavenly Father, Thanks for this lovely day. Please bless the Jeffers, bless them to be healthy, bless them to have fun, bless them to never get a cold again.. etc." Also, Isaac had a MAJOR toilet overflow about 10 minutes before I discovered the bathroom incident. BOYS!!! On a good note our basement should be done in about 2 weeks! YEEHAW! That will, however, make yet another bathroom for these hooligans to destroy.

When It Rains It Pours!

2009-04-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

Yes, we did get a lot of rain last week while the rest of Colorado got pummeled with snow but that's not what the title of this post is referring to. It's actually about 2 things.
1. No blog posts for 5 and a half weeks and then 2 in one day! and...
2. The Sex talk. Elias will be having a "maturation presentation" in his 5th grade class next week so we decided it was time to give him ALL the details before he heard it somewhere else. We borrowed a book that came highly recommended and used it as a guideline (not everything was accurate to the LDS beliefs but it is Christian based) and then branched off from there where necessary. Elias did pretty good and only tried to change the subject a couple of times. Our goal in doing this is to give him the knowledge so he'll know the truth about sex and not believe all the dumb stuff kids will say and to open the lines of communication with him so he can feel comfortable coming to us with anything. I'm sad and excited at the same time to see him growing up. It seems like the parenting decisions we make with him are getting more and more important. I'm a worrier though and Caleb isn't so we balance each other out pretty well. We're about to begin a whole new ballgame...Middle School! Wish us luck.

Blog Slackers

2009-04-26T16:25:00.001-07:00

I was giving Tami a bad time about not blogging and she reminded me that she was the last one to post. This isn't going to be long but it will be a post and then the weight will be on Tami's shoulders.

I would like to say that we have been busy but I'm sure everyone else has been too. Tami needs a nutrition class to get on the waiting list for nursing school. It is a one credit class and she is one of those people that thinks she needs to strive for the best grade. Curve wrecker!!! I was the student who at the end of the semester said, " D means done!!!"

The silence has been broken so now it is up to Tami.

A+ for Isaac!

2009-03-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

Our family has a fire escape plan in place. We try to discuss it about twice a year to keep it fresh in the kids' minds. Isaac's recently been doing fire safety things for Scouts as well. I'm not sure why but for some reason at 2am this morning our smoke alarms started blaring through the whole house. Caleb's out of town so it was all on me to do the checking (btw, somehow in all our fire escape plans I have visions of Caleb getting all the boys safely out their windows, it never occurred to me that it's likely he'd be OUT OF TOWN!). So I run through the house looking for signs of a fire and find none so I go to check on the boys. Elias and Silas...sound asleep, unaffected. When I went to check on the other two boys I found Isaac's butt up in the air leaning over Jude's crib rail to get him out of bed and save him. I was so impressed that at 2 in the morning he had the presence of mind to follow our plan. I told him it was ok it was just a false alarm so he hopped back in bed. Curious, I asked what he was going to do next (wondering if he was going to open his fire escape ladder and climb out while hanging onto the baby). He said he was going to check the door to see if it was hot! YAY! I am so grateful to have Isaac. He's such a good helper and ALWAYS looks out for Jude. Caleb and I are going to take him out to dinner tonight to reward him. Our Hero! On a side note, the alarms went off again at 5am. Any idea what would set all the alarms in the house off for about a minute or two?

Newborn!

2009-03-16T10:44:00.001-07:00

HA! Fooled you! Bet you thought the title of this post was an announcement! For the record IT'S NOT! Sat. night we went to NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) for an evening of Science and learning through Elias' school. As you learned in my last post Jude's been having bum issues so we've been very observant of any odors coming from his body. During one of the presentations Caleb gave Jude the ol' smell test and informed me he was in need of a diaper change. I took him into the restroom and pulled out enough paper towels to build a make shift changing table. I layed him down and opened the diaper only to find it clean...false alarm! I decided it would be a good opportunity to freshen up his bum anyway and apply more cream. As I'm searching through the diaper bag to locate the cream he decided to turn his false alarm into a full alarm. He began to bare bum poop on the paper towel covered floor. OK, I think, I'll just scoop away the poo with the towels and flush it... AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHH he starts to pee and it's going EVERYWHERE all over me, the floor, the walls his clothes and yes, his FACE! I quickly scoop away the poop and grab a wipe but not in enough time to catch him lapping some liquid off his face. I wipe his face quickly and stand him up to assess the situation and he pees again! His shirt was unsnapped and long enough to protect me from the spray this time. Holy crap! I strip the boy down, mini-bathe him in the sink, re-diaper him and LUCKILY I had a blanket in his diaper bag to drape around him in order to sneak him out. Seriously! This kid is 18 mos. old. We're not dealing with a newborn here. I haven't carried spare clothes since the boy was 12 mos. old. Caleb left the presentation to see what was up so I was able to get the keys from him and tell him to get the boys and meet me in the car when it was over! I can firmly say I don't miss the newborn days!

Bless the Bummie

2009-03-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

Jude has been cutting his last four teeth for quite some time now. This week they are wreaking havoc on his body. He's had diarrhea which has caused a HORRIBLE diaper rash. I took him to the Dr. on Wed. and he prescribed a cream that can't even be applied until the sores stop oozing but told me some other things I can mix together to apply in the meantime. The boy knows when it's time to change his diaper (as the poo is painful) and screams when he sees me coming after him with my petri dish to mix the concoction of meds. He is seriously strong and usually before his bum is clean he's flipped over in a push-up position with me hanging on to one foot trying to get a wipe in between his clinched cheeks. It's a sad sight. With two days on the special mixed cream and no improvement we decided to give him a blessing. I'm happy to say that his poor, raw, oozy, bloody bum is much better today. This morning for family prayer Isaac remembered to ask that Jude's bottom could get better. It was very sweet. As soon as he was done praying he totally giggled about praying for a healthy hiney. What can I say? Even bummies need blessed!

Big and Fat Like Me

2009-03-03T17:03:00.000-08:00

This was our dinner conversation tonight. Me, "Isaac, you better eat your food so you aren't so scrauny. Jude is eating all of his food and he is going to be the biggest one in the family." Isaac, "I don't want to be big because I want to be in the Airforce." Me, "You still have to be strong to go to the Airforce Academy." Silas, "I want to grow up and be big and fat like dad. I'm going to eat all of my dinner and all of my ice cream." Talk about putting it into perspective. I guess I still have quite a bit of weight to lose.