New 'Dos

Alison's long hair has been quite unruly and a major eyesore for a very long time. She complains about it, I complain about it, and she's wanted to get it cut. However, it was long enough that we figured we'd wait until it was long enough to donate to Locks of Love. Thankfully (huzzah!) it was, so on Monday we went.

Caitlyn decided that she wanted to donate her hair, too. And Kristen, not to be left out, wanted a haircut as well.

And the after:



Cute girls!

Learning and Other Sundries

I thought to myself sometime on Thursday that this has actually been a good week. Here's why:

All the kids were gone during the day! Seriously. I have discovered over the years that while I can be talkative in small groups where I'm comfortable with the people, and while I don't mind throwing (one or two) parties (a year), I am inherently an introvert and being around people (even my kids) all the time (every day, day in and day out) is incredibly draining. Not to mention I start resenting them and the time I spend with them. So having them gone during the day has been a wonderfully recharging thing for me.

That said, I will get bored. I can already see that I'm going to get bored. Thankfully, the library is there to help: I'm actually on the schedule for going in twice a week for about four hours. I've been given access to the computer system, and a task to help with the holds. Which is really fun, actually. (Yes, I am weird that way.) On top of that, they sent me a heads up that the city's given them permission to open up a part-time job. Which was enough motivation to get my resume together (not an easy task, considering I haven't held a paying job in 12 years!). It hasn't been posted yet, but I'm hopeful.

The girls have been doing well with school. Megan's completely in her element -- she really likes all her classes (except Chemistry; she spent one whole period last week reading a book), and is back to being busy. Even if she complains about the homework.

Caitlyn's adjusting to middle school; she likes band (and picked trombone, after a bit of debating. She almost ended up with french horn, but -- interestingly enough -- it was too popular. She wanted to be unique. We told her girl trombone players would be. Turns out, though, that four of the six trombones are girls. Go figure!), hates Spanish (she was quite stressed about the quiz they had on Friday), and likes all her core subjects as well. She's even figuring out the whole social life thing again.

Alison is, well, Alison. She's discovered a classmate lives nearby, and so has taken to walking home with her and popping over to her house in the evenings. She even made sure I met her friend's dad, so everything will be okay. And she talked me into signing her up for Girl Scouts as well. I'm still not sold on the whole program (you think I'd be after four years with Caitlyn!), but she saw how much fun Caitlyn had, and wants the same. I do have to say that the girls who stick with Girl Scouts generally are a good sort, and Caitlyn's best friends are still the girls in her troop. So, maybe it'll help Alison in the friend department; especially since she seems to gravitate to much older girls as friends. (Eventually Clarissa will be in middle school and won't want to play with a 3rd grader anymore...)

Kristen managed. The first couple days were bad: she had issues with listening and paying attention, and she was grumpy when I picked her up. But after that, when I asked how the day went she said, "Good." (That, and "I don’t' like talking about school! Don't ask me!") She's getting the hang of it. And she was even a little bit excited about having homework (ah, the days when they like homework!) this weekend.

All that said about me liking being home alone, however, I did realize that I kind of miss having a little one around the house. I took care of a couple friends' three-year-old girls while they went to the temple on Thursday and was reminded how much fun (and how funny) three-year-olds are. On the other hand, maybe I enjoyed them because I wasn't responsible for them and I could give them back at the end of the day.

Russell and I actually got out on Friday (what? seriously?) on a date to see Super 8 (oh. It was just to a movie; no biggie.). It's not an amazing, wonderful, life-changing movie, but it is a LOT of fun. You know all those Spielberg movies we went to see when we were kids? Yeah: just. like. that. Funny, suspenseful, exciting, and it not only had a plot, it had HEART. Probably one of the best movies we've seen this year. (Out of the, like, three we saw in the theater...) (Even if the train wreck in the beginning was absolutely impossible. It was quite awesome to watch.)

I know you are all wondering: we are now three days from beating the 1936 record (at 50) for number of days 100 degrees or more. It's to the point where I'm thinking that we just need to keep the heat around long enough to do that. There needs to be something in the record books for just how awful this summer was.

And on that note, here's to September! May cooler weather be coming your way.

August 22, Morning

A reminder of what is good in the world.

Ever Wonder What A 7 Year Old Has on Her Bucket List?

Now you know.

First Days

So, the big news is that school started. (Thank heavens!) Caitlyn went back on Tuesday -- the sixth and ninth graders go back before everyone else, so a new school isn't so intimidating -- and got used to opening a locker (with some help from the Awesome Mr. Goter. Why, yes, I am happy to have a child in his band class again! He also looked at her while he was helping her and said, "Are you a Fox?" She said, "Um... yes." He said, "I can see the resemblance: you look just like your sister, minus the red hair." Caitlyn was a bit depressed at that.), switching classes, and figuring out who was in her class (curses: she has a class with Nick, who has been in her class since second grade! She was hoping to shake him this year). She came home bubbling over with stories about how awesome everything is (except her math class; more on that later) and how cool it is. Let's hope it stays that way.

The rest of the girls started on Wednesday. Thankfully, there are more freshman this year than last, so we actually have ride sharing this year! YAY! *happy dance* Megan got picked up for seminary and school (which will happen every day there's not marching band or student senate), and I'm trading off weeks picking up. Oh, joy for not having to do it all! Megan's okay with her schedule; she loves her photography class and English (same teacher as last year). Math will be okay (same teacher as last year), chemistry is boring ("You listen to a teacher talk to you in a monotone for an hour and a half and tell me it's not boring"), and botany will be interesting. The only really sad thing is that her favorite social studies teacher (whom she was supposed to have this year) got a job in the administration and isn't teaching any more. She's quite depressed about that, but the new one shouldn't be too bad.

Alison had a grand couple of first days as well. She was really excited Wednesday because Kristen went as well (they stagger start the Kindergarteners so they, and the teachers, won't be overwhelmed), and Alison totally dug the whole "big sister" role. She was almost more excited about Kristen starting kindergarten than Kristen was. But, Alison loves her teacher, likes her classmates (thankfully the girl who gave her problems last year is not in her class this year!), and is still excited about going. I think we even found something she'll actually eat for lunch.

Kristen had a grand first day as well. She liked the whole school thing, though she didn't like talking about it. (I have two of each: Megan and Kristen, it seems, will eventually talk about their day, but only when they feel like it. Alison and Caitlyn, on the other hand, have to spill the whole deal as soon as they get home. It's a dam ready to burst. Which made it hard when they got home at the same time. This way, I can listen to Caitlyn's dam, and then Alison's an hour later. And Megan gets me later at night. Kristen, however, will have to just find a time to squeeze in there somehow.) She was actually disappointed when, on Thursday, we told her she didn't get to go. (Me: "Why didn't you eat your carrots?" Kristen: "A bug pooped on them, so I couldn't.")

As for me, I kept busy on Wednesday, going to the library. But still the idea of having hours and hours to myself is quite shocking. What do I do with all that time? We'll find out, I guess...

Saturday, Russell, Megan and I went down to Oklahoma City to go with the youth to the temple. It was a nice trip, and the girls (mostly) had fun at their friends houses while we were gone. I haven't gone since we went in Hawaii, so it was quite nice to get back....

And today's been nice. The talks were on being peacemakers, something which, amid all our arguing this past week, I needed to hear. Hopefully, as we get into a rhythm and a schedule, we'll stop bickering with each other so much. At the very least, it'll be peaceful at home when everyone's gone. Right?

Riverdance

Megan was watching clips on YouTube, and I found my favorite song from my favorite version (the Radio City Music Hall one), and I need to stick it up, since it's not on the DVD we own. Thank you for letting me be indulgent.

Going Out With a Whimper

It was the last full week of summer, and we should have had exciting events every day. Right?

Things did happen this week. Among the more notable events: it rained lots (yay!), our tree got cut down, Megan had a birthday and started marching band camp, and Alison learned to tie her shoes. But, mostly, we were just tired. (We?!? Me. I was just tired.)

I've been looking at Betsy's blog all summer and thinking, "Man, we'd be having that much fun, too. If we could only go outside." And this week, when we could go outside, all we did was stay inside and watch TV. Old habits are hard to break? Nope. No one had any enthusiasm for doing much of anything. We just have to concede: summer won this year.

So. Megan had an enjoyable birthday. Russell stayed home and we split the kids up. He took Alison and Kristen out to lunch for their free pizza from the library reading program and then to Kung Fu Panda 2 at the $1 day. They had a grand time; Kristen thought the movie was AWESOME (her words) but Alison cried and came home saying that it's almost as bad as Toy Story 3. So, your guess is as good as mine as to whether the movie's worth your time or not. :-D I took Megan and Caitlyn out for Indian food. Megan had a good time; Caitlyn not so much. It was too spicy for her, she said. And she ended up eating salad and drinking mint lemonade for lunch. Thankfully, the waitress was understanding, and she only charged us half price for Caitlyn. I don't think Caitlyn will eat Indian food again any time soon... Then we came home and watched a Hindi thriller movie and finished Megan's cake. There were presents in there (oh: I should tell a funny story... we went to the mall on Monday to get her presents from her sisters, and she came with us, showed us the store, went in and picked it out, and handed it to me: "This is what I want." I suppose that's one way to make sure you get exactly what you want for your birthday.") but they were mostly money which she then turned around and spent this week on new clothes. She must be getting older.

I did get my act together on Thursday and took Alison and Kristen to the Exploration Place (more free library stuff, mostly; they wouldn't let me get both girls in free because I was only one adult. Sheesh. What am I supposed to do? Drag my husband everywhere??). They had a grand time running around; it's not a big museum, but it is a fun place to go once or twice a year. And Friday we went to Pump It Up (the place in which they have a lot of air-pumped bouncy things) (more free library stuff; this time it was really and truly free) to bounce and play for about an hour. We also went over to a party at the Dumlers (Caitlyn went to a birthday party for a church friend, much to the disappointment of her Girl Scout friends) to have dessert, talk about Girl Scouts, and play games. I think we need to get Scattegories; it's a game right up Russell's alley, and with the girls getting older, I think it'd be fun for (almost) everyone.

Saturday we actually cleaned the house (amazing), and volunteered at the Humane Society. Well, actually, Megan went to two pool parties. It's rough being a teenager sometimes. And then we all went swimming (not Megan) at the South Y for one last time. I'm glad Russell decided to come; I actually got to go down the slides because he was willing to shadow/play with Kristen. And then we crashed.

Today's been okay. I was asked to speak in church in a couple of weeks. On music. I'm finding this mildly amusing; who better to talk about music than the organist, I guess. I do have actual statements from actual kids that they're more than excited for school to start on Wednesday. I am not, however, excited to start getting up before 6 a.m. again. It's worth it, though, to be done with this summer.

What a 15 Year Old Does for Her Birthday

You work with your mom really hard for a couple of days beforehand to give yourself a new room re-do:



(The only thing that hasn't come are the curtains. And she helped sew the pillows. The thing I'm really proud of is the lamp; I did the stenciling!)

Open presents in the morning, because your younger sisters insist.


(Okay, so she came to the mall with us on Monday, and actually handed us this bag: "This is what I want." I guess that's one way to make sure you get what you want.)


Go to Kababs... (the ellipses belong.) for their lunch buffet and eat too much.

(The mint lemonade was delicious)

Caitlyn came as well, but she didn't like any of the food. Too spicy!

Finish your cake:

And watch Don with Mom and Caitlyn.

Then blow out the candles (when you're 15, you get to light your own candles):



And go hang out with your friends at marching band camp.

It was a good day!

Ups and Downs

This was a hit-and-miss sort of week. Some things worked, others didn't....

Ups:
Monday, we went swimming at the South Y; Alison, who has made it her personal goal to go down every water slide in the city, went down the tube slide there. She declared: "It was AWESOME." Then for Family Home Evening, we went rock climbing. Very cool.

Downs:
Tuesday, our big event for the day was going to be seeing Kung Fu Panda 2 at the Pink Palace for $1. Since it was 111 that day, we discovered it was the plan of every other stay-home-mom/day care provider in the city. We got there 40 minutes before the show started and it was already sold out. So, we changed a couple of dollars into quarters, played some video games (Kristen playing a driving game was hilarious), and went home.

Ups:
Wednesday wasn't bad. The Chavezes had the younger two girls over for a tea party, and so I was able to go guilt-free to the library. (I really didn't want them to stay at home watching TV for yet another day. You'd think they'd be tired of it by now.) They had fun dressing up and having a tea party. And then, Wednesday night, it rained! Serious rain, too. Thunder, lightning. If it had been light, and the girls were awake, we would have gone out to play in it. (I seriously contemplated going out in my pjs, but decided against it. How adult of me.) Ah, blessed rain, we need more of you!

Downs:
However, Thursday morning, we discovered that such a wonderful storm is not without its costs. We really liked that tree, too.

Ups:
After sitting on it for three days (Thursday through Saturday), and having countless guys stop buy to drop off business cards and give estimates, we did find someone to cart the tree away (down to the stump, which we will get ripped up, but only after I transplant my strawberries, which I'm not going to do until it cools off) for $150. Thank heavens for small miracles; we didn't want to have to sell a child to pay to cut down the tree.

Downs:
So, Alison has convinced herself that she needs glasses and has been bugging me for AGES to go see an eye doctor. I finally relented, because it's (basically) free with our vision coverage. We showed up for our appointment... an hour early. Somehow I forgot how to tell time. I asked the girls if they wanted to go home and come back, but they said they wanted to stay. Which was great, until it was time for their appointments (I took Kristen, too. I figured, why not?). Then they wanted to go home. (Thankfully, we had called Aunt Camilla to chat which helped pass the time.) Anyway, the eye doctor came and examined both girls and... they don't need glasses. (Thank heavens!) Alison, however, was quite upset. To the point of tears. She really wanted glasses. Crazy girl.

Ups:
Thursday night, we got to go to the paid-for waterpark in town. For free. We played hard, we had a grand time, we all even went down the slides (except Kristen). It was well-worth driving across town for.

Friday was a pretty good day, as well. We've been slowly working on Megan's birthday present; she wanted a complete room-redo for her birthday this year. As we have no idea what else to get a 15 year old, we figured that was a good (if expensive) present. At the very least, it's kept us busy. We went and got paint, prepped and painted her accent wall orange.

Downs:
Saturday, we started painting the second color we chose, got about a third of the way done and realized that it was the WRONG color. Ugh. Back to the store to get another gallon of paint, this time a much nicer blue. It only took us five hours (with the running and changing...) but it's pretty much done. Pictures coming soon (as soon as the curtains we ordered come)... Hopefully, she'll like living in it for the next couple of years.

Ups:
Bonus: Caitlyn loves the wrong color, and wants her room painted that color (There should be enough left for three walls at least...). Now just to find the time to do it.

We also threw one of our murder mystery parties on Friday night. I'd picked up a new one -- Roman something or other -- for Russell's birthday last year, and we finally got to try it out. It was a lot of fun. Sometimes dressing up, being silly and acting out a role with a bunch of other adults is a lot of fun.

And Saturday night, we went swimming as a family, which is always nice. Today's not been bad either; church was nice, and we've got some internet friends of Russell's coming by later for dessert.

Only one more week of summer, then the pools close and school starts. I can't wait.

Rock River Rapids

All summer the girls have been asking to go to "that water park with the cool slides". Oh, I say, Rock River Rapids? We're not going, because it costs (more) money (than I'm willing to spend), and we have pretty much the same thing at the Y pools, and they're free.

But then I got a call from a friend: the company she works for was having a party, and she had tickets, would we like to go Thursday night?

Um....

YES!








Alison has finally gotten tall enough to ride the slides at the Y this summer. This pleases her very much (which is an understatement). And so she made it her own personal mission to go on every slide at Rock River Rapids. Including the red slide, which pretty much goes straight down. How was it, you ask? AWESOME.


Everything's better when it's free.

Gelato

I've made ice cream lots of times, though to be honest, I have trouble with getting chocolate ice cream as smooth as I'd like it to be.

So, I decided (pretty much on a whim) that I wanted to make chocolate gelato. I've had gelato before -- it's quite yummy -- and figured it wouldn't be too hard to make.

I was right, to some extent. While it's more work than ice cream, it's not that hard. And it did turn out yummy. However, I didn't get it as smooth as I wanted it. While it tasted good, it was quite grainy (and a bit mealy). I think I know what I did wrong (you're supposed to put it in an ice/water bath, and I got a bit of water in the gelato before I froze it; it's what happens when you're multitasking, and your daughter needs your help right. now.), but I'd like to try this again. (Also: like everything with chocolate, the better the quality the better the end product.)

ingredients

• 4 ounces (112g) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 3 cups (750ml) whole milk
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• ½ cup (50 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 ½ TB (15g) cornstarch
• ½ tsp vanilla

instructions

1. Half fill a large bowl with cold water. Add a few handfuls of ice cubes. Set ice bath aside.
2. Place the chopped chocolate in a large bowl and melt over a double boiler or in the microwave, stir until smooth. Set a fine-mesh strainer over the bowl and set aside.
3. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer over medium heat.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk the yolks, the sugar and salt until it thick and slightly paler in color. Sift in the cocoa powder and cornstarch and whisk until a paste forms.
5. Whisking constantly, slowly drizzle half of the hot milk into the cocoa mixture, and whisk until smooth. Return the mixture to the saucepan, whisk to combine and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon (about 5 minutes), do not boil.
6. Slowly strain the hot mixture over the reserved melted chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate is completely incorporated and smooth then add the vanilla.
7. Place the bowl in the larger bowl of ice water and stir the mixture occasionally to prevent a skin from forming, then cover the surface with wax paper, and store covered in the refrigerator overnight or for up to 1 day before churning. (The mix is best if it is aged (stored in the refrigerator) overnight. This resting period improves the churning qualities of the mix and improves the body and texture of the gelato.)
8. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker. Transfer to an air-tight container and freeze for at least 2 hours before serving. Let soften for about 5 minutes before serving.

Little Monkeys

One of the things we really like about belonging to the Y is the rock wall at one of the branches. All of the kids are monkeys, scampering up the sides until they honk the horn at the top. But this year, Kristen decided she wanted to give it a try. We've been a few times already this summer, but I finally remembered to bring the camera.

She gets about halfway before bailing; that's pretty far for a 5 year old, I think.

This one kind of gives you a sense of how high it is...


Alison has decided that she really wants to get serious about rock climbing, and has asked for shoes and a pouch for chalk. She's been systematically working through the climbs (and no, that's not the technical term), from easiest to most difficult.

They really are monkeys.

In Memorium

Remember our lovely tree, our beautiful tree? The one that the children figured out how to climb? The one that we had recently tied a rope swing to? The one that shaded the house beautifully all summer?


Well, it (finally) rained -- a massive thunderstorm -- last night, and when we woke up we found this:

(at least it didn't fall on the house!)

We'll miss you, tree.

Random Fun

Things that have tickled our funny bone on YouTube lately:

Russell discovered BYU Divine Comedy a while back, and the girls got a kick of the Provo, Utah Girls video. But this one is just awesome:


And if you haven't seen these (this is the fifth in the series), you really must. Episodes three and four are the best, but this one is hilarious, too:


Oh, and this one is just plain catchy: