$22.93

Contest Update -- There is still time to enter my first blog contest. The prize is $100. The first 100 dollars of my ad revenue. All you have to do is enter in the comments sections of the Fifth Post of Christmas (You have until midnight on Dec 31, 2007 to enter or amend your entry.) I will go off the last entry before 2008 as your official one. As it stands right now, the dollar amount is $22.93.

The 12th Post of Christmas

Oh what a wonderful Christmas morning we have had. I am posting now before the whole family arrives for our FIRST OFFICIAL Hanis Family Reunion. They are all coming to our house to spend the night. We are having a Rook tournament, Grandpa is taking the grandkids fishing, lots of food, lots of fun, and probably a little crying (with that many little kids around -- things are bound to happen.)

But here are some of the highlights of our Morning.

• The Tower of Disney. We told the kids we were all going to Disneyworld. We are leaving early Friday morning. They are ecstatic. The tower had gifts for all of them that "apply" to Disney. (3 sets of matching shirts, matching Pj's, matching Fleece jackets, Princess stickers, and autograph books). The autograph books were the best. I used pictures from our last trip to Disneyland and made a small paperback book for each kid using my favorite software, Picaboo. Check out the book by clicking on this link.



• My big gifts this year were a new Honda Odyssey and a new stroller (the Joovy ultralight caboose.) They are both going to make this Disney world trek much more enjoyable.
• Another theme this year was camera's. Santa brought Julianne and Catherine their very own digital cameras. They have been documenting the world ever since and I am sure they are close to starting their own blogs. (Jamie also got a new camera and tripod -- nothing fancy-- a sony cybershot)
• Madelyn got a new bike.
• Adam got trains, balls, and cars.
• Trent got a suit, shirts, and ties (because someone has to work to support us!)
• He and I both got Nike Plus to help us on our new year resolutions. So expect to see our running logs appear on the blog just as soon as we start running!

We feel extremely blessed. Our kids had such a fun morning. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good blog.

The Eleventh Post of Christmas

Well, I don't know how on earth I will be able to control my kids behavior after tomorrow. Today, all I have to do is say, "Santa is watching. I am sure he wouldn't mind if his sleigh were a little emptier." They pretty much immediately conform. It is a nice little perk for parents this time of year.

We had a big family party last night with another family we all grew up with. It was a lot of fun. I asked everyone to submit their favorite memories from years past. We played charades acting them out. It was pretty funny for all of us (except the married into's). They did not know any of them. Here are a few of the favorites.

1. When playing Balderdash, my brother defined one of the words, "the stuff that comes out of Sister Talbot's nose." (needless to say, nobody picked his definition)

2. My Dad's homemade editing on Top Gun. He personally removed all offensive words and replaced them with his own (shoot, drat, and the favorite . . . CRIMINEY)

3. When Amber flushed down Minnie Mouse at the Talbot's home.

4. When Shad strategically broke a ketchup bottle in such a precise way that it went everywhere (and I do mean everywhere!)

5. When we went to a beach house with both families and started to play Scattergories. Carrie then puked all over the table and game. The game has since then been called ScatterDINNER.

The tenth post of Christmas

We went to a party last night. Trent and I won the "newlywed game"

Here are our Questions and Answers . . .

Questions asked to jamie

1. What is your favorite family tradition?
(jamie's answer) -- Pizza and a movie (trent's answer) -- "we don't have any traditions!"

2. What is your spouse's favorite Christmas movie?
(jamie's answer) -- Christmas Vacation (trent's answer) -- Christmas vacation

3. What is the most annoying thing about your husbands family at the holidays?
(jamie's answer) -- I love being with his family, but I hate the possessive term his mom uses -- as in "it's MY Christmas this year" (trent's answer) -- when my mom calls it HER christmas

4. What is the worst gift your spouse ever got you?
(jamie's answer) -- nothing (trent's answer)-- Socks

5. True or False "I am better at picking out a gift for my husband than he is picking out a gift for me."
(jamie's answer) -- false (trent's answer) -- false

So for that portion we got 3 right!!!!!



Trent's questions
1. What would you be doing if you weren't here at the Richard's lame party? (that is an exact quote of what York said -- for the record - the party was not lame)
(trent's answer) -- watching BYU football (jamie's answer) -- watching BYU football

2. What is your wife's favorite Christmas song?
(trent's answer) -- anything but Jingle bell Rock (jamie's answer) -- NOT Jingle bell Rock

3. What is your favorite Christmas memory?
(trent's answer) -- Disney trips with Grandparents (jamie's answer) -- Disney trips

4. What do you hate the most about the Christmas season?
(trent's answer) -- Shopping, the crowds (jamie's answer) -- wrapping presents

5. True or False. I am more in touch with what my kids' want for Christmas than my wife.
(trent's answer) -- false (jamie's answer) -- false

Then we got 4 right on his section for 7 correct answers total!!! Yeah!!!!

I guess after 11 1/2 years of marriage we know a few things right -- or we at least know what would be the most likely response the other would say so that we could win.

The ninth post of Christmas

The kids got out of school yesterday (Friday). This morning at 10 a.m. Catherine wailed, "This is going to be soooooooooooooooooo hard, this winter break. I miss school soooooooooooooooo much. What are we going to doooooooooooooo?"

It might be a very very long Christmas break.

Catherine said another funny thing when we went to HEB this morning. It was absolutely packed. There were sherriff's directing traffic in front and hardly a parking spot to be found. As we were leaving in the van we turned up an aisle to head for the exit. The woman in front of us was searching for a parking space. She stopped as a (kind of old and kind of slow and kind of round) woman with a huge cart full of groceries opened the trunk of her car. And there she waited (blocking traffic) for this lady to unload all of her groceries. In the mean time, 6 parking places became available on our aisle. The closest one being only 3 spaces further down. But the car in front of me made no motion towards any of these other spots and continued to wait and wait and wait for the full-cart woman to finish the unloading, close the trunk and get in the car. The moment finally arrived. The car door closed. The brake lights turned on. And last but most important of all the reverse lights came on. BUT, the waiting car had gotten too close to the parked car and the parked car could not get out of her spot. So the car in front of me whips into reverse. I start honking (something I rarely do). Does she not see me??? Is she going to hit me????? I can't go in reverse (as I glance in the rearview and see the line of 4 other cars waiting). I honk again and she is still coming toward me. Each of us in the line are now in reverse and slowly each one is backing up and then finally I can back up and then finally the ordeal is over. We proceed to exit (passing all the newly emptied parking spaces) When Catherine comments, "Mom that was crazy, she waited and waited to be able to park next to that green car when there was the same green car next to a different empty space.

Apparently in Catherine's interpretation of events, she had decided that the woman just had to park next to this green car. Perhaps it was her favorite color??? Perhaps it had the fanciest wheels??? Who knows???? Kids' interpretations of events are always so interesting to me.

As for me, I just hope I am never so lazy that I will wait and wait and wait all for the sake of saving 15 extra steps on the way to the grocery.

The eighth post of Christmas

I made 4 batches of Toffee today with Amy. They are yummy. I have tried many toffee recipes . . . this is the easiest and best.

2 sticks cold (not melted) salted butter

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

good chocolate (either chips or a grated bar -- I use about 1/2 a bag of chips)

Nuts (optional -- about a 1/2 cup -- I like them chopped finely in a blender

1. In a Heavy Saucepan (I use a cast iron one -- I had mixed results with a lighter weight pan) melt the butter and sugar over high heat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk.
2. When bubble start to form around the edge add the cream of tartar (keep stirring)
3. Keep stirring.
4. Keep stirring.
5. Just when your arm cannot go on any longer from fatigue and also because things are really starting to get hot the mixture will start to darken in color slightly. When it reaches a tan stage (probably about 5 minutes of good stirring) Pour it out onto lightly buttered foil on top of a heat safe surface.
6. Pour the chocolate on top and let it sit for a few minutes. The chocolate will melt and then spread it.
7. Put the nuts on next (if you want them) and then let it cool for a couple of hours. Break into pieces and serve.

The seventh post of Christmas

Well, I am totally out of technological helps so I will have to return you to the saga of my crazy life.

Running at 5 am sucks. I only do it for a few reasons.

1. to get the exercise out of the way early in the day
2. I know that my other crazy running partner will be waiting for me.

I have had many early morning running partners. It is quite a bit of a commitment to agree to get up out of bed and do this. There is a certain amount of trust involved. Right now I have been trying out a new running partner and frankly, it is not working out. My regular running partner's husband travels a fair bit and so when he is out of town we cannot go running. So I met another woman through my kid's school and she expressed an interest in running in the morning so I thought I would give it a try.

The very first morning we met it was raining. As a general rule, if it is raining in the morning I get right back in bed, my other running friends know this too. We don't call each other, we don't text each other. We just stay at our own houses and get a day off. But as this was a new running friend, we had not laid down all the rules and I was worried she might actually show up in the freezing rain and think I ditched her. So I got dressed and headed out and sure enough she was there and she wanted to run (WHY????) and so I ran, in the freezing cold rain. It was awful. I have now explained to her that if it is raining, I don't run. Since that day we have attempted to meet several more times. She has never been there again. One day, she must have come early, waited a little while and then headed home. We must have just missed each other. She got home and called my cell phone (the time was 5:22 a.m. -- we meet at 5:15 and she lives a half mile from the meeting point). She did not wait very long.

Now the reason I am writing about this is this morning she and I were supposed to meet. I should tell you that last night was a Christmas party for Trent's work. It was at Churrasco's (yummy, yummy). We had a great time and did not get home until midnight. At which point I had to take the babysitter home. The whole time I was wondering why I agreed to run the next morning. But as I knew she would be diligently waiting, I dragged my still full belly out of bed and got dressed and . . .

SHE WAS NOT THERE!

So I went all the way to her house. I even knocked on the door.

I don't think this running relationship is going to last.

The Sixth Post of Christmas

I have a statcounter on my blog and I thought today I would tell you about it. First let me just say this. . .

I LOVE IT!

It is really amazing the things you can find out. For example it tracks for me how many page loads, unique visitors, and returning visitors I have everyday and I get a cool graph to look at.

I am cheap so I don't pay for it to store more than 500 entries, which means that a lot of the unique visitors are probably returning visitors, but it has been more than 500 page loads since they last visited so I don't have a record of it anymore. (Also, it blocks my ISP address, so that all of my visits don't skew the results.) On my actual blog, I report total visitors with a little counter. But there is so much more to statcounter than just this . . . OH SO MUCH MORE!!!!

For each individual visitor I can see this. . .

AMAZING huh??? I can see their city and state, I know if they are a MAC or PC user. I know how big their screen is. I can follow their navigation route and see exactly what they looked at and how long they looked at it. I can see what page referred them to my site and what page they left from my site. Check out this .. . . it is a map of all my recent visitors.

But my favorite tool of all is the keyword search info. This lets me know how people find my site using search engines and what they search for. Here is my keyword analysis for today . . .

Isn't that cool? 31 people found my site using search engines. Most of them searching for things related to Hannah Montana Cakes. If I were smart I would start selling them. I could probably sell 20 a day. But then I wouldn't have time to blog, so they will just have to make their own.

So, add a statcounter, you'll be glad!

The Fifth post of Christmas & the first CONTEST on my blog

Now some of you may have noticed that I added ads to my blog. I did it for 2 main reasons.

First I love the blog called pioneer woman that I told you about a couple posts ago -- and she has ads and she does contests and gives away great prizes. She commented that it was because she doesn't want to make money from her blog and it is funner to give it away. I started wondering if I could make any money so that I could give away prizes.

Second, I was just curious how they work, how much do you get for doing absolutely nothing at all.

It works like this, you put the ads on, and you get paid. They won't cut you a check until you have made $100. So this is the reason for the first contest. (It is also a shameless bid to generate comments from all 3 of my faithful readers) (Or maybe there are more of you out there????)

To enter the contest, simply predict the month and year in which I will get my first $100 check. To help you in selecting the time frame I will let you know that after 8 weeks of having ads on my blog I have earned a WHOPPING $2.75. (impressive isn't it???) Also I think you get paid about 20 cents per 500 page loads and about 20 cents per click on a link. (and I cannot click on them).

Now here is the fun part . . . the prize (which of course may be years away) will be $100. If no one guesses the month and year correctly then I will get to keep the money for some other contest which I have not thought of yet.

The Rules . . . Only 1 entry per person. All entries must be recieved before 2008.

The fourth post of Christmas

How to make a "screen shot". On my few most recent posts I have shown my actual computer screen as a picture on the post. It is pretty easy to do this and I will show you how. First you need to get your computer screen to look exactly like you want it to. Then, find the Print screen button on your keyboard. (mine is abbreviated prt sc). Sometimes you may have to hold down a shift key or a fn key as the print screen key may be shared with other keys. Push it. You will notice nothing at all happens.

Now go to your start menu. Click on start, or the window symbol. Choose All programs, then accessories, then paint. Once paint opens. Press ctrl V. And you should see your screen shot that you took above open into paint. You may then crop it to show only what you really want. When you have it done. Save it (make sure to save it as a .jpeg) and then it is a picture you can use on your blog or when showing someone how to do something. It is especially useful if you are ever teaching a class on computer programs or blogging. Some people need to actually see the screen to be able to understand.

Once in paint you can draw arrows, add text, change colors, spray paint graffiti and do whatever else you may want. The possibilities are endless. Check out what I did.

(also -- you can click on the picture to make it bigger)

The third post of Christmas

I must say a lot of you have asked how to make the photo collage that was on our Christmas letter. So here is how. First, you need the photo software PICASA. The good news is that it is free. It is great. It is easy. Click on Picasa and you can download it. Picasa is made by google. It's big strengths are that it searches constantly for new pictures on your computer (in fact it may even find ones you thought were long lost), it is easy to use, and it is super compatible with email (if you have a gmail account) and blogger (if you have a blogger blog). When you open picasa, it will search for all your photos and then look like this.
















You then select photos 1 at a time (making sure to edit and crop them how you want it). When selected they appear in the tray (the white space in the lower left of the screen). If you want to continue working with a photo you click on hold.



Now, here is the thing when doing a picture grid collage. They are square, and each photo in them will be square and so you need to crop each photo to be a square (if you don't do it, then the computer will do it for you and you may end up with the important parts cropped out). Don't worry though, one nice thing about picasa is that any edits do not change your original and you can always select "undo all edits" and get back to a standard size.



The other important thing about a square picture grid is that it holds 4 (2x2), 9(3x3), 16 (4x4), and 25 (5x5) photos (I am sure you can do more, but that is the biggest I have done. If you do not have enough photos to make the square complete it will duplicate photos to finish it off.



In this next screen shot, you will see 4 photos selected and then I clicked on collage, chose picture grid, and it made it.

















If you like the collage, hit create. If you need to change it, click cancel. Hope that helps! It really is very, very easy to do.

The second post of Christmas

As I was showing you yesterday, most blogs I follow I read as feeds. But there are some blogs that I like to keep up with but don't need to know the minute they post. They are the ones where if I have an extra minute or two I might check in to see what is new but since they are strangers to me I don't feel compelled to know things in real time.

1. The Pioneer Woman and The Pioneer Woman Cooks -- This is the kind of blog I want to have. She posts about all sorts of random things. She likes photography and shares lots of neat little photoshop tricks. She tells about life on a working cattle ranch. She tells about life with 4 kids. I can relate. But the really fun part of her blog is the "sister" site, the pioneer woman cooks. Now, I love to read cooking magazines and cookbooks, but honestly I rarely actually try very many of their recipes. At the pioneer woman cooks I have tried many, many, many of her recipes. I like to think of it as Recipes for dummies. Each recipe is accompanied by not one, not two, but 40 or 50 photos depicting every single step in each recipe. You always feel like you could actually cook them. My very favorites have been Marlboro Man Sandwhiches, Pasta primavera, and spicy shrimp.

2. Because I said so -- This is the blog of a stay at home mother of 6 in chicago. She writes well and reminds me of Erma Bombeck. She is funny. She gained a lot of notoriety by selling a pack of pokemon cards on ebay. Click on it and read the seller's description, you'll see why I like her blog. She has been made famous because of the ebay thing. She has a book contract, has been on Good Morning America, and this week NPR. But her wit and humor in the face of trying to raise 6 good kids is alive and well.

Enjoy!

The first post of Christmas

On the first post of Christmas . . . I am posting about all my blogging friends. I don't have a links list on my blog because I track everyone through feeds. What are feeds you ask???? Well most blogs have the ability to send out new posts as soon as they are posted to anyone interested. If a blog has that ability it has this symbol on it. If you click on it, it will bring up the "feed" version of that blog. This version has all the important stuff, like links, photos, and text, but omits all the graphic elements (backgrounds, music, etc . . . ). It will ask you if you want to subscribe to this feed. If you select Yes then it will appear in your feed list.

Where is my feed list? Well, In internet explorer there is a little yellow star in the upper left hand corner. It looks like this . . .

If you click on the star, it opens a drop down menu with three headings, favorites, feeds, and history. Favorites is all the sites you have bookmarked. Feeds is all the sites you have subscribed to their feed and history shows you all the sites your computer has visited. (This is how you can spy see where other users have been on the internet -- like to make sure your teen or spouse or child is visiting only acceptable things.) If you click on feeds it will show you your list . . . mine looks something like this. . .

When on this drop down list, you can right click on any of your feeds and select "refresh all" The feed burner will then go by everyone of your subscription feeds and see if anyone has updated them. If they have been updated they turn bold. That way you can see in 2 seconds who has or hasn't updated their blog and then you can click on them and read the updated portion. This saves a PHENOMENAL amount of time. You don't have to keep clicking on people to see if they have made any updates. You don't get sucked into the blogstalking time drain where you just keep clicking and reading and clicking and reading and before you know it you have wasted an entire hour (or several hours, or day).

Anyway it works well for me. I can keep up with everyone I want in a very very very short amount of time.

Christmas Greetings

I sent out my Christmas cards today. Yes, I know it is only December 11. I am impressed too. But, I cheated. I emailed them. Yes, it is lame. Yes, I know many, many of you will be sad not to have a "real" one to post on your wall/fridge. But I gotta tell ya. . .

It totally rocks to do it this way.

1. The ease of mailing. You click send.
2. The affordability. It is free.
3. You can send it to everyone (translation -- you don't have to be one of my closest and most personal friends to warrant a card -- I just have to know your email)
4. The response. Many many of you hit reply and let me know what you are up to. I get a personal note in return.
5. The fact that I can include 25 photos since I am incapable of narrowing it down to 1.

I am telling you. . . You gotta try it. . . You will never be the same.

And for those of you whose email I don't have, leave a comment and I will send a "personal" one to you. Or you can click on this link and see it for yourself.

My little brother is famous!

He has been in the paper and on the news. His 5th grade class held a big press conference to let the world know the results from their survey on what toys would be the big hit this year for Christmas!

From the Houston Chronicle -- If you watch the video it is 23 seconds of my brother (Tyler Hanis)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5355867.html

At Channel 39
Video (Tyler is the first speaker -- they misspelled his last name Harris)

He was on all the other channels as well, but these 2 show him the most.

Christmas Memories

In getting ready for our annual Christmas Card/Newsletter/webpage/email hybrid. I got a little nostalgic and found all of our previous year's ones and posted them. (all that is except for 2003, which is MIA). Have a look . . . or not. . .
http://jamie.handy.googlepages.com/christmas

No, Really, You open the door.

We were headed to the garage to put the freshly cleaned carseats (4 of them) into the new van. As I walked out the back door, Trent was holding 3 of the carseats and leaning against the fence. He said, "Here, why don't you get the door . . ."

He had nearly touched the tree frog and was just waiting to see if I would notice.

Thank goodness we could get in through the big garage door with the keypad, because we were just gonna let this guy take his own time!

Snow, Sandals, and Santa

Our neighborhood has the cutest tradition. The Winter Festival. They bring in snow; hot chocolate, cookies, chips, lemonade, and water; and crafts (beads and pipe cleaners). They have Santa arrive on a fire truck with sirens blaring.

But best of all . . . it was 75 degrees outside and we were all in sandals and shorts. The kids kept saying, "The snow is cold."

Uh, yeah . . . it's SNOW.

They were all so cute.





Can you spot Julianne and Catherine?

Telling Santa all their wish lists. Madelyn asked for "lots of toys". I did not hear what Julianne and Catherine asked for, and as for me and Trent. . . well Santa came a little early with a new Honda odyssey for us.

Troublemaking

It was too quiet. The too quiet that Moms know means trouble. I finally found him. I laughed (I knew they were washable markers and it was just the tile floor.) I took a few photos. I told my Mom. She said, "Don't laugh, the kids will think it is funny." Ha Ha Mom . . . whatever.

I told Trent. He said, "Did you throw all the markers away?" I said, "No, I just put them on the counter out of Adam's reach." He said, "Throw them away." I laughed and thought, "He is so over-reacting!" He said, "One of these days, it's gonna be permanent marker on the carpet or something. " Yeah, Yeah, . . . whatever.

20 Minutes Later. . . Catherine screams "Moooooooooooooooom! Get in here. Madelyn had given Adam the marker pail (again) but this time he repeated this little incident on my beautiful white berber carpet in my family room.

I was soooooooo MAD. I COULD NOT EVEN TAKE A PICTURE OF IT!!!~!!

THEY ALL GOT SENT TO BED. I GOT OUT THE CARPET CLEANER AND A WHILE LATER I DID GET IT ALL OUT. . . IT WAS A LOT OF WORK . . . AND FOR AWHILE I THOUGHT IT MIGHT NOT.


THE MORAL

Listen to your mother. Don't laugh when your kids do something wrong, they will try to be "funny" again. And when your husband tells you to throw away 100 perfectly good markers. DO IT!!!!!!

Dazed and Confused. . . and a little agitated

Julianne had a rough day after school. She could not get motivated to do her (very few) math fast facts problems. The whining and whining and whining and complaining and moaning and growling and whining and on and on . . . ad nauseaum. We took a break from it and had candy. It did not help. We took a break and drove to the school to search for Catherine's jacket . . . again. . . (I'll save her leaving things at school woes for another day). It did not help. We gave up and decided to try again after dinner.

Dinner was good. Chicken and rice and gravy and peas. Julianne was in heaven. She will down anything with gravy on it. Her preferred gravy receptacle is mashed potatoes, but rice will do when she is hungry enough . . . and tonight she was. She downed 2 full plates of rice and gravy and peas and was headed for her 3rd when I suggested she try 1 small piece of the chicken. She growled and whined and moaned and would not do it. I said she had to or she had to go to her room. (Usually I don't force my kids to eat things, but she eats chicken every day and has had this many times, but she really could live on gravy alone if she had her way.) She wouldn't and so she stormed up the stairs and made a good fuss about it.

About 20 minutes later my Mom called and I was telling her about this and was looking over my shoulder to see if Julianne could hear me when I realized I had not heard her for a little while. I went upstairs to find her fast asleep. I took her jeans off and put on her pajama pants and tucked her in (she did not awaken for even a minute) and then looked at the clock . . . 5:55 p.m. Aughhhhhhhhh!

At 7:00, I put Adam down for the night and from 7 - 8, it was just Madelyn and Catherine. I sent them to bed at 8 with strict instructions to be quiet and I went and called my sister-in-law, Melissa. After about 5 minutes on the phone with her, Julianne comes racing down the stairs dressed and ready for school. I quickly got off the phone and tried to tell her that it was now bedtime and she didn't take it very well. Apparently both Madelyn and Catherine told her it was morning time. She got back into her Pj's and was actually back asleep within a few minutes.

And so . . . I am not worried one bit by the writer's guild strike. My life story is as entertaining as any show on TV. In fact, if they need any new material, they could move in.

Meme tag, You're it

I am sure we all remember the game tag played out on the schoolyard at Recess. I remember all sorts of varieties. My favorite was always "freeze" tag. And even though I loved playing it, I really abhorred being "it." There was something isolating about being selected out of the crowd and being unlike everyone else for a time. While it was fun to run and chase, it still felt a little lonely.

Now I find I am engaged in a new kind of tag-- Meme tag is the technical term for it. And for being such a simple game, there is actually quite a bit of philosophy behind it. (Just read about memes and memetag at Wikipedia and you'll see what I mean). But simply put, it is about the transmission and evolution of ideas across time and how the different people change the meme and yet keep it the same.

This is a long intro to explain that I got tagged by my friend RangersRus. On her blog she identified college courses that would help her today in her life and then tagged 5 people by leaving a comment on their blog encouraging them to do the same. So here goes. . . (and I must say I thought all of her courses were great)



Devise a list of 5-10 courses you would take to fix your life. It’s more fun to be in classes with friends, so include one class from the person who tagged you that you’d also like to take. Tag five more people.





1. Laundry 501 -- This graduate level course is designed for the person who does laundry night and day, everyday. Their laundry should include multiple age brackets (thus exposing them to a myriad of staining options), both genders (glue, glitter, makeup stains for girls, dirt, grass, blood stains for boys), and excessive volume. Special topics will include vomit and other bodily messes, markers and crayons, and Laundry extended (cleaning carpets, couches, draperies).



2. Haircutting/Styling 101: If you can't hold a comb and a pair of scissors in one hand at the same time without dropping one or the other or both, then this class is for you! We'll start with the basics, the timeless styles everyone should know, for boys and dads, the buzz, the tapered cut, the bowl cut and more. And for girls the bob, straight cuts, layers, and bangs. But cutting isn't everything, you'll learn 1,001 ways to style little girls' hair and how to make all the bows and ribbons to match. And for little boys, you'll get a complimentary water spray bottle and comb.



3. Lunch Packing 301 : For the semi-experienced, Lunch packing 101 and 201 are pre-requisites. Ready to move beyond PB&J? Do fruit snacks count as a fruit? Can packed lunches be healthy and exciting all at the same time? This class will explore a variety of different new ideas that have been kid tested and approved. We will incorporate new technology and innovations regarding lunch gear (both disposable and not). We will also place a large emphasis on lunch packing under great duress while still maintaining speed.



4. Homework Motivation 100 : This is for parents today. Helping your child succeed in school, recognizing which things are important and which are not, understanding how much to “help” and how much to “let” them do are just a few of the many topics discussed. Especially great for parents whose first child is in the early grades so that good habits can be started from the beginning.

5. Photography 515 : For those that have already mastered blurry shots, shots that are too dark, fancy shots where only part of it is in focus (but not the part you want), backs of people faces, closed eyes, red eyes and other common shots. We will teach you how to photoshop them into award winning photographic art. Other topics will be straightening and whitening teeth in photos, losing weight by photo editing, and generating new smiles where only frowns existed before.

6. Diplomacy 300 : This mid level course is designed to help us meander through the politics of daily living. How to communicate with teachers and principals so that you can be an effective advocate for your child, how to tactfully address issues with your spouse about their style of parenting, and how to do volunteer work at your school, church, or community center without offending those around you and getting burned out. There will a special night seminar discussing specific issues related to serving in a ward calling.

7. Magic 100 : This class is for the beginner. Simple charms (like decluttering a room, cleaning dishes, automatic dishwasher emptying) will be taught. Always a favorite among students and A's awarded based on effort not necessarily skill.

Well, that would be my class schedule. If I only had time to go . . . and a babysitter . . . and an extra 36 hours a day . . .

And the best part . . . I tag Jimnjennie, Amy, Sheree, Mckell, and Amber.

Running update #2

Last night, Adam went to sleep promptyly at 7. Julianne fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow (around 7:45). Catherine, too, foregoed her usual reading in bed and was asleep quickly (8:15). Madelyn, also, joined in the fun and fell asleep without anyone even laying with her by 8:30. It was nice!

Madelyn woke up at midnight, but stayed upstairs and went to the bathroom. I laid with her for just a moment and she fell back asleep.

Julianne came into our room at about 3 am. She was crying. She said she had fallen down the stairs. She got into our bed and fell asleep.

Catherine came in right at 5 am ready to go jogging with me. We both got up and got ready and headed out. Today she only made it .68 miles before she was too tired to go on. I think this running thing has already lost all its appeal. I dropped her off back home and told her to go get on my bed and be quiet. I was actually already amazed that no one else was awake yet.

I finished running and then came home and was even more surprized to find that even at 6:05 am no one was awake. Catherine had gotten into my bed and fallen asleep.

But now here is the real miracle. It is 6:40 am and still no one is awake. I have had 40 minutes to myself!!!!

We'll see how long they sleep today. As I have said before, I do not ever wake up my sleeping children. (Of course with their schedules, why would I have ever needed to?) But maybe today will be a first!

Oh . . . I hear someone stirring!

It is Madelyn. She just came in the office, gave me a big hug and said, "Mom, I stayed on my bed all night. Can I go running with you?"

Here we go again!

Running update

Julianne slept through the night and woke up at 5:00 a.m. on the dot and got ready to go running. Catherine stayed asleep and I just couldn't wake her. (by couldn't -- I mean I just did not have the heart to even make an attempt to disturb her precious slumber, because I am always just grateful they are asleep and would not want that to change!). Julianne kept up on the jog for the exact same distance Catherine did-- in fact they both started walking in the same place. (weird, huh??). We walked her home (she too was sad she could not stay) and then finished our run. When I returned home, Catherine was upset that I had not woken her. I paid for that mistake all morning.

After school today, Julianne asked me what these marks were on the tips of her toes. They were blisters!!!! I told her that she needed to get bigger shoes and offered to take her right then. She did not want to stop playing and go to the store. I told her she would not be able to run with me until we got new shoes and she paused for a second and then said, "Ok, Mom, I think I'll need my rest tomorrow anyway.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

I may never buy her shoes again.

Self imposed Baby Gates for Stairs

In our house there are 3 sets of stairs that have only 2 steps each. All 3 are in the upstairs.


Adam learned to go up and down the stairs on those little 2 step stairs. He has gotten great at them.


While he was learning, there were several times where he would fall a little, but when there are only 2 steps, it is pretty hard to get too hurt by a fall. What it did do was teach him a very healthy respect for stairs.





He would climb up the big stairs but until Monday, he had never, ever even attempted to come down the big stairs. Do you know how nice that was??? I could put him upstairs and know that no matter what, he would not come down the stairs. It made the upstairs one giant containment facility.

We did not have to use a single child proof gate.



But then on Monday, the big girls were at school and Madelyn was at Joy school and Adam was the only kid at home (I am not sure that that has ever happened before!), and he was upstairs. I ran downstairs to do something while he was playing when I suddenly heard him squealing and clapping and it sounded close.

There he was at the bottom of the stairs. He proceeded to practice over and over.

But once the girls got home, he would not go on the stairs again. It makes me wonder. . . was he afraid of the stairs ? ? ? or was he afraid of what his big sisters' might do to him on the stairs? ? ? Knowing their many frequent escapades at "motherhood", I can actually understand his thinking.

You know, more and more I am realizing just how smart that boy is!!!! I think he is going to survive his three sisters just fine!

Grocery Shopping-- Family Style

We all go grocery shopping together most Saturdays. It is a pretty fun experience. There are two ways I enjoy grocery shopping-- completely alone or with everyone (Trent included). Everyone is a lot happier when we all go together. Everyone gets a say in what we buy; It seems like an adventure as opposed to a burdensome chore; and Our kids are so cute doing it that we end up smiling the whole time.

First, notice the "mini" shopping carts. The girls love to push them and fill them. They each want the best things placed in their cart. On this particular Saturday, Madelyn was so funny. She kept adding things to her cart and then telling me why we needed it. For example, the colored mini marshmallows (because ours are only white); the 2 boxes of cheeze-it GRIPZ (one for her and one for Adam so he won't be sad); the care bears fruit snacks (so that each girl has a fruit snack box in her cart).

Yes, I know . . . some of you think I am crazy to take 4 kids and a husband shopping with me, but there really are a few plusses. First, not everything we need fits into 1 cart anymore and though I have tried many ways to shop (checking out multiple times, stuffing and cramming) having an extra large cart and 3 small carts in addition to mine really does help out. Second, the bread usually makes it home unsquished. Third, all the comments from the other shoppers about how good the kids are does cheer me up. And, fourth because we know we have a limited "happy" kid time, we go fast!


There are a few drawbacks though. First, we spend more money. Second, we buy more things we shouldn't eat and don't need. Third, you can only do this when the grocery store is very empty. And, fourth, sometimes the kids do misbehave and fight over why she got to have the yoplait yumsters and she got to have the go-gurts, and I have to have the yucky plain yogurt in my cart.

But all in all it does work well for us right now.

Cruel and Unusual Rewards

Those of you who talk to me on a daily basis or who read this blog with any regularity have heard me lament my children's sleeping habits. But let me recap them for any newcomers.

1. My (sweet, loving, precious) children seem to get by on very little sleep. Adam who just turned 1 goes to bed at 7, wakes at 5:45 and takes at most 1 hour of naps the whole day and is pretty much the happiest baby ever.
2. They arise early. . . very early. (6:30 am is sleeping in)
3. No matter what time we put them to bed, they arise early. So we try for early. The goal is always to be in bed and reading by 7:30, with lights out by 8:00, but often we don't get the lights out until 8:30.
4. Only Adam and Catherine are sleeping through the night. Julianne wakes up and comes down into our room at least once a night (sometimes twice) and Madelyn does too. (Madelyn is sneakier -- she usually manages to get in our bed without Trent or I even noticing. Julianne just stands silently next to me until I open my eyes-- it's always a little startling to see her face inches from mine in the total darkness.)
5. I have tried everything I can think of to help them sleep through the night. Bribery (50 cents each day (Catherine is now independently wealthy). Ice cream for breakfast. Threats. You name it. Nothing I can think of seems to motivate them to want to sleep through the night. Yesterday at the park, I was just discussing this with my friend Kara who is dealing with the same issues with one of her children and I said, "When I find something that motivates my kids, I will definately let you know." (Little did I know that I was about to discover a radically new method!)

Another thing I have mentioned on the blog recently is my return to early morning jogging. I have been jogging with Amy at 5:15 am. I have told her on repeated occasions that perhaps the thing I like best about jogging is that it is the ONLY thing I really do without my kids. In the past few weeks Julianne has started asking to go jogging with me. I immediately turn her down. She asks again. I refuse. She asks again. I refuse. . . and on and on. Finally last night, she asked again and I said, "Julianne, you can't even sleep through the night. I am not about to let you run with me in the morning unless you can get a good nights sleep. (I am figuring 7 years of bad sleeping is not about to be overturned in 1 night for the opportunity to go jogging at 5 am). I additionally added the caveat, "and 1 night is not enough. You will need to sleep through the night 3 nights in a row, before we can even consider this." She objected (as usual) and began her negotiations and 30 minutes later we had decided that if she could sleep through the night 2 nights in a row, she could try jogging in the morning with me ONLY if she could get up and get ready all on her own. She agreed and went to bed.

Imagine my surprise when at 5:30 this morning (Amy and I were running at 5:45 due to her husband's later schedule this morning) Catherine walked into my room fully dressed in "running clothes" with her hair in a ponytail all ready to go. She had heard all the negotiating last night and obviously felt that running was the "desirable" thing to do. Could I tell her NO??? Of course not, and so she and I headed out to meet Amy. Let's just say Amy found it to be quite entertaining. We started going and Catherine lasted a little over a mile before she confessed that her legs hurt and she was getting a bit sweaty. We walked her back home. She did not want to go in. She started crying as she walked in the house and Amy and I went on to finish the remaining 2 miles. When I got home, Catherine was still a little teary but with a newfound determination to run further the next day and then the next until she could last the whole time. Julianne was a little teary because she had not gotten to go jogging, but with a newfound determination to sleep through tonight (her 2nd day in a row) so she can go jogging with me, Amy, and Catherine.

Can you believe it????????????????????????????

I am still truly dumbfounded and stunned. This -- running at 5 in the morning -- is what makes my kids want to sleep through the night?? And I had not thought of it before?????? What planet are my children from?????

Just since I know you are all curious, last night, Madelyn still woke up and got in our bed and so there was no icecream for breakfast. . . but on the way home from riding our bikes to school Madelyn informed me that she was going to stay on her bed for the next 2 nights so that she can go running with me too!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH! Sometimes you just gotta scream. I have created a Monster! Actually 3 of them!!!!!!

Halloween Fun!

Adam was the scarecrow and Madelyn was Dorothy. You can't see it in this photo, but she is holding a basked with Toto in it. Adam has a hat and little sleeve cuffs, but they don't tend to stay on too long.

Here is Adam with the hat, and sleeves, but not the jean overalls. It ended up being quite warm and so he is in short overalls.















Here is Catherine. The night before at the Trunk-r-treat, she was the wicked witch, but on Halloween night she opted for the Genie, Jasmine look.

Madelyn loved being Dorothy, especially the Ruby Red slipper part.

Julianne was a clown. Her favorite part was that water sprayed out of the flower on top of her hat (sadly, though, the flower did not make it very long!)

Halloween Baby

I am an Aunt again! My Baby Sister Amber had her first baby on her due date-- Halloween. Megan is sure cute. Gotta love that little Pumpkin. Congratulations Guys! We love you! The girls are so excited to meet Megan.

Little Gym

Madelyn has certainly warmed up to her Little Gym class lately. She loves it, and she is so cute!

The "Obligatory" in front of the house after church in your Sunday clothes when Grandpa is in town pictures

When we are around Trent's parents (and we do love being around them) there are certainly some phrases we hear from his Dad each time.

". . . just stand in front of the fireplace for a picture."

"Could we get a picture in front of the house before everyone changes clothes?"

"Let me get a picture of that."

So here they are, in front of the house.

Divining

At the Oil Ranch, Madelyn picked up a forked stick and began to walk around holding the stick as if it was leading her. She looked pretty cute -- out in the field "divining."