Isaac's Logic

I know this is 2 in one day but my kids are so smart.  I can't believe the depth of their minds.  Tonight after being asked 3 times to go read Isaac got a swat to the butt.  This was pretty traumatic for him since it almost never happens, but after several weeks of blatant disregarding of direction it was deserved. 

When I went into talk to him about the decision he made and the consequence to follow he was looking at a picture he had drawn at church.  He explained it all to me earlier in the day.  The picture is of Nephi in his armor and a sword, blocking arrows in war. 

He looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "I wish I had looked at my picture before I made that choice." 

"Why?"

"Because I want to be like Nephi.  In my picture he is fighting with his armor on, blocking the arrows that want to hurt him.  It is like he is using his sword to protect him from things that tempt him.  And even when he is done fighting he has to be careful about when he takes off his armor because something might sneak up on him and kill him when he is not even looking."

"So what do you think you should have done?"

"I should have used my sword and followed directions.... (long pause) but I do have to say... it was Emma's idea."

Well at least he understands the concept of the Armor of God.  But I wish he wasn't so willing to throw his sister under the bus.

HUH?!?

So Shawn and I finally started Spanish a couple of weeks ago.  This would be the reason for my lack of blogging, I come home exhausted from trying to translate things I don't understand all day long.  I have decided after completing 18 credit hours on how to teach students that don't speak English, that teachers should be subjected to a week of this training and their tolerance and understanding for that child's frustration would greatly increase.  I do hope that the teachers that will be teaching my children in Paraguay will have a similar understanding.

In order to sum up how my week(s) have gone I'll share my embarrassing story with you.  We had to describe the country we are going in Spanish.  So I shared the capital, the weather and even what our housing SHOULD be like.  I told the class that my family and I would be going and we were very excited.  Now, I didn't know that word for excited to so I decided to google translate it.  It offered many words to choose from but I chose the one that sound the most like excited because I thought it would be easier to remember.  Well when I shared my paragraph with the class my teacher began to laugh.  She quickly explained that the word I used for excited was a sexual reference and might not be nice to use in a public setting.  YES, this is my life! 

On other fronts, we also tackled parent/teacher conference this week.  All I have to say after getting Isaac's report card is that the teachers here have it easy, compared to what CA teacher have to fill out.  Of course my kids are super smart with all A's (or exceeding expectation's in Isaac's case).

I would like to end my little note today mentioning that life is short!  This has really come to the forefront of my thoughts over the last few months.  Recently a friend was diagnosed with breast cancer, another friend has a very ill child and most recently a brother in our ward laid down to take a nap and didn't get up.  He was 2 years younger than I am.  I hope to be a better wife and mother, and that as I make decisions in my life that the course I choose to take will be one that will improve the life and welfare of my family.

Have a wonderful week! 

Before I Buy More Clothes

So a couple of years ago, we went through a period where Isaac never had any socks.  NEVER!  I must have bought about 10-15 packages of socks for his that school year.  I was so frustrated.  I was sure either the washer or dryer must be eating them all because I could not image where they would go. 

After the school year was out and I had some spare time on my hands (and my parents were coming) I decided that the Playroom/guestroom needed to be cleaned out.  About 2 hours into my cleaning I got to the toy box.  Guess what I found... yep, about 60 individual dirty socks.  Apparently "Clean the Playroom" means pick up all the stuff you don't want to put away and shove it in the toy box.

That brings me to yesterday morning.  Isaac and I have a deal that when he is on the last of something he needs to tell me so I can wash them.  (I can't tell you how many mornings he has been out of underwear.)  So he tells me he is on his last pair of pants.  When I go to start laundry there are no pants belonging to Isaac to be found.  But wait I remember the prior experience and check under the bed. 

When Isaac gets home from school I tell him, "The weirdest thing happened.  I went to do laundry and couldn't find any of your pants.  Do you know where they might be." 

"Well I know where one pair is.  I put it under my bed."

"Why?"

"I didn't want to clean my room."

So we move his bed and find 6 pair of pants under there.  His eyes got so big.  I explain that I have already done laundry for the day so he will have to go to school tomorrow in his pajama bottoms.  He thinks for a minute and decides he can just wear a pair of dirty pants.  So he inspects each of the pants and decides on the least dirty pair of pants.  I had to go along because he is using his problem solving skills, and didn't argue with me just solved the problem for himself.  So today... he is wearing dirty pants. 

I can pray he will remember this experience the next time he goes to shove dirty clothing under his bed, but I doubt it.

Did I mention "Life is a Zoo"???

On Monday we said goodbye to the wonderful family that came to visit us.  We were so excited for their visit and the goodbyes come far too quickly.  But while they were here we created some wonderful memories. 

My family flew in super late on Tuesday night and like all bad mothers do I decided to take my kids out of school on Wednesday afternoon for some of this memory making.  We picked them up at 11:30 and headed to the zoo.  I love the zoo and I love it even more with my kids.  

My groundhog children

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We are stunning, aren't we???

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My littlest man, loving the time outdoors.

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I can't remember why we decided to lay down here but it was funny.

At the farm animals.  We LOVE Sweetie Pie.

Fun with the Fam at Mt. Vernon

Without a doubt one of my favorite places to visit here in the DC area is Mt. Vernon.   I don't know why but I love learning about George Washington.  I feel everytime I go there I learn something new (or learned the last time I was there but had forgotten.)

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The kids jumping of the Ha-Ha Wall. 

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Looking over the Potomac.  (Not the Mississippi as suggested by someone in out tour group.)

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Group HUG!

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We went on the "National Treasure 2" tour.  They showed us all the places they filmed in the movie.

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One of the places they took us was the basment of the house. This was very interesting.  Here you see the cornerstone of the house laid by Lawrence Washington (General Washington's half brother.)

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We went to story hour and this was there for pictures.  What you don't see is the note on the back instructing parents not to let their children put their heads all the way through the holes as they might get "stuck."  I can only imagine the scene that cause that note to be posted back there. 

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The kids dressed up in old fashioned clothing.

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The Fam.  I am so glad we had the opportunity to build these memories together.  These are moments none of us will forget. 

Emma Finds Her Voice

So recently we took a trip.  If you have ever traveled with our family even just to the grocery store you will know that the way my sweet husband drives make me want to scream.  So we are driving down the road and my husband's "job" (offensive get where I want to go; when I want to go) driving skills kick in.  As we are having a few loud disagreeing words I hear my daughter sigh in the back and say, "Gee, I can't wait to be married."

I have found that although my adorable daughters humor has taken some time to develop she does follow after her mother.  Sarcasm will often get us in trouble, but it is almost always funny. 

Gotta love kids!

My Birthday Wish

     I know it has been a couple of months since my birthday but my mother is so dang funny I thought I would share her humor with you.

     So admittedly I know I am terribly difficult to shop for.  There are very few things I want that I don't need.  (Things that I need I just go buy and don't wait for my birthday to come around.)  But this year after just having a baby I am struggling to get the baby weight off.  So when asked what I would like for my birthday I told my mother I would like to lose 40 lbs.  "Do you think you can arrange that for me?"

     So when my birthday came I got this very sweet letter explaining just how much my parents love me and how they would go to the ends of the earth to get me what I wanted for my birthday.  I open the gift and this is what I find.

Yes!  I believe she does stay up nights just thinking of ways to crack herself up!