Snow in Southern AZ?

We went to Tucson last weekend for the U of A vs. ASU game - GO CATS!!! (We won). The big boys went to the game with the dads and my sister in law and I took the small ones to the mall to see the "snow". How do they make it "snow" in Tucson we wondered? Turns out, it is some sort of foamy bubble mixture so all the moms in the crowd are yelling at their kids to not catch the "snow" in their mouths! I have seen plenty of snow in my lifetime and never once did I see people wince in pain when the real stuff got in their eyes but I saw that plenty last weekend. One thing is for sure, the kids didn't care one little bit what was shooting out of those "snow" machines, they were just having fun. There was talk of building a snowman, but sadly, there was not enough accumulation of foam!

A New Christmas Song

RJ has come up with his very own Christmas song (sung to We Wish You a Merry Christmas). Really, I think he doesn't know the words so here is his version of happy happy happy happy...

He sings this song with all his might several times a day. On this particular morning, RJ didn't know I was video taping him (or he would have turned into a giant ham!). Notice he is laying on the floor under his ever present dollar store umbrella :-)

A Visit With You Know Who!

Last week we went to see Santa. RJ was a little shy at first but warmed right up when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas. RJ wants a SpongeBob fishing pole - sweet - $11.89 at Target! Next G Man - he wants a XBox 360 - HA good luck with that one! I think I would rather eat during the month of December than fill that wish. Next D - he wants - ummmmmm....this boy has always clammed up and blanked out for Santa. Even though he is 15, he was unable to come up with a single item to help the old guy out! I told him we would mail a letter and let him know. We only have one believer left in our house so I am trying to treasure these visits to Santa while they last. Do you think I could get the boys to come home from college and sit on Santa's lap???

Bad Dreams and the Dollar Store

In the past few months, RJ has been having a lot of bad dreams. These bad dreams end up being the family's worst nightmares, as RJ ends up in either D's or our bed for the rest of the night and he is the only one that gets any sleep. As a parent, I have always said that I am not above bribery - it seemed to work for potty training, trying new foods and other childhood obstacles so why not for sleeping in your own bed?! So last night I offered RJ a trip to one of his favorite places if he slept in his own bed all night. This morning he came bounding out of his room and triumphantly announced that I owed him a trip to the Dollar store today! That was the promised reward - the Dollar store. After seeing the other brothers off to school we made our way to the dollar store, where, after much deliberation over all of the available treasures, we ended up with this...

Exactly what every child living in a warm, sunny place needs! It was about 74 degrees today - December 2nd!!! In his defense, it did rain last week and the little umbrella does have his favorite color (green) on it so I am sure it seemed like a great purchase to him. At least he can always use it to shade himself from the 110 degree sun in the summer!

Thanksgiving Wisdom from RJ

After taking a look at the raw Thanksgiving turkey, RJ asked, "After you cook it, does it turn into a Chicken?"...hmmm

All meats in our house turn into chicken once they are placed onto RJ's plate - he is convinced that chicken is the only meat he likes. The entire family can be eating steak for dinner and his looks just like ours but we call it chicken. Whatever works!

Thankful for...

God's grace and love in my life. Thank you for my loving husband and my 3 amazing boys, our home and the food in our cupboards. Thanks for our families and great friends. Thank you for sending your son, and remind us all that he should be the focus of this season!

My Aunt sent this to me and a friend helped me figure out how to post it. It is called cardboard testimonies and is worth the 8 minutes to view. It seems right now that there are so many struggling in our world with money, relationships, material possessions, and so many other things that have become our focus. I just wanted to take a minute to remind all of us that God never leaves us and he can free anyone from anything. God loves us all regardless of how worthy we are or (MOSTLY) aren't!

Treasure Island

D auditioned for some one act plays at school and was chosen to be in Treasure Island. He was Ben Gunn - the crazy island hermit. The video is not the best, but not too shabby for a digital camera that fits in my purse! Take a look at our crazy island hermit...

After two nights of pirate plays, RJ was transformed into a wee little pirate we eventually became annoyed with. He must have sung "yo ho ho and a bottle of rum" about 500 times that night! The first version being - T, you will love this - "yo ho ho and a bottom of bung"! We have tried to work with him to help him learn the correct words and here is the latest version...

Thanks to our 3 Day Supporters!

This is the Tig-O-Bitties "bra"! I am not sure my sons would appreciate being referred to as a bra, but those are the breaks when you get involved in the 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk. This crew consists of all of our hubbies, kids and our friend Hueso. Getting our children involved was very important so they could have a sense of the community and know a little bit more about why mom has been spending so much time training and fundraising. Many of our fellow walkers were jealous of our bra (two Expeditions, windows painted in pink and a tiny Toyota bearing signs like "don't slack - check your rack!") followed us daily and met us at our pit stops. While we stood in the potty lines at the pit stop, our hubbies were refilling our water and Gatorade - what a godsend! Our bra not only supported us, but they supported all walkers with Popsicles, ice, water and of course cheering. At one point, we texted our boys to let them know that we would love to have some visene and I kid you not, they pulled up 5 minutes later with two kinds of visene! I don't think the 3 of us could have asked for any more support from our families during our walk. They were thoughtful with roses, Popsicles, toilet seat covers, ice and even beer at the finish. A thousand thank yous to our wonderful "bra". Love you guys & gal!



I also want to mention the support we received from family, friends and co-workers attending our functions and bidding on silent auction items. Financial support is one of the most important aspects of the 3 Day. Thanks to Jen for selling our cards for us at her office and to MJ for selling over $2oo of our handmade cards to her co-workers in Montana!



I will leave you with one last pic of our friend Hueso in her day 3 support getup. At least she color coordinated with us!

We Did It!

Here we are at the opening ceremony - looking all fresh and ready to go! It was an amazing 3 days filled with tons of emotion, tears, memories, glide and a few blisters - but all 3 of us managed every step of the 60 miles with smiles on our faces (mostly!). I took yesterday to reflect and decide how I wanted to record my memories of this event here in my blog and I decided that I should do a few different posts about different aspects of my 3 Day walk experience. In this post I am going to focus on my team of friends and what I learned about them during our 3 days of walking and camping in tiny pink tents!

What I learned about Sand that I didn't already know...well for starters, she is blind as a bat! This was the source of much laughter in our tent especially when she was trying to find the zippered entrance to our tent using the braille method! Second...She is the strong silent type. While walking last year, Sand had heat exhaustion walking through Papago Park, so she was none too happy to see it on our route this year. This year I could tell she was tired and hurting but she quietly powered on in Papago Park until she announced to us that she was out of water! We eventually came across some 3 Day walk supporters with an extra water bottle so all was well. This year, even though it was on day 3, Sand conquered the beast known to her as Papago Park! Congratulations on taking every step and for not killing your crazy tent mate - ME!

What I learned about T that I didn't already know...hmmm, I just can't come up with anything! I already knew she has a good heart as she demonstrated on day 2 by giving her extra pair of socks to a lady we were walking behind. This lady (a breast cancer survivor) kept reaching down to pull her socks up as they would work their way back down into her shoes. T decided that this lady couldn't go the rest of the day pulling at her socks every 2o steps, so T insisted that the lady take her extra socks that she had been planning on changing into at lunch. I never got her name, but the lady was extremely grateful and T never thought twice about doing it. I also already knew that T is one tough chick! She walked a good portion of the 60 miles with a silver dollar sized blister on one of her heels and a good quarter sized area of missing skin on the top of her foot - the result of an allergic reaction to some tape she was using to protect the giant blister on her heel. Congrats on proving to yourself that you could do it again - this time in much more pain than the last!

Thanks to T and Sand for making my first 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk a fun memory filled time that I will never forget. Thank you ladies for all of your encouraging words and for putting up with my long legs keeping me a few steps ahead of you but never bagging on me for it! Thanks for helping me through the surprise attack I suffered during the first hour of the walk and for answering my hundreds of questions about what to expect during the walk with seemingly little annoyance. We worked with and worried about each other as a team and we started and finished as a team. Thanks for the memories - and helping me through my first 3 Day Walk! You guys are the best!

Here we are at the closing ceremony looking pretty darn happy!

Motivation

Here is our 3 Day Team - Team Tig-O-Bitties!

That is me on the left, Sand in the middle and T on the right. It was Sand's idea to pose like we were at glamor shots! Aren't we cute. We did our last long training walk this past Saturday. During our walk, a jogger approached us and told us "good job ladies" and she was applauding for us! We thanked her and asked her if she was also doing the 3 day walk. She told us that she was not but she had just wanted to stop and take a moment to personally thank us. She then went on to tell us that she would not be alive if not for the Susan G. Komen foundation! WOW!!! Goosebumps and tear city. That was a true motivator and now I have something to answer the question - WHY? - with when people ask me about the $2200 and the 60 miles and all the training time. You don't have to personally know a WHY to support this cause - over 182,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 and over 40,000 women will die of breast cancer in 2008. This statistic does not take into account any men that will be diagnosed or die from breast cancer in 2008. Much has been made of the fact that breast cancer gets a lot of attention, possibly at the expense of other causes, but the fact is that breast cancer touches all of us in some way or another eventually. But I pray it doesn't...

A 5 Year Old's Fashion Tips and Daily Wisdom

Here is RJ's first choice for an ensemble yesterday morning. I did let him wear it long enough to take G Man to school and then I convinced him it was time for some pants! He did keep the boots as his choice for shoes for the day until he decided they were "so sweaty".

Then, while eating breakfast RJ told me that you should never say that you hate Christmas. I asked him what made him say that and he informed me that if you say you hate Christmas then Santa Clause will bring you a Barbie doll! And he said the words Barbie doll as though he was talking about Santa bringing him green beans!!!

I am thankful every day that I get to stay home with RJ and that I get to be the benefactor of his sweet and sometimes twisted wisdom. Have a great day and be nice to Jesus!

Trick or Treat

Just a couple of pictures from our Halloween fun. We talked D into trick or treating for the first time in a couple of years! We had to pull a last minute costume out of the bag in the garage so he settled for the plastic Elvis hair and a pair of his own Levi's. Several friends joined us at our house and we had a really fun evening. We have better pics of the adults on Halloween - but they paid me handsomely not to publish them! Thanks to all our friends for hanging out with us.

Change

I was finding my other blog layout a bit difficult to read, so I changed to this one! Nothing exciting to post today - but the day is still young! Hope everyone has a safe Halloween.

Crazy Hair Day

Today was crazy hair day at G-Man's school. We had to work at it a bit to get a crazy hair look! This is what he went off to school looking like...

Then we have RJ...Every morning he gets out of bed is a brand new crazy hair day for him! This pic of him is pre-shower - he slept in his clothes.

Later...FOUND - the cure for RJ's crazy hair day AKA bed head!

3 Day Training Update

I was so excited to do this post and let everyone know that on Friday last week, I passed 120 miles of training! We only started at the end of September, so I am proud of all of the training we are squeezing in during our shortened training period. Thanks again to my hubby, G, for getting up every weekday to do 5 miles with me.

This is the not so happy part of my 3 day training update - on Friday afternoon I was putting a Longaberger 3 qt. dish in my hutch and it slid out of the hutch, landing square on my left big toe!!! My toe turned a nice shade of purple and throbbed so bad I hardly slept Friday night. Saturday I skipped our 14 mile walk (ya think?) and went to the urgent care for an x-ray. I kept explaining to them that normally I wouldn't be concerned except I am in training for the 3 day. What can they really do for a broken toe anyway? X-rays were negative so the kind Doc gave me some meds to help me heal and sleep and they wished me well. Doc told me that he would recommend at least a week off if not more, but to listen to my body and I should be fine. Three days of no training is already killing me but I am trying to be a good patient and use the down time to focus on additional fundraising, as I am still about $1000 shy of the $2200 and so is another of my teammates.

If you think about it, say a little prayer for my toe and also that we will meet our fundraising goals. Thanks.

My 3 Day link:
http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/ArizonaEvent?px=2770975&pg=personal&fr_id=1180

Funniest quote to come from the toe debacle - D, my 15 year old - "I always knew Longaberger would be the death of mom - I just thought it would be from all of the giant boxes that get delivered to the house!" Funny boy.

Words I Haven't Heard Before...

Hello Mrs. T, this is the school Social Worker...and G-Man has been in a fight on the playground! HUH? Not knowing exactly how testosterone works, I wasn't sure how to handle this situation. As the mother of 3 boys I guess I should have expected to get that phone call one day, but I wasn't. I really thought the boxing matches would happen at home more than at school - silly me. Turns out there was a football game on the playground that included some smack talking and G-Man shoving one of his best friends (who is much larger than him) and the pal returned the love with a punch to the ribs. That was pretty much the end of the fight and they both ended up in the office soon after. This incident came on the same day as G-Man's parent teacher conference so we made him come to the school with us and apologize to the Principal for causing trouble in her school. She took mercy on both boys, knowing they are buddies and that it was their first (and hopefully last) offense, and she didn't suspend them. The principal also knows how competitive these boys all are since they are all on the same baseball team as her son so she banned the two delinquents from playground football for the next two weeks. G-Man probably has the biggest heart of our 3 boys and he shed a couple of tears knowing that he had hurt his friend because he didn't think about his actions first. There was a grounding and a phone call to the buddy to make nice so all is well for Monday morning - hopefully lessons learned!

I suppose since I have now embarrassed him on the world wide web, I should also brag a little that at his conference we received G-Man's report card - all A's. Way to go bud!

For Pete's Sake - Be Nice to Jesus!

A couple of months ago, I was pleased to find a little Preschool that was Christ centered for RJ to attend. It is a sweet little place where the children pray before meals and even pray for each other if someone has a need. They learn bible stories like Donut and the Whale (RJ speak for Jonah). Little did I know that Miss S - his teacher - was giving RJ ammunition to use against us in disciplining him...

Sunday, we took D to a favorite local restaurant for a Birthday dinner. As the evening wore on, RJ got bored and started winding up. I know, shocking! G reached over and gave RJ a tap on the rear to get his attention at which point, RJ looks right at him and tells him that he is not being nice to Jesus!? RJ continues to wind up even more and eventually G leaves the restaurant with him and leaves me to wait for the to go boxes. G lets RJ know that he is going to have a meeting with the spanky spoon when he gets home and RJ continues to insist that G is not being nice to Jesus. At this point we are hysterical and having a difficult time disciplining him as he is telling us we have to be nice to Jesus from behind his sobbing in the car! So, as near as we can figure, he is learning at his preschool that if you are not being nice to others, you are also not being nice to Jesus. Thank you Miss S.

He never did get to meet with the spanky spoon, we were just laughing too hard - especially after we started calling him Jesus with a Hispanic pronunciation (Hey-soos). We figure if we can't use the spanky spoon on Jesus anymore, we might as well have some fun with it and him!

So boys and girls our lesson for the week is...Be nice to Jesus! Probably not a bad lesson at all.

Happy Birthday D!

WARNING, this post contains overt bragging!

This weekend our D turned 15 - so hard to believe! It truly seems like not that long ago he was just a sweet baby/toddler starting to display his firstborn tendencies. Always the rule follower and pleaser, all we had to do when he was starting to do something that he knew was probably not o.k. was say his name a little sternly and he was done and off to another adventure. An avid reader today, this started out as D toddling over with a book for me to read to him and this would repeat countless times a day (with the same book!) until I would finally hide the book and make him find another favorite! Last week his first High School report card came in the mail - all A's with a 4.5 GPA. Way to go D! Keep it up and you will get to go to MIT and be a Mythbuster. Your father and I are exceedingly proud of the young man that you are and excited for all the possibilities that your life will hold for you. Happy Birthday, we love you!

I will now attempt a blogging first for me - posting a video...

For those that haven't seen this yet - it is D in Cinderella as Lionel last spring. We didn't know he could even sing! He didn't even tell us he had a singing part - we found out sitting in the audience. He decided after this play that he likes drama, something we have known since he was a baby, so he quit band and took up drama in High School this year. He just appeared (the only Freshman with a speaking part) in Heaven Can Wait. I have a feeling that this will not be the only post with a drama video attached in our future.

Welcome to my Blog!

I don't really expect that anyone more than family and an occasional friend will follow my blog which is ok with me! I am really doing this as a way to share with far away family members how the kids are growing with a picture or two and a video clip once in a while. I have been inspired by a friend that is a blogger. When I read her blog, it just seems like a great way to keep everyone up to date with your family and the funny,sad or weird everyday things that happen to you. Of course, my blog will be a bit more boring than my friend who has been chronicling her adoption of a daughter from Ghana! Nothing quite that exciting going on at our house but I would still like to share.

The most exciting thing going on at the moment for me is that I am training and fundraising for the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk. Two friends decided a couple of weeks ago that they were going to do the walk again this year and invited me to join them. I did not do the walk last year, but supported them along the way and attended the life changing closing ceremony. Deciding to train and fundraise for the walk that is on November 14th is a bit of an undertaking. If you are unfamiliar, you must raise $2,200 to participate and follow a grueling training schedule meant to be done in 16 weeks or more! My weekday training has been made possible by my wonderful hubby who now gets up at 4:45 every morning to undertake a 5 mile or more walk with me. Thanks G! Love you!!!

I guess that is all for now - until next time!