Tom's Play

Tom's fourth grade class performed three plays yesterday that they had been working on since almost the start of school. They worked really hard and they did a great job. This first six weeks of school, they focused on fairy tales from around the world. Their plays depicted different fairy tales from different cultures and the kids learned that, although each culture may have Cinderella, it may not have the same happy ending or it may be told differently than they are use to. It is amazing how multi-cultural this school is. I love that my boys are seeing that it doesn't matter where you may have grown up or what language your family speaks at home. What matters is who you are inside. Kids don't seem to stereo-type like adults do. I really do love this part about living here. They are being exposed to a whole new form of teaching and a different ciricullum than we were use to in a traditional public school. Here I go getting off subject......


In the first play, Turkey Girl, Tom was the Native American priest of sorts. It is the basic story of Cinderella but from the Native American telling. He was awesome!


The next play was completely in spanish. Tom helped with props. Let's just say my boys are not the strongest spanish speakers in their classes. He worked really hard building the fruit stand used in the spanish version of Red Riding Hood. I guess it was pretty funny because half the audience - who are native spanish speakers I think - were laughing pretty hard at the dialouge.


The third play was called "Spiderella" and was an insect version of Cinderella. Tom was one of the three narators in this play and he was great. He isn't nervous speaking into the microphone and spoke clearly and slow enough we could understand him. I loved watching him get out in front and perform. He doesn't do that very often. He is really coming into his own since we've moved down here and I can literally watch him grow into a young man each day. Man I love that kid!

To Drug or Not To Drug

I have come to the conclusion that I am allergic to Arizona. Maybe not the entire state but at least the northern section. Maybe it's the cooler temperatures. Maybe it's the towering, majestic, beautiful trees. Maybe it's the lack of emissions in our neighborhood. Maybe it's the lack of fast food in my system. Whatever it is, I am allergic to something.

For the past week Dylan and I have been fighting allergies like I've never known. We have all the classic symptoms: sneezing, running nose, congestion, red and itchy eyes. I give him Benadryl hoping he will sleep it off and it does the opposite for him. He refuses to nap - ugh. I skip the Benadryl because it does make me sleep - sleep like the dead. I take Zyrtek which has been my wonder drug until now. Now my allergies laugh at my attempt. Last night I reached my limit. I called the clinic and they gave me the go ahead for some Benadryl on top of my Zyrtek. It did help me get through the night without being bothered by allergies. It may have been that I was sleeping like the dead by nine o'clock! Great night time option but the day is going to be long. I just don't feel right about making Ethan babysit his brother and mom all day while I'm drooling on the pillow!

On a some-what unrelated topic, the school sent home a permission slip for the flu shot for my kids. All the kids can go in and get it for free. For some reason, the flu shot always freaks me out. My Grandpa Larson said Grandma had some sort of reaction to it when she got it about thirty years ago and he warned me against taking it. Do I dare? Do I not dare? I've never had my kids get the flu shot and they've been okay so far but this year and this location is a bit more scary to me. We have tourists from all over the world carrying who knows what here year round. Our medical care isn't the most comprehensive, although I've been impressed with the clinic so far. I was on the fence and then I saw that if you haven't had it before, you need a booster shot a month later and I thought that was a bit of a hassle not to mention the boys will remember in a month how it felt getting the shot in the first place and I'm not sure I can lift Tom and Logan in the car and strap them down fast enough to get to the clinic. Do we do it or not?

The news had stories of healthy kids dying of the H1N1 virus and that is really frightening to me. I know the flu shot I'm talking about doesn't protect from the H1N1 virus but for me it's the first step to overcoming my fear of the flu vaccine. I'm sure the school will be offering the H1N1 shot in the future and I guess I need to make my decision. Who knew that being the mom would be so hard some days? To drug or not to drug? What's your answer?

Two Hours of Joy

I'm writing this so one day, when I have grandkids and my boys and daughter-in-laws tell me about the escapades their children pull in church, I can show them proof that I have lived through it.

We only have a two-hour block here. It is lovely to only try to keep Dylan reverent for two hours, don't get me wrong. The up-side is the short amount of time because our branch is so small that it can't really staff the positions needed for a three-hour block and one hour of Young Men's or Young Women's would be pretty hard each week with just one of each in attendance. It's nice that Sacrament Meeting is only one hour. Not one hour and fifteen minutes. The extra fifteen minutes make all the difference. Really. It does.

Now, the flip side. We are the only kids in our branch. We are the "nice young couple" that brings their kids to church each Sunday, the kids that make it so the not so young couples can't hear a thing the speakers say - especially since there isn't a microphone. We are the "family with all those boys" that try to keep the noise to a dull roar each week. We are the parents of the kid that says, not in his whisper voice and while doing THE dance, "I have to go potty!" during the middle of the talk. We are the family that spreads the Fruit Loops across the whole row. We are THAT family.

Each week someone from the branch comes up to us and tells us how great it is that there are kids in the branch. They tell us they have all been there. They tell us our boys are soooooo good. They tell us kid noise is what makes a branch feel right. They tell us that one day, all too soon, they won't be making all that noise and we should enjoy it while they are young. I'm still not totally convinced that it isn't an assignment from the Branch or Relief Society President to pat us on the back in order to keep us active. What would they call that calling anyway? Bishop's cheerleader?

Danger Zone

This week we got to babysit a couple of cute kids while their mom was out of town and their dad was at work. They are three and two years-old, so they fit in perfectly with my boys. The youngest is an adorable little girl that is about the same size as Dylan, in other words, petite. The first day passed without incident. They played pretty well together and it made me realize just how energetic and noisy and full of it my boys are because our new friends were so quiet and nice. When their dad came to pick them up, they were still happy and healthy and wanting to come back. That was then.

Today is a different story. After a week of their mom being out of town, they are a bit more tired and cranky. Still adorable though and by far the easiest kids I've ever seen. I sent them out in the back yard this morning to play because Dylan was having a day and needed some space. The sun was out and the temperature had started to climb so it was perfect.

We have a trampoline and an old fashioned swing set and slide in the back yard to play with and they had a great time earlier in the week. Today, they hadn't been out there more than an hour before the sweet little girl started screaming/crying. Ut oh.

She had fallen off the slide ladder and when I say she scraped her face, that is an understatement. It is red from eye socket to jaw bone and from nose to half way to the ear on one side. Just scratched but the kind of scratch that looks awful. Why is it that kids only do this at other people's houses? How will the parents - that I barely know - handle it? What would you do if it were your kid? Only time will tell here.

Organized Chaos

Since moving here, we've been constantly downsizing, organizing, trying to find a place for everything, and rejoicing every time something gets used up or worn out so we can get rid of it. It's a constant battle. I'm what you would call a "type A" personality and have been struggling with the continual mess. It's not that I have spotless house ever, far from it, but usually things have a home and we get them there regularly. That hasn't been the case here.

It seems like every time I start the organization process, I quickly become frustrated with the lack of space and throw in the towel. It makes me crazy! We still have boxes in places but no where for the contents to go so they just sit in the corner waiting for me to sort through the precious belongings and decide what isn't precious any more. I've become much less attached in the past few weeks. It's amazing to me how much stuff six people can accumulate and not really ever use or need!

Today I had to find a place for my jars of peach jam in the pantry. This has been one of the worst spots for me. I love food storage and, even though we had been eating out of our storage and not adding to it for some time, there was still too much to organize on the shelf space we have here. We basically cut our food storage space in half. Gary bought a couple shelves and that seemed to help. He put one together and started stacking random items on it. Even though things weren't as crowded as they had been, there still wasn't room for two dozen pint jars if I wanted them in one place. I had to tackle the pantry.

An hour later, the new shelf was organized and space was made for the jam. I even got rid of the four more boxes that were packed with random food items. You can now walk across the floor of the pantry without stepping over boxes and coolers and jugs of water. You can easily find the boys lunch items. I know how many cans of tuna we have - way, way too many. I can replace the virtually empty shampoo bottle in the bathroom without running to the store because the ones in the storage room are lost. It's a lovely, lovely feeling. Maybe I should start working on some of the other boxes. Nah. Baby steps.

The Smell of Fall

It's felt like fall here for quite some time. The nights are cold, mornings chilly, and afternoons perfect. Since the majority of the trees where we live are pine, we don't really see leaves change. The drop in tourists has also been a great indicator that fall is here.

Today, my kitchen smells like fall too. I had a box of peaches from the co-op that needed to be canned in one form or another for a few days. Today I had a few hours of peaceful afternoon that I figured would be perfect to turn that box of ripening peaches into some delicious jam. Little did I know that today would also be the day that Dylan and Ethan decided to forgo their naps. So much for the peace and quiet!

After hours of sticky, sugary, bubbling goodness, I can now look at two dozen pints of yummy jam ready to go in the pantry for the winter. Until I had to buy a jar of jam at the store recently, I didn't realize how good the homemade variety is! It takes me a while to get over the mountain of sugar that goes into each batch though. Honestly, I think it is twelve parts sugar, one part fruit. Maybe that explains why it tastes so good.

Spicy

This weekend we made an all too quick trip to Phoenix to visit with the Moss family (thanks a ton Brandon and Coleen!) and learned just how much warmer it is in Phoenix. We've been here freezing in the mornings, wanting to clean out the chimney so we can start a fire in to warm up the house in the mornings, wearing long sleeves and long pants, and smelling that familiar scent of fall for a couple weeks now. Phoenix isn't anywhere near cool. Wow it was warm! In fact, it was warm enough that when the boys were jumping on the trampoline, Ethan said he couldn't jump anymore. Why not? The tramp is "spicy." Yep, spicy.