Balloon Swords

Alex, Andrew, Seany, and RyGuy.

Same line up -- Andrew's sword was the only one to make it too the car. The others all popped. And we decided although Ry's not suppose to have one, it would suck to be the kid without and he hasn't shown anymore allergic symptoms.

Tats, stamping, and tee shirts

Alex chose the helicopter, Andrew the Thomas tat. Seany & RyGuy also chose Thomas those refulsed to have the hands photographed.

Andrew loved the stamps.

This tee shirt brought back Alex memories. Everybody remember how he could name every bit of the trains. Even he enjoyed reading this t-shirt.

Mini-horses

Ryan's smile stayed in place until he noticed a dirty hand from touching the horses.

See that RyGuy grin.

Even the back end in delightful!

"My orse!"

Andrew thought it was cool for a second.

Train table fun

Seany & RyGuy

Andrew & Alex

Seany

RyGuy

Getting to Heber Railroad

Andrew ready to go at home, making some kind of chuggering noise.

Ryan in front and Seany in the rear walking the tracks to the station -- they are tracks with no train they end at the corner and start at the entrance.

Alex's Lion Poem

Poetry Reading at Park View

Alex's 2nd grade first shared a poem adapted for their class.

Then they each shared a poem each that they wrote of the school year. Luckily Alex had been there for 2 poem writing sessions and had one good one to share.

I think my favorite was by a little girl. Theme "Let the blank..." (Give an animal or object human traits)

Let the dog wear painted nails
Let the dog jump on the tramp
Let the dog take a bubble bath
Let the dog sip hot chocoate
Let the dog sleep in my bed.

I think I liked it because one could allow a dog to do all those things.

Boston Legal

One of my favorite TV shows tells the story of a conservative and a liberal friendship. Last night, the conservative, Denny Crane (played by William Shatner) said something like the following.

The thing about your generation is that you don't know how personal it is
to my generation to be an American. You grew up in a time when
America was/is a superpower.

When my generation were kids, we went to bed at night with Hitler trying to
take over the world. America could end.

Its a point of view that is often forgotten when we rail against all that is wrong with this country we forget. No wonder our elders think we have no respect for America. The difference between enacting change (necessary change) and total disrespect can be a fine line. Its a bit of dialogue that I think will always stay with me.

And I think all you all should be watching Boston Legal all the time.

Baseball Game 1

Alex up at bat. He got a base hit and rounded the bases to home over the next few batters.

Alex's favorite position -- catcher. You always get to throw the ball.

FYI, he wanted #12, it was taken. So he picked #9 because on Mark's softball team, he's #99.

My injured bird...so sad....

Ryan lifting the injured limb.

Ryan expressing the pain in his scraped leg.

Ryan preparing to clean his own wound.

Ryan covering the pained leg.

Ryan said, "No Sea! NO! NO!" Ryan was thinking, "Sean your ruining my moment in the spotlight!"

Sean was thinking, "Oh, Mommy has the camera! Smile BIG!"

Cassie's Cause Walk-a-thon

Lap 8.

Determined in lap 10!

Seany & RyGuy helping the cause with muffins and pears!

Snack time -- Andrew, Seany, Ryan, and Alex.

Bowling - everyone's favorite activity

Alex did pretty well.

After the first couple innings/rounds (what does one call it), Andrew didn't use the little helper.

Seany needed help carrying his ball. We'd set it on the do-hicky and then he'd shove it down.

Ryan required no help of any kind. He resented our 'spotting' his carrying the ball.

The kid even won the game!

3 days in to our new house

And we cleared it out of all the crap-o-la we brought from Pear.

When you were 2, how were you at the dentist?

Ryan was all smiles.

Sean was totally relaxed.

Ryan let her put a foamy fluoride treatment in.

Seany let her brush in the fluoride.

RyGuy left a happy cavity free, toy collecting vet. FYI, Seany is also cavity free.

Fence free and rocky

Seany stayed close to home.

While, RyGuy went off on an adventure.

Ry came back dirty and unhappy about it.

Half the rocks we had moved out of the backyard. Double the piles and that's about what was taken out.

Packing up Pear

Yes, that's all in the front room.

We filled up this room too. I just never got a picture of it.

Papa Pat bought donuts for the chicklets on moving day. It took all 4 chicklets to polish off that giant thing some called a donut.

Random pictures

Ryan saw that I had the camera, so he was on my knees mugging until he liked a photo of himself.

Our little ham, RyGuy.

Alex found a treasure, his hand x-ray from 2005!

Alex lost his second tooth 2 days ago. The tooth fairy left him a dollar covered in fairy dust. "Mommy, do you think the tooth fairy is a boy or a girl?"

"Girl."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I've met her. Besides, how many boy fairies use fairy dust?"

Cassie's Cause

Alex participated in a walk-a-thon for one of his friends, Cassie. Alex and Cassie have been friends since they were three and a half years old. She has a brain tumor and is again undergoing chemo. As this is a friend from his old school, we received an email the night before inviting him to participate and he didn't get a chance to collect donations (i.e. $1/lap).

Cassie was completely blind 3 years ago and luckily the tumor was reduced enough that although she doesn't have perfect sight, she can see again. Unfortunately, the tumor requires treatment again. Radiation is not a good option because of some complications with the tumor's location in her brain. And surgery is totally out. Chemotherapy is the only road available and is very expensive.

Sean & Ryan donated by pilfering food from the snack table. They raised an extra $5 thanks to Seany & Ryan's skills at swiping and munching

On our way home, Alex said, "Mommy, guess what? I'm going to call Nona and she'll be so proud of me for helping Cassie." To which I responded that I to was proud of him. I did feel a little teary when he got to lap 8 and said, "I'm tired but I can definitely finish my last 2 laps Cassie needs the money to pay for all her medical bills."

If anyone wants to donate to the cause, you can send the donation to us or directly to the school attention: Cassie's Cause. They raised just over $2000 at the walk-a-thon of which $52 was from us.

Lakeview Academy
Attn: Cassie's Cause
527 W. 400 N.
Saratoga Springs, UT 84045

Additionally, I can tell you that having a very healthy special needs kid is very expensive. Ryan's tests and check up thus far in 2008 have run us $1200 out of pocket. I can't even guess at how much they have to pay for the chemo in addition to all Cassie requires for her regular care.

IRONMAN

Mark took the big boys to see Ironman yesterday while I shopped with the twix. The mall took out the play center so we had to shop for 2.5 hours. About an 1 hour in to our excursion, Ryan slipped on the escalator and scrapped his leg from ankle to knee and that was the end of shopping and playing. We spent the next half hour watching Ryan look at his injured leg.

Sean was (is still) sick with a fever so he was cool with hanging out on a bench driving his car back and forth.

The big guys loved it! I think Andrew loved be part of the big boys instead of stuck with the 'babies.'

So no landscaper came out to move sprinkler pipes this weekend.

Typical.

Richmond (the builder) is going to get the original landscaper out here this weekend to move our sprinklers over.

Landscapers

I need a moment to vent.

The peeps that put the front yard sprinklers in put them in and over the property line when they swung them around our backyard. So now, the $6K fence goes in next week and the sprinkler line will be UNDER the fence, the posts are going to puncture the water line!

Then, my neighbor (on that side) has hired a landscaper to do the basics in her yard -- she's already spent $6K on her share of the fencing, $8K on their patio and he's charging her $11K to cover the rocks with topsoil, lay sprinklers, put down a couple veggie boxes, surround the sod with curbing and put down sod. Not build their shed, not plant any trees, not put any veggies in said boxes. Total rip off.

So, I asked him how much he'd charge to take our rocks away and level our yard. "That's it. That's all you want done."

"No, we only have a small amount to spend on the whole yard so we need to as much as we can ourselves."

No answer, no quote, nada. I guess he's not interested if its not a big enough job.

And he was supposed to take out all her rocks and he said, "Well the rocks are out and we'll get the sprinklers going in now."

She said, "What are all those? I see giant piles of rocks everywhere."

He said, "Well we aren't going to get every single rock."

Apparantly, that means you can leave a full ton of surface rocks and call it a day.

Permits

So, the city has all kinds of permits and requirements before you do anything.

To do the backyard:
1 fence permit: free
1 shed permit: free if under 120 sq feet

and 1 questionable pergola permit. The inspector said, "Well its a structure so it needs to be to code, but I don't have a permit for it."

"Can you tell me what the code requirements are?"

"Well, since there's not a permit, just do what you want. Don't put a roof on, I guess screens would be ok, but NOT a roof. And keep it 5 feet from the property line like we would require a shed."

"Ok. So, when we're actually ready to do it, do we let you know? Make sure the rules haven't changed? Etc?"

"No, I don't have anything to give you or applications to fill out."

So my very basic translation, when the inspector doesn't have a good answer, do whatever you want and don't tell him about it.

Topped himself

This afternoon after a morning of errands, Andrew would not put down his baseball bat. He tried carrying it on his shoulder, across his back, using it as a cane and finally between his legs.

"Mommy look when I hold my bat like this it looks like I have a really long p*****."

Yes, my 4 year old said that. We had to have the privacy talk, the we don't talk about the parts of our body that make potties, etc.

One more Andrew tale

So, we're moving rocks. Day 6 of rock rotation. Very boring, very tedious, very under appreciated by those who do not have millions of pounds of rocks to move. We're all filthy. We've all bathed every night before dinner/bed/reentry into brand spanking new house.

Andrew & Alex keep their rooms locked. To keep the twix out. Smart kids. But it means they can't get in either. An adult has to reach the key for them.

So after his bath, Andrew had to wait for me to come get the key for him. Instead of sitting draped in a towel like his more modest slightly older contemporary. Andrew decided to go to the sliding glass door and dance for our neighbors behind us who were trying to figure out their drainage system before the fence goes in, directly across from our sliding glass door.

All of a sudden, I realize what he's doing. I offer my apologies and she kindly (very understanding actually) made no big deal about his tally wacker antics.

And so the tale grows...

By the time he's an old man, he'll have survived rapid fire coming from the hills.

Andrew said, "Mommy, can I tell our neighbor about my chin owie."

"Yes, Andrew."

"So this thing came and hit me right here (pointing violently). Seeee!"

"Oh, yes, it looks very sore."

"Yeah it is. It was a cannon that fired that rock at me because there was nobody around."

Her answer, "Yes, Andrew. Stick with the cannon story, that makes it much more interesting."

Laughter insued.

We have a super nice neighbor

The weekend we moved in, Michelle something, brought us the most divine cupcakes ever -- dark chocolate with some kind of cream cheese filling and heath bar bits through out and topped.

Today we had a near disaster and Michelle something saved me/us. On the way home from school, out of nowhere a rock hit Andrew on the underside of his chin. He chin swelled up to twice the normal size and turned blue and bloody. She heard his screams and came right over to help us. He could not ride his trike because his helmet would hurt his chin. She carried it to our house and helped get the others settled while I doctored Andrew.

I love her already.

So far

We've hung 20-ish things on walls -- for the chicklets. Andrew has 4 directional signs, 2 tin signs, and 4 CARS lithographs coming (I need to track down their frames). Sean & Ryan have 5 animals on parade over their closet where they will never reach. Alex, dear dear Alex has got 4 family photos, 1 autographed astronaut, 1 tin sign, 2 Star Wars pictures and a propeller, american flag, and xray to go.

We've spent about 10 hours working in the back yard. We have a giant pile of rocks. We've got rocks of all sizes and shapes. We're trying to work with the neighbor behind us to get a rock/retaining wall up so that we don't end up with their yard in our yard before our fence comes in 2 weeks.

We still have to hang the last 2 blinds in the front room and Andrew's room. We have tons of boxes to sort through. We haven't found all the kitchen stuff yet. We have lots of work to do.