Tweens

We had a wild evening on Friday. The junior high sponsored a dance at the local YMCA, and since Caleb isn't 14 yet, he is not allowed to go. This is actually the second dance that he has missed. When he came home and talked to me about the dances and whether or not he could go (I of course told him he couldn't go until he was 14), he asked how he should tell his friends. I told him that he could tell them I wouldn't let him go. It didn't end up being an issue since his friends asked if he was going while I was standing there. I jumped right in and told them it was a family rule and he couldn't go to dances until he was 14. I also took this opportunity to tell them, a bunch of girls, that he couldn't date until he was 16. They looked at me like I was crazy. I shrugged my shoulders and turned around.

Back to this last Friday. Caleb and I decided that since he couldn't go to the dances that we would do something here. He and his friend planned a party. They made invitation and decided who they would invite. They had a lot of fun.

The started outside. Then they came inside. Downstairs then upstairs. Inside, outside, upside down. They ate, played games, tried to watch a movie, "socialized," decorated pumpkins, ran inside and outside, played chess, listened to music, etc.

It was a great evening.

Socked Out

Yes, it is true. Brett socked out one of Emily's front teeth. Now here is the story...

One Saturday morning Emily was calling herself names. Brett first told her it wasn't true. She kept said it was true, so Brett tried the tactic of saying, "If it is true, don't tell anyone." She continued. He then told her if she didn't stop that he was going to put a SOCK in her MOUTH. Needless to say...she didn't stop.

Brett got up, grabbed a sock, and took off after her. He got the sock in her mouth, and then it got pulled out. Emily spit something she thought was part of the sock onto the floor. She felt in her mouth and realized that it was her tooth. She got excited and started thanking Brett for "socking" her tooth out.

On Sunday, she got the other one pulled out. Right now her favorite song is, "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth!"

Duct Tape

For Extreme Makeover, we found out that the boy of the family liked duct tape. During the first conference session on Sunday, Caleb decided to make a duct tape bag. It actually turned out pretty cool. I took it with me, and tried to give it to the people at the house, but they said the competition was the day before, and if I wanted to give it to the boy I could bring it back by when the family got home or mail it. We haven't done either. It is still sitting in Caleb's room.

Extreme Makeover - Home Edition

Between conference sessions, I went with a friend to the site where they were building a house for a family for Extreme Makeover - Home Edition. My friend VIP passes, and she went early in the morning with her husband. When she went it was cold and wet. They were pretty miserable. She asked if she could come back, and the people there told her that she could.

She called and invited me to go with her. It was fortunate for me that the weather had improved quite a bit. It was no longer raining. It was, however, a little cold.

My friend was excited to see some of the cast and crew. I didn't really know any of them, except Ty, and he was no where to be seen (or heard from).

Here is our story:

We drove up to the house through a big corn field. It was bumpy!

Then we parked the car. This isn't the car we rode in. It was just a car parked in the "lot" that we parked in.

We got to walk up to this very cool sign and check-in. It really wasn't as cool as it sounds. The good part about it was that we didn't have to stand in the middle of a bunch of people. We were able to go inside a little tent where there were treats, and then we were allowed to go to look at the house.

I liked the shirts, and this guy was very picture worthy to me. He was one of the laborers.

This is about as close as we got to any of the cast. They were driving away in the vans. Someone in the van is waving.

We didn't have to be in this group of people. We were free to wander, but the view of the house was not that great. We did get to see people working.

Proof that I was actually there.

Larson Contracting was doing the building, and I am guessing that these are some pretty important people. Not many people got to drive around in golf carts.

This was the view of the house I got to see. The garage is to the right of the tree. It was an amazingly busy place. There were volunteers all over the place, and everyone seemed to be busy most of the time.

When we were leaving, I turned around and took a picture of the front of the house.

Then, in case we didn't know how to get out, they had a sign to show the way. All in all it was a fun experience.

(For any of you who are fans of the show, it is the 10th house of the season - don't know when it will be aired)

General Conference Heroes

We were blessed to be able to watch General Conference at home. It is nice to be able to relax in the privacy of our own house and listen to the words of the prophets. There were some excellent talks, and of course the ones that were given specifically for me.

However, while we were watching conference, we had a couple of visitors.

The girls decided that they would fly in for the occasion. We were shocked and amazed. We were more impressed with their ingenuity.

Their dresses were perfectly matched to their hair and their shoes. But the best part was what their dresses were made of.

Their dresses are made of vinyl capes. They put the capes on backwards and then used head bands (large elastic bands) as belts to hold them on.

We were grateful for our visit from our super heroes.

Dirty Jobs

We like watching the show Dirty Jobs, and are amazed and grossed out at some of the things people really do.

Watch out Mike Rowe... One day I went outside, and Emily was sitting on the driveway digging the weeds out of the cracks in the sidewalk. YUCK!She was at it for over an hour. It kept her busy and out of trouble.

It's a Toy?

So, she is not really hurt. I went to a pharmacy to see if they had a band that I can put around my arch. I think it is falling, and it hurts a little sometimes. They didn't have what I was looking for. The trip was not a bust though. Emily made a purchase. She found a pair of crutches. She was so excited to use get them. She asked me if she could buy them. I looked at the price and they were $20. I asked her if she was willing to use her own money, and she said she was. I think I asked her five or six times if she really wanted to spend her money on a pair of crutches (my child who will not spend $12 on a dress for school), and she begged me to let her buy them... So I did.

She has been happy with her purchase ever since and has had no buyer's remorse.

When asked why she wanted crutches, she told me that when we went to the Children's Museum of Minnesota she was able to use crutches. She has wanted them ever since.

Take a Look

I was sitting at the dining room table working on a project and Emily came and laid down across the table. I looked at her eyes and was amazed at how green they are. I know they aren't totally green, and when I asked her what color they were, she said they were hazel. I decided to really look at the eyes of my other children.

This is what I came up with. (top left - Caleb, top right - Emily, bottom left - Eli, bottom right - Claire) In looking at this picture, I noticed that Emily and Caleb have lighter eyebrows than Eli and Claire.

I may be very unobservant, but it was fun to really look at their eyes.

Nutcracker - Again!

The children are doing the Nutcracker again. It is so much fun to watch them. Caleb is the actually nutcracker and prince again (this makes 3 years in a row). Eli is Fritz, the younger brother to Clara (the girl who gets the nutcracker doll), and he is also the rat king. This means that Caleb and Eli get to sword fight on stage. Caleb will have to stab Eli and kill him. They will love that part.

Emily gets to be a candy cane this year, and she is also in the party scene. This should be fun because she has watched her brothers in this scene for two years now. Claire will be a gingerbread cookie again, and hopefully she will be able to do her whole dance. Last year, one little girl was sad, so the rest of the girls stood there and waited for her to join the dance. I think they finally decided to go on without her. Bridget does a great job with the choreography, and it is slightly different every year. I am excited to see it.

This means that they practice their group dances in their regularly scheduled dance classes, and then they have their extra practices on Saturday. Needless to say, we spend a lot of time at the dance studio.

Preschool Computer

On Thursday, I was able to go to a luncheon and training because our preschool applied for a new computer. We were fortunate to be able to get one. It is a Young Explorer computer system. It is a grant through Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation and IBM. As part of the training, I was able to play with the software, and it was a lot of fun. I am so excited to be able to bring one to our preschool (I was supposed to bring it home with me on Thursday, but they didn't make it - parts weren't quite ready).

It was a great experience to be able to meet some of the wonderful people who made this possible.