A Week of School

Well, the first week of school is over. I'd call it a success. Maybe not an unqualified success, but a success.

Allison is homeschooling this year. This has been something we've considered for some time and finally decided to bite the bullet. Gymnastics is such a time suck that it will be wonderful having her around more. Now, the gym had this first week of school off so we haven't actually seen how it will all work together and I think she got a bit bored, but overall it's been great. She's been a great help with Evelyn and has done reading, writing, math, vocabulary and typing with a minimum of complaint. We even set up her own email address so she can practice writing to family and friends. Email me if you are interested in getting her email address.

We also did started a series of experiments on crystal formation that came from Costco and spent a visit to the library learning how crystals and geodes are formed. I think the biggest lesson is one in patience, since the experiments are designed to be done one at a time and each takes about a week. Right now we are forming multiple "ruby" clusters on a rock and the solution is so dark that we can only see the crystals by shining a flashlight through the container. Pretty cool, though.

Alexander started first grade at Triggs and is so far loving his teacher and his class. She's very positive and uses a reward-based motivation system which is perfect for him. He keeps telling me that he has learned to listen and learned how to respect others which I suppose is what school is really all about, right? And it's amazing how peaceful and quiet it is around here during the day with just one less child.

Living in the desert in certainly a change, too. In North Dakota, the kids learned about hypothermia and frostbite. Here, they learn about dehydration and heat stroke. On Alexander's first day of school, I asked him what he learned and he said, "I learned that when my pee is white I'm drinking enough water and when it's yellow, I'm not drinking enough water." Words of wisdom from a first grade teacher.

Life in Las Vegas

I've been struggling with blogging lately (well, obviously. For like the last year) because it seems like there are so many places on the internet to share information now. It always seems silly to post pictures in 3 different places, but maybe someday I'll figure it out.

Anyway, I should probably update the last 8 months of our lives in summary:

(1) Peter volunteered for a job at Creech AFB that should mean he deploys much less and shouldn't really travel at all.

(2) Peter deployed in February, got back in April, we went house-hunting in Las Vegas for 3 days and put an offer in on a house before he went off to New Mexico to train for this new job.

(3) The bank approved our short-sale and wanted to close within 30 days. I panicked. We decided it wasn't worth making double house payments for 2 months until Peter was done and so the kids and I moved by ourselves. With 4 weeks notice. I'm still not sure that really happened, but I hope it never happens again.

(4) I dropped the two older kids off in Norman, OK to spend some quality time with Peter's parents while I Evie and I got the house somewhat habitable (well, Evelyn mostly just put stuff back IN the boxes and made messes)

(5) I got obsessed with building furniture thanks to www.knockoffwood.com and have nearly given myself heatstroke working in the garage in this ridiculously hot climate. But, we are rapidly accumulating new furniture that we desperately need since no one in the family had a bed since we moved. Plus, my mom came out and did some awesome painting in the kids' rooms.

(6) Peter got done with his training early, drove BACK up to North Dakota to out-process and picked the older kids up on his way back. We spent two fabulous weeks all together as a family.

(7) The kids and I packed our bags and headed up to Washington for a week-long family reunion at Birch Bay, where we dug in the wet, sandy beach and enjoyed being able to wear jeans and jackets. Aunt Emily traveled with us, which was a lifesaver and we added a gratuitous peach-picking trip on both the way up and the way back.

(8) We made it back, got Alexander enrolled for school, ordered homeschooling materials for Allison (yes, I'm taking the plunge this year) and she's trying out a new gym for gymnastics tomorrow. It's starting to feel like we actually live here!

Allison's artwork

Mommy was generous last Saturday and we got out the watercolors and let the kids paint (they ask to do this a lot, but since our kitchen table sits on carpet, I usually just don't want to deal with it.) Alex and Evelyn pretty much just made a mess and used a lot of paper (and were subsequentially banished to the bathtub to play with shaving cream) while Allison spent the entire time working on a couple of trees. But they are gorgeous trees!

We decided it needed something in the middle so I inserted her into her own artwork. What do you think?

Picture set on flickr

I've been really bad about updating the blog. I'm just not feeling the motivation for it right now. But in case you haven't seen it, I'm doing a daily photo set on flickr this year and it's probably the best way to keep updated with our family (at least at the moment, I'm sure I'll change again) If you click on the slide show, it will take you to my flickr account, where you can read the descriptions I've written to go along with each photo.

50s day at school

Today was the 50th day of school and the kids got to dress up in 50s-wear. Xander was home again since he threw up after dinner last night (after acting fine all day yesterday... after throwing up the night before. Grrr...) but Allison has fun. I made her a quick poodle skirt yesterday night, no hemming involved and a white T-shirt to wear today (she asked for a blouse, but I have limits)
 
The best part was that we got to use her pettiskirt that I bought 2 yrs ago and she's worn maybe 3 times for dress up, giving her poodle skirt maximum twirlability and getting lots of attention at school, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Sometimes it's good to be able to sew.
 
Did I mention that I had all the fabric, the bias tape, and rhinestones for the poodle collar just sitting in my stash? I'm so pathetic.

I'm just so dang lazy.

I'll admit it. Having to upload pictures and post them here just sound so....

OK, yeah, facebook has made me lazy. It does all the work. But you can't write much. So I firmly resolve to do better.

What's been happening?? Lots of sickness, but I think that's everywhere, right? Ug. I'm hoping for a healthy winter. I've lost over 10 lbs and I went down a pants size!! Hallalujah! Now if everyone can stay healthy so I can keep exercising.

And now for pictures...

It snowed. Fortunately, it also melted. But not before Allison entertained Evelyn for nearly an hour building a snowman in the yard.

From 2009_10_31

Evelyn got a black eye. The same day as I got my flash in the mail. So I got to practice with her... cheese crackers and all.

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Of course she picked the black-eye day to get all snuggly with Peter after work, but since I was still looking for opportunities to use my spiffy new flash, my camera was readily available and I got to work.

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Oooooh.... then I made really cool cupcakes for a baby shower. The ducks are actually lemon truffles made in molds and the cupcakes are lemon with lemon curd filling and cream cheese. I'm such an overachiever.

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Alex decided to do some chalk drawing on the sidewalk. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to take my spiffy new flash outside. (see how bright his face is?? see? see? OK, so he wouldn't actually look at me)

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We went to the pumpking patch. They were out of pumpkins, but hey, it was still fun. The corn maze was fun (oh, yeah, and did I mention I brought my flash? On a stick? No wonder my family is sick of me)

From 2009_10_31

But see, without it, would have I have ever gotten this cool picture? This head and hands were sticking out of the bottom of an uprooted tree, far off the "beaten track." Now bear in mind that my little boy refuses to go downstairs and go to the bathroom by himself because he is "afraid of houses." This kid drives me crazy!!

From 2009_10_31

We didn't get around to carving pumpkins until Halloween. Fortunately I found some at the commissary which made the kids forgive me to taking too long to go to the pumpking patch. But, between illness and Peter being gone I just couldn't get around to doing it until he was back home again.

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This is the first year Allison has carved her own pumpkin!! She was so proud of herself!

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Halloween night. These dang kids wouldn't stand still for pictures!! I mean, really. I spent how long making there costumes and they couldn't even hold off on candy for 10 stinking minutes?? Really?? Oh, right. They're kids. And sick of mommy following them around with a flash on a pole. But, oh, well. Allison was a vampire. Xander was a ghost. Her costume was nuts. His was simple. But they were both happy.

From 2009_10_31

Evelyn was a lil' devil. Peter's idea. I just couldn't make her something sweet and pretty with the other two but I wanted something cute anyway. And boy was she cute!! She got a lot of attention at the trunk or treat and around the neighborhood. I learned that sewing leather to the bottom of a sleeper isn't enough to make the feet last more than an hour with a rambunctious toddler in it. Her poor little toes were sticking out by the end of the night. But notice how I made a matching jacket. Oh, yes, Alex is still wearing PJs two sizes to small but boy did mommy go all out on the Halloween costumes.

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No one else would let me take pictures of them, so I tried out my light inside on Evelyn. She sat still for precisely .73 seconds but oh, well. I tried.

From 2009_10_31

Which brings us to today!! Would you believe that my little boy actually ASKED me to go outside and take pictures of him. Really, no kidding!! Of course, I'm pretty sure that was only because he wanted to go outside and play and didn't want to go alone and has figured out how to manipulate me because he wasn't the most cooperative of models, but that's OK, I'll take what I can get.

Here we have Alexander in a pose of his own creation.

From 2009_11_08

And then I tried to get a cool, jumping-high-into-the-air-in-front-of-the-sunset pose, but it didn't work well. I fixed the lighting after this one but they all went downhill from here. I think we need to work with this kid on actually getting his feet off the ground.

From 2009_11_08

Thanks all and tune in next time (which hopefully will be in less than 6 weeks) for more exciting adventures in the Keyes household!

First snow

It snowed last night. Just an inch or two, but a herald of things to come. On the other hand, it's been hovering at or above the freezing mark last night and today so it was wet, slushy snow which we rarely get (most of our snow if more like fine sand). Alex has been sick so I wouldn't let him play in it, which was so sad for him and Allison was very disappointed when I told her it would probably be gone by the time she got home from school.

But it wasn't! Mostly gone, but enough left that she ran in, dropped her backpack and went back out to take advantage of it. She was so excited to have snow that actually "packed!"

She even managed to get two little snowmen out of it!


The best part, though was Evelyn standing on her little stool at the window watching the whole thing with a smile on her face.