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.

From 2009_10_31

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.

From 2009_10_31

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.

From 2009_10_31

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)

From 2009_10_31

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.

From 2009_10_31

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

From 2009_10_31

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.

From 2009_10_31

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.

Evelyn's gymnastics

I haven't been great at updating lately. I got my (four impacted) wisdom teeth out a week ago and it hasn't been the most pleasant experience of my life. So I've mostly been wallowing in self-pity. Today was nice, though. I had my post-op checkup and found out I had a dry socket, which doesn't sound great but means that he could pack it and now it doesn't hurt as much. So maybe I'll actually be able to sleep tonight.

My appointment was over at 10:30 which is the time that open gym starts at RRVG, so I took Evelyn over there to play. She had so much fun getting to play on the "big kid" equiptment, although I'm kind of wondering if it's going to make watching that much harder tomorrow. The first thing she did was head for the trampolines, but then I introduced her to the foam pit. Honestly, it was with some trepidation at first that I helped her down the slide and into the pit, thiking that she would panick admidst those huge cubes of foam and that I'd have to climb in somehow and rescue her. But it didn't happen. In fact, she spent the rest of the time in the foam pit, climbing over and around the cubes and only needing me to pull her all the way back out once she got to the edge. Silly girl.
 
 

Fruit picking

On Monday, we drove out to the house of a family in our ward. Peter is their home teacher and they had invited us to pick fruit on their land. The kids had so much fun. We picked apples, wild plums and chokecherries. They played with the kittens and ran around. It was almost like being transported to a different time... this old homestead out in the middle of the prairie and fields.

I need to give North Dakota more credit.

What would you do with $2000?

I'd buy the new camera that Canon just announced.

I've been looking at cameras for a little while. While I'm greatful to my Rebel for introducing me to the world of DSLR, it's limitations have always frusterated me and aren't getting less frusterating. But really, the higher end cameras either didn't have everything I wanted or were a little...um, too higher end. Which was kind of good, because it made me more patient.

Now Canon has announced a camera while I swear they designed exactly for what I need it to do. Now I just need a way to pick up an additional $1900 along the way..... just pocket change, right? Well, at least I have a dream.

What would YOU do with $2000??

Back to gymnastics...

Alex started gymnastics today, so life feels normal again. Amazing how quickly herding a bunch of kids into the car after school becomes a routine. Amazing how how NOT paying the fees every month became a routine. Alex is doing the "grasshoppers" class this year, which is all boys and starts on the mens' equiptment. He seems to be loving it.

From Gymnastics

I was a little disappointed that Allison spent most of the time I was there in a 'team meeting' so I didn't get to watch her much. I thought she looked bored, but she said it was interesting.

From Gymnastics

Meanwhile, Xander was having a blast.

From Gymnastics

And we got to see a little bit at the end from Allison. She's still working up to tumbling on the floor.

From Gymnastics

You can click on the link to see the rest of the photos from last night.

And here I was doing so well....

Peter pointed out that I haven't updated the blog for a few days. Oops. Sorry about that. So here's my little monkey. Evelyn's turned into quite the little climber. I wanted to get pictures of all the other things she's scaled, but I guess those will have to wait.

From Keyes Life

And I just like this picture of Xander because it's so sweet.

Garden update

I thought that it was time for another garden update. Hard to believe that it's been a month since the last pictures, and yet our garden is coming right along. In this first picture you can see how the whole thing is laid out. Weedy, very weedy, but still productive.

The Zucchini is... plentiful. What else can you say? I've been grating and freezing it. Zucchini bread in January is a wonderful thing. The cherry tomatoes have been doing well, but this tomato is the first slicing tomato to begin to ripen. I sure hope we can a lot more before the first frost. The lettuce is doing so well! Usually it all bolts in our one week of "real" summer but it miraculously survived and needs to be thinned (again). I read somewhere that the mark of a good gardener is being able to have a salad with both lettuce and tomatoes so I guess that means I've succeeded (Even if I don't know why). And we are getting tiny sprouts on our Brussel sprouts! I've never successfully grown Brussel Sprouts before so now I just have to save them from the cabbage moths, I guess.

I don't know how well you can see in the first picture, but both our pole beans and cherry tomatoes are growing on arches made from cattle panels. They cherry tomatoes haven't gotten very tall and so aren't impressive, but I'm loving it for the beans! They've almost met in the top and today was the first time I got to just stand underneath the arch and pick. Blissful. The corn is filling out... I actually picked my first ear today and the beets are going crazy. This is also the first year beets have survived in my garden. It's been quite depressing to me, since beets are an actual crop here... they should grow! But at least they finally did. And chopped small, roasted and put into a salad they are quite divine!

Next year we won't be doing a big garden... just the pots in the backyard. And while I'm somewhat relieved, I'm also a bit sad. It's just so fun to see the improvement over the past three years!

Tumbling Toms

Hey Mom, this is for you.

This year I decided to try some Tumbling Tom tomatoes (wow, how alliterative is that?) They are small cherry tomato plants that are supposed to do very well in hanging baskets and be very prolific for their size. I've always been very curious about them, so when I decided to put windowbox planters around our wooden playset, I decided to give them a try.

The result: I'm very happy. By the time I decided to do this, it was too late to start my plants from seed so I ordered them from a company on ebay since that was the only place I could find live plants. I was very concerned at the beginning, as they were extremely root bound and already had small tomatoes on them. However, after vicious tearing apart roots and breaking off all the small tomatoes, the plants did very well and have been my earliest producers.

They don't look very happy today, but that's mostly because I spaced watering (they're in self-watering containers, but you still have to water at least occasionally). I had decided to go out and take some pictures of them today and realized that they were wilted. But, never fear, they will come back. At least you can see how densely packed the tomatoes are. I've been impressed with how many tomatoes they've fit into a small space and they taste pretty good, too.

My mom and I had talked about these earlier this summer and I wanted to update with how they are doing. But I also thought that others of you might have very limited space but still be interested in growing a few tomatoes. These really amazingly heavy producers for such a small space. I think you could plant one or two hanging baskets or put them in the edge of a pot and be eating at least a few tomatoes every day. You can see I have 3 tomato plants as well as 3 flower plants in a 23" container. Not bad.

And that's my public service announcement for the day. Thanks for tuning in.

Public school rocks!

Wow, it's been so quiet around here today. Admittingly, I was a little concerned about how Alex was doing being at school all day but he just burst through the door with a big grin and told me how much he likes Kindergarten. So I think it was good. And my house got at least a little bit dug out from the wreck it's been. And I took a nap. Life is good.

Just for kicks, here's Allison picture from last year. http://sewmammabear.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/first-day-of-school/

Well, I'm an idiot.

I've been feeling all neglected since not one single person has commented on this blog. Er, well, that is... I apparently was supposed to go in an approve the comments (since I think I set it to do that) oh, well. Live and learn and I do appreciate the comments I have gotten. Thanks!

Ready for school

We had our school open house today and the kids' got to meet their teachers and get ready for school to start tomorrow. Hooray!! Yes, I can't wait jumping for joy, I'm so excited..

Oh sorry, I got a little carried away. Anyway, it was fun. Allison is excited to be the 3rd grade area of the building, where she gets a locker. Alex asked his teacher to teach him to read today, but for some reason she insisted that he wait at least until tomorrow and Evelyn is going to be very disappointed to find out that she doesn't get to attend tomorrow.

Stay tuned for our annual pose-in-front-of-the-door tomorrow.