Devanie.com

Memorial Day

It’s fun to be with our family. I had fun, the girls were spoiled rotten, Nathan hung out with us most of the weekend.

I found that Nathan was ready to head back to his dreaded job after 3 days straight of being with us. So that means this weekend we really wore him out.

I think the hardest part about having girls is the unwavering whining. I don’t always give them what they want, We cannot afford to buy them EVERYTHING, they ask for things and I say No a lot I ask them to do things all the time. However they tend to want to play all day with none of the work. So we are trying to instill Work and Play.

We spent a good part of the morning getting ready(cleaning) so we could head out of the house. I planned to have a nice walking/biking(girls) adventure with them in the morning. Sierra wouldn’t do what we asked getting her shoes on or cleaning up or some other silly nonsense – I forget which thing it was because she’s Always doing this- But it landed her in Time Out while Hailey and I headed out for our Nature walk along the golf course past the strawberry fields, down the winding boardwalk to the river. We caddied 5 golf balls along the way while Sierra was in time out. And as we headed toward the boardwalk, Nathan brought Sierra down with him. I was a little shocked as she was in time out and should have missed this outing and gone on all the other ones of the day so she knew we meant BUSINESS. But Sierra has a way of sweetly manipulating her way out of tough situations.

to be continued…..

Continuation. . .

Well anyways. . .

We went to our local Chuck E Cheese on Memorial day. . .I tell you THAT’s The BEST day to go! Hardly anyone was there so it was relatively peaceful. Plus they refurbished the inside and made it way better than it was before. Nathan signed up for their emails so we had some really good coupons too! Nathan was so Funny when he got into some of the games. There was one new one called Bubble Up. Now if you know Nathan you know he has an unbelievable skill for games. He has some special connection with his coordination whenit comes to computers, nintendos and arcade games and there was no exception on this day. He won the Bubble up game at least 3 times and with 1 token each game he’s get about 51 tickets! Normally other games you play, you get 4 or so tickets. He also played a game where you follow a light on a screen(Flamin Finger) and it takes you through a packMan looking maze and if you get to the end before the time runs out you win. I tried 4 times. On his first try he won the 37 ticket jackpot – I did tell him the things I learned about it first, but how’d he get that gift, and what a strange talent to have?

Later We Joined 2 of his sisters and their friends for a picnic The kids all played in the pool, on the slip and slide and swingset, and later chased the chicken around the yard.

We left the picnic about 6:30 so we could get home and have Family Home Evening because Sierra Prepared the lesson for us on Sunday and kept begging to teach it.

She did a great job. On Sunday she had a lesson about How Jesus Loves her. She decided to teach that lesson and use the picture of Jesus with the children that her teacher gave her and the cut out heart shaped frame to tell a story. On Sunday she had Nathan and I help her write on the back of a picture that she colored(again from her lesson) We pretty much wrote how to play a guessing game for her, Hailey read the back and then we had to try to guess what colors were in the picture, which person had the Ouchy Elbow(Sierra did that day because she’s allergic to bandaids and wore one the day before) We guessed if there were animals in the picture, kids etc. It was a picture of Jesus with the children. Hailey read the 6th Article of faith.

We said family prayer and put the girls to bed. That was our day.

Memorial Day Weekend.

The Kids and I loaded up the car, nice an early and head out the door before 9am. Which is difficult to do with 2 kids, and even harder with three. It was a very humid day. But early enough the heat from the sun wasn’t bad. The Girls helped the Veterans and Hailey’s Brownie Troop Place flags at the gravestones of all the veterans in the cemetery. We had a section to complete, and did so in about 1 hour.

I stopped at Dunkin’ Doughnuts to pick up breakfast Doughnuts and Vanilla Bean Coolatas. Ran by the bank and headed home.

We sat down to breakfast with Daddy and later headed to the Mall.

Daddy treated us to a wonderful day out. We were spoiled rotten (as usual). I got 3 – 5 minute Aqua Massages – Very cool actually. The girls and Dad went to the $1 massage chairs that they recently put in the mall and the girls got their heads massaged – where an adults neck would normally get a massage bounced the top of their heads around.

We watched “Over the Hedge” and enjoyed Drinks, Icees, milk Duds and Pop Corn. The movie had some good parts and a great moral about friendship.

We took the girls to play in the kiddy place, got some gumballs along the route, and they each rode one of the 50 cent rides. We walked through the pet store pet a dog, Went to Borders, each of the kids got a book and Nathan grabbed a book on a new computer programming language called Ajax, he’s brain just absorbs computer programs, when finished and headed back to the car.

We got home ate leftover pizza from the night before and put the girls to bed and watched a movie.

Our book Club just ready The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night _ It was VERY good. The guy that wrote it was NOT autistic, but he wrote it as a high functioning Autisitc 15 year old boy. VERY GOOD!

And we are now reading Jody Picoult’s, My Sisters Keeper So far so good – a couple swears I didn’t expect but they don’t ruin the story. They add to it.

Recipe

I just did this one the other night

2 Cups ham just chopped up bite size chunks,
1 Huge can of Roman/pinto beans
1 regular can Small White beans
1 tsp minced garlic
2 shakes thyme
1/2 can water

mix in crockpot on low about 3 hours. serve with bread machine bread, or rolls. You can add more beans to make it go farther. Any kind would be good too. Maybe kidney beans red or white etc.

It’s that time when:

I crave
Chocolate Milk
Oreo Cookies
Girl Scout Samoas
Cadbury Chocolate
Kix
Rice Chex
Potatoes
Doritos – Nacho Cheese
Red Vines licorice
Frosted Shredded Wheat
Advil Liquigels
Peace and Quiet
Sleep

All the things I couldn’t live without when I was pregnant.

For the next 5 days.

Here’s a picture of the girls Great Grandma. Up until Hailey was 2 years old she even had a Great Great Grandma living in Idaho while we were in CT. We never got to visit her for a 5 generation photo, but My Brother was able to get some with his kids. This is my Moms Mom. “Gram” She likes to be called. =) Many of my readers will recognize her as Grandma, but for my kids, it’s Great Grandma Leavitt for geneology’s sake.

Zach has his Second TOOTH already!!!

The girls fight as I try to snap pictures.

Sierra wanted to knit, and then after I tried to teach her to finger crochet she gave up and asked me to knit a HAT for her. I looked online and figured out how to “Cast On” since my Mother In Law used to always do it for me cuz I could never remember. So I figured it out and made about 6 rows for Sierra and decided to make a headband instead. I attached elastic to the bottom of the small strip of knitted yarn I produced. I even Cast off OK too!

So she’s wearing what she thinks is pretty. It’s not too bad, wierd bland colors greyolive and creamish.

I’ve started reading My Sisters Keeper by Jody Picoult for our church/friends book of the month that’s supposed to be read by Friday night. Hopefully I’ll get it done. It’s about a Test tube Girl that wants to Sue her parents becasue she was born to help her sister(by stem cells, blood transfusions, bone marrow etc) live through lukemia. We will see how it goes. Good so far.

Latest pictures. Late. . .

While Grandma was in town
We Played Squeeze Murder with The family.

We also played “Sardines” that night with grandma 1 person hides, the next person that finds them hides with them and the next and the last person becomes the Next “It” Sardine.

We also played Hide and seek.

And we kept sending the kids out in the nice weather only to get poured rain on moments later, they did get to pic flowering weeds, and roll down the grassy hill a few times though.

and
Sunday we were sitting down to dinner.

Since (Saturday)I had gone to all the trouble of moving ALL the tables and chairs out of their exsisting rooms, so we could “Rejuvenate” the hardwood floors, Nathan figured we could just move the table atound the sofa and watch tv at the dinner table. When you have a family of 5 TV trays start to look like this!! Hailey took a picture standing on the sofa!

Our Boy in Honduras.

We have been Supporting Dawin Ariel Fuetes Reyes through Children International $18/mo since he was about 3 years old. He is now 8 and he writes letters to us. His Mother Elida used to write them, but since he has grown and learned, he now writes to us. We get 1 picture of him each year and it’s neet to see him growing. He sometimes has lighter hair from the sun, sometimes tanner skin, but almost the same so so smile in each picture. Each year he draws us a picture too.

The money we send provides, shoes, medicine, and school supplies. He has a little brother, and their Dad makes $80.00 a month. They live in a 1 Room house with a tin roof and most people walk around barefoot. I believe his parents have a bed and he has a mat on the floor. But he is a very happy kid and gets to play outside a lot.

Family Home Evening.

We taught the girls about respect.

Then we played games. We danced around the living room.

Then we had the girls link elbows and sit down and try to stand up without letting go. It was fun to wach Hailey Pull Sierra up over her back. They eventually pushed up together and got up.

That gave Daddy the idea to to the string tie. Where the girls were tied with strings that overlapped eachothers once. and there’s a special way to get out. Nathan had too look up how the trick worked to get them undone, it was a very fun night.

We had a great dinner the bread from the bread maching actually turned out soft!! The ham and bean soup from the crockpot was yummy!

We had a good Day.

Sierra and I worked on following directions with our crayons I’d tell her, left, right, up or down while we both drew at the same time. Then we compared drawings – The first one was almost identical.

Then I had her write numbers for me and we practiced those. and a couple letters.

We had 2 playdates today. one was so I could run to the store, the other was to help the same friend have time to fun some of her errands. It was busy but fun.

Then we headed out to get Hailey from Brownies. She told me that she is at #6 for “Mad Minutes” at school and of the 16 kids in her class she is the only one. She can add 6 numbers at a time during mad minutes. What a brainer! We are so proud of you.

Zach Does Push Ups now. =) working on crawling. he mostly scoots back.

Why are people so different?

I have a HORRIBLE memory. I’d like to blame it on having kids, but, I think I have always been this way. Molly can remember almost everything from our Childhood. I have to live off her memories. I’ll be thankful for the 4-5 years in HS I wrote in my Journal Daily.

You give me a coupon – I have it memorized
You give me a sales flier – That’s memorized too
All the pictures in my Albums- the 4,000 on my computer -Memorized
You ask me where the box of kix cereal is – I tell you the EXACT place top, left shelf, in the panty, next to the. . .etc.
Did I close the door – Yes
Clean the area that need cleaning – and finish – YES unless I was pulled away
Can I keep a Calendar in my head – Yes and I almost always know what’s scheduled – if it’s written once and I have SEEN it
I can remeber Prices – Store, ebay, coupon, car, the power bill last year – If I saw it then

But I cannot
No I cannot

~Put names and faces together well- It takes years
~Remeber much of anything from my childhood
~Remember what you told me 2 minutes ago or less
~Bring a conversation back to the room if you have forgotten what we were talking about – unless I make the “Sign Language Letter” of the subject we were talking about with my right hand – Like last night when my Visiting Teachers came by I wanted to ask them about having Patience so I had the letter “P” Shaped with my hand in Sign language
~I cannot reherse a conversation I had with the Plumber, Lawn keepers, Bank, Sister, Brother, Kid and if I do it’s never the EXACT words.
~I cannot remember to discipline the right way – I forget that I need to be SWEET when I get in the Moment -and it’s getting WORSE than ever.
~I cannot remeber to read my scriptures everyday
~Or say my prayers everyday – like I used to before the kids came
~I find myself not listening to my kids
~I find myself brushing off my duties to teach my kids – well I just remebered that as I sit here.
~I forget that I have a role and it’s teaching my kids Which I do all the time, but not like a Student teacher setting. Like Sierra’s handwriting is quite horrible and Hailey was already writing pretty good by this time.

I JUST LOST 1/2 Hour of this post

But the jist of it was

I see Many Very intellegent people and wonder why I didn’t get THOSE genes I just got the big Jeans.

and where my mind wanders when I have a moment to myself

and how you have to forgive me for my punctuation because I was never taught how to punctuate well -Hailey does a better job than I do.

and how Grandma S Was the BEST MOM in the world and she passed the best traits to her children and they kids learn to make their own choices, and she paints with them and watches the same cartoons over and over and goes on Worm walks and Listens and has awesome advice – which I DO NOT RETAIN ~and that’s the SUCKIEST PART OF BEING ME!

And My Mom does the same thing only she had no knack for arts and crafts.

It really was an AWESOME post that took an hour to type and you were supposed to all comment on it becasue it got you thinking about things you never really thought about, and stuff. but now it has a lousy ending.

I even threw in:

Where does Janika really come from?

And why can my Mom own and rent 7 houses and not be rich?

and the sad part is that I always copy into my memory cache before I post – just in case it gets lost. I did it, but it didn’t work.