Blasted comprehensive exams

This week and next the kids are taking the tests the state requires. Sooo many notes and emails have flooded me with paranoia about getting the kids to bed on time and off to school on time with a good breakfast. Yesterday I finally felt good, coming out of the jet lag, and I had everyone off with hot breakfast and then today came! I stayed up one hour later than I need to to get 6 hrs of sleep before up to take oldest to seminary(studying the New Testament at church with other high schoolers at 6am-7am). And that's all it took. Then I "napped" for half hour stints between getting the other two to school. I did fine on the middle one but then slept over the half hour on the third. I got him to school just as the bell was ringing but he knelt down before going in the door and I thought, "hurry, get in there" but he had stopped to help a girl get her scooter unstuck so she could fold it up to put in her locker!

Here is picture of my new dew and I am halfway done with Hawaii scrapblog so stay tuned!

Promised pix

Fam, here are pictures I promised to post. Lauren in her dress I picked up at Marshall's in 15 minutes flat--didn't I do good picking out the layers?!! Quite proud of myself as I am the sibling with the least amount of fashion sense:) And here is Mikey with his science fair project. I should have him blog about what he learned about periscopes. And I am going to try to attach a clip of Ben's band concert from last week. I wonder if Kai recognizes the song?!!!! Feel free to add the basic head bob as you listen along with Ben:)












http://www.motionbox.com/videos/3098ddb6181de7c6be

Addicted

When we were visiting the eagles, Michael begged and pleaded for a puzzle. He said it will be great fun to do together and we will bond while we do it. The little bonder has put maybe two pieces in, always has something else to do plus it is a little difficult. BUT he loves to buy things and played on my weakness for a good puzzle! I don't know why I like them so much--challenge, satisfaction, discovery? I like to do them while talking on the phone, little time filler when needed. So here it is almost done. This one I think I will frame for his room and he can think of me!

The great North American flyway

It's that time of year when the birds start to migrate back up north and we live in a perfect spot for viewing! The month of March can be cold but I brave the cold and wind to snap as many shots of birds as I can. Last year I took several days at the pond close to our house right smack in the middle of the city as we are and got several great shots of loons dancing and several different species of ducks.



This year Michael and I started the bird watching(he is my bird watching wing-man and fishing buddy) by taking a trip to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha. We had a great time driving down listening to several mystery books on tape and we got some shots of some eagles!

Unscripted birthday fun!

We celebrated Ben's 16th birthday last night. I wanted to do a little something I haven't done before and I got him four helium balloons. Well, I am glad I made them wait until I had downloaded movies so I had extra disc space. I almost didn't film and would have missed this spontaneous bit of fun. The fam will enjoy. I didn't know how to edit out the 30 sec at beginning and end to polish it up a bit but will be amazed at myself if I actually accomplish uploading it!

http://www.motionbox.com/videos/309bdfb01610e3c6be

OK two days later and a steep learning curve re: AVCHD video and applications needed to upload large HD files like this and wallah you should be able to see this on motionbox. Sometime I will figure out how to embed the vid directly. Until then,ENJOY!

Vegas vacation

We had a wonderful time in Vegas this past weekend! Tim and I had a nice get away retreat for Valentines Day. We shared a fabulous tapas meal and a couples massage. We hiked and saw the Hoover dam and the strip, of course. We saw a couple shows and the kids got to do some disco bowling with their cousins. Kailer(2 1/2 yr) and Meili (5 mos) were the highlight of our trip!

Here is a scrapblog we made for fam and anyone else interested.

http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=1493595

Birds and Bees

Well, I hit THAT milestone with the youngest this weekend. He was shown a video on puberty on Friday in 4th grade. Lots of questions erupted, his brain was a movin' all weekend long! "When will this happen to me? How many sperm will I have? What does it look like when it comes out of me and when will it? So did you and Dad just have S-E-X three times? (I was ready for that one because I've done this before!) What is the purpose/reason for pubic hair? When will I get hair on my chest? When is puberty done? What do sperm look like? How quickly do they regenerate? What causes them to die? What age did Dad start puberty, because the video said that is when I will too? Have humans ever had S-E-X with animals?(my eyeballs just about popped out of their sockets on that one!) What are hormones and how do they work? Yes this was only a few of the questions and many were asked multiple times as he was trying to grasp it all and luckily his Dad got home toward the end of the 2 hour inquisition and he could answer some of the more technical ones. Why do girls have all the eggs when born but boys don't make sperm until puberty? How many will I have and how many will come out at a time and what happens when they are malformed?" He does approach life with a scientific outlook so I should have been prepared for the deluge but alas I was a bit overwhelmed with the intensity.

ANYWAY, that's what my weekend was about! And other than that late night intersection I haven't been able to reconnect with Tim as he is working solid until we leave for Valentine wknd(no that's not too much info, I didn't mean THAT!) Looking forward to this weekend!!!!!!!!