Category: Family

Sun Rise & Spider

Yesterday morning as I was taking the trash to the “curb” I noticed it was very foggy out.  I looked up and this is what I saw:

  I love this.  So I took a minute and grabbed the camera for a few shots.

This morning Jacob and I had to take my car in for an alignment.  We walked laps around the town square for two miles, and walked a mile home*.  It was nice to have him walk with me, my normal walking buddy wasn’t there this morning.  We were talking about how the preschool is doing a unit on bugs and insects and spiders and such.  When we got home, Jacob was in the kitchen and told me he found something I can take to the preschool.  There was this giant spider!  It took a lot of convincing, but in the end he trapped it for me.  I am too short to reach the celing even with a chair.  It would not come out of the glass, so it will stay in there till I get it to the preschool (likely tomorrow).  Here are some pictures.

  The spider in his/her current home.

     The face. 

    The tookus.

     A side view. 

    One more.

Now, I do not know what kind this is, if any of you do know, we(I) would really be interested in knowing.  In any case s/he can’t eat my food now.

*What I am not telling you is that we stopped for a healthy breakfast on the way home.  It was good.

Jacob Does Not Have A Tutu

Yesterday and today I found myself working at the preschool.  Lots of fun.  Here are some of the conversations:

I was asking some of the kids yesterday about how the weekend went for them.  A number of them talked about the ballon rally (an annual event in our town-pictures at the end as seen from the train station).

Boy M (3 years 5 months):  I had a mommy weekend and a daddy weekend

Me:  That sounds exhausting (not really sure what he ment by that)

Boy M:  Yeah… *sigh* it was.

Same Boy M and Girl L (4 years 1 month) were running around the room in the morning talking about how they were going to get married.  They came up to me and told me how excited they were to be getting married, I cogratulated them, and off they ran to Girl E (4 years 8 months-dressed as Cinderella) who promptly married them.  Right after they got married they came to me:

Girl L:  We just got married

Me:  Congratulations!  Are you excited?

Girl L: YES!

Boy M:  I love you!

Girl L:  I love you.

Boy M:  Now we can have a baby!

Me:  What are you going to do now?

Girl L:  We’re going to go out to get icecream!

At morning meeting Mr S was telling abouthow he saw some ants move from one side of his yard to the other side.  He had pictures and the kids were brainstorming why the ants may have moved. (This point in the school year they are talking bugs, insects and spiders.) Girl T (4 years 7 months) suggested that they moved “because they have legs.” Valid.  Then the teachers asked how many of them have moved ever, and how did they move their stuff, and why.  Boy A (4 years 6 months) said they moved “because we couldn’t afford the yucky house anymore.”

Today at the very start of the day some of the kids were playing in the sandbox-table-thing.  Girl T, same as above, was whining that other kids were playing too, and that she needed all the sand.  She used her whiny voice the whole conversation.

Me:  T did you get much sleep last night?

Girl T:   No, I didn’t!

Me:  Why not?

Girl T:  I was too excited for school.

I then explained to her why she needs to get good sleep at night before she comes to school so she can play nicely with her friends and share.  I noticed that a light bulb seemed to go off in her head, and she made effort to be nicer, but she was just cranky.  I asked what her mom says about sharing, her reply was, “that I need to be nice and not loud at nap time.”

While getting ready for morning meeting, Girl T came up to me holding out her hand in a fist…

Girl T:  I hurt my hand

Me: Well then, appologize to your hand.

Girl T: (leaning in to her hand) I’m sorry.

Me:  Give it a kiss

Girl T:  she kisses it and sits down like that made it all better

After Nap time ended I was playing counting games with Girl A (3 years 4 months):

Me:  1

Girl A:  Chinese

Me:  2

Girl A:  Chinese

Me:  3

Girl A:  Chinese

Me:  In English, I don’t know Chinese.

Girl A:  (rolls her eyes)  one, two, three

Shortly after that, I was helping Boy M (from above) tie his shoes:

Boy M:  (lifts his pant leg)  look I have my pajamas on under my clothes

Me:  Is that so you can be warm, or so you don’t have to change clothes as much?

Boy M:  Yes.  Do you have pajamas on? (lifts up my pant leg, and dissapointed by not seening them)

Me:  No, but my pajamas have monkey’s on them.

Boy C (4 years 2 months):  Are you going to wear them on pajama day?

Me:  If I am here on Pajama Day, I will wear them.

Boy C:  Cool!  My Thomas (the Train)  shirt has words that glow in the dark.

Boy L (4 years 4 months):  My bed has Thomas on it.

Me:  My bed has stripes.  Blue and white stripes.

Boy C:  Cool, do the stripes glow in the dark?

Me: No, but I can ask my husband if he wants me to make them glow in the dark.

Boy C:  You have a HUSBAND? (very excited voice)

Me:  Yes

Boy C:  Did you marry one?

Me:  I married him and he became my husband.

Then the afternoon snack with the newlywedds from yesterday morning…

Girl L:  I’m gonna marry my boyfriend

Boy M:  I have a girlfriend

Me:  I thought you two got married yesterday

Girl L:  We did

Boy M:  pokes her arm, softly

Girl L:  DON’T touch ME

Mr S:  They ARE married, aren’t they?

A few minutes later Girl L declares that when she is grown up she wants to be a CHEERLEADER….

Me:  What an embarassing life’s ambition (not said to her, just another adult)

 

Long Time Over Due Post

On Thursday (now a week ago) I went up to Ronda’s to watch the big girls so Ronda and G1 could get their eyes checked. We had fun. I have pictures somewhere of that. I am not sure if they are still on the camera or on the computer, but I am too lazy to find them at the moment. While I was up, We had some fun conversations with G1.

Conversation 1:

We were dropping Matt’s supper off to him at the rail yard
G1 unbuckled his seatbelt as Ronda started the car to leave
Marcia: buckle that
Ronda stopped the car for him to buckle up
G1: I’ll buckle it at home
Marcia: you’ll buckle it now
He did.

Conversation 2:

Immediately following the 1st conversation
G1: I want to see trains
Ronda: There are trains all around us look out the windows
G1: I don’t see trains
Marcia: (pointing at the engine next to us) What is that?
G1: Not trains
A few seconds lapse.
G1: (points to a long train out the other window) That’s not a train…. It’s cars

Conversation 3:

(Ronda was holding change for a reason I can not remember at this time, we were parked in the car)
G1: I want a quarter
Ronda: I’ll give you a penny
G1: A nickel
Ronda: I’ll give you a penny
G1: A nickel
Ronda: I don’t have a nickel, I’ll give you a penny
G1: Marcia has a nickel
Marcia: Actually I do not have a nickel today
Ronda: Want a dime?
G1: Nnnnnnnnyes, a nickel
Ronda: It is not a negotiation
G1: It a nenanenatin (more or less sounded like that)

Conversation 4:

Not quite sure what started this one….
Marcia: G1 you crack me up
G1: I did not wake you up
Marcia: No, you did not wake me up
G1: I make you happy
Marcia: Yes you do
(This is where I get teary)

And now for a video that I was supposed to post almost 2 months ago of G2 and G3 climbing back and forth in the two cribs when Ronda was in the hospital to have G4.

WARNING the video is 4 and a half minutes long.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFyX-udTaQg[/youtube]

The funniest part of the whole flopping back and forth thing is that in the morning G2 went back to her crib before getting my attention, and stood there looking pathetic trying to get me to believe that she was “stuck” in her crib!

 

*Yes this is the same post I put on the GMF site.

One Month Ago

Cher had 71 babies. 53 are surviving as far as I know. That is how many babies there were when I let them out of the confining smaller floating tanks into the big tank to “swim free”. I have been checking the filter to make sure no babies have been sucked up, and I have not found any in there yet. I also have not seen Sonny or Cher eating any of the babies, so I can only assume that there are still 53 babies in the tank. I also have not found any dead ones. The babies are growing pretty well, and swim out there with mom and dad.

I finally returned to the project of putting the birthing video together. This is only a few of the babies coming out. Some are born faster and some go slower, I guess it just depends on the size of the baby fish. In part of the video we can see dad hanging around trying to get to the tasty little fry.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IwjSXejMN8[/youtube]

By the way, Cher is pregnant again. I can see little baby eyes in her, and guessing on the size they are and how big she is not compared to last month, I do not think she will be having 71 this time. Good for her.

Update May 19th: I woke up this morning and she had her babies, there were 8 of them and I think only 5 will make it.  So, now is the chance for anyone to speak up if their little one wants to name a baby fish.  Noah, what do you think?

A Diamond Is A Piece Of Coal That Stuck With The Job

So this morning was pretty exciting for us. We got up (not the exciting part) and we were reading and talking (still not the exciting part) when Jacob looked at the fish tank (now for the excitement).

Last night when we went to bed this is what Cher looked like (Sonny is in the background). The dark spots on her belly are the babies inside her, more specifically their eyes. Poor girl, her belly used to be as flat as Sonny’s.

When I got up this morning and turned on the fish light, I didn’t really look at the breeding tank (I got used to the disappointment of there not being babies in the tank) but I thought there was “too much food at the bottom of the tank, perhaps she wasn’t hungry last night.” So, when Jacob told me there were some babies in the tank it made sense to me, I wasn’t seeing food at the bottom, it was babies! when we first looked there were 18 babies in there. We set up the video camera (video coming soon of some fry birthing), and made breakfast.


After at least six and a half hours of delivery she pushed out 71 fry (baby fish). One died right away and three were not fully formed, so there were 67 moving around. I put Cher in the big tank again and she was happy. After two hours of the fry being alone in the floating tank, there are 51 still in there. The other 16 must have been small enough to swim out the side slits and decided to become lunch for some bigger fish (aka mom and dad).

About a week and a half ago I put Cher in the birthing tank thinking she was ready to pop. This was her first school of fry, so I was not sure when she got pregnant; they gestate for about 4 weeks. This was based on her size and I was thinking she had about 35-45 babies in her. My last fish that had 34 babies was the size Cher was a week or two ago. Now that I know she had twice as many in her I realize that she just was bigger because she had so many more fry to house. She did a good job and is swimming around happy and free. I expect that in about 4-5 weeks we will see more fry in the tank.

It is amazing that Cher had that much room in her body to store 71 babies for so long. Think that over Ronda, Camara, Fiona, Brittany, Theresa, Karen, Mindy (and anyone else who might read this who has multiples. Aren’t we glad we are not fish? I know I am.

Side note: Mallory helped me pick out fish and she named Sonny and Cher, Skyler named the snail Cat and the algae eater Dog, so I only thought it right that Gavyn get to name the boy fry his choice after seeing pictures of them, Yellows. I told Ronda to ask Gretchyn and Geneva what they think would be a good name for the girl fry, it appears Gretchyn didn’t have and opinion, and Geneva said Hammer. So there you have it, we have some little Yellowses and Hammers in our tank. When they are big enough to see which ones are boys and which are girls I will let you know the numbers.

Just so you know, Cat has been trying to climb into the fry tank, so they have a lid to keep them safe.

If anyone else out there has little ones (I know Mallory you are not a little one) that want to name my pets, you have four weeks or so to work on submitting names for the next batch of fry.

Mr & Mrs Hand

This last Sunday was the Nauvoo Stake Conference.  For those that do not know what that is, twice a year the 11  congregations (branches or wards) in our geographical region (stakes) meet for a conference, Nuavoo happens to be the “center” of our stake.  Most people that do not live directly in Nauvoo travel for about an hour to get there, some however drive twice that still.  We had a guest speaker this time.  Elder Lund, is a very enjoyable speaker.  He talked mostly about getting back to basics, and how we tend to over-“schedule” our lives.  How we try to do too much stuff, be it projects or clubs or what not.  How true it is that when we get right down to the simplicity of life things seem easier to be enjoyed and there is a lot less to distract us from our end goal.  I enjoyed his talks.  I was however sitting next to my newest nephew on Sunday morning, Skyler.  And our personalities being what they are, we interacted a lot, and Ginny and Rick have decided that we are not allowed to sit together anymore.Cry For fun, I drew faces on my hands.  It made him laugh, but the whole time he told me, “Don’t do that” and to “Stop it.  That is bad for your skin.”  The little boy sitting in front of us saw me and drew on his hand and got in trouble with his mom.  Ooopps.

   

Mr and Mrs hand are begging you to let us sit together again, next time. 

Mallory’s Visit

Mallory came to stay last weekend with us*. We made her earn her keep. Only we wouldn’t let her wash the dishes.

We surprised her by showing up for her play on Friday night.** Then we went over to see Rick, Ginny, and Skyler for a little bit and played nerts. Being Martin’s birthday, we called to sing him “Happy Birthday”, but poor Ashley had to hear us instead. When we got to Macomb, I gave Mallory about 30 wipes*** to clean the stage make-up off of her face. We got up early the next morning so we could go be time/score keepers for the stake basketball tournament. That was fun, just ask MalloryWink. She and I then left Jacob at the house and we went to the pet stores to get me some fish.**** Mallory had never seen Johnny Lingo so I had her watch that as we were trying to get up the motivation to make some bread. It was yummy. And we made some cinnamon rolls too-they were delicious. Good job Mal, I made her do a lot of the work.***** We made lemon-lime pepper chicken, homemade french-fries, and peas for supper. Mallory was in charge****** of the peas, and mostly the fries. And I had her be the taste tester for the Chicken. Oddly enough, all that was left-over were the peas. (I ate them the next day.) We went over to Jacob’s parent’s house and played more nerts. ******* Sunday Mallory helped out in the nursery because our regular teachers were out of town or sick. I hope she had fun in Macomb, even if she did have to sleep on the futon.

This is the yeast, rising for the bread.

Making fries.

Cooking Peas.

While they waited for me to finish cooking the chicken, Jacob gave her a lesson on cymbals.

*Not this last one, the one before it. I am just getting slower at documenting things.

**Martin’s Birthday-the real one, not the one we normally celebrate for himSmile

***So she probably really only used 5 or 6, but you get the idea, there was way too much make-up on her face.

****Yes I finally set the tank up after all the fish died last summer. However, there are only 2 fish left. Sonny and Cher. They look like they will survive. I hope so, I am done with dying fish.

*****It is kind of hard to say we made her do it, she volunteered to do everything.

******We even had her wearing a Chef’s coat.

******You would think we like the game or something.

It’s time…

We have avoided anything political on this blog for a while, but the time has finally come…

There were a few candidates of varying persuasions that we felt an inclination for, but most have dropped out of the race, and only one remains: Barack Obama.

We do not agree with everything that Obama stands for, but we agree with most of it:

“I don’t want to just end the war, I want to end the mindset that got us into war in the first place.”

“We are not going to baby-sit a civil war.”

John McCain still thinks the war in Iraq is a good idea.  He wants our troops in Iraq forever, or indefinitely, whichever comes first.

Clinton still refuses to admit that her voting in favor of the war was a mistake.

Obama has opposed the war since the beginning.  We want a president who had the foresight to know that this would not turn out well, and the integrity to stand up for that, even when it was unpopular.

“Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age. Let’s set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed. Let’s recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability. Let’s make college more affordable, and let’s invest in scientific research, and let’s lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.”

Obama believes in keeping the internet open and free (did you even know that many of your representatives are under the influence of lobbyists who want to close up the internet and allow your internet provider to charge you extra for visiting any web site that they don’t run?).  Obama believes that education, not war, is our future, and wants to put our money where it will help rather than hurt.

“We now face an opportunity — and an obligation — to turn the page on the failed politics of yesterday’s health care debates… My plan begins by covering every American. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums. That will be less. If you are one of the 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, you will have it after this plan becomes law. No one will be turned away because of a preexisting condition or illness.”

Imagine that you could provide for yourself any kind of health insurance you want.  You could simply declare “this is my health coverage, because I said so.”  That is what you get to do when you’re a U.S. Senator or Congressman.  As a result, they have pretty good coverage.  Obama wants to give every American the opportunity to have that same coverage, and to ensure that every American has health insurance – that no one will be forced into poverty and bankruptcy as the result of some circumstance beyond their control or their ability to foresee.

“I believe that America’s free market has been the engine of America’s great progress. It’s created a prosperity that is the envy of the world. It’s led to a standard of living unmatched in history. And it has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon for science, and technology, and discovery…We are all in this together. From CEOs to shareholders, from financiers to factory workers, we all have a stake in each other’s success because the more Americans prosper, the more America prospers.”

Obama wants to make taxes simpler for the majority of Americans: the middle class.  Obama wants to provide tax breaks to the middle class, instead of the rich upper class, who got tax breaks they didn’t even ask for from the Bush administration.

Now for a call to action:  This week we celebrate the birthday of a laywer from Illinois who, through integrity and hope, made a difference, and saved our nation: Abraham Lincoln.

In the spirit of that hope, we have made a donation to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.  We followed a call to action from dailykos.com, who has asked people to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday by donating a multiple of $5.01 to the Obama campaign (Lincoln appears on the $5 bill and the penny).

We’ve contributed what we could responsibly afford, but it’s going to take more than just us and the others who’ve acted so far.

It’s going to take a movement. It’s going to take millions of people to beat back the avalanche of dollars from Washington lobbyists and special interests, who are planning to spend more money than ever to try to own our political process and dictate our policies in Washington.

Barack Obama will not play that game.

Barack Obama is not taking any contributions from Washington lobbyists or political action committees.

Barack Obama is transforming the political process by bringing together hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans in a campaign that’s owned by no one but the people.

Will you join us by making a donation?  Can you spare $5.01, or $10.02, or $25.05 to show that you have hope for the future?  That you hope for your children to grow up in the land of the free?  That you support a candidate who believes in you?

The future is coming, and it is time to make it happen the way we want.  Please join us:

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/pf?outreach_page_id=28895

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY[/youtube]