Our weekend

Since I have been off track, Nathan and Joshua have been at home with me instead of with my sister who takes care of them when I'm working. One of the really nice things about Jessica taking care of my kids is that Nathan is really good friends with my niece, Jillian. They have such a good time that even though I have only been home with the boys for a days, Nathan was going through Jillian withdrawals. So we arranged to have Jillian spend a night this weekend. They had a really good time making messes and playing games.
The pictures of the garage are an example of some of their "artwork" that they had fun doing. They stayed up way too late and work up much to early, but they had a great time. We will have to do it again soon.

The next pictures aren't old even though Nathan is dyeing eggs. I had bought an egg dyeing kit before Easter but we never had the time to use it. On Sunday when the rest of the family was in various stages of napping, Nathan was rummaging through cupboards looking for something to eat/do/play with and he found the egg dyes. I couldn't come up with a really good reason not to use it and it would keep him happy for a good half hour. He had a great time and took tons of pictures of the eggs afterwards. I like it when the kids have fun doing these types of things. I tried to get Nathan excited about helping me make my birthday cake with me but he was only interested in eating it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I know that it's a few days late but I just wanted to comment on my birthday quickly. The actual day was rather uneventful as I still had work in the morning and class at night. I was able to come home for a few hours in between, but I spent them doing homework. My present from Richard and the boys was a new clothes hamper. It actually arrived a few days after my birthday, but I had a good time putting it together and the boys had a good time helping me. The wicker was the old hamper that I got as a Christmas present about six years ago. I wanted the new one because the wicker was getting beat up and it just seemed like it would be nice to get something nicer looking. It does throw my schedule of laundry doing off though as the bins in the new hamper are smaller. I could let the dirty clothes get to a certain level in the old hamper before having to do laundry. Now I'll have to see how much I can stuff in the new hamper before doing a load.

Off track

There are some really nice things about being a teacher; the most obvious being that for me, I get two months off every four months (I'm in a year around school). I'm just starting my next break and I have all sorts of plans of what I want to get done this time but I already feel like I'm behind. It's like I spend four months just trying to keep the house off of the EPA's most wanted list and then spend the next two months trying to catch up. I spent the first two days off getting the kitchen and living room into something reasonable and as of today, the laundry is at least mostly done. Richard came home a couple days ago and asked who was coming over because why else would we clean the house?

The picture is actually from a week or two ago when in an "End of the School Year" fit I felt like cooking a chocolate souffle. It turned out fairly well although it might have been a little undercooked; I'm not sure as I've never had a souffle before.

Do you know us now?

One of my favorite things to do with blogs is to check out the different links that are there and explore other blogs. I always like to see if I know someone along the line and I know that the blogosphere isn't small, it is fun when you do find connections out there.


I have also been reading blogs of people that I don't know at all, but they have been more special interest blogs. The latest was done for the cousin of an old mission companion of mine who was in a skateboarding accident. The blog was set up so that the family could get information out to everyone about their son's medical condition . After reading their blog I felt like I knew this family and wish that I could have gone to the funeral to show my support.



So, does any one out there feel like they know us better after reading this blog? I wouldn't blame you if you said no because I definitely haven't updated as much as I would have liked, but I intend to keep at it. If for nothing else so that I can show off pictures of my kids. By the way, this is Josh playing with our snake Salazar. He loves the snake and likes to watch it eat mice.

Easter 2008

Here are our Easter pictures for this year. I'm sorry that you can't see the boys' outfits better as they were really cute, but Nathan and Joshua seemed determined to hide themselves.
The next is, of course, the opening of the Easter baskets. The baskets and the outfits were from Grandma Tessie (Richard's mom) and were greatly appreciated as I probably wouldn't have gotten them much of anything. Also it gives Tessie and excuse to do two of her favorite things; go shopping and spoil her grandchildren. By the way, can anyone think of anything to do with plastic Easter eggs. We have so many and I hate just throwing them away. I don't suppose that they are recyclable?
The last picture is of Nathan using one of the toys from the baskets. He (or Joshie, I don't remember which) got a Thomas the Tank Engine bath set that came with foamy soap and a pretend shaver. Both boys are having a great time with it. Don't you think that Nathan has a nice technique?

Inches turn into milestones

I am always thrilled when I see all the little ways in which my boys are growing up. Today Nathan was watching Richard get ready for work when he decided that he wanted to wear a tie like daddy. Richard tried to talk him out of it but soon relented. Nathan ended up wearing that tie all day and even had it on when he fell asleep for his nap.

For Joshua the moment came when he asked for more food and it came out as a complete sentence, "I want rice." He has been doing this for a while but I still get a kick out of it because I don't always understand what he is saying. For example his "I want rice" actually sounded like "I wa wy" but I knew what he was saying.

Another Nathan story, I was correcting some student work tonight when Nathan came up to ask me what I was doing. I explained and he then decided that he wanted to my students' new teacher. He is going to teach them how to twirl a hula-hoop on their arms just like his teacher, Mr. Gan, taught him. It is fun to see Nathan wanting to emulate his parents so much.

Three years and two and a half months

Tifarrah and R.J. moved out this weekend. It was all very sudden and a little weird and Richard, the boys and I are all still a little depressed, hurt, and confused. But it should be a good move for them. Tifarrah found them a furnished room in the home of an older Filipino lady who lives near by. Tifarrah hopes to keep most everything the same in regards to school and church. It is really strange not to see their stuff here though. R.J. had been living with us for over three years now. Nathan and Joshua have been missing him but they have also been really cute about it. Nathan now wants to have the chore of feeding the dogs and Joshua helped set the table for lunch; both used to be R.J.'s jobs.
I hope that they enjoy their new home and that it all turns out well for them.