Those Aren't Bath Beads!

Saturday night, Alice-Grace was taking a bath. Our cat, Roger, walked into the bathroom, saw that she was in the tub, and THREW UP IN THE WATER! Poor Alice-Grace was scrambling up the walls like a crazed spider monkey. It was so gross.

The other day, Roger was sitting calmly and we one at a time held our hand out to her. She nuzzled up to Frances, ignored Nigel, and tried to shred all the skin off of Alice-Grace's limb.

Once Roger was hiding in a bag and whenever Alice-Grace walked by, she would jump out and attack her legs. If anyone else walked by, the cat would just ignore them.

What is with my cat's obsession with trying to kill my youngest child?

Universe Update

My eagle-eye daughter, Alice-Grace, found my scriptures thrown in a bush. Obviously, some thieves thought my leather Bible bag was a really ugly purse or an extremely squatty laptop that I had left in my car.

So sorry to disappoint them.

Now I have to dry them out as they've been sitting in a snowbank for a few weeks. Nigel says that with their water-logged puffiness, I'll look like a total scriptorian (they look VERY well read).

Really, it would've been just as easy to throw them back in my car as to throw them in a bush. Are there no considerate thieves left in the world?

Happy New Year!

I'll admit it. I love New Year's. It's my favorite holiday. I don't even do anything for the holiday, I just love having that clean slate (As Anne Shirley would say, "Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it").

So my resolution for 2011 is to be more "in the moment."

I'm trying to avoid multitasking (I deplore multitasking) and to really think about what I'm doing, be more cognizant of my actions, ask myself what are my motivations for doing something before I do it.

This is actually something that I started about six months ago, but I'm still a work in progress.

It started with going to Frances' play. I just decided that I didn't want to worry about taking pictures or filming it. I'm so distracted by the tools in my hands that I end up not even enjoying the play. And let's be honest, it's not like I'm going to watch the video of it later -- but just in case I did want to, I made Nigel film it (and no, I haven't watched the video).

Then when my kids were taking various classes (Alice Grace in gymnastics and Jeffrey in parkour), I decided to purposely not take anything with me. Instead of reading or knitting, I watched them participate. They loved that I was there cheering them on and seeing every move they made.

Now before I buy something or eat something, I ask myself, "Do I really need this? Am I just bored? Is it worth it?"

So if you see me doing something and I don't stop right away to say hi, I'm not being rude, I'm just waiting until I finish so I can give you my full, undivided attention. So that's my goal for 2011.

An Apple a Day...

In our quest to not buy any groceries this month, I decided to get into our long-term food storage (otherwise known as Alice-Grace's "bed") and open up a #10 can of powdered apple juice and try it out.

First of all, the color is...shall we say...disturbing. The juice was a sickly, brown, sewer-y looking color. Yuck.

But it's the taste that matters, right? Well, it tastes EXACTLY like green apple flavored Jolly Rancher candies. Not exactly something I want to drink.

But what do I know? Did you know that Jolly Rancher also makes a soda pop? I've never seen it (and after tasting this "apple juice," now I know why).
I must admit that Alice-Grace and Jeffrey absolutely LOVED it. Of course, they're also known for eating powdered sugar out of the bag with a spoon.

Nigel, Frances and I definitely did NOT like it. I won't be buying any more #10 cans of this in the future. I'll stick to things I know that I like (like packets of cherry Kool-Aid -- I love me some cherry Kool-Aid).

Yet Another Reason Why I'm Mad My Kid's Speech Therapist Moved Away

A recent conversation at our house--

Frances: Here's our school's Scholastic book order. There's a book I want about people who have vanished.

Lois: Oh, like Amelia Earhart?

Frances: Yeah, and some author vanished, too.

Alice-Grace: Kids in my class at school have vanished.

Lois: They have?

Alice-Grace: Yeah. Luis, Omar, Maria, Jose...

Lois: Do you mean they're Spanish?

Alice-Grace: Yeah, that's what I said. Vanish.

Christmas Quote

Alice-Grace on Christmas Day:

"Jeffrey! Don't use the bug zapper on Jesus' birthday!"

Ah, the holidays.

2009 Christmas Newsletter

Christmas 2009 for Lois & Family

Lois spent 2009 NOT cleaning her house, NOT scrapbooking, NOT making her kids dinner, and best of all, in this crazy economy, Lois spent the year NOT unemployed.

Nigel spent the year NOT being a starving artist (he actually sold many paintings), NOT getting away from scouts (he went from Webelos leader to Cub Master), but best of all, Nigel did NOT pop any more holes in his lungs.

Frances finished the year NOT reading classic literature when there's a good ghost story or alien book near by, NOT failing in school and NOT being one of those horrible children you see on an MTV reality show.

Jeffrey spent 2009 NOT cleaning up his Legos, NOT giving up his plans for his own Viking-themed amusement park, and NOT letting up on lecturing his family on NOT spending money.

Alice-Grace pretty much spent this last year doing "skin the cat" on an old broom stick that she places between the arm rests of the couch and love seat. Luckily, she has NOT been taken to the emergency room -- yet.

Stupid Rabbit ("Stew" for short) has NOT figured out that he's only supposed to pooh in his cage, NOT realized that he's a vegetarian, and it has NOT dawned on him that a balloon is NOT a girl rabbit.

Here's to a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year from our family to yours.

Priceless

Jeffrey and Alice-Grace had play dates, so I wanted to do something special with Frances (but didn't want to spend any money). Here's what we did:

Two craft projects (a cute embossed Christmas card and an adorable snowflake ornament -- free make & take day) and five sheets of card stock (coupon) at a scrapbooking store at the local mall = $0.00

One really large (though they called it a small) ice-cream cone (coupon) at the food court = $0.00

Frances being able to spend time with her parents without any annoying younger siblings = priceless

Bangs & Pops

My youngest child, Alice-Grace, has her own unique view on the world. Some recent examples:

We're watching a show about vampires and Alice-Grace proclaims, "Mom! I think I'm a vampire! Look, I have bangs!"

Yes, she mistook "fangs" for "bangs."

Last month we went on a family vacation. Before boarding the plane, I gave all my children some gum to chew to help their ears pop.

During the flight, I was sitting next to Alice-Grace. She kept reaching up and feeling her ears and commenting on how she wished she had a mirror. Then she would look up at my ears and touch them. Finally, she said, "Yeah, I think they're about to pop, they feel really big and squishy."

She thought I meant that the outside of her ears would expand so much that they would eventually "pop" like a balloon.

Now keep in mind that for both of these instances, she was very EXCITED about either being a vampire or having various body parts explode.

She's an odd duck. Oh, to be six again.

Just Plain Giving Up

So in my last post I talked about giving up my laziness and cleaning my house for Lent. Well, let's just say that it's not going so well.

The other night, Nigel told me that he couldn't find our youngest child, Alice-Grace. We looked all over the house, couldn't find her.

Much to our relief (and my embarassment), we finally found her fast asleep in the middle of the living room floor -- there was so much stuff in there, we couldn't see her!

(Please note: In my defense, I just want to say that I have been busy working on our food storage, so most of our living room is filled with cans of food -- next project: how to make furniture out of #10 cans)

Mountain House Freeze-Dried Scrambled Eggs with Bacon

Jeffrey loved this! And he hates everything! He kept going on and on about how it tastes just like scrambled eggs and bacon (which it is). Frances and Alice-Grace weren't as thrilled (but then again, they don't like bacon or scrambled eggs to begin with). Nigel and I liked it, but the texture of the eggs is a little different. Not bad, just different.

I should note that these meals come in pouches and they're completely dry. All you have to do is add boiling hot water, stir, seal the pouch back up and wait 5-10 minutes. With the spaghetti, you just ate it from the pouch, but with the eggs, you had to drain the excess water out first. This was hard to do without losing all the tiny bacon pieces along with the water.

Our Final Analysis:

Tasted good, but not sure if we'd like a big can of it

Thursday Thopping

Are things really cheaper at those dollar stores? I decided to do an experiment.

I bought 8 name brand items at my local dollar store (finding any name brand items at a dollar store is quite a feat in itself) that I wouldn't mind having multiples of in my food/home storage. I then bought the exact same items at three of my closest grocery stores.

Here are my results:

Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies, 13.1 oz
Dollar Store: $1.00
Smith's: $1.00
Macey's: $1.39
Albertson's: $1.39

Armour Vienna Sausages, 5 oz*
Dollar Store: $0.50
Smith's: $0.41
Macey's: $0.56
Albertson's: $0.99

Del Monte Healthy Kids Enriched Peach Chunks, 15 oz
Dollar Store: $0.50
Smith's: $1.40
Macey's: $1.89
Albertson's: $1.50

Chef Boyardee Mini Bites Pasta, 15 oz
Dollar Store: $1.00
Smith's: $1.00
Macey's: $1.49
Albertson's: $1.00

Nissin Top Ramen Chicken Flavor, 3 oz
Dollar Store: $0.20
Smith's: $0.20
Macey's: $0.20
Albertson's: $0.25

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, 1.5 oz
Dollar Store: $0.50
Smith's: $0.50
Macey's: $0.59
Albertson's: $0.50

Soft & Dri Clear Glide Deodorant, 2.6 oz
Dollar Store: $1.00
Smith's: $2.50
Macey's: $2.79
Albertson's: n/a**

SunSations Dish Detergent, 25 fl oz
Dollar Store: $1.00
Smith's: $0.99
Macey's: $0.99
Albertson's: $1.99

So I guess some things are cheaper, but not that much. You may come across some good deals (like the deodorant and the peaches), but I don't know if that's worth going into a dollar store for. Now, who's going to help me eat all these Little Debbie brownies?

*I made the mistake of taking Alice-Grace with me and she loves those disgusting Vienna sausages.

**Can you believe Albertson's doesn't carry any Soft & Dri deodorants? What's up with that?

Adventures in Preparedness

Recently we bought Alice-Grace her own 72-hour emergency preparedness kit (she's in Kindergarten now, that's plenty big enough to lug around a 20-pound backpack in case of fire, flood or earthquake).

Of course, she was way excited and had to pull everything out of her pack. This made Frances and Jeffrey want to empty out their 72-hour kits. Which eventually led to them unloading mine and Nigel's emergency packs.

Now our already messy living room was even more cluttered with candles, MREs, matches, toilet paper, water packets, first aid kits, flashlights, hand warmers, light sticks, solar radios, etc.

The next morning I go to get something in the living room, trip over an empty backpack and fall on something. CRACK! Oh no, what emergency tool did I just crush?

AAAAAARRRRGHHHHH! IT BURNS! IT BURNS!

I quickly found it. I had broken open the ammonia capsule you use to wake up people who have fainted. Let's just say that those things really do work.

Slow the flow, save H2O

We were going out to eat with my nephew, Vorquel (who's starting his freshman year at a nearby college), and I asked him if he noticed any differences between the incredibly arid state he just left and the very arid state he's now living in.

He mentioned that he thought it was odd how often people watered their grass.

Yes, isn't that strange? This is a desert people, not New England.

Of course, I was raised in another arid state where you get fined for watering your lawn or even washing your car.

Just to prove his point, yesterday I was taking my kids to school and the sprinklers were on at the playground. They had been left on ALL NIGHT. The yard duty lady said that the city runs them and they forget to turn them off. When I picked up Alice-Grace from Kindergarten at noon, they were STILL ON!

Oh, did I mention that it was also RAINING that day?

"WALL-E"

Back when we were doing our "Family Camp" staycation, someone surprised us by leaving on our porch a bag of goodies (soda pop, popcorn, candy) plus a gift card for a local movie theater.

We ate the goodies right away and saved the gift card for "WALL-E."

Jeffrey loved the movie (robots, space, trash -- all his favorite things). Frances liked it (bonus -- she actually did NOT throw up while in the theater). Alice-Grace was fine through the opening credits and then the craziness began (that girl can't sit still to save her life). Nigel liked the movie.

I thought it was OK, but just too darn LONG! Is that a bad sign that I can't even sit through a children's movie? I felt like a child again playing "Risk" with my brothers (where I would always be France so that I could get invaded quickly and stop playing that mind-numbing game).

We did have a great time, though, seeing a movie when it first came out in a nice cinema. Thank you, movie pass and candy fairy!

Please note that I haven't posted lately because I've been so busy at work. Here are my favorite closed-captioning mistakes that I've seen lately:

"John McCain" was typed as "John Muck Contain"

Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt's daughter "Zahara" was typed as "The Horror"

Family Camp Day Seven: Pirate Day

Why couldn't the young pirate go to the movie? Because it was rated "arrrr"!

OK, bad joke. Like dinosaur day, pirate day kind of fizzled (maybe it's because we're burned out on family camp, maybe it's because real life started creeping in, I don't know).

We went to a local park (please note that we do go to a different park each time) and made pirate hats and paper boats. We then sailed the boats in a little stream. It was a good competition between Nigel's and Frances' boats. Poor Jeffrey, his boat kept getting stuck in the weeds (we said it was picking up passengers). Mine didn't win, but it did keep its shape the longest (my origami skills are awesome!). Alice-Grace didn't want to get hers wet.

After a picnic lunch, I had lots of games and activities planned (buried treasure in the sand volleyball court, see how many pretzels you can pick up with a hook-hand, pirate "Simon Says," etc.), but it all dissolved in a puddle of tears because Jeffrey kept falling down and he was convinced it was the park's fault (not his slippery shoes).

Once we got back home, everyone soon scattered and then we ended up in the pool. Pirates went swimming, didn't they? OK, maybe not of their own free will, but they did go swimming. Can we call that a "walk the plank" activity?

Then our day was eaten up by Frances going to her church group activity and Nigel heading off to scouts. I had to go to bed early because it was back to work for me the next morning.

We actually did our pirate craft the next day. Here are our rice crispy treat pirate sculptures. Frances did an island (check out the palm tree) with a cave full of gold coins. Jeffrey did a treasure chest full of gold coins and a pirate ship and a cannon. Alice-Grace copied Frances' island, but hers has barrette fish and a bridge.

(photos of rice crispy creations coming soon)

That's the end of our family camp. It was a lot of fun and the kids really got into it. They looked forward to the different themes and activities and although we didn't get to everything that I had planned, it was wonderful just to be together. I was amazed by all the FREE activities within our city and it was good for the kids to realize that you don't need to spend a ton of money to have a good time.

Family Camp Day Six: Science Day

I thought I'd start off our sixth day of "family camp" with a homemade breakfast. Well, I guess it's been a while since I've used my antique Manning Bowman waffle iron because when I turned it on, billows of smoke filled our kitchen. Instead of waking the kids up with the delicious aroma of waffles, I woke them up with the smoke alarm going off!

Well, it is science day, after all. I was glad to see that they all promptly got up and started crawling towards the front door to get outside (those fire drills must be working).

After breakfast (the waffles were yummy, by the way), we headed out to the local University campus to check out their science building. There were lots of hands-on exhibits and we all had a great time. We'll have to come back when the Planetarium is open.

Then we went to another science building to check out the fish tanks. Jeffrey was enamored with the lobster and Alice-Grace couldn't get enough of the sucker fish.

We had a nice picnic lunch on campus (where we accidentally threw away Alice-Grace's bracelets that she was keeping in her lunch sack for "safe keeping").

Then it was off to the college library. We saw an exhibit by one of our friends (if you want to be a great artist, be our neighbor -- so far in our travels we have been to museums where THREE of our past next door neighbors' artwork has been on display) and we loved checking out the huge globe. "Hey, look, it's Sri Lanka!"

(photo of us pointing to big globe coming soon)

Then we headed to the art museum (art can be a science, right?). This is where Alice-Grace remembered her lost bracelets. This induced much crying, which caused the security guards to circle around us giving us the stink-eye. I took Alice-Grace back to our lunch spot and after much trash digging, we found her bag with the treasured bracelets still inside (please note that her "bracelets" are actually hair rubber bands). We went back to the art museum and then, exhausted, headed home.

Back at home we did some science experiments on surface tension (you know, sprinkle pepper on water and then add a drop of dish soap to see them disperse) and then we brought out the Diet Coke and Mentos. We had never done this before, so it was totally exciting. It was especially fun because cousin Fred gave us a special rocket launcher just for this reason.

(photos of Diet Coke shooting into the air coming soon)

That night, we went to a local park to FINALLY do our campfire (you know, what we tried to do on day one of family camp but the weather was nasty). Nigel taught us how to build a proper fire and we roasted marshmallows. The kids loved it.

(photo of kids roasting marshmallows coming soon)

Then we did Alka-Seltzer rockets (put an Alka-Seltzer tablet and some vinegar in an empty film canister, put the lid on and watch it shoot into the air) until our container flew on top of the pavilion roof and did not roll off.

Luckily there was lots to do at the park. Frances loved playing "Robinson Crusoe" under a big pine tree. We then played at the playground and in the sand volleyball court before heading home.

Another great day of family camp! One more to go!

Family Camp Day Five: Flag Day

Happy Flag Day! We started off the day with a (free) breakfast at our local supermarket. There was French toast with yummy butter syrup (see recipe below) and orange juice or milk to drink. It must be popular because we saw many of our friends there.

After that we went swimming (and continued some events from Olympics Day). While in the jacuzzi, we went over proper flag etiquette and the history of "Old Glory" (isn't that what most people discuss while hot tubbing?).

Then off to buy Nigel a Father's Day gift and a quick snack at the local French bakery. After all, without the French, we never would have won the Revolutionary War!

I taught the kids how to make a perfect five-pointed star with a few folds and just one straight cut of the scissors. Supposedly, the story goes that George Washington wanted six-pointed stars on the flag because he thought a five-pointed star would be too hard to do. Betsy Ross showed him how to fold a piece of fabric and with one cut make a star. Here are our stars.
That evening we went to the flag retirement ceremony to see the old, tattered flags be burned. It was a really great program with music, a speaker, and lots of scouts. I think Frances, Jeffrey and Alice-Grace enjoyed it (of course, they enjoy anything involving a large fire).
All in all, it was a much more relaxing Family Camp day, but one that had a lot more meaning.

Sweet Butter Syrup

1/2 cup real butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 cup buttermilk

Cook ingredients until boiling, then add:

1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract

Family Camp Day Four: Olympics

We started our Olympics-themed fourth day of family camp with the "breakfast of champions." That's right, little chocolate donuts.
Do you remember that "Saturday Night Live" skit with John Belushi spoofing Bruce Jenner and eating little chocolate donuts instead of Wheaties? Of course my children didn't get the reference at all, but I giggled the whole time eating them.

We started with a torch relay (yellow tissue paper shoved in an empty toilet paper tube) and then the march of countries, complete with flags (Frances was Frances-Land, Alice-Grace was Alice-fornia, and Jeffrey was the United States of America).

We then started the competition. We had the high jump (won by Frances), limbo (won by Jeffrey), forward long jump (Jeffrey), backwards long jump (it was a three-way tie -- could it be that you can only jump so far backwards?), see who can whistle the longest (Frances), climb up a slide (Frances), and a game of SPUD (Frances).

Then we had a popsicle break.

More sports followed. We used the popsicle sticks for a javelin throw (won by Jeffrey), crab walk (Jeffrey), push-ups (Jeffrey) and lastly a soccer kick competition (won by Alice-Grace -- finally, she won something).

It was interesting to see how their personalities came out during the competition. Alice-Grace wore a dress the whole time, Jeffrey had to wash his popsicle stick before throwing it, and Frances got fed up with the judges and boycotted much of the games.

After that, we took a field trip to the nearby Museum of Peoples and Cultures (because the Olympics is all about bringing different people together). We learned all about the Casa Grandes, the Pueblo people, and Kachina dolls. Nigel was totally digging it and the kids were literally digging for artifacts in the sand pit and putting together shards of pottery.
After that, we went out to get some Chinese food (because the Summer Olympics are being held in Beijing this year).

For our closing ceremonies, we went to a (free) carnival put on by Frances' orthodontist. We had (free) snow cones, hot dogs, drinks, cotton candy, popcorn, plus a game and a bounce house.

It was fun, there were tears, we came close to political unrest, it was too commercial and over-rated. Just like the real Olympics!

Family Camp Day Three: Dinosaurs

All the traveling and fun of yesterday wore us out, so "Dinosaur" day kind of fizzled.

We started off really well with us making milk jug T-Rex skulls and papier mache dinosaur bones.
Then we headed off to the local Earth Science Museum (free!) to check out all the displays of fossils, dinosaurs, crystals, etc. We even got to see real scientists working on the bones!
We decided to be dinosaur scientists ourselves and used toothpicks to excavate the chocolate chips out of some cookies. That worked great until it started getting too warm and all of our chips started melting (do dinosaur bones melt?).

Then we had dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets for lunch.

Since the weather was FINALLY nice, we went swimming (dinosaurs swim, don't they?) and hot tubbing (dinosaurs hung out in hot springs, didn't they?).

We were going to film our dinosaur movies (Nigel has a dinosaur puppet -- don't ask), but time got away from us.

I had a huge dinner party I was in charge of that night (we did a spoof on Food Network's "Iron Chef" and the secret ingredient was strawberries) and we must've had between 20-30 people come. It was a lot of fun, but I was exhausted afterwards and didn't get much "dinosauring" in afterwards.

Hey, I think dinosaurs ate strawberries, didn't they?