Spirited Discussions?

So, the other day Peter was insisting he had bought an air mattress to go camping with and I was insisting we had not. A couple of days later, Joseph brought me an air mattress, "Look what I found in my closet. What is this?" So that got me thinking, at dinner that night we compiled our top silliest arguments. Here they are in more-or-less chronological order:

1- Is it faster to get to Peter's apartment (we were still dating) by crossing the field or walking around it?

2- Do clouds move across the sky because of winds or the earth moving underneath?

3- Is it cheating to look at someone's cards if you can not in any way affect their game? (ie, A is playing behind of B, and A's discard can not affect B's play at all. A was just curious how close B was to finishing) We now have very set rules when we play Phase 10.

4- Who 1st proposed Elise's name? I still claim I had always liked the name, having someone in my neighborhood with the name. Peter claims he choose it because of its Scandinavian background.

5- Should we still have an electoral college (it would be wise if you don't ask either of us unless you like to talk politics)?

6- Who was right about the clouds moving argument? Conveniently we both think we were the one fighting that it was the wind moving the clouds. I ask, who studied physics and took a weather class?? Hmm?

7- Do fireworks explode uni-directional or 3 dimensional? I know that some of those reading were present at this argument and none of us will ever watch fireworks again without commenting how lucky we are to sit on the correct side of the fireworks so we can see them explode!

8- Which is faster, the slower speed limit with no lights (me) or the faster speed limit with lights (Peter)? This is actually an argument that continues wherever we move and is only settled by racing. I think we have an even number of wins and whoever looses usually follows the winners route once it proves faster.

9- Looking at it at night, where on the mountain is Copperton, UT? Oh wait, that argument isn't ours. That was my mom and dad's silliest (and longest running) argument!

This week I am asking everyone to vote on which argument is the silliest.

By the way, thanks to everyone for taking the pot/kettle poll. It is nice to know that not everything I say is completely archaic! The final results for 'What do you think of the idiom "that's the pot calling the kettle black"?':

Never Heard of it: 0
Heard of it, but don't know what it means: 1
Heard of it, know what is means, but think it is uncommon: 1
Heard it and might have used it/would use it if the situation was right: 2
I know I have used that phrase before: 9

Mothers Day Weekend

Finally, I have gotten around to posting about last weekend. I woke up Saturday and decided to give myself a present: a clean house. I started around 10:30 and by 3 I was as done as I wanted to be (I did do 3 more hours later in the evening). Anyway, it seems the present of choice this year was time alone, and I was no exception. Peter took ALL the kids to the mall and left me home with one directive: no housecleaning while he was gone (that is why I stopped at 3). So after an afternoon of scrapbooking, the kids came home with their spoils. The 4 oldest had used their allowances to buy Webkinz (again). As always, Joseph had also bought a little stuffed animal (less expensive and 3 year olds don't need online toys!) They had bought me some nice clothes with accessories, a dozen roses, and some Bath & Body stuff. Peter worked the night shift (see my last post), so I knew that I was on my own for Mother's Day on Sunday. After Peter left and the kids went to bed I finished cleaning up and went to bed myself.

Sunday was very pleasant. I somehow ended up running a little late for church and they were getting ready to sing the opening hymn when I got in. Of course, the only open row was at the FRONT, so everyone got to see me walk in late. While singing the opening hymn, I saw someone walking up the isle to our row. "Some charitable soul has had pity on me and is coming to help me struggle through Sacrament Meeting with 6 kids on Mother's Day," I thought. To my surprise, when I looked over it was Peter. It is hard for him to come to church when he gets home from working at 8AM. Although he tries to avoid it, sometimes he has to work that Saturday night shift or Sunday day shift. It was a particular blow that he worked that shift so he could take the boys to the cancelled camping trip.

I have to say that Peter taking all the kids to the store and then coming to Church the next day were the two best Mother's Day presents I have ever gotten. It is funny how such a simple thing can mean so much to an overworked, over stressed mom! The other presents weren't too bad either :). And I loved all the kids homemade (technically school and church made) cards.

Friday Night at the Laters

Last Friday the stake had their Father-Son Camp out. Peter had worked really hard to get Friday night and Saturday off to take the boys. He had even remembered to throw in the tent last time we were in NC so he could take them. Well, Friday morning it was raining. I emailed Peter at work and asked him if the plan was still on. "Of course, just go buy some ponchos." (It had not been easy getting the time off and he had even volunteered to work the early (6AM-4PM) Friday shift and all-night (8PM-6AM) Saturday shift so he could go) He gave me a list of things he would need for the rain. So I bought Joseph a new cold weather sleeping bag, a tarp for under the tent, and 4 ponchos. It was still raining. Those boys were so excited they could hardly contain themselves. They had their sleeping bags over their shoulders, backpacks packed and ponchos on from the time school got out till Peter got home from work. Still raining. Ethan even packed all the baseball gloves and balls to play ball. Joseph knew he was going with the big boys and kept showing everyone his new bag and reminding them that his was the yellow poncho. Well, to make a short story long :), Peter got home, they loaded the car and headed out (still raining), only to arrive an hour later (still raining) and find out the camp out was cancelled. Apparently, Peter was the only one who thought everyone would just bring tarps and ponchos and go camping through the rain. Well, to make a short story long :), they went to see Iron Man and went to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.

Meanwhile, I had decided to have a girls night out with my daughters (and poor Matthew who looks a little girlish till I cut his curls). Matthew noticed, BTW, that he was the only boy left. He stood at the window for a while calling bye to his dad and brothers. Anyway, we went to a big fancy dinner at McDonalds. Then we came home and made some crafts I had bought. The 1st pictures are Kirsti and Elise making yarn octopuses and the last is us girls with yarn spirographs. Then we watched live TV (not too common when we have a DVR) and ate a bag of Oreos.

It was a lot of fun and I think Peter and I will split up the kids more often for nights on the town.

A Week in Laters

For some reason I could never get quite caught up with things last week. Here is a short synopsis of our week:

Monday
As always, my shopping day. I was $30 under budget!! There is a park 1.5 miles from the house and the kids school is halfway, so Peter and I walked to the school, picked up the kids and walked to the park. It ended up being 3 miles round trip for us, but only 2 for the kids. Also, we had FHE and finally finished all the power point lessons the kids have made. Just in time to start going over conference talks!

Tuesday
Peter worked the 11-11 shift so I was on my own. Took the kids to the park again (this time I drove!) It is finally nice enough to play outside and the kids pulled out the bikes when we got home. They like to ride up and down the little one way street by our house. I let them do it while I cleaned the kitchen (and listened to Matthew whine about not going out with the other kids) until Ryan got hit by another biker- we get a lot of bikers and runners because we are right along the ocean. Guess I can only let them go around the house unless I am watching them the whole time. Took the boys to Cub Scouts. Watched all my kids and some of Ethan's leader's kids. Elise somehow ended up helping the YW do gardening stuff and we ended up taking some plants home to water.


Wednesday
Went to the park with a friend in the morning. It was a little chilly and windy so we didn't stay long. There was a cool slide there that had rollers going down. Matthew loved it and went up and down it the whole time. After school we pulled out everyone's bikes and the bike trailer (for Joseph and Matthew) and went on our first whole family bike ride. Elise had popped her tire the day before and Kirsti isn't too steady on her bike yet, so they took the scooters. We drove around the huge beach parking lot by our house (it is about the size of a WalMart parking lot) and then went on about a mile route. Poor Kirsti was exhausted! We stretched the limits of the trailer by letting her ride for the home trip. Elise switched scooter to bike with Ryan about 1/2 way through.

Thursday
I can't remember what I did Thursday. I think the plan was to do housework, but I know that didn't quite happen. It was rainy, so no park or playing outside. Hmmm. Must have been a pretty boring day. Should have taken some time to post that day.

Oh yeah, I went and looked at a place to rent that day. It was a great size (a little expensive), but the walls are all faux painted or wall papered or muralled and they aren't leaving till July 1st, still it may be where we end up until we sell our house. By the way, there is a family that is trying to get financing for the house right now. Cross your fingers that it goes through so we can live in our own house again. Here is the website showing the house I looked at. It is in a neighborhood I would like to live in eventually.

*I forgot to mention that we got Mario Cart last Saturday and so we have been playing intermittently with Gordon and Jessica all week. Usually while I make dinner and before the kids go to bed.*

Well, this post is long enough. I will have to post later to tell you about Mother's Day Weekend (that's right, we celebrated all weekend long!)

Poll Answer

Who was the first Later to fall in the Ocean? Peter and I were betting on Ryan (who is the usual 1st due to his love of jumping the waves), but this time it was Joseph. Ryan did come in a close 2nd, though.
Due to a little controversy in my family over a phrase I used to comment on my mom's post, my next poll asks about the idiom "the pot calling the kettle black." Please tell me I'm not the only one who uses that phrase!

You thought you had a lot of laundry . . .

To fit all the summer clothes we brought back from North Carolina into our Suburban, we were forced to be a little creative. Clothes were rolled under seats, inside the stroller, and anywhere else they could be stuffed. Needless to say, I had to refold it all when I got home. Being such a great housecleaner and coming back to a place where warm clothes aren't yet a priority, it sat a couple of days (and a couple in this case may be more than 2). By that time, I had regular laundry to wash, too. When finished, I was faced sorting this pile. For perspective, the bed is the extra full size bed in our bedroom (and Brenda thought the kitchen was funny looking). And, in the interest of full disclosure, this picture is short one load of laundry (still in the dryer) and two loads of towels I folded downstairs.

Goodbye House

Well, I took some pictures of our house before we left. It has been hard to be 6 months without our furniture (Can't say I'm overlly fond of the rental's furniture) so I thought I would take some pictures to get me through till the house sells (or the off season beach rental goes in season and we have to move to a new UNFURNISHED rental). Thought you might like to see the old place or, if you've seen it before, the new bathrooms, kitchen, and floors we added. I forgot the basement, but it now has a new sumppump that both doesn't leak and not turn on (a double wammie). Enjoy!

Pogo Mania

A few years ago, Mom gave one of my kids a pogo stick for their birthday (Ryan I think?) Anyway, it was always a little hard for the kids, but for some reason this spring break they finally "got it." Here are videos of the oldest three pogo-ing their newest technique- Hands Free.
Ethan discovered the technique:

Elise refined it:

And even Ryan joined in:

The kids had so much fun we took the pogo stick back to CT with us.

Spring Break Highlights

We had a great spring break. For those of you who are out of the loop (Gordon), we went down to North Carolina for two weeks to work on the house, see our friends, and see our family. Grandma Red was there for the birth of our newest nephew, and Grandpa even flew up one weekend to see everyone. After the 1st week, we were joined by Peter (he was working before). It was a great 2 weeks! Here are some highlights:

One of the days we spent at the Marbles Museum in Raleigh. The kids loved it and we took a lot of pictures

We also spent a day at the aquarium and the beach.

Poll Answer

I think everyone who took the poll was mean! If you think back, the last time I went on the 12 hour drive we only had one bathroom break (and since it was also a McDonalds for lunch break you could technically call it 0 breaks) This time we had to stop twice for the bathroom. Although one of them was for gas, too and the station didn't have a restroom so we tried the CVS nearby (which also didn't have one) and ended up in a fancy grocery store (the kind with wood floors). Oh yeah, Joseph did have to stop at the end of a freeway ramp once, so I guess you could count that as break #3. Next time depends for everyone!