'24' and Jack Bauer have nothing on me

I love taking the boys to the park mostly because they seem to love it, they shout and laugh as they climb and play, and they come home with big appetites and solid naps. But it is definitely not a casual, relaxing sort of event. I must have my mommy senses on high alert, my reflexes nimble as a kitty's. About half the time I'm there I feel like I'm training for some kind of combat mission, carefully positioning myself halfway between my active little dudes until my mommy-radar whirs into action- OH NO, JULIAN'S CHANCES OF TAKING A NOSEDIVE OFF THAT STEP STOOL PLAY THING ARE REGISTERING AT 75%, BUT CALEB'S PROBABILITY OF TUMBLING DOWN THE SLIDE ONTO ASPHALT IS AT 65% AND RISING- in an instant I calculate the angles, the content of materials they're about to come into contact with, the potential damage: SLIDE IS ONLY A FEW FEET LONG, POSSIBLY HEADED NOGGIN FIRST vs. STEPY STOOL PLAY THING'S ANGLE IS WILL POSITION JULIAN FOR A BACKWARD SOMMERSAULT ROLL INTO NASTY CORNER OF STRUCTURE. I like to think that I've somehow received superpowers for my mommy mission- in a flash I dive towards Julian and break his fall with my outstretched hand, then, heart pounding, adrenaline flushing, I use my leg to whir myself around and catch Caleb with my foot. Phewsh, saved the day again. Does someone want to set aside the key to the city for me?

While at times I miss and one of the kids biffs it and smacks their head, so far no one has had to call 911 for me, like we did for another parent the other day when their kid fell onto the sidewalk. His nanny screamed for a towel as her charge's head gushed with blood. Who needs '24' and Jack Bauer, just hang out with me at the playground, you'll get your fill of action. Except maybe you wouldn't mind giving me a hand, things are far less eventful when I've got a 1:1 ratio. Then again, I need to get my workout in somehow ;)

It's almost time...yahoo

I'm going to have to read all this blog "how to" stuff one of these days. Every time I log in I see all this stuff I need to learn. That's so I can learn how to improve this family blog. Anyway it's almost time for our big family bash in Santa Cruz. Everyone here is excited and counting the days until we go. I also wanted to say that I'm taking the plunge and I'm going to finish a college degree. I'm a couple of classes shy of an AA degree so that will be my first step. I've signed up for 3 classes 2 required and one for fun. In the summer I'll take the math class I need and then I'll have my AA. I'm still debating with myself about doing an online bachelors program or actually attending classes at CSUS. The plan is to then do a masters program at CSUS so I can get licensed as a MFT or MFCC. I think they are very similar and either one will allow me to be a counselor/therapist. I'm excited and I figure when Emily and Grace are graduating from high school I should be graduating with a bachelors. We'll see how this semester goes. I hope this old brain of mine is up to the task. Just in case you were interested I'm taking Public Speaking (fills one of the "Languages & Rationality" requirements), Magic, Witchcraft and Religion (fills the "Ethnic/Multicultural Studies" requirement) can you believe they have such a requirement? I have a cultural anthropology class that I took years ago but it wasn't a requirement then so it doesn't count. For my fun class I'm taking Hatha Yoga so I can learn how to relax. See you all in Santa Cruz.

Christmas

Well Just so you All know...
Nik came down to San Diego last weekend. I sort of talked him into coming down and singing for my ward christmas party! He sang "We Three Kings" and was it amazing..???? He drove in 4 hours of traffic to get down here on time..and BARELY made it!! He played the song on his guitar, there was no mic so he played it very soft.
RIGHT when he started singing, my home teacher looked over at me and lipped "WOW!" Nik finished the song great...and recieved a very warm supportive applause that ended in a STANDING applause!! It was really nice..everyone was so excited he came and were amazed by his wonderful talent!
Anyway, I just thought everyone should know! Love you guys! Looking forward to seeing you this weekend!

oh christmas tree

So, my 'letting it go' abilities were once again called into action when, upon decorating our tree, we discovered that our box of ornaments mysteriously disappeared. I try to be organized, I really do, (I found half my decorations) but my acknowledged lack of skills is not helped out any by the fact that our apartment offers only 'creative' storage options and I don't know if the decorations box got stashed somewhere weird when I was trying to cram everything in here (behind my sewing machine in the top shelf of our bedroom cupboard with the chess set Grandpa gave Ian, or behind the piano with our IKEA table legs maybe, or in the ice cooler shoved into the linen closet??) I"m going to cross my fingers and hope we sent it to Ian's mom's house and not (gasp) mistaken for the busted bread mixer and abandoned by the dumpster.. So until I get really organized, I've decided that I just have to go with the flow and find positive, happy things to say about the wide ribbon we used to decorate our tree. It really did turn out lovely. I'm finding that looking at the positive is making my life a lot easier. Now, if only I can get it together enough to make sure I get all of our Christmas cards sent out ;)
We received a lovely sign that our friend Alissa gave us that fit well over our nativity. Our portrait of Christ will be placed on top. It's my favorite reminder of the reason for the season.

Christmas Card

Thought this was fun. Check it out.

Ian

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

Thanksgiving Hangover

So I had an idea for a killer sauce to baste the turkey with. It was equal parts maple syrup, melted butter and brown ale. Suffice it to say that it surpassed my expectations and was enjoyed by all. However, I really only needed one bottle of beer for the sauce, but had to buy a six-pack. So I have 5 bottles of beer sitting in my kitchen. Any ideas as to how a non-beer drinker could productively use them? I was thinking chili, but we already have about 10 gallons of turkey soup. Anyway, would really appreciate any insights (both serious and goofy).

Thanks!

Gabe's new shoes

That's our new sofa in the background. Gabe wanted Faith to see what a styling young man he's turned into. We shopped yesterday with Leah of course. Leah is a constant source of entertainment or frustration depending on the time and mood of the day. Sooooo....what do you think Faith?

Fleece

Well...the girls and I went to the store and this is what we ended up with. The fleece was on sale but I have no idea if I got a good price or not. While we were at the store we picked up a flier for "Project Linus". It's an organization that provides donated, new,washable, handmade blankets to children that are either ill or traumatized in some way. How perfect, the flier even says they accept fleece blankets. There is a project coordinator right here in Fair Oaks. I'll contact her to make sure what size blankets they are looking for but I'm pretty sure I got enough fabric to make at least 6 blankets. Yahoo buckaroo. They didn't have much in the way of selection but I figured the lavender was nice for girls and the blue with the cowboy hats or the red with the cowboy boots were suitable for boys or girls according to their taste. Anyway us girls are pretty excited. This fleece is very soft and snuggly.

Christmas Eve idea

On Thanksgiving when we were at Margie's house I noticed this blanket Marge covered herself with and I got an idea. How about if we make some of these tied blankets to donate as a sort of family service project. We could make them a little smaller and donate for infants at a local hospital. What do you all think? These are super simple. Just cut and tie the sides together or even do them as a single layer. Gabe did some of these at EFY and they did them single layer. Either way I think I will take the girls and get some fabric today. It's a kind of fleece type fabric. This one Marge has is really nice. Should be a fun idea and a little more in the spirit of Christmas. The top photo is one of how the sides look.

Gabe's casting call

Emily and I are trying to load a picture and we are both a little challenged in that area. I think I finally figured this out so here is the picture at last...Gabe had an appointment in the casting room and yes indeed...he got the part. Here is the photographic evidence. Another soccer injury. I guess he won't be playing the last tournament of the season. Poor Gabe. Nice red cast though. He looks so good in red.

I tried to get Gabe to buy these shoes when we went shopping yesterday...he wouldn't go for it. I thought they would provide endless entertainment and I just heard that laughter can add 8 years to your life. How did they determine that I wonder?????

Don't you wish you could sleep like Homer Simpson instead of having to count sheep?

I have had insomnia since I was a child. Must have had it my whole life because my mom complained about me not sleeping as an infant and toddler. Once I could fend for myself at night she didn't complain anymore. This time change has totally messed up my sleep which is pretty messed up without the time change. I have been waking up at 3 or 3:30 everyday and I can't go back to sleep. Since this seems to be my new pattern I'm happily, maybe that's too strong of a word, but I figure since I'm up I'll make good use of the time. Today I've already exercised for an hour, watched an episode of "House", I actually did the first two concurrently, and I've got bread baking. I've also edited this blog twice and now I'm bathing Leah, always the high point of my morning. It's great mother daughter bonding time. I'm waiting for some of the "others" to wake up so I can re-clean the carpet. I cleaned it on Tuesday but it isn't clean enough so I'm redoing it very soon, within the next hour or so. All this cleaning of the carpet is in anticipation of my new sofa. I bought a new sofa for the living room. Brick colored leather sofa. Gave Rebecca Wilhelm the green piano and Mary is taking the old flowery sofa so it's a nice empty room right now. Maybe someday when I can sleep I'll dream of all the loveliness in my home. Till then I'll finish baking the bread.

Homesick for Home Ec

My school didn't offer a home economics course, and I had absolutely no interest in pursuing anything akin to it in university. I'm not sure if home ec wasn't an option because at that point (mid 90's) people felt that those classes were part of a greater conspiracy to keep women in the kitchen as much as it was just my school didn't have the size or funding to pull it off. I think the whole conspiracy thing may have been part of the reason I steered way clear of anything to do with home, kids, cooking, finances etc. when I was in college. I vaguely knew that Some Day I would do all that stuff, but I didn't want to study it. Why take home economics when you can learn about Ancient Greek Architecture, or navel-gaze in Beginning Acting or get 75% off lift tickets through the PE ski class, and, lest I forget, focus on my adored major which was my route for gainful employ the day after I received my diploma. No one suggested I learn anything that would have been beneficial for a stay-at-home mom, and if they had I would have laughed and then been mild to medium offended.
Fast forward a few years to the days I'm trying to get nutritious, fast and simple dinners on the table on at least a bi-weekly basis (come on people!) with enough leftovers for Ian to take to lunch on the days he needs a lunch and without busting the budget each month on groceries. Looking back I really wish that I maybe had given home ec some thought. I'm going on three years now since my working has been transferred from a windowless office to my house and it's been a little bit crazy to try to figure it all out. It definitely was not instaknowledge like I had vaguely assumed. The skills I learned in college serve little to no purpose in my new life, except as a topic of conversation. People tell me- "oh, you'll go back to it someday when your kids start school" or "think of all you learned while you were working." Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I studied what I studied and that I worked for awhile, and I don't know if I'd do anything different if I was to do it over again, to be honest. I guess I just wonder why colleges are dumping out hundreds of thousands of grads every year who can tell you precisely what painter did what when, but blink with wide-eyed wonder if you asked them to prepare a nutritious, economical meal for four each day of the week, or run a household with confident smoothness. I guess I feel like if I had prepared myself for being a mom even a micro faction as much as I prepared myself for my career- I think it would have come in reeaaalll handy right now.

Christmas

After our conference call here are the gift exchange name's drawn by Caleb and Jamie. Look for your name on the left and the name on the right is the person you will buy a gift for ($20 limit):

Ian - Emily
Melissa - Jamie
Caleb - Grace
Jamie - Faith
Nik - Melissa
Faith - Gabe
Gabe - Nik
Emily - Caleb
Grace - Ian

We are set to check into the house Thursday, December 20th after 3pm and we will check out Thursday, December 27th by 11am. You can check out the house at http://pointsantacruz.com/ There is a link that will show you activities that are close by that we can check out. I personally am stoked about going to the surfing museum. Tentative list of activities follows:
Saturday the 22nd - Monterey Bay Aquarium and Carmel by the Sea
Sunday the 23rd - church and a little walking about time
Monday the 24th - surf/body board & Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
Tuesday the 25th - house/beach possible hike
Wednesday the 26th - Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary/possible bike ride

We are putting together a family calendar so if you have pictures submit them to Jamie or Melissa. If you have a favorite quote submit that too. Deadline for submitting is November 25th. We will have another conference call on the 25th so be prepared with any questions or suggestions.

Nik has been nominated to head up some music for Christmas Eve so make sure to bring your guitar Nikee baby.

I am soliciting any favorite recipes or food requests so that I can plan meals so send those to me. All this sending should be done by email.

We will be baking cookies to use as decorations for the tree so if you have any ideas/suggestions in this area let me know too. Me is Louise in case anyone was wondering. I'm attaching a picture of the house. Please check out the website and come to the next conference call with your ideas.

This is going to be great fun. If we all work together no one will get too burned out and it should be fun for all.

Love you all...Mom

School Dance

Andrew Carnegie Middle School was not as welcoming as this photo of Andrew Carnegie. Emily and Grace convinced Anatole to let them go to the school dance. There are three things you need to get into a school dance these days. 1. student id 2. $5 and 3. signed dance card. Well Emily had all three...Grace didn't. Grace lost her purse at school and among the many things contained in said purse was her student id. Their friend Jordan called and gave Grace the hope that she could still attend. "Go early and find Mr. Uhler...he will open the door for you and you will be able to find your purse and then go to the dance" Grace thinks she left her purse in Mr. Uhler's class. I told her that Nik couldn't get in to a school dance once because he didn't have his student id hoping to prepare Grace for the inevitable. Poor Grace was so sad she couldn't go to the dance. After exhausting all possible options she was turned away and Emily went without her. Many tears were shed...

A Fun Day With Emily & Grace

Saturday October 22nd we all went to the Time Out For Women & Girls where we got to listen to some great speakers and some interesting music. We had a great time. Some of the singers were good and lots weren't but it was still fun and Emily and Grace had a great time. We talked about what they learned and who was their favorite speaker and all that good stuff. Jane Clayson Johnson was there. She's a hometown girl and she even graduated from Rio Americano High School. She played a violin duet with her mom. That was one of the good music pieces. Our old stake president's wife, Cathy Wood, played the piano along with them. Wasn't sure if I would enjoy the day but I totally did.

Well that stinks...I couldn't get the picture to upload. Maybe I'll try again later.

Looks like I was able to add a picture afterall. We all like pictures. Makes the blog much more fun.

Nik's Job

Nik is working as an attendant for a young man with Asperger's Syndrome. His mother wrote a book about raising him so I checked it out on Amazon. That's where I got the image of Ben. Nik is excited he gets to go to music classes at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood and he gets to go to the recording studio while Ben records all 200 tracks of whatever songs he is recording. The 200 tracks quote is from his mom. She called and talked to me for a long time. Interesting woman.

California Burning

Well...Faith was one of the evacuee's of the San Diego fires. Ian drove down to San Diego and swept her away to Los Angeles and Nik took her back to San Diego on Wednesday evening. He said the fires in the night looked amazing. Too bad they are so devastating. Faith went back to her apartment Thursday to find all was well. Aside from lots of ash and debris outside, everything inside was safe and sound. Her clients actually came in for their scheduled hair cuts on Thursday. Amazing.

Happy Hallowe'en!

After visiting the boys' cousin Liam (and his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles of course!) I was impressed that Jamie took her little guy so often to the photo studio to get his picture taken. They really turned out so much nicer than the ones that I take at home. As I read all the adverts about how they grow so fast and you want to capture them at each stage before it's gone forever I became wistful. So when I got home and saw a Hallowe'en coupon from Picture People and I also glanced over at the boys' as yet unworn cute turtle costumes from Children's Place, I decided I better carpe the diem.
When we got to Picture People told the photolady I just wanted a shot where both boys were looking at the camera and smiling- no fancy poses. I guess I thought I'd sit back a little and let the photographer do her thing. Well, it wasn't working out so well- the photographer took the photos, of course, but I became much more involved than I was expecting! I kept running up to the boys and putting them in place next to each other, and then running back behind the photographer and making googly faces and noises to get them to look at me. We had been at it for awhile and I must have been looking really disshevelled and just sort of panting there because she said that she thought we were good. I said- no way! I haven't gotten my picture yet! Luckily after just a few more minutes we got the winning shot. It was a good thing I had made us keep going because out of the whole lot I only got one where both boys were looking at the camera and smiling. Phewsh- close one. Moral of the story: it's much easier at these things with one baby- or two adults. And no head items. :D

Happy Hallowe'en!

Pumpkin Patch!

On our way home from a ward party at the beach we ran into this pumpkin patch with our friends the Morrises. It's called McGrath St. Pumpkin Patch and it was the best pumpkin farm we've ever seen. They had free hayrides, although it was late in the day so we didn't take advantage, and bargain prices. They also had some of the wackiest pumpkins and gourds we've ever seen! We are going to carve our pumpkin tomorrow for FHE- looking forward to it!

Mischief Makers

I came across this video today as I was uploading the recent additions- it was taken just a week or two before the barricade went up... now you can see what I mean!

the party is so over

BUSTED!

It has been noted in recent weeks that a level of disruption unlike any other has descended upon the Puente household. While initially the dissemblement of pots, pans and other sundry items was met with tolerance and even encouragement, the frequency of such disruptions and disorderly behavior has risen so sharply as to really get on the nerves of the household's adult tenants. After much perusing of used baby items advertisements and a long drive to Torrance, relief may be at hand. As of September 29, 2006 the first gate was erected in the Puente home to prevent entry into what will be hereafter referred to as 'the kitchen.' The purpose of the blockade is to attempt to restore some semblance of order, and recover what precious little sanity remains.




Initially the disturbers were quite agitated about the inaccessibility into 'the kitchen' (aka their playroom), but they gradually got used to the idea and now use the blockade as a launching point to practice their walking.

caleb takes a few steps

Caleb is walking so often now that we'll turn our backs and look at him and he's teetering from one corner of the couch to the armchair across the carpet. We're wise enough to know that anything new our boys are doing seems to develop in fits and starts- one day they'll be doing it every chance they get and the next day they seem to have forgotten how, especially in front of the camera. But we did catch this little piece of fun last night. I'm predicting that he'll be walking exclusively by the end of October- right around the time of his unofficial first birthday/elusive due date of October 9.

walkers!

This video was shot a couple weeks ago- 9/12/2007. Boys love their walkers! We took them out to the courtyard right in front of our apartment in the center of our complex. It's a big, smooth, contained place for them to walk around and they seemed to enjoy it. Lindsay and their Early Intervention therapist Priscilla were there to help out while I filmed. Since this video was shot they have started taking some steps all by themselves too. Our days of placid immobility- as tenuous as they have been these last few months since the boys have been crawling- are about to become completely extinct!

Violet's Grave

What a terrible title. Anyway we took these photos a long time ago or so it seems. As usual I'm very slow at getting things done. Nik loaded the pictures to Anatole's laptop and I don't usually have use of his laptop so... just some of the excuses for taking so long to post. We chose the red granite and Marge chose the "she's still at it" and this is the final result. I think my mom would be happy with the result. Can't believe it's been so long since she passed. We took a photo of Allan's grave and Eva's grave too. Thought I'd post those as well.

the Jane Austen Book Club Premiere

Yesterday Ian and I partook in a Hollywood tradition- we went to our first semi-big-deal premiere for the movie that the company Ian works for, Sony Pictures Classics, is releasing this weekend. We didn't know exactly what to expect. We showed up on time, which meant we had to wait for about 45min. before they started the movie, and we weren't sure if we were going to be overdressed. Not that we were wearing anything special- I was wearing a dress and Ian had on some slacks and a button-up. Turned out to be just right, although some people were there with jeans. The cast showed up decked to the nines for the most part. It was really fun to get an introduction to the movie from the director herself I guess it's the first movie she's directed although she's been adapting novels for the screen for years (Little Women, Memoirs of a Geisha). After the movie it was kind of weird to see all the cast members milling around. I don't know if I liked it so much because everybody that made it was there or because it's really good. I think it's really good, Ian said every time he looked over at me I had a huge smile on my face: 'extended glee' he called it.
yeay.

Brothers and Sisters

I thought I'd share two interesting photo's I ran across recently.

Adventures in Eating

Let's just say that I'm really glad we have a washer and dryer at our place- the laundry we've got nowadays- oy.

cute teeth

Let's be honest, Liam has been a little crabby the past few days, but this picture I thought was pretty cute, and makes me want to forget about how he has been a buger! He has seven teeth already, which is amazing to me, and I think that is why he is crabby, on top of that he is getting some more. AHHH!!!

The Secret to Happiness

Well...pretty impressive subject don't you think? I recently heard on the radio about a study done by MTV of 13 to 24 year olds. Some of the results were pretty interesting. The study concluded that most young people in this age group considered themselves religious/spiritual and that most were happiest because of friends and family. Not money or education or position...friends and family. Right after hearing this I read (I'm always reading something) that the people that are the happiest are those that serve and do good things for others. This isn't what this particular study set out to find. This was a secondary finding. The study was of MS patients. One group had lots of support. People that sent cards, visited, brought in meals, phoned and a variety of other helpful things. They found that indeed these MS patients were happier than those without the same level of support but the surprising finding was that the people who were the happiest were those that provided the service. Supports the whole service emphasis we learn at church. I thought that was very interesting. So there you have it...the secret to happiness.

Like father like son

Today, as we celebrated Calebs birthday, it appears as though the party was not "happenin" the entire time, so Nik and Anatole took a little nap on the couch. We all thought this was pretty cute & funny! Although it was not "happenin" for all, Caleb really enjoyed it, and had a great time!

Breaking News

Well...last school year I signed a permission slip for Leah to run for Class Rep. Frankly I thought it was a joke. Leah can't read or write, can't speak or do much communicating so I figured all the students were running or something. At the end of the year they sent home a campaign poster they had made at school for Leah. Really cute and I hung it up in the family room. I thought that was the end of it all. Not so...I opened Leah's new school schedule and low and behold she is enrolled in student government. She is the class rep. Not sure how that will work out but I got a big hoot out of it.

Computers

Liam is in love with computers, as you will see in this picture...if one of us is on the laptop, he has to be right by it. He loves to hit the keyboard, hear the noises it makes, and look at the pictures. I had taken him to work with me a couple of times and he loves to play on the keyboard, in fact I am surprised he didnt brake one. Yesterday we took him to see Grandpa and he was so serious, because he saw the computer & the keyboard that he wanted to play with that instead.

The Puentes Moved To Springfield

We got a big kick out of this website www.simpsonizeme.com. Check it out and make a cartoon of yourself and family.

A visit from Baba Nina

Well we had a nice week long visit with Anatole's mother. She came to help him celebrate his 60th birthday (Saturday July 21st). As you can see Emily, Grace, Leah and Baba are all about the same size. They went up to the temple on Sunday and took these pictures. She should be on the plane about now flying back to Ana's place in Massachusetts. Don't Emily and Grace look so grown up?

The Gilbert Reunion

Our Family reunion was a great success!! Thanks to everyone who came...And here is a photo for those of you who weren't able to make it...I didn't take enough photos...and after grandpa told us a bunch about his family, i realized it would have been a good idea to tape record it.. BUT oh well. It was great fun.
Love you all.

Grandma Louise

Grandma Louise came to town this past week! She was a huge help as mom recovered from her jaw surgery. Julian and Caleb loved it when they fed her, and one time engaged in a big laughing contest with each other! It was so hilarious! Julian made fishie faces and Caleb was beside himself as he watched. The whole kitchen was roaring with the boys before too long.

Re: The Chase Cabinet Photo

I have a correction to make to the previous post, we were up late last night, found a new web site!
We found maps, Township Maps of Original Land Patents of Yuma County, Colorado. The web site is http://www.rootsweb.com/~coyuma/yuma.htm if anyone is interested, Cliff has asked me to contact the Mr. Lee Zion who runs it, to post photos and stories there. Anyway great site, lots of info, pictures of Armel and pioneers, so here's my revision on the Chase Cabinet Photo.

Leslie W. son of John M. and Ester Winn Chase, came from Ohio to homestead in Colorado, his land can be found listed in Township 2 South Range 42 West, Yuma County, Colorado. Near the south east corner. Listed in 1891 there was a Cash sale of one plot of land, in 1895 he Homesteaded the adjoining north land.

Just Found

This was a birthday card Florence Gilbert sent to Norvin Davis Postmaked Aug.24th,1937, Arcade Annex.
Her address was 955 Court St. Los Angeles, CA
Her note says they have just moved into this place, it is a Four room apt., with two bedrooms.

Rice Cereal

Liam's first time eating rice cereal, and he loved it...can't you tell?