Fall tradition 2014

Traditions. Its what my kids look forward to when certain times of the year come around. They're things I hope they do with their families and so on. We take cozy showers and get ready to carve pumpkins in our PJs. I turn on not-too-creepy Halloween music.

Then usually the fighting will start because Maysen has lost his mind because his tool won't work right. Then Griffin thinks he can cut eyes himself with the butcher knife. Nate has, of course, picked the most challenging pumpkin so is *zero* help. My pumpkin ends up the most elementary one on the market because I'm running 2 other pumpkins at the same time while Nate busts out an ice scuplture of Mother Teresa through his pumpkin. 

I'll let you decide who's is who's. I was being sarcastic for those of you looking for an ice sculpture.

I *love* this show. It signals times of snuggling and coziness. Of being together. Hits off the holidays for us. I think Charlie needs some Prozac. 

All cuddled up watching Charlie Brown.

Citizen of the month!?

My heart is exploding a little bit. This little man walked into the door and pulled this out of his bag. He, along with one other girl, were chosen out of the 4th grade to be Citizens of the Month. That means they have excelled in school and class and should be used as an example. 

Last year was a bit of a struggle in 3rd grade. Call it Maysen finding his own, call it not fitting in the square box his teacher had painted for him. We were constantly worried and frustrated with school last year. Not really with Maysen but ... everything. This year is worlds different. When I asked Maysen was the difference was, he said "My teacher". Let this be a lesson to you teachers out there ... let kids be themselves and work with who they are and they will SHINE! YOU can be the difference between a terrible school year and one where you watch them flourish like a flower in spring.

I could not be more proud of you, Maysen. Keep shining my little Bean,.. 

Love,

Momma

New 4th & 1st graders!

I can't believe my boys are in 1st and 4th grade! It brings with it such a flurry of emotions. Lets face it, on the one hand I get the majority of the day to MYSELF. On the other, it means they're growing up and one more step closer to them being out of the house. They are my world and I can't even imagine.

We played "school supply shopping" where I had to read out their supply and put it in their bag. They didn't have much fun supply shopping, but they did have fun here.

Love these new hats! They got them when Andrew, Caleb, and Joshua were here.

Getting on the bus! Maysen will likely start riding his bike to school this year.

GQ boys here!

Griffin has Mrs Meeker for 1st grade this year. Maysen had Mrs Mercer. I think both are great teachers! Mrs Meeker has 2 hamsters that I think are going to be a fun additive to this year. Also, when we were going through our tour, Griffin's friend Lance showed up. Lance has always gone to CCS but this was going to be his first year at Creslane. Those two are going to be a handful! I wonder if our quiet little boys might be getting into mischief this year?

Maysen has Mrs Davenport this year. She is brand new to full time teaching (did some subbing last year I think). I had asked that he be placed with someone who had enthusiasm and willingness to keep him going! I have to admit, though, since football has started he seems to have calmed down some. I think it might be all the practicing and it's worn him out. He was pretty excited to see that Jack and Kellen were both in his class. They're on his football team. Excited to see what this year brings! Not only do they grow physically but each school year they seem to be a little bit inside, too.


October 10th, 2014 Update: 

Maysen is doing so so so terrific in school. He is loving it! They spent a month covering art in September and October is the solar system. He loves his teacher and the reports I've gotten back from her so far is that he is the best kid in class. No issues.

Griffin on the other hand. My Mr Quiet. Yeah right. They have a "poker chip" system in school where they get a warning for their behavior and then if it continues they get a poker chip. 3 poker chips means a trip to see Mr Beck, principal. Well Mr Griff frequently comes home with reports of poker chips. It's not for anything but .... talking! He loves to talk, talk to his neighbor, talk outloud. So we are working on that. He gets a sticker for every day he comes home with no poker chips. 5 stickers = ice cream cone from DQ. So far, so good!

Two loves (right?) collide!

Maysen gas been taking piano from Mr (Mayor) Stram since January of this year. He has done so well. I think it's a love-hate relationship. He loves to play, but hates to practice. Right now he is learning the Indian song, playing both hands at the same time with different rhythms. He's coming right along about.

He also started football practice this last week. That is also a very much love – hate relationship. He loves to play and tackle, but again, hates to practice. This past week was in the 90s and he had practice for an hour and a half. Needless to say once he got home he was jumping in the pool. He has his first jamboree next week.

Mr GQ

It has been two years that Maysen has been asking for his ears to be pierced. At first, like most parents both Nate and I were immediately saying, "No" hoping/thinking it was nothing but a phase. This was his request at birthdays and Christmases and he would slip the request in during reward time.

The answer continued to be "No" and the more we said "No" the more questions he asked. Of course being his parents, we didn't have to give him an answer but it did, admittedly, start my mind wondering.

If Maysen was a girl would we relent and let her pierce them? Probably. What moral compass would we be steering off course by allowing it? After a lot of pondering, the only thing I could come up with is the social stigma having a "pierced ear" portrayed. Bully. Tough guy. Menace. Rebel.

This led us in the discussion of judging people by appearances and how we've tried to raise the boys to not judge others. If my only reason to Maysen was "It looks bad", this tells him: I don't care what you think looks good. People will judge you in a bad way even though you're a good kid.

I wasn't buying any of what I was trying to sell. After working hard on respect, gratefulness, positive attitude, Maysen has come a long way. We talked about responsibility on keeping his ear clean and working hard at changing that age-old stigma of boys with earrings. He understands that some people might see his earring and automatically think he's a boy gone rogue. He would have to work  hard to show others what a beautiful person on this inside he is. Boys with earrings don't have to be thugs, bullies, street rats, or whatever else I can hear my own parents and grandparents saying when I was growing up.

I asked my good friends on Facebook what they all thought. Man I've got some great friends! No one was afraid to give me their own opinion and I value that so much! It really did show me that no matter who you are, where you came from, we all have our own opinions! A good friend told me, "Sometimes it's not our job to understand why things are so important to them." Moments after his ear was pierced his head was held a little higher. He stood a little taller with confidence and looked in the mirror with the biggest of smiles that continued for hours. After all, isn't that what we want as parents? We want our kids to feel good about themselves?  I think there are so many body image issues in our world today that if having a pierced ear gives my kid confidence in himself, then so be it.

Make no mistake: I've already told him to forget about asking for a tattoo or any of that stuff until he's his own adult and until he's out of the house. You can't just take one of those off and let it heal up on its own if you decide you don't like it when you grow up. We have also had the discussion that if he does start to act like a thug, bully, street rat, bad grades, disrespect ... that earring is O.U.T.... and probably with the backing still in place! 

Griffin kindergarten graduation

He started out only being able to read a few words, barely. Now he's sounding out every word he seeing on billboards or in the books he's checked out at the library (especially the Pokemon comics!). He has come a long way this year and we could not be more proud of him. Grandma Bobbi and Grandma Sherrill were able to come and enjoy the picnic with us!

Watch out world! He's officially a first grader now!! 

Holy Ants, Batman!

Griffin wanted to take a bath in the soaker tub. I started the bath water - and even added bubbles (proving I was "tending" to the water".) Well, about 10 minutes later Griffin starts complaining about "all the ants" and wanted to get out. We have had problems with them wasting all that soaker-tub water and getting out after only a few minutes. I told him he needed to stay in longer (while I was folding laundry - not paying attention) and he just kept up the whining to get out.

FINALLY I went in there to see what all the "ant" fuss was about, because I certainly didn't see any when I was filling the tub. He was standing up in the tub - not moving - and crying. All I could see were bubbles, so I swished away the bubbles ...... and ...... HOLY COW. The 6-foot tub's bottom was black. It was filled with thousands of sugar ants. No word of a lie. It was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. I've never ripped a kid so quick out of a tub! We have "Ask the Bug Man" come every month and spray and when I talked to them about it - they could only guess that there was a pocket of ants in the water line somewhere that got swept in with the running water.

Thankfully that has never happened again ... but it was truly amazingly horrifying.

Start of Scovil football!

Today Maysen signed up for Pop Warner football that will start in the fall. After a successful, fun time at basketball, he has decided to play his hand at football. This weekend there was a free camp at the cottage Grove high school where the University of Oregon Ducks came to teach the clinic. None other than the Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota showed up. I am not sure who was more excited… Maysen or Daddy!!

Nate took advantage of the situation, and wore his Mariota jersey. He even signed it! Guess he will not be wearing that jersey too much! 

New new (2015) Tahoe

Due to some suscpicions that our white (newER) Tahoe had been in a wreck, we finally threw in the white towel and got a brand new one! The white one was making a weird sound when I turned (and felt resistance, too) and the dealership kept just telling me it "was seals". We drove it into Bobbi and George's and George immediately found a leak and a drip pan that was definitely not "factory". I was done! Lawd, isn't she pretty!!

Las Vegas!

Our doorbell rang at 8:50am and there was Ren Rasmussen waiting to drive us along with Papa and Sherrill to the airport. The pilots let the boys see up in the cockpit and they thought they were pretty special! 

The flight to Las Vegas was only 2hrs long so by the time Sherrill and I were done chatting we were descending into Sin City! 

The Monte Carlo was beautiful and checking in was going smoothly until our $90 roll-away bed for Maysen was not showing we'd paid it already to Expedia. That was a bump but soon resolved. While we were dealing with that, Nate and Papa had decided that we needed to see Blue Man group that night which was showing at the Monte Carlo. 

Monday we took the tram to the Bellagio and looked at the botanical and butterfly garden. Walking through the lobby of Bellagio we passed through the lobby and saw this candy shop and melted chocolate fountain. It was beautiful and delicious-looking at the same time! 

We then walked over to the M&M and Coca-Cola worlds. You never would have imagined how many different types of M&Ms there are! That night Papa and Sherrill went to see The Beatles Love show at the Mirage. We took the boys to get frozen yogurt that night. Sadly the tigers and dolphins exhibit was closed already. It was likely a blessing in disguise, as the boys were exhausted! Nate went and gambled but sadly did not win the jackpot. Rats!

Tuesday morning was spent at Mandalay Bay visiting the sharks and the aquarium. We then rode the tram to the Luxor to see the Titanic Exhibit. To be honest, this was one of the reasons I wanted to go to Las Vegas since Maysen has been such a huge fan of the Titanic, almost creepy! He was in hog heaven!

Tuesday night was to be date night but Nate and I decided there were a few other sights we hadn't seen yet that we wanted to (Mirage volcano, Bellagio fountains, Vegas sign) To get to all of them at night would be hard so we decided on a night private Limo tour. It was one of the best things we did. Louie was our driver (and soon Griffin's best friend).

We walked right in front of the whole line waiting to get this photo. Louie knew the tricks to get the best shot and it meant walking off to the side - not the front.

Standing right at the pawn shop featured in "Pawn Stars". Louie said that the stars are hardly ever there unless their filming.

Griffin spent most of the night talking to Louie in the partisan!

Fremont Street Experience

Wednesday we checked out of the Monte Carlo and picked up our rental car. We drove to Circus Circus where we spent the morning playing in the arcade and watching the circus performances every hour.

We then checked into our WorldMark Penthouse Suite for the remainder of the vacation. It was gorgeous! we had 3bdrm, 3 bath. By this time of the vacation it was nice for the boys to have their own space. The lazy river was amazing as was the hot tub with water falls. Pizza and NBA playoffs followed that night with snoozes off and on.

***

Thursday everyone was feeling pretty wiped out and not used to how dry Las Vegas was! Most of us were rashy, sinus headaches and the warmth was getting to us. We did load up in the car and visit Hoover Dam. Man that was a sight to see!

For our final night/dinner we drove back to the strip to eat at the Rainforest Cafe at the MGM Grand.

Friday we were all ready to get home. But not before working on homework at the airport! It was a great trip with Papa and Sherrill and lifelong memories were made. We loved Vegas and personally we can't wait to go back!