Sunburn

g

Not this past Friday, but the one before that, one of Brother's friends called up and invited Brother and Peachy to go out boating with their family. Our two children spent a wonderful, fun, adventurous day wake boarding, tubing and swimming in a nearby lake. This was one of their first all day in the sun activities without a Sunscreen Fanatic parent with them. So, they took the opportunity to be free of the yucky goop. Wooo hooo what a great teaching moment (week) this has turned out to be! They both came home with the most amazing sunburns ever known in the Homey Tanner Family. They were so miserable by that evening. Despite lotions and potions, they were terribly uncomfortable for the next several days. Brother had it so bad, he ran a slight fever the first night, and stayed on Advil for a couple days. Peachy wasn't covered so completely and didn't suffer as much. By the fourth day Brother was so sleep deprived, and sick of being in pain that every little thing made him cry. (Some of his siblings took great delight in asking him if it was "that time of month.") I let him stay home from church because I knew that some of his peers would not be able to resist the temptation to tease him and whack him on the back. I figured his mental state was not in a condition for him to deal charitibly with the good natured abuse. Brother couldn't even shower because the water hurt. He got pretty stinky by the end of the week! He also couldn't lift his arms very high, or move very well because it hurt so much. He gingerly sat on the couch and read for like 6 hours a day for 4 days in a row. (Good for his summer reading program! Bad for his physical fitness needs!) Kaylee had to do his paper route for him, and the rest of us pitched in to help him with his chores.

Anyway, it was a good lesson for them. Of course, being the wise parents we are, we took the time to point out that a few moments of "freedom" from the rules, often has longer lasting and horrible consequences. If this had happened during the school year, I probably would have been tempted to have them do an essay, or at least a journal entry about the concept. Hee hee. At any rate, I hope this will help them learn to make wiser choices on thier own. Homey and I reminiced about the days that we each got our own blistering sunburns, and how, after that, we never allowed it to happen again.

Now, the worst part (that I will not take a picture of) is they are peeling. It is so gross. Having never really experienced "peeling" all the kids found it fascinating. Wherever Brother or Peachy sits, there is a flutter of dead skin cells left behind. I am constantly yelling, "Brother, get in here and vacuum up your mess!" I never knew parents had to deal with such gross things like this! Do you think the other kids will learn from the others' mistakes? I hope so!

Yellowstone

Here are a few representative pictures of our family vacation to Yellowstone. We took so many pictures, it was hard to know which ones to put in here. I wanted to put the pic of Peachy looking miserable and holding her shirt over her nose. She really had a hard time with the smell. I, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of it. My favorite thing to do was stand in the direct path of the hot, sulfuric laden steam and try to soak up as much as possible. Clearly I have some deficiency (brain wise, or mineral/nutrition?!)

Also, here is picture of Maddo crumpled up in a ball sitting on the trail with her thumb in her mouth. Poor Maddo got sick of all the hiking, and all the in-and-out-of-the-car stops. At one point, she just sat down and refused to go any farther. KayBee was able to somehow talk her into going on.

One more picture -- Brother and the Buffalo. We saw so many, but we just had to take one representative picture when we happened along this guy so close to the side of the road.

Up a Tree

While in Utah, we met up with some extra-special friends that we knew in Alaska. It had been almost 3 years since we had seen each other. We spent a wonderful couple of hours in a nearby park visiting. While the mothers chatted away, the children found a little more adventure than we had planned on. Thankfully, they all made it back down safely. I had no idea they were up so high. It is probably good that I did not know until we got home, and I was looking at the pictures!

Hunkey Hates My Hair

After having my hair cut asymmetrical for a few months, I decided to be normal again. It turned out shorter than I anticipated, but I'm fine with that, as I won't have to go back for 6 months or so. When I came home, Kadin looked at me and said, "Mom, why did you do that? It does not look like you." Everyone in my family had the same reaction, but were more tactful in thier expressions. Even people at church, who never once commented on it when it was lopsided, managed a fake compliment this time around. (You know how you can tell when people don't reallly mean what they are saying. ) It's all very interesting and amusing to me. I like it, and it has already grown out quite a bit anyway, so it's not even an issue anymore. I just thought I'd put this in, so I can remember Hunkey's funny dissapointment.

Tesoro Run

Wowie. It's been over a month since I wrote. Yikes! So many blog-worthy things have been happening that I haven't even had time to record our activities. Phooey. So here are a few entries to get caught up:

Early in June we participated in the Tesoro Fun Run. Peachy, Maddo and Hunkey ran the 1/2 mile and Brother did the 5K. Last year Kadin needed me to run beside hime because he was scared and not able to pace himself well. He asked if I'd run with him again this year. You can see that within the first few seconds of the race that he broke away from me, and did fine on his own. I never did catch up to him. He took 3rd in his age division, and Maddo got 2nd in hers. Jillian placed fourth in her division. Dallin bumped up to the 5 K (3 miles) this year and was competing against boys up to age 15. He has some training to do in order to be more prepared for next year's race! He is planning on doing cross country at the middle school this coming school year. Hopefully that will be fun for him, and will be a good way to get in good shape! There are other races on the calendar that we will enjoy participating in later in the summer!

Spring Planting

Hooray! We put in 2 more fruit trees! Last year, we planted a peach tree. This year we planted an apple and a cherry tree. Maddo and Peachy were really excited to help. Did I tell you about how helpful they were? They were looking for a project and decided to dig a hole for the new tree. Homie and I said, "Fine." and showed them where to put it. After many minutes of contented digging, Maddo came in and said, "We hit a rock and couldn't go any farther." Then she added, "Also, the hole has a little water bubbling up from the bottom of it." Oh! Great! I was afraid to go look. Peachy thought it was pretty convenient. "It's a self watering hole!" She exclaimed. Well, it took about a month for Homie to fix the broken sprinkler pipe. It was quite a doozy to get at, then he had the wrong repair piece, then the pipe broke worse . . . After about three weekends of attempts, he got it fixed. We thought it would be such a simple thing to put a little tree in the ground! Never underestimate the potential complexity of a seemingly simple household project!

Because the tree had been in the garage for a month waiting to be planted, it got used to the warmer climate and started to get leaves on it. It had lots of lovely little leaves when we planted it. It looked so happy and eager to begin growing in the ground. We were a little worried about what would happen if it frosted in the night, and so every morning we looked outside to make sure the tree was ok. About 3 mornings after it was planted, we looked out and saw that the tree had no leaves! Oh no! We thought the frost had got it. Homie went outside to investigate. There were no dead leaves on the ground. Then he noticed that the smallest branch was much shorter than previously. Something had come in the night and CHOMPED our tree! Friends told us it was deer. We have never even seen a deer in our area, but something must have come in through the hole in the fence! Aaaarrrggg! The next night, a few children volunteered to sleep in front of the trees with thier BB guns. That was about a month ago, and the tree seems to have recovered ok. We barricaded the fence, and are still trying to get around to fixing it. We estimate it will take us one Saturday to replace the missing panel. However, after our last attempt at a simple project, I think I'd better plan on about a month of effort!

Our new toy!

Ever since living in Alaska, we have been wanting a tandem bike. Yesterday Brother found an advertisement for a used one for 150 dollars, so in the afternoon we walked down to the neighborhood where it was for sale. Dad is a bike junkie and knew what to look for. He said it was in okay shape and a reasonable deal. We were really excited, and we rode it (or tried to) all the way home. Riding a tandem takes some getting used to. If any of you have ever ridden one, you know that the person in back can't use steering to keep their balance, so they have to work really hard to keep themselves upright. The person in front has to work to keep both riders' balance by steering. It took a while to get the hang of. Peachy and I rode it all afternoon and actually got pretty good at it, although we still look like a slapstick comedy routine when we try to get off. This morning Peachy woke me up and immediately started pestering me to go out and ride the tandem with her right now! (hence the crazy hair and crusty eyes in the picture). We biked around for a while, but then it started to sprinkle, so we went inside.

That brings me to the other thing that's been happening. For once it has been sunny lately. It rained all Spring break, and then it all of a sudden got nice. There have been some cloudy days sprinkled in, but for about four weeks it has been blue sky. This is very, very rare. Normally I would be very happy about this, but I think whoever controls the weather must hate me. For the past three weeks, it has been sunny Sunday through Friday. And guess what I've been doing during this glorious weather? Sitting at a cold, hard desk listening to lectures on quadratic equations! I get so excited for Saturday, when I can spend the whole day outside, and then when the weekend is finally here, it rains. This has happened for three weeks in a row. Three Weeks. I think I am going to go crazy. Is anyone else ready for the school year to end? Or am I just weird?

Ok, that's enough for now. Maybe Mom will make me some breakfast since I typed this for her!

Love,
KayBee

Simon Says

Today I woke up and said, "I can't go on living like this..." Does anyone have those kinds of mornings / days? Sometimes I call them 15 minute days. I tell myself I only have to do my first task for 15 minutes and then I can quit. Then I do 15 minutes on the next overwhelming task. After several 15 minute periods, I start to feel ok about life, and have hope that I can get through the day in larger time segments. The funny thing is that I get a lot more done on those days because I am more focused on sticking to my little segments.

Well, anyway, today was like that. Except I needed to engage the kids in their regular school work, house work, etc. As I was carrying a load of stuff up the stairs, the game "Simon Says" flashed into my mind. I went back downstairs and told the kids that all day long we were going to play a game. They were leery, because I have come up with so many hair-brained tricks to get them to do their work. (Remind me later to tell about "the mystery object" game from my Sister!) I told them, "Simon Says, go clean up the Monopoly game on the floor in the front room." Peachy jumped up and got the other two to do it with her. Then I said, "Ok, now you can tell me to do a Simon Says." They conferred and then chorused, "Simon says clear off all the counters." (That was Maddo's job that she knew she was going to have to do before she got breakfast.") So I hurried and did it while they happily played. I hurried way faster than I normally would have, because it was really bugging me that they were sitting around playing when they should have been doing thier morning jobs and school. When I finished, I got to say something for them to do while I "played." This has been going on successfully all morning. It backfired on me when they all decided to say, "Simon says, make us chocolate milk!" But I did it anyway. Dallin got home from a school thing and said, "Ok! I'll play! Simon says, go to the park!" Yikes! I wasn't prepared for those kinds of commands! Luckily it wasn't his turn to issue a command. So far we have got a good amount done, although it is very out of order from what my priorities would have been. It is funny to see what they think is the most important things to do for school and for house work. In fact the reason I am typing this, is because in thier hope to get rid of me for a long time, their most recent command was, "Simon says, Go type your blog!"

It Pays To Do Laundry!

I love doing laundry!

A few months ago, Homey commented that when he switched a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, he got a tip! I realized that he must have been talking about a load of KayBee's things. She is supposed to do her own laundry, but sometimes she forgets to switch it, and we end up doing it so someone else can use the washer. KayBee has a lot of babysitting jobs, and not a lot of concern about money. Frequently I find rolled up 20 dollar bills lying around her room, and in her jeans pockets when I borrow them. I used to give them back, along with a short lecture on the importance of keeping track of her money better. However, now I have decided to keep whatever I find and consider it payment for my hard work! For the past three laundry loads that I have had to switch for her, I have found between 5 and 20 bucks left loose in the washer or dryer each time! I told all the kids if I am cleaning and find $ laying around, I get to keep it. Doing laundry provides me with a great income! I am trying to save up to buy a really neat (but expensive) set of curriculum for some of the kids' schooling next year. All the money I collect from my housekeeping endeavors will go to this! Oh! This is so fun! But don't tell Brother. If he finds out he can make $20.00 for switching a load of laundry, it will be a huge race to the laundry room the minute the buzzer goes off. I don't want any competition!

May you all be blessed in your laundry adventures today!

Love, Maawwm!

Swallow the Elders

Wow! I didn't realize it has been so long since I have written something. So here is a small paragraph to satisfy my need for typing stories, and the grandparent's need to hear them:

During scripture study Hunkey frequently blurts out unrelated things. It is really obvious that his brain is not on what we are reading. Lately, when he raises his hand or starts to talk, we ask him, "Is this related to the scriptures we are reading?" Thankfully, he has gotten way better at sticking to the topic. So we were surprised the other night when he suddenly raised his hand and said, "Why did they swallow all the Elders?" I thought he was trying to be silly and break up the boringness. We all looked at him baffled and a bit annoyed. Then I kind of heard in my mind the last few sentences that Peachy had read. I asked her to re-read what she had just read. She started, and this is the part that made us all start to laugh: ". . .and so all of the elders. . . " She had been droning on and reading a bit sloppily. Poor Hunkey. Sometimes I wonder what other wild and crazy ideas the kids must be getting from the unfamiliar wording in the scriptures. I have to admit that I was delighted that he was listening, and that he cared enough to clarify when something seemed really wonkey! Maybe I could get the kids to tell me all thier strange interpretations and I could write a translation of the Bible called, "The New Children's Version. I bet it would introduce all kinds of interesting stories and new doctrine!