The things kids have to go through...

Shortly before Christmas, Matt and Dallin went home teaching to a famiy in the ward and during the visit, the kids in the family told Matt and Dallin about the time their mom hid their Christmas stockings. When they got up before dawn, all they found were some 500 piece puzzles and a note that said there was a clue on the back of each puzzle to tell the child where his stocking was hidden. This trick bought the parents several more hours of sleep while the furious children worked on their puzzles. Our children were enchanted with the idea and asked if we would do that for them. It was too late for me to go buy puzzles, but Matt and I did devise a difficult treasure hunt. Matt hid the stockings under the bed, so there would be no way the kids could just go hunting and find them w/o working through the clues. In order to get under the bed, the mattress has to be lifted up. This activity did not buy us more sleeping time, as I was too interested in seeing how they solved the clues. It was fun to see them enjoying the game. I hope they thought it was worth it, because we actually lost an additional hour of sleep as we stayed up late setting everything up.

Matt's favorite Christmas Present so far is the new Axis and Allies game. Here is what he wrote in a note to his brother who gave it to him:

About noon on Christmas day, we began. Dallin, Jillian, and Madeline wanted to play. Madeline lost interest during the set-up phase, so Dallin agreed to be the U.K. and Russia. Jillian was the U.S. and she lost interest before her first turn (as the U.S. goes last). Dallin stuck it out all the way and actually enjoyed it. We finished by 10:00 pm with my Axis powers dominating.

Now he is looking for another opportunity to play. Would anyone like to come over for an all night game, or an all day Saturday adventure?! I'll supply the food!

More of the Garage Door Story

Here is a picture of the door.


I had wanted to just call the garage door company and have someone come replace it. I've heard that if the spring snaps it can be horribly damaging to whatever, or whoever it hits. However, Matt watched a youtube video about how to work on garage doors, then felt he was sufficiently expert to attempt a do-it-yourself repair. I was dubious, and unsupportive. (All I could imagine was the addition of a hospital bill to the garage door expense and the automotive shop bill.) Since I was an unwilling assistant, he employed a couple kids. They spent several hours on Saturday fixing it. It actually turned out fine. He was very safe about it all. They took out all the panels, bent them back into a mostly straight plane, then reattached them. It was heavy work, but Dallin and Kaylee were good about it and I think they had fun doing something so unusual.

The motion is a bit rough, but now the door can at least go up and down again. We haven't quite decided when to replace the door. Matt commented that we should at least wait until Kaylee is done learning to drive. She did not think that was very funny.

a bad day

We should be in UT right now, but we are at home. Let me tell you why.

Over the weekend Matt started working on the car to get it ready for our trip. He needed to replace a universal joint that makes the rear axel work properly. When he got to the parts store for the new part, the guy said it would be Monday before they could have the right part ready. Monday Matt worked on the car all evening and stayed up until 1:30 AM trying to get it ready. But then he had to quit. We were planning on leaving at 4:00 AM Tuesday morning, however it quickly became obvious that it was not going to happen like we planned.

The next morning (Tues) he resumed working on the car. The kids were not cooperating and wouldn’t get the things done that they needed to in order to be ready, and the parents were getting exasperated. Finally, at 2:00 PM Matt finished the car and said, “Let’s go.” THEN the kids decided to start being helpful. They worked hard, but it was 5:30 by the time the car was loaded. At that point we decided it was not worth driving for only a few hours and hitting Seattle rush hour traffic and then having to pay for a hotel only 4 or 5 hours down the road. So we went to bed at 6:30 and determined to get up at 3:00AM and hit the road.

This morning we got up on time and were happily out of the house at 4:15. We drove the 30 min to the freeway in relieved excitement to finally be on our way. As soon as we got up to “freeway speed” the car started some heavy vibrations. Something just didn’t seem right. So we stopped and prayed to know if we should continue. Matt felt nervous about it so we went back home. As we drove, we talked about what the problem could be. It was either an insufficient repair on the axle, or it was that the snow tires that Matt had just put on the car were out of balance.

Arriving home at 5:30, we decided to put the other tires back on and see if that was a simple fix to the problem. So Kaylee and Dallin immediately set to work in the garage helping Matt change out the whole set of tires. At least they had fun with the new air compressor that we had just bought. It made changing the tires go so much faster. Faster, until one of the lug nuts flew off and hit the long wall of shelves that was covered with garage type stuff. We spent the next 20 minutes looking for the missing lug nut. After several silent prayers from all of us, we found the dang thing. We were all wondering if this was all a sign from God that we should give up and quit trying to leave, or if it was “the adversary” trying to mess us up so we’d get discouraged and not complete our goal of being with family for Thanksgiving.

As soon as the car was ready, we piled back in, and drove off. This time in nervous anticipation. Matt tried to push the speed on the 55mph road that was close to home so we could tell if it was going to be ok or not. He hit about 65 and the car seemed fine. “Hooray!” We said, and relaxed a little. Then we got to the freeway. As soon as he was going 70 the vibrations started again. We got off at the next exit and headed back home. We had now been in the car for 2 hours, and were right back where we started. It was 7:30 AM. (We volunteered to drop Kaylee off at school before we stopped at home, but she didn't think that was funny.) Dejected, everyone piled out and went back to bed.

Matt called his family to tell them we weren’t coming, took a nap and then decided to make the best of things. He started working on various repair projects that had been on his “to do” list for several months. I went to the grocery store and bought all the required food items so that we could cook our own Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. The day progressed slowly and with a cloud of gloom. The kids laid around and read the books that they had picked out for the trip. We also processed about 30 pounds of apples that our home teacher had given us off his tree. We made a lot of applesauce. It was good to have them out of the fridge and off my “to do list” before they rotted. After realizing that we were short a few ingredients for dinner tomorrow, Kaylee and I went back out to the store and to the library. When we left, Matt had just worked up the courage to go back out to the car to trouble shoot the axel problem.

When Kaylee and I got home, I pulled into the driveway and noticed light streaming out from the side of the garage door. Then I noticed the door looked a little curved in one spot by the ground. Then I noticed the whole front had some crinkly looking shadows. It was dark out, so I hopefully assumed it was just the shadows. But then as we were still staring in wonder, Dallin came running out. “What happened to the garage door?!” Kaylee asked. Dallin quickly explained in a quiet voice, “Dad had the car up on ramps, and it rolled off and hit the garage door. He’s really sad, and so don’t freak out about it and get mad at him. OK?” We went in to see it. It turns out that Matt was under the car at the time. He stopped the car with his legs too. Luckily he and the garage door helped each other stop the momentum – otherwise one of them would have been much more damaged. (Matt is fine. Not even a bruise.) Whew! Now Matt is really sad. As you can imagine, the cost (and mental anguish) of this whole fiasco would have been less if he had just taken it to the shop. We have been trying to find the positive things to think about. One is that even though we can’t get the garage door up, the car that works is on the outside. We can’t decide whether to laugh it off or cry. We know that everyone has trials and it would be silly of us to think that we shouldn’t have anything bad happen to us. On the other hand, it seems like things are really piling up. I keep wondering what is going to happen next.

Well, I’d better go. Matt wants to use the computer to look up the company that makes garage doors, and see how soon we can get a replacement.

I hope everyone has a happy and trial free Thanksgiving day!

KayBee's latest cartoon and some trivial news

KayBee keeps herself occupied and quiet during sacrament meetings on Sundays by drawing cartoons about what has happened in our family in the past few days. (The dog was an embellishment to add to the effect.) Do the people who preach that motherhood is a joy and a glorious occupation have children? Or at least children like mine? I doubt it.

Today is the first Saturday since mid September that we have not had soccer or other activities scheduled. It was wonderful to sleep in, go running, and get things done around the house that we have not had time to do. Matt took the Suburban apart -- he was trying to change the universal joints. He's been meaning to do it for 3 1/2 years. Would anyone like to place bets on how long we will be without the suburban? It needs to be fixed by Monday, or we'll be driving the mini-van to UT for Thanksgiving. Yikes!

Today I gave the boys hair cuts. I had to fix the self-done haircut Hunkey gave himself a couple weeks ago. I know you won't believe it, but he did it the day before school picture day. He did it on a Sunday night, and I was too tired to care about fixing it. I had forgotten that it was picture day, plus he was adamant that he liked it the way he had done it and did not want any changes made. So, I left it. (I am beyond caring what the other parents at our homeschool co-op think about me.) However, I must say that we will not be buying and distrubiting school pictures this year!

We now are a two-teenager household. Brother turned 13 yesterday. He was very excited to get a cel phone, and I even thought ahead and ordered it early so it would be here in time. It has not come in the mail yet and he's feeling a bit dejected. His siblings pitched in and got a couple things to help him feel better. They decorated the kitchen and living room. Since we were out of streamers, they used toilet paper.

I signed up with the National Novel Writing Month thing online. It is like a marathon novel writing event. For the entire month of November, people are supposed to just crank out as much writing as they can. The goal is 50,000 words by the end of the month. It sounded so fun, but I have not gotten very far. I always dreamed of being the next Erma Bombeck of my generation. I have lots of great ideas, but not time to write. One day I came up with a title, but Homie laughed at me when I told him. Just wait, some day you will see a book called "10,000 Dirty Diapers: a Trashy Novel about the Joys of Motherhood" on the top 10 bestseller list.

Well, that's all for now. I taught the adult Sunday School lesson last week about how we should all be working on our Family History work. I figured that since I taught the lesson and challenged everyone to Do Something this week, I should try also. Updating our family blog counts!

More word play (w/o swearing this time)

So now it is Brother's turn. He is keeping up the Prince Family's tradition of making horrible puns. His great grandfather would be proud:

Yurtle the turtle often gets restless in her cage and starts repeatedly banging herself against the side of it. I can't tell if she is trying to get out, or if it is some kind of repetitive exercise routine. In the summer, when she did it, we'd let her go outside for the day, but now it is cold and yucky weather. We have found that if we let her out, the cold immediately sends her into hibernation mode and she crawls into the gravel area and buries herself. So lately we have just had to endure her thonking around. Also, she has begun sleeping really late, and then being more active later in the evenings. So, a few nights ago, after dinner and family scriptures, Yurtle started up her banging game. Kadin asked, "Why is she doing that now?" Dallin quickly responded, "It's because she's becoming knock-turtle."

Communication gap with highschool kids

Warning: The following post might be mildly offensive, but I think the humor outweighs the reference to a bad word.

Recently Kaybee missed a few days of school due to illness. A few days later I was checking the school's website thing that allows parents to see their kid's classes, assignments, grades. etc. When I got to her Biology class records I was shocked. "KayBee!" I exclaimed! "You have an F in Biology!" She came in from the other room, with her eyes big. "What? I know I have homework, but I can't believe you just said that!" she replied with hurt surprise. I pointed to the screen and showed her the grade, then repeated, "An F in Biology." Gradually she started laughing and said, "Oh, I get it. I thought you said something else." Then I heard myself through her public high school kid's ears, and had to chuckle too. F'n Biology is what a lot of kids had for homework that night.

The Pantry Game

No picture on this one. Sorry

Last week Homie got industrious and completed several small projects that needed doing around the house. One of them was installing a motion sensing light switch in the pantry. He did this because usually it gets turned on in the morning and burns all day until Homey gets home. He turns it off, and then turns it off several more times before we shut down the kitchen for the night. Now we have a neat-o apparatus that turns the light on when it senses someone walk in the pantry, and then automatically shuts off 5 minutes later. It is very helpful. I'm sure that our next electricity bill will reflect a substantial decrease. The other benefit to this little switch is that it has provided hours of entertainment for the children. They have a quest to get into and out of the pantry with something in hand without the light coming on. I have to admit that I have even tried it -- but not to the extreme lengths that the kids go to. So far no one has made it. They are still testing out the parameters of the motion sensor. Maddo almost made it by slithering along the floor and moving very slowly, but then once she had something in her hand she retreated too quickly and zing!

The switch came in a 2 pack from Costco. We have been discussing where to put the other one. Homie is threatening to put it in the kids' bathroom. He's hoping it would have an effect on their 20 minute showers.

Where's Waldo (AKA Kaybee)

Here is a picture of "Husky Band Day" in Seattle. The University of Washington (Huskies) has a day where they invite many of the high school bands from the area get together and have workshops, practice a couple songs all together, and then they all do the half-time show at the football game that evening. It is a lot of fun for all the high school kids, and provides the small, inexperienced bands with a great vision of what "band life" could be like at college. Kaybee went, and had a great time. Here is a picture of part of it. See if you can find her. She's pretty easy to pick out. (Clue: they are in purple) She has made many friends who are good kids. She says, "People in band are a little nerdy and smart, but not too weird. They are friendly and fun and don't think they are better than everyone else." I think that is a good place for her. A few days ago when we were talking about what colleges she wanted to apply to, she said, I want to choose ones with big bands. Which colleges have good marching bands?

The band director is brand new -- right out of college (Huskies) and is so excited about it all. He has opened up band to the 5th & 6th graders, plus taken on the 7th & 8th grade band at the middle school. Kaybee's enthusiasm has spread to the rest of the family. So now, Brother has a new trumpet, and is going to the middle school every morning for 45 minutes for band class. Tomorrow Peachy will start going too with her new (used) clarinet. She only goes 3 days a week. She really wanted to play the saxophone, as we already have one in my closet -- leftover from my high school band days. However, the elementary school kids have to start on one of 4 "beginner" instruments, and sax isn't one of them. As soon as she hits 7th grade, she'll be ready to switch over though.

They have all been honking around all week on their new toys. Oh wow! What a noise. I can't wait until they learn some real music, and improve in their abilities!

Food Storage

Here is Homie in the garage after we filled 30 buckets with various food substances. It was a sort-of-fun project. We hope we never have to move it!