More Events and Comments About Sweets

Last week, I really got a "hankerin'" (I just wanted to write that) to have some friends over. After multiple unreturned phone calls or polite declines, I tried not to get my feelings hurt. I regrouped and tried again for Tues.--and then had quite a houseful of guests! The snag in the night's plans came when even John Coe came inside saying that his toes were cold--I had planned to eat outside, have a fire, play ping pong, and just let the kids run around in the yard. Instead, we had 10 kids and 8 adults trying to eat simultaneously inside and I think every toy out on the floor by the end of the night. But, I had fun hostessing, and my guests seemed to enjoy themselves. We had Chicken-Stacky-Uppy, a Kaufman family tradition.



Wed., I took the boys to the teddy bear picnic downtown and Sam got a dinosaur painted on his face.
Sam was still reluctant to approach the person dressed in the teddy bear costume, but Evan went right up to him/her. I had another hankerin'--this time for ice cream--but Samuel disobeyed and so I said no ice cream, but I really wanted some. So, I took the kids for a long drive...to see a gold-mining submarine in Baderville (but that's a different story) and waited till they fell asleep in the car, and then quietly went through the Dairy Queen drive-thru. I truly glared at the flamboyant 18-year-old worker who handed me my blizzard (upside down, of course) and exclaimed "Have a nice day!" I didn't want anyone waking up and asking for a bite.

Today, the boys and I went to Beaver Creek with some MOPS friends. I had one picture with me in it, but it had to be deleted because the lighting, angle, swimsuit, body, etc. were just all wrong. I'm beginning to daydream about exercising again. We had fun, and I was actually the cool mom who packed pudding. I guess it was out of a guilty conscience from the day before.
(Thanks for the cute suits, Aunt Kendra)



Now, Jeremy and Sam are off on Sam's first mountain biking ride...I thought about packing a first aid kit for them, but knew Jeremy would leave it on the driveway. And we already had Frosties today, so there won't be any chocolate to give to Sam if he comes home with an owie. He'll just have to be a tough guy. See his tough guy face in the picture? So convincing.

Marsh the Mallows

We've had some really good times as a family lately...Jeremy has had more free time with only one class this summer. I love watching him and the boys together--they love him so much. Their favorite thing in the whole world seems to be "wrastling" with him on the bed. Here they are putting together Evan's new tricycle that he got from Gamma and Pa J for his birthday.
Evan calls it his motorcycle and I am wondering how I am going to remember to put it away every night to keep it from being stolen!

Sam's been drawing on the driveway a lot recently, and I discovered that he did this all by himself:
Jeremy took some high schoolers camping over the last 2 days and the boys and I joined up with them when we could--we had to work around a doctor's appointment for me and cooking dinner for a family of 11 who just had a baby. I think we drove 2 complete circles around Mt. Elden on Tues. and then drove another 9 miles on bumpy roads in the woods yesterday. I suppose that would put some women into early labor, but it seems to be a traditional part of pregnancy for me--with each child, it seems I have ended up bouncing down a dirt road and thinking, "Should I be doing this?" We joined the group for dinner and marshmallow roasting (or as Samuel called it, marshing the mallows). (Look at the girl's legs behind Evan...what???)
This was a sweet moment...til Jeremy told me that later that night the guitar got broken by a stump...now it is a bittersweet picture to look at.

A couple of the students were making "bombs" with plastic bottles and acid and foil and after a couple of them exploded near Evan, he had post-traumatic stress disorder and wouldn't uncover his ears the rest of the time we were there.
The next day, we joined the group (see, we conveniently missed having to actually sleep in the woods) at the Lava River Cave. Evan burst into tears when he saw the cold, dark, rocky entrance, but Sam waited for Jeremy to take him in and had a lot of fun. Evan ended up climbing in as far as we could go without a flashlight. While the students were in the cave, Jeremy had them turn off their flashlights and told them the true story of our friend, Tennessee Dan, who went into the lava tubes and his flashlight broke. He was in there for at least a day and a half, thinking he was a dead man, until someone happened to come in and help him out. Jeremy talked to them about how we sometimes feel like we are groping in the dark, but that God is near, etc.

On one of Jeremy's walks with the boys in the woods, Evan suddenly looked up and exclaimed, "Tree, see Daddy, right der, tree, tree," like he hadn't noticed that there were trees all around him the whole time.

Sam rode on the fun bus for one part of the day and Evan's heart was broken that he didn't get to ride it until I put on the Veggie Tales CD for the 100th time and found the last piece of cookie for him to have.

When we got out of the car at the lava tubes, these underwear were laying on the ground, and as a joke, said, "Sam, did you leave your underwear here?" and then turned to get Evan out of the car. When I turned back, Sam was holding them sheepishly and said, "Well here, Mom, can you just put them into the car for me?" Poor little guy, trying to be such a good boy! I can just imagine the mom whose kid had an "accident" there in the woods and she didn't want to bring stinky underwear all the way home in the car and just decided (like we all have at one time or another) that it would be easier just to abandon the soiled underwear and not think about it again. But at least she could have buried them or something.

Then we headed up to Snowbowl, where if you brought 3 cans of food, you could ride the ski lift for free. I had another, "Should I be doing this?" moment, but didn't want Jeremy to have to deal with both of our kids on the lift. So I went, and then just sat on a picnic table at the top while everyone else explored. It was cold but beautiful. Then our kids had a snot blowing competition with each other on the way down.

Family Fun and Medical Maladies

Okay, that is totally the cheesiest title for a blog post ever, but once I wrote it and looked at it in horror, I just couldn't erase it. So there is how the dorky mind of Kaci works--finding small pleasure in alliterations and puns and corny jokes (but just my own, I think other people's are...well..dorky). My college roommates (pictured in a previous blog) visited my middle school classroom when I was a teacher and I was saying that I didn't have my "thing" that made me a memorable teacher (like a crazy wooden platypus for a hall pass or a weird ritual to do before tests) and then they heard me laugh at my own puns in front of my class and assured me that I had my "thing."

We went to Phoenix this weekend and stayed at a hotel with Jeremy's parents and brother to celebrate Evan's birthday. The hotel was not a resort like it had been rumored to be, but definitely was cute in a kitschy sort of way. The gang of "regulars" that were poolside when we first got there were a little sketchy, but we enjoyed the pool, spa, and down comforters. And, of course, it had the standard hotel air conditioning controls--freezing cold or stuffy sauna being the only 2 choices of settings. I had a rough night of Evan waking every hour or so and having to pee 17 million times (I think the change in elevation made me retain water) but that is bordering on too much information (but half of the title of this post is "Medical Maladies" so it fits, okay?). On Monday, I visited my friend in the NICU at Phoenix Children's and was able to see her baby, Leah (so cute) and hear how things are going. It was emotional for me to just be there for an hour and a half, I can't imagine what it's like for the family to be living it. Pray for them more if you think of it!

After that, we went to Makutu's Island--which is a indoor playground thing in Phoenix with slides and tunnels and cargo nets and a zipline.


After fun times in Phoenix, I had to take the boys to Evan's doctor's appointment (2 year well-child visit...which is ironic because every time I actually take my children to their "well-child" checkups, they end up leaving with a prescription for antibiotics--Evan has ear infections in both ears, which would explain the inconsolable crying on the way down to Phx and back up to Flag and the night wakings) and then Sam's dentist appointment (an hour wait in the waiting room and then found out he had at least 6 cavities). So we were back again today for him to get them filled--I was nervous but he was happy as a lark. I couldn't be in the room with him because of the laughing gas and pregnancy, but I could hear him chattering away and wondered what sort of crazy things he was saying while under the influence. Everyone in the office fell in love with him and they took care of all of his cavities because he was so good, so we don't have to go back again like they thought--yeah! Here's a picture of him with his funny mouth.
(Notice further proof of me teaching them at a young age that chocolate makes everything feel better.) Now it's off to bed for me where I will lay awake despite being desperately tired, thinking of middle names for the baby like "banana" and "eunice" and doing weird math calculations to try to make the next 7 weeks seem to go by faster.

Adventures

As tired as I have been for the past few weeks, I sure have enjoyed how much fun my little guys bring to our lives. A few weeks ago, my parents came for a visit and then took Samuel to the ranch in Utah with them (after I kept them busy rearranging furniture, pulling weeds, helping with a garage sale, and entertaining the kids). I'm so proud of Sam and how good he did while he was gone. Here's what he says about his trip: "I droove (past tense of drive) the John Deere tractor (he really did drive it all by himself!). I went to a round up and saw JW (my cousin's son, who is 5). Grandpa gave me rides on the ATV. I rode a horse named Rusty and chased a goose. I gave the red ants bread and watched them carry it." He also came home saying we should name our baby Kelli, after my cousin that he played with. He got to hang out with all my cousins...I was jealous! But, I don't think riding around in a bouncy water truck or standing out on the range all day while pregnant would have been good for me.


And here is a picture of my dad and my uncle (both in their 60's) working together at the ranch. Yes, that's my dad standing on the scoop of a tractor cutting tree branches with a chainsaw. It exemplifies the crazy things brothers come up with together, or just how males think in general. On one of last week's rainiest days, my husband was installing an electrical outlet in the backyard, and this week, he was fixing the weedwhacker with rain and thunder all around him. And his guy friends are always so proud to hear about these stunts.

We had our anniversary this week. My bouquet of flowers even had a butterfly in it, so Jeremy did good.
We went for a walk in the woods with our kids...even though it only lasted 45 minutes at the most, Sam thought it was an adventure and was already planning our next walk--"Can we go on another walk today? Like when my baby is born and I'm 9 or 10?"

Today, we went to some garage sales as a family. The excuse was to look for things for the baby girl. Here's what we bought:
(Not pictured, rack for Jeremy's car, banana bread, 2 lemonades, and a Starbucks coffee that was used to lure Jeremy out of the house at 7 am). As you can see, no little girl stuff. We did find an awesome bike for Sam ($5) and he was riding it without training wheels on his first try--I was so proud!
Here's some other park pictures--this time there weren't any renegade 2 year olds bullying my kids, just some shady characters asking to borrow Jeremy's cell phone.





(Evan's hair is not sticking up because of the static electricity on the slide, it always looks like that. I guess I need to cut it or something.) It was crazy that I thought about grabbing sunscreen and brought hats to the park and we had to leave an hour later as a huge thunderstorm suddenly hit.

And tonight, I had to take a picture of Evan (it was his birthday today, by the way--we celebrated with my parents last week and will celebrate tomorrow with Jeremy's parents) inspecting the sliding drawer of the dishwasher...he is so intrigued with how it works. This time he even brought his toy drill with him. I said to Sam, "I think Evan wants to be Handy Manny when he grows up. Sam replied, "OR Spiderman." I guess he knows his brother better than I do.
Happy Birthday Evan!

Little Boys CAN Play Dress Up

Everyone is always asking me how I feel, and right now I feel like I have a chip stuck in my esophagus...painful heartburn is a new thing I've experienced this pregnancy--feels like a heart attack! But, for the four faithful readers of my blog, I will persevere.

I've made a few comments lately to mothers of girls about how much little girls like dressing up and that I finally will have a use for all of my dress-up stuff that sits in the closet...well, my boys proved me wrong over the last few days as they dressed up in a hand-me-down bathrobe (they were Jedi knights--I don't even know how they learned about them)
and then this morning, I put this little outfit from Ethiopia on Evan. He was excited about the flower on the front and wore it to church (I tried to take a picture of him when he was wearing my headband as sunglasses in addition to the outfit, but all the attention got to his head and he wouldn't cooperate--when he acts like that, he reminds us of an old SNL character called "Mango").

I had a busy few weeks with the end of MOPS and our big Moms Walk fundraiser. I was definitely ready for the MOPS year to be over, even though it was a great year. We'll do a few things this summer--play dates and outings and planning for next year. I will co-host (that makes me sound famous) a "God Investigation Group" for some of the ladies who want to learn more about the spiritual topics that were brought up at MOPS.

This week, my parents came for a visit and brought furniture for the baby's room--now the house feels turned upside down, but it feels good to start getting ready. I think Jeremy and I might have even picked out a name...and I can tell you that it's not JeremyAnn. I had been planning on getting rid of the furniture we didn't need anymore and some baby clothes at the MOPS garage sale on Saturday, but then it was cancelled. I decided to have my own...I didn't really have much stuff to sell, but wanted to try to make a little money. I reminded myself of the little babushkas in Kazakhstan that would emerge in the spring and sit in front of our apartment building, trying to sell their leftover canned vegetables and random screws, lightbulbs, used pantyhose, etc. at a little stand.

I don't think those little old ladies made much money, but they weren't as bad as the old men that would sit on the street with an ancient bathroom scale, waiting for people to pay them 10 cents to find out how much they weighed.

(You can see the crowds just lining up to partake in the public weigh-in.)
I did make $92, so I guess my day was a success (with the help of my parents!). I got rid of a lot of boy baby clothes...which was scary and good at the same time. Scary because of the small chance this baby could be a boy (if it is, he will be named Josiah Victor--I had that name picked out before we knew it was a girl) and good because I need space in my house for the influx of PINK!

While I was getting ready for my garage sale, I took some pictures out of frames I was going to sell. Here is a silly one of Sam that I found that I had forgotten about.
Right after the garage sale, I had to rush off to a wedding, where I ended up seeing my old college roommate, Sarah. Here's a picture of us from college that I found in another one of the old frames:.
It was so much fun catching up with her (even though we live in the same town now!). The wedding turned out to be fun...the groomsmen all wore black baseball hats backwards with their tuxes and even the guy who married them had one. I heard the word "Pookie" at least 3 times during the ceremony, which is a first in terms of wedding experiences. The toasts at the reception were entertaining--the first best man whispering lines to the second best man during the toast because he didn't know what to say, the maid of honor forgetting her speech, and the mother of the bride starting to tell too much information about the bride's lingerie...and they weren't even drinking! As you can see, I haven't been taking many pictures lately, so I don't have one of the wedding or garage sale, but here is one from a wedding we went to 2 weeks ago. When we came through the food line, the bride and groom were wearing aprons and serving all the guests...that was another first for new things I've seen at weddings.
So sweet. Alright, I am almost done rambling, but just wanted to say that I am tentatively excited for the movie, "Where the Wild Things Are" that's coming out this fall. I saw the preview this weekend when we went to see "Earth" and I felt a little emotional as Sam and I looked at each other in excitement to realize that it was Max in his wolf suit. Movies of my favorite books tend to be a disappointment, but I am hopeful for this one. (And see, Max is a boy and he likes to dress up, too!)