Note about Asa

I meant to say...
I think the child LIVES on grumpy and air. Although I think he lies about quite a few things, too... he doesn't eat much. His funny thing is that he always says, "I don't know!" about most things. He also loves playing the computer every day, and he wants to get in "his time" every day with his dad. Okay. Enough said.

Spring has sprung

It's midterm here at school, and I've finally got my laptop back from the shop. I opened up the grading program on Sunday night to do my grades, and it ate my journalism grades. So yesterday, I spent all of the day restoring them from a paper copy... while I have been doing that, plus giving CRT tests (both of which have a learning curve) the weather has been lovely! I'd much rather be outside than doing testing or grading.

Jackson has been so excited to start track. His first day was yesterday. After days and days of build up, first to find the *perfect* running shoe (a pair of kids Saucony) and then to the count down to the first day of track, we finally got to the first day of TRACK.

John has been counting down to his "fire show" at his friend's Wood Badge course. And when I say counting down, let me just tell you, days and days and days of build up to the *perfect* fire show. Sound familiar? Like father, like son? They are an awfully lot alike, perfectionistic in so many ways. There are so many rules to be followed.

Xandri is loving the spring, and she's been to her first surprise birthday party. I'm not quite sure why her friend needed a surprise party to turn 7 (or was it 8?), but they had an enormously fun time playing hair dress-up with her older sister, and painting their fingernails, and just having a late-night. Of course, she thought it was marvelous and every little girl in the neighborhood seemed to be there.

Asa has mastered the pouty-face when he doesn't get his way. He can be happy as a clam, but the second you look at him funny, he hunches his shoulders, turns on his pout, and his face clouds up. He's quite the poseur. It makes me nuts, especially at the dinner table (as I am quite sure the child lives on grumpy and air). His favorite thing is Star Wars, and he goes around singing Indiana Jones and Star Wars/John Williams theme songs. He often calls C3PO R3PO, which is really funny. It also makes him blush, and sometimes hide under his red chenille blanket.

Maxwell is the sole definition of grumpy. He has his own theme song ("The Grumpy Old Troll Who Lives Under the Bridge"--from Dora the Explorer). He has mastered the scowl and he's ADORABLE, but really, really grumpy. Sometimes, he's delightful, but mostly, he's just grumpy. Max loves Batman, Luke, and  anything Asa loves.

That's THIS Phippen Phamily wrap-up for the moment...

Track

Who knew track could be do hard!
But who cares!
It's not all that bad.
It still is fun.


-Jack
jackson.phippen@gmail.com

What a Day

What a Day!
It was such a nice day today!
I loved it.
-Jack

Great a Storm

I wish it doesn't storm tomorrow. Right after the nice weather. This sucks.
I hate rain. It's stupid. (sigh) Oh well.
-Jack

Flat Stanley, afterthoughts

What I learned from Flat Stanley, a rant:

1. Children learn nothing when they don't do the project themselves.
2. Teachers don't care much, either, as evidenced by the fact that neither Xandri nor her teacher bothered to read all letters that were returned.
3. Xandri had no idea when the project was due, nor did she really care. She is 7.
4. One letter was just as good as two. However, there are 7 days in a week.
5. Doing something well and doing something very well only matter if you care, because no one else does. Keep your own score.
6. Xandri's teacher doesn't actually read all of her email because I never did get my password for grades.
7. Word Perfect is a superlative product to OpenOffice.
8. Word Perfect X4 does not print with Windows 7.
9. Word is not included with Windows 7. Windows is a racket. Damn you, Bill Gates.
10. Flat Stanley is a project for others, not a suitable homework assignment for first graders.

The end.

Flat Stanley

I have just completed a HUGE Flat Stanley project at school. Flat Stanley went to visit Grandma Phippen in Salt Lake; Aunt Barbara printed him and sent him home with Grandma Max in Canada, and today I took a Flat Stanley adventure to school. My mom was the first one to send Flat Stanley on Facebook.

~ From Xandri

For those of you who haven't noticed...

Jack has begged for a blog... so I set him loose on mine. The blog's title will now change. I'm going to rename it so it will best represent that it's coming from the two of us. I guess it's now Jack and Jill who are speaking and not just the Queen who has Spoken, since Jack is doing most of the talking. Wow. You give a kid a bit, and he starts chatting up a storm! Perhaps I should have given him his own blog!

:o)

Another School Day

Great it's anonther school day. (sigh)
I wish I have a little more fun at school.
But who cares, right?
Oh well.
-Jack

Finnaly

I've FINNALY gotten track shoes!
There pretty good.
I can't wait for track to start!
-Jack

Ops!

Sorry everyone! My countdown was on the wrong date. But my party is still on the 8th.
-jack

16 days!

16 Days til my B-day! Lets celebrate! The pary is going to be on the 8th of May!
See you all there!

-Jack

I CAN'T WAIT Til Tomorow !

I can't wait til tomorow because I get to go buy TRACK-SHOES!!!
It's going to be so fun!
-Jack

Everyone's a Comedian!

Tonight's adventures involved "mom mac-n-cheese" and a funny dinner discussion... which started when Asa, age 4, decided he'd tell me a joke.

"Mama, why did the pineapple cross the road?" he asked.
"I dunno," I replied, "Why did he cross the road?" (Of course, all 4 year old pineapples are male, right?)
"He was thirsty," Asa replied.
"Ah," I said, and Xandri thought this joke was hugely hilarious, mostly because it was not funny in the slightest. SHE had a funny joke however.

"Mom, Why was the cat afraid of the tree?" she asked.
"Hmmm," I said, thinking she looked awfully funny as she sat with her head tilted to the right, her blonde bob tucked behind her ear. "Why was the cat afraid of the tree?"
"She was afraid of the BARK!" Xandri's voice raised into a squeaky giggle. "You see Mama, a tree's skin stuff is called bark. You know, the stuff on the outside?"
"Yeah, I knew that." I said.
"Mom!" Max said. "Look ah me!" He's now 2 and a half years old exactly (in 2 weeks). He held a piece of pizza in one hand and had a plate of mom mac-n-cheese near his other. He tilted his head to his right and repeated, squinting his eye exactly as Xandri had and repeated with exactly the same phrasing she had used and said, "Cat afraid BARK!" and then he fake giggled "Tree!" Everyone around the table laughed very loudly, and he thought he'd told the funniest joke of all. He didn't realize he'd been the joke, and that was probably best.

Jack, in his very wise, almost-10, way, said, "I know a joke!"
"What did the aliens have at the mall?" I, of course, had no idea. The punch line? "Clothes encounters of the first kind." He had two funny ones about skeletons, and a funny one about an elephant and a charge card... but I don't want to spoil Jack's jokes, so that when you see him next, he can tell you himself!

It was a fun night, and they all got brushed, polished, cleaned up, and in bed. We had a nice dinner and good time together.

Adjustments

Now that John has been a full-time dad for two full weeks, we've had some adjustments. Asa and Max have had some schedule changes to work around. No more day care/pre-school. That's kinda weird. I know Asa doesn't eat as much food as he used to. I also know Max doesn't sleep as much as he is used to. He gets to bed time, and he is uber-super-maximum whiny. Dinner-times are very painful when he's so whiny. He's even had to skip dinner all-together and simply go to bed because he's just too tired.

On the plus side, John's office is spic-n-span. On the negative side, I know it's because there's no work to be done in it. Asa does "help" in there in the afternoons while Max is napping. Ace does some work in pre-school workbooks while Max is napping. They also adore watching Dora/Boots/Diego.

John's completely caught up on laundry, dishes, etc. I lost my keys for three days. I had put them on a higher shelf than normal. To find them, we scoured the bedroom looking for them. When I say "we," I mean John. He scoured while I cried after an after school "pep" talk with my supervising principal. It went so well I cried for the entire evening and the rest of the next morning.

To say I'm stressed is to put that in the mildest form possible. I've had a migraine that's now lasted since Tuesday. I took my first shot on Tuesday before I went to bed. I woke up with it on Wednesday morning. It's pounding as I type now. These kinds of migraines definitely affect my life, and even my skin hurts. I can't hardly sleep, and I'm definitely not eating. To say I'm my mother's daughter is putting it mildly. John says that perhaps in a week or two they will know if his company will have another investor, so perhaps they will start back to work; if they don't get another investor, they may never start back to work again, and the company will just fold and we'll never see the money they owe us. That will be really, really hard. Of course, my friends all say that we should sue the company. Then we'd be out the court costs on top of the money they owe us. More money wasted. Stress upon stress. How many sick children did we have at our house this week? I didn't even count? Did I help? Even once?

I walk through the house in a blur, in a blank; I find that even simple things, bills, letters, shopping, things I used to do as a matter of course, terrify me. Where will we find money for them? There isn't any money for any of it. Buying groceries, going to Costco, buying gasoline, all of it is so expensive. I cringe just thinking of it. I think I'll go cry some more. I won't help one bit. I won't feel better after, either. However, I have a migraine. Sometimes, that's just what happens.

Reagonomics

Today, while I was on my way to Wendy's to get a dollar menu salad and drink, I heard an interesting use of the word "Reaganomics." It turns out, there's a campaign to remove Ulysses S. Grant from the fifty dollar bill. Instead, Ronald Reagan might soon appear on the fifty instead.

However, I have no idea when I might see a fifty any time soon. Jack would love to go see Percy Jackson and the Olympians which I have promised and promised we'd go see as soon as dad got paid... hahahahaha. I guess we'll just have to go see it anyway, since payday seems to have been given up for Lent. Movies, etc. are hard to forgo when you are a kid.

There are other things that are hard to explain to the kids. For example, when I brought Asa home on Friday, he asked me several times, "Why come it's my last day at school?" (I love that he doesn't use "How come." Everything is "Why come" or "Why this" not why not? It's so very four-years-old.) Asa asked again at home, and I had explained that preschool was very expensive, and he seemed to understand expensive, but he doesn't understand money, so that part is hard. He also doesn't like being trapped at home with his tyrant of a brother, Max, who doesn't mind being home with Asa.

Of course, there's tremendous guilt on both sides from the two daycare providers. I don't dare go inside the daycare center to get Asa's stuff. The daycare girls told me to wait a week and they'd finish up Asa's portfolio. I have gotten 2 emails (both sad) from them about how much they miss Asa's cute face, and one from Max's provider about how much the kids miss Max... and it's only Wednesday!! I also had guilt from the money-lady about how cash-strapped their program is!

All change is hard, and the boys are loving being home with their dad. Yesterday, they spent the day "inventing" with their dad and uncle Sam. Sam is working on something that delivers paint evenly, and the boys were tag-alongs for a project at the Home-Despot (where they love to steal your money for all home necessities). They are spending good times together, and as long as they don't spend every spare moment fighting, it will be OK. Now... we'll just have to see if we can scrounge up some Grants to get us through. I wonder if Congress will really vote to change his face to Reagan. I doubt it. Wasn't he a Republican?

Flat Stanley Visits for Adventures with Mothering

Today, Jen posted on Facebook that she was looking for someone with extra food for dinner. I thought that was really funny because I was cooking on a game called "Cafe World" which is really, really funny because I don't cook at all "in real life" because I mess food up so much so my children won't eat it. The only thing I cook that they will eat (except Asa) is "mom" macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, IchiBan soup, peanut butter sandwiches, rice & soup, chicken noodle soup, and flautas. Asa lives on air and water. Max, on the other hand, will eat anything.

John made my grandmother JJ's goulash (which my mother always called red macaroni.) I can cook it, and volunteered, but John overheard me and rescued *everyone* from certain culinary mayhem by doing so before leaving for scouts.

We set the table, and Max wanted to chow down. We did wait until Jen arrived.

Here's Xan post-piano lessons. She is learning 2 new songs and still practicing her Christmas pieces. Her best skill includes playing by ear, complete rote memorization, and mimicry in the finest presentation. She does play at least a half-an-hour every day, and she often practices twice a day. While she loves playing, I often wish she'd work on theory as much as her younger brother, Asa. Ace has mastered note spelling, and he's actually quite good with Mischelea, the piano teacher. For being only 4 years old, he's a good little pianist.

Jackson gets a bit frustrated with piano on some days because he'd love to play the piano perfectly on the first time through, but when he can play the song to perfection, no one is more proud. :o)

Flat Stanley also came to visit, all the way from Rochester. My niece Kahri is reading his book and sent him to visit my sister Jen, so he's come (via her diaper bag) to visit. Here he is sharing Grandma's Goulash...

Extreme CLOSE-UP

The kids declared today's adventure a GOOD one. YAY. Go me! So glad my sister suggested it. SO glad John cooked! It was MUCH better than Taco Tuesday. Now, who invented Mustache March?!

Scout Mama Minute

Last Tuesday was the Blue and Gold Banquet. Why has it taken me a week to get the pictures and the write-up, you ask? Well, it was migraine weekend, and then my computer cord broke. I did get the pictures uploaded to Facebook, so those of you who have Facebook did get to see them there. But the PRIMARY reason was: O.L.Y.M.P.I.C.!!

We have been OLYMPIC watching at our house. Of course, now that the closing ceremony has happened, let real life commence. We'll all get back to our regularly scheduled lives. However, it was great while it lasted, and during our evenings after we scooted the children off to bed, John and I did more sport watching in 2 weeks than we will do in the next 2 years. This 2 weeks was winter. Next 2 years, it will be summer. We only know anything about Olympic sports.

And now, back to the only OTHER thing we know anything about: Scouting.

Jack received his Bear award. Sorry you missed it.

It looks like this:

Based on the picture, you can also see he got a really great centennial patch, another beltloop, and a volleyball pin. As soon as he sees Grandma Max, he'll be yammering at her to sew him Bear patch on his shirt. Beware.

Here we are, John and I, being pinned:

The big surprise of the night was a present of PINEWOOD DERBY cars...

 

Asa was more thrilled than Jack. Of course.

Now we need to get cars for EVERYONE... and go to Grandpa Phippen's to cut them out again. Hopefully cars for everyone can be squeezed into the budget. I guess I'll have to google how expensive THAT is. When is pay day again?! April 21 is the magic race day...

Pizza was the dinner for the evening, and my favorite picture was when Max prayed. It was SO cute, I made him pose for it again:

The day wouldn't be complete without a Xandri picture, so here she is. She has a great one, and then a silly one:

 I actually like the SILLY one better. :o) That's just ME.

Jack, the Indoor Soccer Player

Recently, Jack has been playing on an indoor soccer team. He's been playing with the boys in our ward, coached by Brother Woodhouse. Here are some shots taken at his last game: (Which they WON!)

Jack, the speed demon (He really IS fast, and is campaigning to run track.)

Alyxandria (who is thrilled to be along as specator)

Action-Adventure shot (Look, I really DID play!)

Another shot... with odd focus, but more proof of playing.

Jack has also scored a goal against a real goalie, which is an accomplishment considering we're not sure everyone on the team they played for that game was actually the correctly stated age. :o) Let us just say in the interest of political correctness that the team was Hispanic, and their birth dates were not all in the American system of dating. :o) Some of them were awfully large 10 year olds.

It has been really fun for Jack, and after being away from soccer for 2 years, he's even more excited for track season to start! ;o)

Baby Soggy Toes

Some Sundays are lazy, and some Sundays are long... and some Sundays are full of fun and games. Last Sunday, I couldn't get Max out of the tub. In fact,  we might have been able to make Max punch out of the tub water, because we certainly had baby pruney-toes when he was done. The only way I could get him out of the tub was to promise I would take a picture... and this is the resultant photo shoot:

What a ham this kid is!! Do you need a slightly used, mostly tyrannical 2 year old? I'm sure John would love some help during the day. He requires Star Wars Lego, a Dora DVD, a Nuby Sippy cup with some apple juice, and for you to follow his every whim. Other than that, he's really, really easy to get along with.