Lavender Blue Days

Homeschooling!!

2011-01-14T14:17:00.002-06:00

A new year = a new adventure!!

We just finished our second week of homeschooling. Yipes! It has been great so far & we're excited to see where it takes us!

Happiness is a Skill

2010-08-14T14:04:00.002-05:00

I have been reading a book by Christine Carter called Raising Happiness, and it is so interesting! Christine is a scientist who studies what makes people happy.

Right now I am reading a chapter on mindfulness--which is basically being attentive and aware of what is happening right now. It is sort of the opposite of being on autopilot. Being on autopilot is like when you drive home from somewhere, and all of a sudden you are home & you don't really remember the actual drive, where as mindfulness is when you actually experience the drive--you noticed the landscape and the houses, and thought about where you were going and how you were going to get there, etc.

I have a really hard time being mindful it turns out! I don't know when it started, or if I've always been like this, but it has definitely gotten worse since I've had kids. I have the hardest time just sitting down and playing legos for example...my mind wanders and I think about the dishes that need to be done, or a conversation that I had with someone, or what all I need to do still for a project that I am working on. So much is going on in my mind that I am not even paying attention to the legos or what the kids are talking about, or anything like that. And I think I'm missing out on a lot that way.

Christine says that, "Practicing mindfulness doesn't just lead to decreased stress and increased pleasure in parenting, it brings profound benefits to kids. Parents who practiced mindful parenting for a year were dramatically more satisfied with their parenting skills and their interactions with their children, even though no new parenting practices beyond just being mindful had been taught to them."

So...that's really neat! That is something I can work on, I think!

Girly-ness and Princesses

2010-08-10T08:08:00.008-05:00

You have to check out this excerpt from the book Bittersweet, written by Shauna Niequist.

She brings up her friends who have a baby girl and have declared their house a "princess free zone." This made me laugh a little--because I hate princesses so much.

I think the thing that I don't like about princesses is the same thing that Shauna doesn't like about princesses--just the image of a girl sitting around being beautiful waiting for a brave knight in shining armor to slay the dragon and rescue the girl and live happily ever after just really makes me want to barf. I am not a girly girl (that's obvious, probably.) I feel like it is important for me to encourage the girls to slay their own dragons. To rely on God and the abilities that He has given them, and not wait around for prince charming to overcome the obstacles for them.

Now, I realize that this is just my own personality & my own preference. I have gone through a phase of relying on Shawn too much and expecting him to rescue me from my trials and it really made us both miserable. Now I have come out of that, and I can see that my relying on Shawn was getting in the way of relying on God. And waiting around for someone else to overcome my obstacles for me takes a lot of the joy out of life.

I also realize that it is totally okay for others to like princesses. And that not all princesses are vain helpless dopes. Ruby, for example, wants to be a princess when she grows up. Okay, okay--that may not be a realistic goal, but if she did somehow end up being a princess--I think she would be a loving, thoughtful one who always defends the fatherless and the widow. And I guarantee that Lucy would be out there slaying the dragons...or at least taming them & making them her pets. =) So--I am okay with them playing princesses, because their character is what is important. That they grow up to be loving, courageous, joyful girls who love God and take care of others.

so--what are your thoughts on princesses? Or, what does being a princess mean to you? Does it have positive or negative connotations?

love ya,
val

We Shall Overcome

2010-06-16T22:16:00.002-05:00

I feel like I've been distracted lately. Or--actually I think I'm becoming aware of how distracted I've always been. Sometimes I feel like just doing *life* is more than I can handle. Paying the bills, taking care of the kids, buying the groceries, cleaning the house, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, getting a little sleep--most days just keeping up with these basic things is so overwhelming. So I crave the occasional distraction to keep me from going crazy. A favorite tv show, a favorite ice cream, a game, an outing, a shopping trip...lots of shopping trips, actually.. I feel like I'm always kind of consoling myself with comforts.

I want to be an overcomer. I don't want to spend my time distracting myself from my troubles, or wallowing in them--life is just so much bigger than that, I think. I am not staying focused on my goals and who God created me to be.

Don Miller has been talking about the importance of your story lately and he says that "A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it." After reading a couple of his blogs it just really hit me that I haven't overcome *any* conflict. Not any. I think that I have been too naive maybe, or maybe I had an idea about God--that if He wanted me to do something that everything would magically fall into place and it would be easy. But that's not how it has turned out. Everything has been hard. But you know what--I guess God didn't say it would be easy. And maybe that's even part of the beauty of life--a person who has overcome challenges to reach their goals is a better person because of what they have been through. Maybe God gives us these opportunities to be overcomers.

I have been reading The Chronicles of Narnia to the girls and it has been so amazing to share that with them. Besides the Bible, I think The Chronicles of Narnia taught me more about God than any other book, honestly. Right now we are on The Silver Chair. At the beginning of this one Aslan (who parallels Jesus) gives Jill some signs that she needs to follow in order to rescue Prince Rillian. What he says to her really kind of struck a chord with me:

"Remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs. And secondly, I give you a warning. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters. And now, daughter of Eve, farewell--"

I don't know--I kind of feel like the air here is thick and my mind is confused and I am forgetting my purpose. Everything looks different than I expected and my mind is kind of cluttered with distractions and routines and obstacles I wasn't expecting and it is just hard to stay focused.

So--I don't know what that means for me exactly, but I think I really need to look at my life differently and think about stress and hard times and challenges as obstacles to overcome--and not hide from them or mope about them, etc.

Empathy, Part 2

2010-05-20T05:41:00.000-05:00

So I'm still thinking a lot about empathy with the kids and trying to put it into practice every day. I'm also thinking about how I can do a better job of empathizing with people outside of my family. It turns out that I am not very good at this! Yikes!

I kind of feel like it would be neat if churches could give classes on things like empathy and other communication/relationship skills. Trying to understand others and how they are feeling and where they are coming from seems like the first step towards loving them, to me. Or am I way off base? Sometimes I get the impression that Christians don't like the idea of empathy...or that people think it's scary to try to understand where people with other viewpoints or emotional reactions are coming from. There just seems to be such a focus on being right and proving how right we are, as opposed to loving others despite differences.

Or maybe we have a misconception of what love is. Like--we know that we are supposed to love one another--so we pray for others when they are sick, or donate clothes or old toys to charity organizations, or act friendly when we see each other at the grocery store. And we kind of think that these are loving things to do--they are nice things to do, but I don't know about loving. I guess it's possible that we do these things out of love--but I also thinks it's possible that we are just checking things that we *should* do off of our list.

I'm going to say that I think love is more than a verb. I think love is a deep, strong, lasting connection with someone that spurs us into action. I don't really think that we can skip the connection part and go straight to the action. That just seems empty to me--it doesn't seem like love. What do you think? Do we *really* love one another? It kind of seems like empathy (understanding the other person's story and where they are coming from, or at least trying to understand them)--is the starting point for love.

I don't know. It's kind of something that just clicked with me recently, that I was really missing in my interactions with others. I've been too worried about coming up with *my* response, and how I was going to explain *my* ideas, or how to get *my* kids to act the way *I* want them to that I haven't been focusing on others and what they need. Empathizing with others who make me cranky or annoy me or hurt my feelings or whose beliefs I just don't get helps me to remember that every person was created in the image of God and every person has value. And that every person's thoughts and beliefs and values are the result of what they have been through. It doesn't mean that I have to agree with them, it just frees me up to love them more.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. --John 13:35

Expectations

2010-05-15T20:42:00.001-05:00

I've really been struggling lately with church and what role it needs to play in my life, etc. I had an incident a week or two ago that really shook my confidence in what I thought that church was and I've really been trying to examine what I need, what my expectations are, and if church is really what I need to fulfill what I am missing--if that makes sense. I still love Jesus (maybe more than ever) and I want to serve God and serve others, but now I'm not so sure that church is a good starting point for that.

I feel like I can narrow down what I need to 2 things:

1. I need an opportunity to serve the community.

2. I need some sort of support group, I think. Like--a group of people who get together for the purpose of talking about life's joys and struggles and encouraging each other in building relationships, handling conflict, etc.

I have thought for a long time that this is what church is for. And last week's incident really made me realize how disappointed and upset I've been that church isn't meeting my needs. And I never thought of myself as one of those people who goes to church to have their needs met--I just didn't realize they were needs, I guess. I think I've just had this romantic view of what church should be like--where we are always serving the community and helping to meet other people's needs, and where we love each other, and trust each other and are totally open with our struggles etc.

I had a great discussion with some friends recently, and it was brought up that church is for worshiping God and sending us out to minister to others, where we kind of take what we learn and go out with it and use it in our everyday lives. I had heard this before, but this was the first time I really heard it as being in conflict with how I understood church.

I have really kind of been mourning that this week, I guess--Just the thought that church isn't even for what I thought it was for. I've been pretty emotional about it, but I think this is really good for me to deal with. I am realizing that I really do need some sort of support group and I really do need to help the community and I'm not going to be able to do that through church. So now I kind of feel free to look for that elsewhere. And maybe this will help me to feel free to just enjoy church as a way to worship God, and not worry about if I'm involved enough or connecting with people there in a meaningful way.

I guess it might sound like I'm giving up on church, but I'm not. I'm letting go of my expectations, which I think is a good thing. And if things change at church, that would be great--and maybe I can help by being more open--but in the mean time, I think I need to just accept it for what it is.

On My Own

2010-05-03T20:20:00.003-05:00

Shawn left today for Las Vegas & will be gone for the week at a hardware convention. I miss him already!!

I think I am up to the challenge, though. Here are some of my goals for the week:

--Get the dishes done every night. Shawn does this a lot of nights for me--so it might be hard for me to get into the routine. But I HATE waking up to a kitchen full of dirty dishes.

--Get lucy's lunch made every night! Shawn usually does this in the mornings, but I am not sure I'll have time so I'm going to try to do it the night before.

--Remember to take the trash out tomorrow night!

--Go on some sort of adventure with the kids. Going on an adventure always helps our moods, and I'm going to plan it in advance, because I know that we have the potential to be super cranky by Wednesday afternoon. We'll probably go on a nature hike or to the mall if the weather is not good. =)

--Get the lawn mowed. I know I can do this! And it really needs to be done!

--Ask for help when I need help. wow, i have a hard time with this one! so--i asked my mom to come over tomorrow afternoon to help before I REALLY need it. =) hopefully that's when I'll mow the lawn. =)

--Start reading a book I got for my birthday, watch a few episodes of my favorite TV show, and blog at least once. Because if I don't get any Val time, I probably won't make it until Saturday!

--Keep the house moderately clean and do at least a couple loads of laundry.

--Get Lucy to school on time every day! And pick her up on time! This might be the most challenging thing on my list. I'll have to get 3 kids ready in the morning instead of just 1, and without Shawn to help! It'll be fun to try to beat the clock. =)

So--yeah. That's all. Anything else that I accomplish will just be a bonus, I guess. =)

I know that Shawn is going to have a much worse time than we are--he says that Las Vegas is kind of a sad town if you're there alone--so I'm trying to have a good attitude about the whole thing & keep up with all the work while he's gone.

Empathy

2010-05-02T20:35:00.001-05:00

I love reading about relationships & how to make them work, and how to handle conflicts, and the psychology behind it all. I just think that stuff is so interesting--I can't get enough of it! I have been reading a lot about something called the Collaborative Problem Solving method. It's a model for how to handle conflict, basically. There are only 3 steps, which makes it sound easy, but it sure doesn't come naturally to me.

Step 1. Empathy
Step 2. Define the Problem
Step 3. Invitation

It seems like most people really stink at handling conflict. Do you think this is true? I sure stink at it. Sometimes, with parenting it seems like your options are force your children to obey or let them walk all over you. Neither of which I like. I love this problem solving method because you go directly to the person/child who you have a conflict with & you talk it out & come up with a solution that works for both of you. I love talking things out! It seems so practical! And Lucy and Ruby are not too little for this.

So--Step 1 is Empathy which means you make a non-judgmental observation about what the other person is thinking or feeling. You don't have to agree with what they are thinking/feeling--you just have to acknowledge it. This has been such an eye opener for me! It really made me realize that sometimes I have no clue what my kids are thinking or feeling because I didn't take the time to observe it. Quite often I just notice whether or not they are behaving inappropriately & I try to correct the behavior. (Which doesn't work even a little bit with my particular children.) I'm sure it wouldn't work with me either, now that I think of it!

But the tone of our interactions changes dramatically when I use empathy. My kids just want me to acknowledge what they are thinking or feeling at the time. The girls are still pretty little so most of the time they don't tell me what is wrong, they just scream. Or hit. Or whine. But they actually calm down so much quicker if I just take a minute to notice what they are feeling. "Lucy, You are frustrated that Milo keeps coming into your room without permission." Ruby, I can tell that you really wish that we had some ice cream right now. And you are sad that you can't have any." Just knowing that I understand is sometimes enough for them to calm down and behave more appropriately.

I think the neatest part is that using empathy helps me to look at the conflict differently. It helps me to slow down before I make a judgment, look at the situation from their perspectives & kind of understand where they are coming from. I fail to do this several times a day, by the way. But I'm trying & hopefully if I model empathy enough, they will learn how to think about things from other people's perspectives also.

So--what do you think? Do you have any stories or examples or ideas about empathy that I can learn from? It seems like a good way to approach adults that you have a conflict or a disagreement with as well--always acknowledging the other person's feelings first.

Anyway--I've got lots more thoughts on this...so hopefully i can keep up the blogging and talk about this some more!

love ya,
val

Honesty

2010-04-28T16:40:00.001-05:00

So--I've been thinking a lot about honesty lately. Or maybe what I mean is openness, because I can't really think of anyone that I know who is particularly dishonest, but it seems like real openness is rare in a church setting, even though it seems like church should be where we feel comfortable enough to be completely open. This blog by Don Miller might be what got me thinking about this in the first place.

I wish that I felt like it was okay to be more open with people at church. I feel like church should be the place where we can lay out all our problems, be real, be involved in each others' lives, and help each other out. I think lots of people want this. But in my experience it just doesn't work out like this very often. Why is that?? Or is it just me??

I go to a small group that meets every week. We do prayer requests almost every time, but it just occurred to me that we ask for prayer for friends or family or acquaintances but very rarely for ourselves. Is this common? I mean--sometimes it seems like I know more about my group's family & friends than I know about them. Which is sad, I think.

I think that I want to make an effort to share things that are going on in my life at my small group, but I'm not sure how appropriate that is. I guess it's completely possible that everyone in my group has their life together and is completely in tune with God and never has any junk that they are struggling through. I don't think that's true, though. Sometimes I feel like the church atmosphere kind of breeds fake-ness. Or maybe that's just something that I'm imposing on myself. Since everyone else seems to have it together, I feel like I need to pretend that I do, too.

--val

Fresh Start

2010-04-27T21:20:00.001-05:00

I think I'm going to start blogging again. =)

Rented?

2009-05-21T08:19:00.002-05:00

ok, so didn't sell that house, but we rented it out. Seems like a good situation. Whew.

Hey, every morning I have to draw something on the girls' toast in syrup, and Lucy requires me to take a picture of her breakfast. I have a bunch of pictures of toast. If I can figure out how to get them off my phone, maybe you can all see Lucy's breakfast. Betcha can't wait!

Shawn

House for Sale! (Finally!)

2009-02-25T09:32:00.009-06:00

We are putting our Rockford house up for sale on Monday. We're doing for sale by owner for a few weeks before we get a realtor, so I thought I would post it here and maybe on facebook. So--spread the word! If anyone is looking for a cheapish house in Rockford, I've got just the thing!

Here are the details:

2321 18th Ave.
Rockford, IL 61104

Updated two story home in quiet neighborhood with mature trees. Remodeled kitchen with maple cabinets, newer appliances, and walk-in pantry. 3 bedrooms (one is a walk through), 2 full baths, first floor office, deep closets for storage, second floor sun room, 2 car detached garage.

Roof, water heater replaced in 2002
High efficiency furnace and central air installed in 2003
First floor laundry hook ups, water softener, and several new windows in 2007

I still need to measure all of the rooms (I will post the measurements on Saturday), but it is approx. 1300 sq. ft.

Taxes were approx. $1700, I'll have to look that up to be sure.

We're asking $87,000

Call Shawn Stonesifer 815.978.5035 for questions or to schedule a showing.

Sooo Cold!!

2009-01-30T13:53:00.004-06:00

Kendra mentioned that she loves to hear Lucy stories, So I thought I would tell today's Lucy story. (Well, one of them, anyway.)

I really don't know anything about furnaces, but apparently ours has an on/off switch right on it. Lucy found this out when she was helping Shawn change the furnace filter a few days ago. I guess you can probably tell where this is going...

Sometime after supper last night, Lucy turned the furnace off! And we didn't realize it. Thankfully our house is sort of well insulated, but it was a chilly 50 degrees when we woke up this morning!

She's really impulsive and always does whatever crazy thing comes into her head.

Oh! So--I started going to this Women's Bible Study thing at Bethel on Wednesday mornings, and I was really nervous the first day. I guess I just didn't know what it would be like--I'm always nervous when I'm trying something new with the kids. Well anyway--we got there and all the other kids were running around and playing and riding on these riding toys so Lucy and Ruby joined them and started playing right away, which was great.

They serve us lunch, and someone said, "Okay! Time for lunch! We're going to pray!" So here's where I sort of hold my breath and think, "Oh, man. Here we go." Because it is soo hard for Lucy to leave a loud boisterous activity to do a quiet sitting down activity. She usually throws a fit. I usually just know it's coming and do whatever I can to calmly help her do what I asked her to do even though she's freaking out about it. But I'm new here, and I really wanted to make a good impression, I guess. That sounds silly when I type it out. But you know how moms are. They (we) sort of make a quick judgment of parenting styles/abilities. It's hard not to. We had just gotten there and already I knew I was in for a tantrum.

So I went over to Lucy and sort of bent down to talk to her and get her attention and I told her it was time to pray and she needed to come sit down with me. She immediately left her riding toy and said, "Okay, Mommy!"

I was shocked. And to top it off--when we got to the table, another little girl asked Lucy to go play with her. Lucy very loudly said, "No, I can't come play now. My mommy told me it was time to come sit down. And when my mommy tells me to do something, I obey!"

I almost fell over.

She sure keeps things interesting.

--val

Stunned

2009-01-20T21:31:00.002-06:00

totally stunned at how pleased I am with the location of the new place. 10 seconds from taco bell, the bank, shopko, groceries, burgers, movie theater, great grandmas house, ice cream store, bowling, and I just rented a video from a grocery store vending machine, which was pretty rad. All of this and my back yard is still a cornfield.

I recognize that this should not seem exciting, but when you have a bunch of little kids, you do more activities if there's less of a barrier. Friends come over for no particular reason, Arthurs Deli and church are 2 minute drives. I'm a total hillbilly for being happy about Dixon.

Shawn

Ruby faces

2009-01-16T19:09:00.003-06:00

I know it's been so long since I blogged! I finally found my camera battery charger, so here are some pictures of Ruby from a couple weeks ago. She's so funny.

So things in the new house/new town have been going pretty well. It's been really fun to have some space to spread out, and it has been amazing to get to see buddies so often. Actually yesterday could've been such a horrible day with the weather keeping us inside for most of the week, but we had a too-cold-to-work-or-go-to-school spur of the moment buddy day and it was wonderful. Shawn, Jon and Chris even got 2 rooms of wallpaper taken down, and Lucy and Grace got along together so wonderfully.

I'll try to update the blog more often now that the camera battery is fully charged!

Helmets

2009-01-14T11:30:00.001-06:00

I have at least 2 kids that should probably be wearing helmets all the time. But probably not as much as Christopher.

Shawn

They're all dang smart

2009-01-10T22:44:00.002-06:00

but it seems like it's hard to teach Lucy anything, because she has a natural distaste for being taught

Shawn

Listening to tummy

2008-12-28T21:13:00.002-06:00

This morning I put my ear on Ruby's tummy, told her it was gurgly. She said it was from the milk.

She listened to my tummy and said it was squeaky from the coffee. I said it might be raisin bran, she said it was a birdhouse in there. Lucy added it was a dirty skunk. I said I didn't eat that for sure.

Shawn

5 days in the ceiling

2008-12-20T14:58:00.002-06:00

Beaver was a total freak and spent the first 2 days looking for hiding spots in the unfinished basement, found a way into the rafters and spent the next 3 days on top of a heat duct between some floor joists.

Then, all of a sudden, he snapped out of it and started walking around like he owned the place, totally comfortable in every part of the house. I thought we were going to have a cat that nobody ever saw because he lived in the wall and never came out. Good thing he's normal again. Whatever that means.

Shawn

Advertisement for big deal

2008-11-22T09:09:00.002-06:00

It appears that Dec. 12 is the day. Probably going to be moving then. It's a Friday. Might do more moving on Saturday than Friday, not sure yet.

You know what's super weird? The seller and my mortgage guy and the realtors picked a closing date without asking me! I mean, they picked an okay day, but I think that's really weird and am a little offended!

So, for those of you interested in helping move, I hope there are several of you, mark your calendars and kind of let me know if you're planning on helping that day, perhaps food and beer provided or something. Beer provided is really not our style I guess.

Shawn

Double doors

2008-11-11T23:34:00.002-06:00

Get ready for moving fun! We got double doors for effortlessly receiving the largest of couches! Too bad we only have small couches.

Yes, it's true...

2008-11-09T18:22:00.003-06:00

We're moving to Dixon. Pretty crazy, right? And it's also true that we are buying a huge weird house. I am excited, and worried, and overwhelmed, but mostly wondering what this new phase of life will be like. I think it'll be fun, I've decided. =)

We kind of alternate between feeling like we are doing something crazy and impulsive, to feeling like we are doing what we've really wanted to do all along.

And there is definitely room for chickens in our new big yard. =)

So--if any of you are going to be in the Rockford/Dixon area over Christmas break and need a break from family and festivities =) we are having a huge party...um...I mean an huge buddy moving day, and a huge buddy fix-the-old-house day! and you're invited!

Oh yes, and that's the other thing--we are closing on the new house December 19th! Crazy.

And the fireplace room is the only NOT weird part of the house. There's teacup wallpaper! And pillars! And a sink in the master bedroom! And a weird budweiser bar in the basement! And a mural! And I think I love it!

Tasty Fish

2008-11-01T19:48:00.003-05:00

So we just finished a rowdy rumpus pretend game. I must say it did not end well. You see, we had the beds pushed together, and one of them is 8 oe 10 inches higher than the other so it's fun to jump up and around, and I was kind of in the middle and I was the octopus with the tentacles and the tackling and Lucy was Hungry Shark and Ruby was Tasty fish and they ran around and around trying to eat each other.

So anyway I was on my back, and somehow Hungry Shark had managed to sit on my arm and was holding it down, and I look up to see Tasty Fish in midair-cannonball from the higher bed right onto my unprepared self. With no hands available to break the fall, I received Tasty Fish like a sack of flour in the gut and that was the end of that game. I'm not feeling 100% but it was a pretty good game. Go Tasty Fish!

shawn

Ruby! Wow is she hilarious!

2008-10-24T14:18:00.003-05:00

Lucy got her hair cut!

2008-10-23T09:26:00.003-05:00

Fall Fun

2008-10-18T21:41:00.002-05:00

Isn't Milo getting huge?? And I totally didn't realize at the time that Lucy was playing with a cabbage.

I LOVE Lucy's posing-for-the-camera smile.

I really like this picture, but Ruby is sooo annoyed here. For some reason she really didn't want her picture taken today. Everytime I would point the camera at her she would scream, "DON"T TAKE MY PICTURE!!!" It was very unlike her.

Lucy seemed really grown up today. I don't know what it was really... She was sweet and chatty and easy going (for the most part). She just seemed way older all of a sudden.

The neighbors were burning and the smoke and sunlight coming through the trees looked so amazing. I wish I could've captured it better.

Today was a really nice day. We spent the day with my parents and the evening at a costume party and it was just so sweet and fall-ish.

Better things to come.

2008-10-07T22:20:00.003-05:00

Thanks for the prayers. They worked. I have my leadership-stepping-down letter to turn in tomorrow. An agreement has been reached. I'm taking my life back. I really missed the family these last few weeks. See you all soon.

Shawn

Work

2008-09-17T21:35:00.006-05:00

So--I'm keeping a tally of how much Shawn works this week. The way I calculate it is hours away from home--so that does include several hours of driving.

Monday: 6:00am-6:00pm (12 hours)
Tuesday: 6:00am-1:30am! (19.5 hours)
Wednesday: 7:00am-7:00pm (12 hours)
Thursday: 12:00pm-8:00pm (8 hours) We had a nice morning this day.
Friday: 6:30am-6:30pm (12 hours)

Plus at least 1/2 hour each night for phone calls (which I am not including in my tally of hours away from home, I am just mentioning them so that you have a better understanding of what his at home hours are like)

63.5 hours, and he's taking Saturday off, so I'm excited about that!

The kids and I are doing great, so I really can't complain about that. We have our routines, I have my ways of dealing with any problems, and we've been having so much fun...

Maybe that's actually the worst part--that we're doing so well without him.

Summer Stonesifery Day!

2008-08-20T08:50:00.005-05:00

Here are some pictures from our day visiting cousins! Lucy, Ruby and Milo are playing with Isaac (5), Naomi (2.5), and Eli (11 weeks or so). We had a blast! I think I need to get some photography tips from Chris and Rachel (and Nolan) though.
I love the look on Isaac's face in this one!

Naomi was either eating, or asking to eat something the whole time we were there! I got a lot of pictures of her eating! =)

Lucy would rather play in a puddle (and the mud) than the slip n' slide.

Here's Milo with one of his huge smiles!

Laurie and Eli--adorable!

It was just a really great summer day!

Playroom fun

2008-08-18T19:36:00.002-05:00

We're fixing the playroom! Shawn and I spent the weekend trying to make sense of the playroom. I even followed Kim's example and had the girls help. (Well, they helped a little, and then they left to spend the weekend with grandma and grandpa.) And I know it looks like I just threw everything out, but really things are just getting moved and reorganized. Yes, we still have a ridiculous amount of toys, they are just all put away!

And I remembered to take a 'before' picture this time!

Love ya,
Val

Subway Left Sauce Off Sandwich

2008-08-04T20:55:00.001-05:00

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Jacksonville police say Reginald Peterson needs to learn that 911 is not the appropriate place to complain that Subway left the sauce off a spicy Italian sandwich.

Police said the 42-year-old man dialed 911 twice last week so he could have his sub made correctly. The second call was to complain that officers weren't arriving fast enough.

Subway workers told police Peterson became belligerent and yelled when they were fixing his order. They locked him out of the store after he left to call police.

When officers arrived, they tried to calm Peterson and explain the proper use of 911. Those efforts failed, and he was arrested on a charge of making false 911 calls.

Peterson did not have a listed phone number.

My kids love band-aids

2008-07-26T20:55:00.002-05:00

Lucy peeled herself with a vegetable peeler today.

She was pretty calm, but there was that hint of hysteria in her voice.

"I think my finger is dead!"

Shawn

Shawn's ridiculous recipe

2008-07-26T18:15:00.002-05:00

Here's one for you

2 packs of ramen soup (pork works as well as any)
Make those up the same way you did when you were 12, but 2 minutes before the noodles go in, add some stuff:

Fake crab meat
Mushrooms
Cabbage
Parseley flakes
Garlic
Ramen powder (sodium asplode!)
Soy sauce
Sesame seeds or oil
Any other crazy crap what comes in your mystery vegetable box every week (Kale today)
Egg- That's right. Just crack the mother and put it in the soup. Makes it kind of rich and filling.

I don't know if I'm proud of it, but I ate it.

Shawn

Zucchini

2008-07-24T22:03:00.003-05:00

I love zucchini! It seems like one of those vegetables that no one really loves, but I do! I love zucchini stir fried with onions and mushrooms, I love zucchini sliced in half and cooked on the grill, and I love the tasty zucchini crumble the girls and I made for dessert today! Here's the recipe:

Makes 6-8 servings

4 1/2 cups flour

3 cups granulated sugar, divided

½ teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups butter, cold

6-8 cups thinly sliced zucchini (about 4 large zucchini)

2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 3 lemons)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg

•Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

•Stir the flour, 2 cups sugar and salt in a large bowl until well combined. Add the butter and cut it into the flour with a pastry blender or your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse oatmeal.

•Pour half the mixture into a 13x9-inch cake pan. Using your fingers or a rubber spatula, press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside.

•Combine zucchini and lemon juice in large pot over high heat; cook until zucchini is tender, 8-10 minutes. Stir in remaining 1 cup sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Simmer 1 minute more. Stir in ½ cup of reserved flour mixture and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Remove the pot from the heat to cool for 10 minutes.

•Pour the zucchini mixture over the baked crust and sprinkle with the remaining flour mixture. Return the pan to the oven and bake until it is lightly browned and bubbly, 40-45 minutes.

Web Cam

2008-07-12T20:20:00.003-05:00

We have a webcam- our skype name is stonesifers. I never did anything like that before, but the communication was actually pretty satisfying. It was actually almost like hanging out in the Chris Padgett room! I could see the top bunk from his cam where Deaver cat hangs out and I taunted him one time and he chased me out of the room and attacked my leg!

Shawn

Other Stonesifer Entertainment

2008-07-12T20:17:00.003-05:00

I realize that half of our blog readers read Chris's anyway, but in case you don't and you're looking for some good Stonesifery entertainment, his blog (linked at side) has some outstanding stuff of that variety with the photos and the video stuff.

Shawn

Markers in the Car

2008-07-09T18:27:00.001-05:00

So--Grandma gave Ruby some markers in the car. I had no idea what was going on in the back seat!!

=) val

My New Favorite Salad (Julie--you are not going to believe this!!)

2008-07-09T18:12:00.003-05:00

I really felt the need to show you all a picture of my new favorite salad. It's sweet, and delicious, and beautiful, and here's the recipe so you can all try it.

Toss together:
Any type of lettuce or salad greens
Sliced almonds
Dried Cranberries
Thinly sliced, perfectly ripe Pears
Some leftover grilled chicken, if you have any handy

Top with yummy Creamy Poppyseed Dressing

I have one almost every day!

It's kind of funny--because my cousin Julie and I both have a horrible childhood memory involving an orange cashew chicken meal that we both threw up because it was soooo gross. Ever since, neither of us have been able to eat any sort of meal that has fruit, nuts, and meat in it. But now I love this salad! Julie (and everyone else)--you should try it!!

love ya,
val

Ruby changes the lyrics

2008-07-05T22:04:00.001-05:00

But she understands the importance of rhyming!

Twinkle twinkle little doop!

Shawn

Pine nuts!

2008-06-24T22:02:00.003-05:00

I just had my first experience eating pine nuts, and I must say that it's the perfect combination experience between eating sunflower seeds and eating a tree. For whatever reason, I was kind of okay with it. I'm not saying you should definitely try it, but if you're like, hey, let's eat something wierd, pine nuts would offer the right excitement level while still being a better choice than, say, a pine tree.

I hear Ruby loves them too.

Shawn

Funny things kids say

2008-06-23T07:01:00.002-05:00

So--on our way home from church yesterday, Ruby got really worked up. She said, "Mommy! God forgot to teach us about the peaches!!" I'm not exactly sure what she meant by that.

And Lucy has been making up funny poems while she plays pretend. This morning she was pretending to be an elephant, stomping around and such, and she said,

"Elephants eat whatever they find!
Elephants look in the cabinet, behind!"

Milo and Daddy!

2008-06-21T10:21:00.000-05:00

Angelic Organics

2008-06-20T21:54:00.002-05:00

We just got our first boxes of fruits and veggies yesterday! I am so excited. Lucy and Ruby are really excited about the fruits--when we picked them up they immediately pulled out a peach and a pluot (which apparently is a cross between a plum and an apricot) and ate them right there.

We got some normal stuff--grapes, peaches, broccoli, spinach, scallions...
And some not so normal stuff--swiss chard, choi, radishes (which are normal, but I don't like them, so I still need to find some recipe that I can use them in that isn't too radish-y) and garlic scapes (which I didn't know about, but I won't have any trouble putting these to use).

It's so exciting! Today I made mac & cheese with swiss chard for lunch, and creamy choi soup for supper--which were both really good and not weird at all! Tomorrow I'm planning on making a spinach and garlic scape frittata. It's really exciting to be handed vegetables and to be told--"Here! Do something with this!"

It's also really helpful that the farm sent us a cookbook. =)

love, val

Yea for Gymnastics!

2008-06-19T22:08:00.006-05:00

So--I've got tons to blog about! I just don't have much time to do it! =) I guess I'll start with gymnastics. It's going so well! Lucy has had 2 classes now, and she's having fun, she's getting along with the other kids, and she's doing what the teacher asks her to do! It has just been so amazing to watch her in class. (She's the one on the left, participating!) I'm just so excited for her, and I'm so glad she's having a good time. =)

val

How do you hold a pencil?

2008-06-11T14:47:00.003-05:00

Apparently I don't have a functional pencil grasp!

Lucy holds her pencil funny, so I was trying to look up info on what I should do about it. I guess I hold my pencil funny too! =) I've got the thumb wrap grasp near the bottom. Anybody else hold their pencil funny?

val

Starlite Radio

2008-06-09T20:00:00.002-05:00

Here are some pictures that the newspaper took at the Starlite Radio CD Release Party. There's one of Milo and me! I had a ton of fun. It was the first concert type thing that I've been to in a while, and it was Milo's first ever! =) Here is where you can buy the CD (or just ask Shawn). Anyway--it was really fun.

Go barefoot!

2008-06-09T14:28:00.003-05:00

Check it out! I knew barefoot was better! =)

val =)

--oh--you know, forgive the evolution references. I was just excited to see an article about how unnatural shoes are. =)

Gymnastics!

2008-06-04T14:20:00.003-05:00

So--I signed Lucy up for a trampoline/tumbling class. I'm really excited. I think she is too. =) We'll see how it goes... I know she'll love it--if she's not too scared to try.

I was a little nervous, because I wasn't sure how things would work with Ruby and Milo there with me while Lucy was in class, but the facilities are really set up for someone like me! =) There is a room off of the gym where we can sit and watch everything that is going on--they even have books and coloring books for ruby to do while Lucy is in class. And--even cooler--attached to the gym is a showroom for a wooden swing set company. They have a bunch of swing sets set up that kids can play on! So--Ruby can even play on the swing sets and we can watch Lucy's class from there, without being disruptive or anything. =) And everyone was so friendly! And (so far) there's only 4 kids in the class--which sounds like the perfect number of kids. =) so--I'm excited. Lucy picked out her leotard already and everything. =)

It starts on Tuesday, and I'm really hoping that it goes well. Lucy's excited about the trampoline, and the leotard, but she got pretty nervous when she figured out that I don't actually come to class with her.

So--yeah. I'll let you know how it goes!

love ya,
val

Kiddos!

2008-05-30T17:10:00.002-05:00

Here are some recent pics. Milo already looks older! Oh--and how adorable is he in his cloth diaper??!

Lockwood Park is (almost) Perfect!

2008-05-21T14:36:00.004-05:00

The kids and I (I have to say "kids" now because there's a boy!) have been on the hunt for the perfect park. As you probably know, our yard is tiny & it's a mess & it's just not too fun to be in. I have plans to make it the most beautiful tiny yard in the whole city, but that's just not happening right now. Anyway--we really need a park to play in! And it is amazingly hard to find a good one, let alone the Perfect One.

There are three parks within half a mile or so of our house, and although we've been to each many times, I'm just not happy with them.

The first one is very dirty. There is always trash all over the place. Which I don't really understand, because it always looks like the lawn has just been mowed, but there is still trash everywhere. Lucy has also pretty much outgrown this one, too--it seems to be geared more towards toddlers.

The second one was fine last year. We actually used to go to this one a lot. But this year a creepy guy seems to have taken it over. I don't know--a forty-five year old guy just should not be sliding down slides and swinging on the swings all by himself. Even if he lives right next door--which I am assuming he does because he is always there.

The third one is pretty good as far as playgrounds go. It also has tennis courts, basketball courts and a baseball diamond which are always packed in the evenings and the weekends, which gives it a great 'city park' kind of feel. There's even a guy with an ice cream cart! It's just really fun to be in the middle of that much summer-in-the-park activity. The drawback here is that--being a city park--there are A LOT of fist fights and cussing in the under 8 years old crowd. Hitting and rude words are Lucy's biggest problems right now, so I'm a little worried about her learning things from the other kids.

And the biggest problem of all--none of them have bathrooms!!

So--we've been looking for the perfect park. I figure--if I have to drive across town to get to the park, we better be able to spend the whole day there. It needs to be relatively clean, and it needs to have bathrooms, a really great playground, and at least a little bit of nature--like a trail we can walk down or something. Oh--and it can't be too huge, because I have three kids to keep track of!

Well--I think we found it today! The Perfect Park! It's got everything! Two playgrounds! A little bit of nature! Bathrooms! No Creepy Guy! And best of all-- Horses!! The only problem is that it is 20 minutes away. But that's not really that big of a deal, I guess. Church is 20 minutes away, and so is the grocery store. So I think this might be our new park. If you're ever in town--you should come to the park with us!

love ya, Val

CD Release Party

2008-05-10T16:54:00.006-05:00

Starlite Radio CD Release Party

on May 31st (doors open at 7pm, show starts at 8pm)

at Memorial Hall (downtown Rockford)

Tickets are $5

check out www.starliteradio.com (more info to be posted soon)

For anyone that may not have known, I have been an extra musician in this other band for a year and a half or so, and it has been pretty good for me. It's really helped me to not feel like I used to be a musician.

When they started making their album, I thought it might be a fairly reasonable homebrew effort, but it grew into something much better than that such that I can confidently say that I'm proud to be a side musician on it, and should you be fortunate enough to hear it, I think you'll agree.

The project took most of a year to make and was mixed by Don Chaffer of Waterdeep fame (or obscurity depending on which circles you travel) which is a pretty big deal for me.
This thing is also full of sweet bgv's, which it turns out are hilarious to record. If you happen to be in the state that evening, it might be a fun time.

some of the album is actually available for listen here
http://www.myspace.com/starliteradio

bgv's are background vocals. Jargon is like an inside joke or something.

Shawn

First instinctive thoughts about having a boy

2008-05-04T00:00:00.002-05:00

Dinosaurs and trucks! This is gonna be awesome!

Shawn

Family names

2008-05-03T23:52:00.003-05:00

So it turns out that Milo has a great great great uncle Milo, who is his father's mother's mother's uncle. Who would have thought? I never knew a Milo, nor did I know about my great great uncle milo. (My grandma's uncle)

Turns out that the same grandma had a sister named Ruby. (Ruby's great great aunt)

I actually was a little unsure what other people would think of the name Milo. I mean, I liked it, but you always wonder who will think it's cool and who might make a wrinkly nose face when they hear a baby name. Lots of people have responded positively, which is really vindicating! He seems like a really cool kid so far, but I think it takes a few weeks before you can tell what personality you have anyway.

Shawn

By the way, adjusting to 3 kids is pretty overwhelming. Well, maybe that's not accurate exactly. Really, I think that when you add a baby to whatever routine you had pre-baby, everyone is a little lost for a little while, so I don't think it's the number 3.

Family activities?

2008-05-02T19:07:00.007-05:00

I don't think Lucy likes board games, but I think Ruby really does. They're really different kids in a lot of ways, and I'm not sure if they'll enjoy many of the same activities.

It seems like Padgetts all liked the same kinds of things sort of and maybe that was really convenient for family relationships. I hope our kids do everything together.

I'm asking the girls what to tell our friends on our blog.
Lucy says "We can tell them that we love them"
I asked Ruby what we should send to our friends and she said "a brown horse"

Here you go

Shawn

Milo

2008-05-02T14:54:00.004-05:00

New Baby!

2008-04-28T19:58:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone! We just had a baby! It's a boy! His name is Milo Emmett Stonesifer.

Here are his details and all that:

9 lbs. 10 oz. (exactly the same as his sister Ruby)
21 1/2 in. long

He was born yesterday--Sunday, April 27 at 9:08 am, after 20 minutes (or so) of labor at home. Our midwife almost made it to this one. We are both healthy and doing great!

I'm mostly worried about Lucy and Ruby--so if you think about it--please pray for them. That they would make this transition fairly smoothly. They both really love Milo, it's just a really big adjustment.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I get the chance!

Dinosaur Hats

2008-04-05T10:19:00.005-05:00

This week we made papier-mache dinosaur hats. It took several days and it was lots of fun. If we do papier-mache again I think I'd do it differently, but for a first try--I think it really worked out. Oh yeah--we made our own glue with flour and water! I think that was Ruby's favorite part--she ate a lot of it. =)

Lucy just asked

2008-03-17T21:09:00.003-05:00

"Did you get me at the pet store?"

If only it were that easy.

Shawn

The upchucket bucket

2008-03-16T16:21:00.003-05:00

Lucy and Ruby have had nothing but junkfood at the inlaws today. Hundreds of varieties, it's like the wonka factory over here. It's the middle of the afternoon, and Lucy is making a move on a chocolate bunny. Not until you have some real food kid. She's too full for ravioli, wants to go straight to chocolate bunny, but we're making her eat 5 raviolis first.

One possibility is that she is not full and is manipulating to get right to the bunny. The other possibility, of course, is that she is completely full, and the treat impulse + her parents will doom her to 5 more raviolis, an entire chocolate rabbit and a trip to the upchucket bucket.

Vaguely related story- Ruby does not like hot dogs anymore. A past favorite is lost on a barfing experience. Now when offered a hot dog, Ruby says she doesn't like hot dogs and says "remember when I barfed and daddy took care of me and kept my head in the bucket?"

Daddy sure does. It was an all nighter, 9 barfer while I stayed up all night reading a movie script while my kid woke up every 20 minutes, just enough to stick her head in the bucket and fall back asleep in the daddy arms. I'm glad she remembers and I'm glad she appreciates, cause hot dog barf smells bad. I almost chain-chucked getting the chunks off the sheets. It's amazing what kind of cleanup type events you'll man-up to once you have kids.

Shawn

Grocery Shopping is No Fun

2008-03-13T20:12:00.003-05:00

I used to love grocery shopping. We used to eat pretty healthy and I loved shopping for the best deals, and trying new recipes and all that. Well--that has definitely changed now that I have Lucy and Ruby. They both hate grocery shopping. They've got less than a half hour grocery trip time limit before they just explode--which is NOT enough time to go grocery shopping. This has kind of unraveled the whole eating experience for us. I don't have time to look for the cheapest prices, I've been buying more junk food, and I've been making the same meals every week. And since I dread grocery shopping so much we run out of food a lot, and we end up getting emergency fast food (Not healthy or even tasty). I can only see this getting worse when I have THREE kids who hate grocery shopping.

So--here's my plan.

1. We signed up for this fruit & vegetable co-op thing where we just get a box of fruits and veggies every week from a local farm. It's just whatever is being harvested that week. I am so excited! I don't have to shop the produce department or even decide what veggies to get, or wait in the check out lane. I just go pick up a box once a week, and that's it. I think it'll be fun to try new vegetables and new recipes. It seems like it might be a lot of food, so I might even be able to freeze some for the winter. It starts in June and I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

2. We're going to get a freezer to put in the basement and we're going to fill it up with meat. Like--a quarter of a cow and some chickens or something.

3. The non-perishable stuff it seems like we can get in bulk maybe. Like we can get a big bucket of rice and a case or two of mac & cheese, and a big tub of coffee. This part of my plan isn't completely in place yet--but I'm sure it can be done.

4. There's really not too much left at this point. Shawn could easily pick up milk, juice, eggs, bread and cheese once a week on his way home from work. Or even if I had to do it--that is definitely less than half an hour's worth of shopping.

So--what do you think? Am I forgetting anything? Any ideas on where to get cheap pantry items in bulk? I think it's really going to work out--especially if I can be creative with the vegetables. but I'll be saving so much time and stress by not grocery shopping, that I should have time to look for great recipes and try them out.

Loving the idea of not grocery shopping,
val =)

Our Bedroom is Mostly Finished

2008-03-12T13:48:00.004-05:00

Hey everybody! I am pretty much finished painting and decorating our bedroom, so here it is! I still need to give the white trim a second coat of paint, find some curtains that I like, a few knick-knacks for the shelves above the TV, and maybe some pictures to go on the walls--but that could take forever, so I thought I would post some pictures now. We'll have to rearrange a little bit when the baby comes, but I'm really happy with how it turned out!

I wish I had taken some before pictures--but I'm always too excited to start a project and I forget to take pictures of the mess. So--instead of nice dressers, picture a combination of ugly green and gold ones and plastic ones. And instead of green walls with white trim, picture yellowish-white walls with dark, beat up trim. And instead of neatly organized baskets, picture tons and tons of clutter, with more clutter stacked on top. =)

Favorite toy

2008-03-02T06:53:00.002-06:00

Right now the girls' favorite toys are the plastic iguanas they got from the Burpee Museum gift shop. They're inseperable. I love it how these kids always pick something cool and hilarious for a favorite toy.

They love Mcdonald's toys as well. A lot of those Mcdonald toys I think "Wow, that's a terrible toy! It doesn't even make sense!" or "That's not fun!" Like a hunk of plastic shaped like an ipod that says American Idol on it and plays a funky 8 second tune every time you press its one button. I thought it was the worst toy ever. Ruby thinks it's the best toy ever. She does a crazy dance every time she presses the button.

I might just be really glad that they love plastic lizards and not Bratz dolls.

Shawn

Why is there cat food

2008-02-29T09:04:00.000-06:00

in daddy's boots?

Everybody loves Padgetts

2008-02-25T21:49:00.006-06:00

So--a few days ago I asked Lucy what she wanted for lunch and she said, "Hmmm..." and scratched the top of her head. Then she smiled and said, "I'm scratching my head! That means I'm thinking!" And she laughed a little. It was hilarious. I said, "Yeah, it does! How did you know that?" She said, "Chris taught me that!"

Then yesterday she said, "I think we should name the new baby Pedro." I said, "That's a cool name. Where did you hear that before?" She said, "Chris told me about it!"

She also does dances sometimes and says that Chris showed her how to do them.

It's pretty cute. I don't know if Chris really did teach her those things or not (Chris, did you?)--but she definitely knows that he's the guy to go to if you want to learn funny things.

--love,val

Deaver

2008-02-24T20:43:00.001-06:00

I think I found buddy town. We're going to take this place over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaver,_Wyoming

Or if you don't want to get the deave, we could go to Beaver, Pennsylvania

Ruby's hilarious (still)

2008-02-23T08:47:00.001-06:00

"Hey Ruby, what did God do on the very first day?"

(Thoughtful pause-)
"He knocked the animals down"

February

2008-02-21T19:13:00.006-06:00

So--I've been trying really hard to have a better attitude about February--especially since Becky gave me so many great suggestions.

Here are some of the things we've done:

--we made sock puppets! this was really fun. Lucy's is the white one--it's a skunk. She designed and cut out the whole thing--i just hot glued everything where she told me to. Ruby's is a bird. It looked a lot better right after we made it, but it hasn't held up so well with all the playing. She told me what kind of animal she wanted to make, and what colors to make everything.

--shawn and the girls have been making forts (becky suggested it) in the living room out of the couch cushions. They have a pretty good time doing this--but it always makes them sleepy, so we try to do it right before bed. oh--it makes them static-y too. (ruby says it makes them "stagitty.")

--we went to Sapora Playworld today. It's kind of like a giant McDonald's play land. The girls didn't really like this too much--i was surprised. Lucy got lost when she was way up inside of it and some older kids had to help her down. ruby thought the little kids area was too boring, and the big kids area was too scary. oh well. at least we tried it. i think they both would've had more fun if we had brought some friends with. If they knew some other kids there i don't think either of them would've been scared--but all the other kids that were there were either much older or much younger than either of them.

--I've been trying to do more homeschool-y activities with Lucy. This has actually been really fun. We've been trying to decide if we should send her to preschool in the fall or not. I don't know... what i really want is to keep her home at least until she is five/kindergarten age, but i don't know if that would be too much of a shock since it's kind of hard to find kindergarten that isn't full day. Going from no school to all day school seems like it would be hard. We had really planned to homeschool like maybe through 4th grade or so, but now i'm just not sure if that would be the best thing for us... i don't know. so anyway. yeah--we've been doing some homeschool activities and it has really been fun. so i guess we'll just see.

--i gave lucy some yarn the other day. it turns out that she really, REALLY likes tying things to other things. so--right now there is red yarn tied to just about everything downstairs. chairs are tied together and tied to some dinosaurs that are tied to a doorknob that is tied to a cabinet that is tied to the table that is tied to a tote bag that has a bunch of toys in it that are tied together.

i'm having second thoughts about the yarn. =)

--We're going to start having library day. Library day is every monday. Seriously. Rain or shine (but probably not snow) we will be going to the library. No more late fees. No more procrastinating it. The girls love it and so do I--it's just sooo hard for me to get us there once a week for some reason. I paid my $50 fine so now there is no excuse not to go.

Anyway. we are going to try to have a good End of February no matter what!

love. val.

LOTS of Cabin Fever

2008-02-15T09:38:00.003-06:00

Hey guys--I know it's been a while since I did an actual blog. things are crazy here. CRAZY. here is just a list of what's been going on.

1. The girls have major cabin fever. (not just beaver fever.) They are bouncing off the walls. They ask me several times a day when they can go back to the park to play. And they are bored to death. They hate all my ideas for craft/science/math projects and they are doing crazy things--like climbing on pianos (WHAT??!) and standing on the counter to sneak tastes of honey. Seriously. Every time I turn my back they are doing something completely insane.

2. Every single room in our house is a complete disaster. We've been redecorating our bedroom and somehow that made every other room explode. there is just stuff everywhere! And the worst part is that none of it has a place. We've had to rearrange a lot of things and we got rid of some dressers/got new dressers so nothing really has a place yet. I want things to be super organized so I'm trying not to just stuff all the junk in the new dressers, but if I don't figure out something soon--it is going to have to come to that.

3. Ruby insists on being called "Diego Go." She's seen "Go, Diego, Go!" a couple of times now, and she loves it. She's always pretending to rescue animals and all that. Well--for the last three days she hasn't let me call her Ruby at all. She won't respond to any question unless I call her Diego Go. I'll say, "Ruby, do you want some juice?" and she'll say, "I just Diego Go." and she won't answer unless i say, "Diego Go, do you want some juice?" It was funny for a while, but now it's really starting to get on my nerves. I named her Ruby!! How long is this going to last??

4. The neighbors keep banging on my door and yelling at me for parking in front of their houses! It's been snowing a lot here, and we are supposed to do that even/odd thing--we park on the even side of the street on the even days, and the odd side of the street on the odd days. anyway--every time I park somewhere other than right in front of my own house, someone comes over to yell at me!! I've always considered us to be really good neighbors--we're not drug dealers, we're not loud, and we aren't letting our house fall to ruins. We don't even have any annoying dogs! I mean--what more could you ask for in this neighborhood?? I guess the neighbors don't look at it that way...

5. I had to quit women's Bible study at church after being told that my kids were going to grow up to hate Jesus and hate me and that I am disobeying God's commands because of the way I parent! blah. I don't really feel like going into details about it right now, but I wanted to mention it so you could see how awkward things have been at church lately.

6. I am not prepared for the new baby at all! I feel like I haven't done any planning, or organizing--the house is a mess--our car doesn't fit 3 carseats--we don't have names picked out--ruby is crazy attached to the crib and I was expecting to have her on the bottom bunk by now--and I feel like I haven't had any time to prepare mentally or emotionally for having THREE kids.

So--yeah. I feel like things have been really chaotic lately. And dumb. And I am soooo ready for summer. And I miss all my friends who live far away. And I wish I had an attached garage. And some chocolate.

love ya, val

Cabin Fever

2008-02-14T23:44:00.003-06:00

It's cabin fever. The whole family's flippin out. I feel like I'm a pretty good sport, working outside in this foot and a half of snow drifts, but February never ceases to end my patience. After weeks of December, weeks of January, and half of February, we only have 3 more months of terrible weather before it's 90 degrees out. Any ideas for fun stuff to do in the middle of February? Apparently, eating half a box of chocolates was on my list. Happy V day.

Shawn

not really sick

2008-02-14T12:49:00.001-06:00

Not really sick, they were just talking about the beaver fever.

Getting sick

2008-02-14T08:02:00.000-06:00

I think the girls have the Beaver Fever

More baby names

2008-02-07T08:14:00.000-06:00

Lucy: Axlebass (bass like fish)

Ruby: Meenomonomeenomo

Baby naming

2008-02-06T21:25:00.000-06:00

I asked Lucy and Ruby what we should name the new baby

Ruby said Alpha, which was pretty cool.

Lucy said adiaper, which I still require some convincing on.

Shawn

More!

2008-02-04T11:57:00.000-06:00

Oh--here is another one i wanted to put up. It looks like an ad for the gap or something. (Shawn took all of the pictures, by the way.) I can't believe how well all the kids got along over the weekend. It was just so cool.

I also realized that we've seen a bunch of buddies since I got my camera, so i'll try to post some of those pictures in the next few days, too.

love ya,
val

Wadsworth Buddy-cation!!

2008-02-04T08:57:00.000-06:00

Sorry, guys. I haven't blogged in a long time. Here are some pics of our weekend! We had a great time! Things have been so stressful lately--it was awesome to just spend some time with some buddies.

love, val

2:43am

2008-01-11T02:44:00.001-06:00

I just got home from a big work meeting at 2:43 am. From day to day my position changes on whether or not I should be running hard at this. It sure is an exciting place to work, and the opportunity is one in a hundred million, but I just don't know how to take care of a family and this work thing. I guess it's time to learn. Sometimes it seems like it would be easier to get a job and just turn off the work part of my mind when I leave work.

But, I never made a living wage before this and that wasn't easy either. Life is pretty complicated. We sure have a lot to be thankful for. Now I just have to learn to transfer that thankfulness to good stewardship of the different areas of my life.

I got this audio bible read by black hollywood actors for Christmas, and I really like it, besides finding humor in the premise. James Brown makes a pretty good John the Baptist.

Shawn

Rhyme time

2008-01-08T08:29:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Ruby said "I pooped, I dooped."

This rhyming is out of control. I mean I think it's hilarious that Ruby knows what a Palamino horse is.

It's way more hilarious though, that she called it a peno-beno-ceno-weno horse.

Shawn

Things you've always wanted to do but you knew better

2008-01-06T09:33:00.000-06:00

This one definitely makes the list.

Last week at the mall, we were at the calendar store kiosk and Lucy threw a Garfield calendar off the balcony and it landed in the foliage of a tree below. Today I'm going to check if it's still there.

Seems like the "what if I do this" impulse consistently overpowers the "this is wildly inappropriate" inhibition.

Ruby's hilarious thing of the day is waking up at 5:00AM howling "I need mac n cheese!"

Shawn

Ruby says funny things.

2007-12-31T13:36:00.000-06:00

Ruby has been saying some funny things lately.

Sometimes I'll be walking around the house and I'll start singing a song and both girls start yelling, "AAAHHHH MOMMMMYYY! STOP SINGING!" and I'll say, "Oh, sorry! I can't help it. I've got a song stuck in my head." And every time Ruby gives me a really confused look and pokes my head a couple of times.

Well, the other day Ruby was singing and kind of humming to herself and she looked at me and said, "Mommy! I've got a song stuck in my mouth!"

She said something funny to Shawn the other day, too. Shawn asked Ruby for a gentle headbutt (I'm not sure why--Lucy, Ruby, and Shawn all give each other headbutts all the time) and she gave him a pretty hard headbutt. I think she got hurt a little. She put her hands on her head and said, "I bumped. I dumped. I bimped. I pimped."

I like to take pictures!

2007-12-29T14:01:00.001-06:00

Hey! Shawn got me a great camera for Christmas! So maybe i'll start posting hilarious Stonesifer pictures now. We'll see if i can figure it out...

Christmas was pretty crazy here. I don't know... we had about 10 million events to go to, we barely had time to talk to anyone, we ate lots of junk food, and then it was over.

The girls did pretty well, though. I was especially proud of Lucy. She gets pretty overwhelmed at family events--but this year she did alright. She played (sort of) nicely with the other kids, and she said thank you (a couple of times) to people for presents that she had received. She also had her first Christmas program this year, which was awesome. She didn't sing, but she didn't freak out either. She just stood there. She knew it was sort of a big deal and she seemed really nervous. It was really sweet. Afterwards she told her teacher, "I really liked singing those songs!"

So--yeah. I guess I don't really have much to say--I just really wanted to post some pictures to see if I could do it. It's fun. I'm going to take all sorts of pictures now. =) now you'll really know what we're up to.

love ya,
val

oh yeah--and the girls got rocking horses for Christmas from my parents. they love them.

4 words

2007-12-26T18:58:00.000-06:00

Retirement home.

Buddy Meadows.

Shawn

Beaver's jerky flashback

2007-12-24T22:00:00.000-06:00

One time like 5 years ago Patmac fed Beaver a piece of jerky. Beaver thought it was good and also horced it up.

I just enjoyed a tasty jerky snack that I received for Christmas (I also racked up 10 new hot sauces so far) and as soon as I opened it up, Beaver came wandering in with this sniffy look on his face like "What is that heavenly smell?"

I'm certain he recognized it, I didn't share, but I considered feeding him the foil wrapper because it would taste like jerky and, foil or jerky, he was just going to horc it up again anyway. I just tossed the wrapper in the trash and he's ferociously sniffing the spot where the wrapper used to be sitting on the floor.

It's definitely the closest I've ever seen the Beave to begging. Sorry, the Beave.

One more insult for the Beave.

Post Booze Cruise Thoughts

2007-12-24T06:19:00.000-06:00

When your beef comes with a pettite crock of bleu cheese fondu, don't be disappointed if it's just cheese sauce in a sauce cup.

What is broccolini anyway?

Shawn

Christmas Party

2007-12-19T13:45:00.000-06:00

So--Shawn has this office Christmas party that we have to go to--and i am really NOT looking forward to it. It's a dinner cruise on lake michigan and i'm just really nervous about it for some reason. I'm nervous about the small talk--several hours of being trapped on a boat with a hundred people that I don't know just sounds really exhausting. I'm nervous about getting there on time and getting home at a reasonable hour because this event has to fit neatly in between several other Christmas events. I'm nervous about how the girls are going to do spending the night at my parent's house.

But honestly--I'm mostly nervous about what I'm going to wear. blah.

I hope hope hope that it's going to be more like the booze cruise:

and less like a stupid fancy networking meet all the important people and try to make a good impression kind of dinner cruise.

val

So it begins

2007-12-17T18:41:00.000-06:00

The Christmas terror is on! Multiple events every day through the 26th. Yah!

These pizza rolls comfort me temporarily until the next wave hits.

Shawn

Where's daddy?

2007-12-14T08:10:00.000-06:00

I heard that yesterday my family was having lunch and a conversation occurred like this:

Ruby: Where's Daddy?

Lucy: Daddy's in jail!

I'm glad my kids miss me when I'm gone. I had Thursday night meeting last night, came home at 11:30 and crawled into a bed full of cheezits. My life is pretty funny, but it's still not that great to come home from a 15 hour work day to discover your kids put cheezits in your bed. They must not have put them on Val's side, because I don't think she could sleep on cheezits. They're so pointy!

Anyway, it's easy to laugh about it the next day.

Not in jail,
Shawn

Befuddled, trying to peel fruit.

2007-12-11T08:45:00.000-06:00

Me: "I don't think this is probably what I should be spending my day on.

Val: "Come on. You're going to spend your whole day falling down in the ice storm. You should have some fun with a pampelmoose."

Shawn

TV=Stress. Maybe.

2007-12-06T20:59:00.000-06:00

So my plan for the winter months is to watch less TV. Winter seems like maybe the hardest time to cut out TV, i think--because i'm home more, and it's dark so don't feel like doing anything, and it's cold so i feel like i need to curl up under a blanket just to keep my toes from freezing off. plus we just got a new TV. but i really think that the writer's strike is going to help me cut out all of the prime time stuff.

so that leaves the daytime stuff. no--i dont watch talk shows or soaps or anything like that, but the girls have been watching sort of a lot of cartoons. i think maybe its causing a lot of stress for us! my new theory is that our not-watching-tv time is a lot more stressful because of all of our watching-tv time. so we're going to try it out these next couple weeks and i'll let you know how it goes.

today was our first day of cutting out some tv time, and it went really well, i think. Our first new TV rule is "no TV before 10:00 am." this one went really well today. we played bowling in the hallway and colored skunks on giant sheets of paper instead.

our second new rule is "no more than 1.5 hours of TV per day, TOPS. unless there is an emergency." this one didn't go so well today--that's why i had to add the "unless there is an emergency" part. the girls chose lady and the tramp for their 10 am TV time and that pretty much ate up the 1.5 hours. i thought that would be fine, but neither girl took a nap today! it was crazy. they were both acting tired, but they both spent 1 hour in their beds talking and singing and yelling at each other and NOT SLEEPING. this was ruby's first day with no nap. and they were both crazy tired by 5:30!! i stalled, and i played and i tried to be really exciting, but finally i had to put in a dvd to keep them awake. they made it until 7:00 which is a crazy miracle--made possible by dora's pirate adventure.

anyway--we did have a pretty stress free day. we even had lots of fun. and if it wasn't for the emergency, we would've been fine with less than 1.5 hours of TV, even though we were home all day.

valerie

One more for the Beav

2007-12-05T07:40:00.000-06:00

Apparently, if you're two and you're potty training, you don't realize that if you hide and poop in the corner, eventually someone is going to find it. You've gotta stop that before it happens.

The other day, Lucy renamed Beaver. His new name is Squeezy-Tiny. One more humiliation for the Beav.

Exploring Davis Junction

2007-12-04T21:54:00.000-06:00

I don't think we were quite excited enough about Harvard, IL from our trip there. It was fine, and there was a house we liked, but you gotta be excited to make that kind of change.

Today I visited Davis Junction. I sold a lot of gas and learned a lot about this curious little town. The original Davis Junction was no more than a few hundred people, and now that it's a few thousand, it basically consists of a gas station, Brothers Pizza, Byron Bank, village hall, and they are opening up a Subway tomorrow. 80% of the town is cookie cutter cheapo housing development (very strange to see an entire community of exactly the same thing) and most of the people who live there moved out from the suburbs to this very affordable housing. I consistently heard 5 things from the residents as I asked about their experiences.

1. Cheap housing
2. Low taxes
3. A geographical oddity (2 weeks from everywhere)
4. Good Schools (Stillman Valley)
5. Too many trains and planes (Davis [train] Junction) right in line with Rockford airport runway

Definitely a possibility. The location is right, halfway between Rockford and Rochelle on 39.
Everyone had huge dogs. No chickens allowed. Developing...

Make me laugh

2007-12-02T21:49:00.000-06:00

We've been looking at moving to a small towny community where we can have chickens and good schools. Today we packed up the family and visited Harvard, IL. It's been a very unpleasant 24 hours, I must say. I don't have time to give you the details, as I will be asleep in the next 8 minutes, but it's definitely insult + injury. (Maybe Val will give details later) So we're driving through Harvard on what has been a brutally strained and sleepless day for the family, and Val says

"I may have bought some shoes on the internet this morning."

I laughed for about 20 seconds (not exaggerated). It was a hilarious thing to say in about 10 different ways, especially if you know Val. She's a sweet lady and she always makes me laugh.
Thanks for making the best of today with me, Val. I love you.

Shawn

Everything is Broken

2007-12-01T13:17:00.000-06:00

things have been breaking around here lately. i hate that! i hate when things break. i just really wish that everything lasted forever. i know that nobody likes it when things break, but i feel like it affects me more than other people maybe. i know some people who of course are annoyed when something breaks, but they also see it as a chance to buy something bigger and better to replace it. in the end, they are probably happy that it broke--they are at least fine with it and see it as a part of life.

in the last month or so our tv broke, lucy smashed a hole in the wall by throwing something heavy down the stairs, the faucet broke in the bathroom, beaver barfed all over my tree skirt (it stained, of course), the Christmas tree broke (the day after we decorated it), one of our curtain rod brackets broke (shawn fixed it, thankfully), our sewer line got clogged and our basement floor was covered in sewage, i made a meal that was so bad we had to throw it away and get mcdonald's (it's been several years since this happened), and i completely smashed the window in our front door (no injuries, thankfully).

i'm not sure i'm going to be able to take it if something else breaks. it's not just the money either--although the money does start to add up after that many things break at once. i just get so attached to things. like our christmas tree. we bought our tree for $20 at walmart 7 years ago. it's not like we didn't get our money's worth out of it. it shouldn't have been that big of a deal, except that it was our first christmas tree, and it was the perfect color and i thought that we would have it forever.

i just get so attached to things.

--and i like to replace them on my own terms--like the front door. i've been asking shawn for a new front door ever since we moved here. it's as old as the house and has a huge single pane window in it (or i guess it HAD a single pane window in it). it looked gross, it let in huge amounts of cold air in the winter, and it looked ridiculously easy to break into (i don't usually worry about those things, but at least 7 different people--strangers and relatives--have told me that we needed to replace it).

anyway--a couple months ago a window and door salesman came to the door and asked if we would like to set up a free extimate and informational thingy so he could try to sell us doors and windows. i said sure! we really need that! i really liked the guy--i try to be nice to door-to-door people (because shawn does that) and this guy had the quantum leap theme song for his cell phone ringer (one of my favorite shows!). i made the appointment and cleaned the house and everything and he never showed up! i was really disappointed. i decided that we should just forget about the door and live with it until we decide to move, which was hopefully going to be soon.

and then the door breaks! i'm so disappointed. i guess i slammed the door one too many times. the window completely broke into a thousand pieces. now we have an even colder hallway and an embarrassing board over our front window. and our new window and door guy says it is going to be 2 WEEKS until he can get us a new one.

yuck.

valerie

Pizza night

2007-11-27T22:02:00.000-06:00

We had pizza night at home tonight. We make pizza together about once a month and it's pretty fun. Somehow one of the crusts was butchered when backs were turned, and one of the pizzas was pretty shabby looking.

Ruby has been carrying around a nativity scene baby Jesus for a while now. Ruby and Jesus and I watched the pizzas bake. Ruby declared "Baby Jesus likes it."

By the way, the new TV is great. I don't even care what I'm watching as long as it's HD. I know entertainment isn't really important at all, but really, I mean, it's like being in the TV store!

Shawn

red dogs and mice

2007-11-23T13:11:00.000-06:00

i feel like i accomplished a couple of things today. it has been a pretty exciting day so far. shawn actually did bring home a tv this morning and it sure looks better than the last one we had. our last tv was turning all red for some reason. to be honest, it was probably a 15 year old tv, so it really was past it's prime. anyway--the colors were all fading out except for red, so instead of a black and white tv it was a black and red tv. it was really gross. it honestly gave me a headache if i tried to watch anything on it. but the girls didn't really seem to mind, so they would watch cartoons on it sometimes--just occasionally complaining that the colors looked funny. so--shawn brought the new tv home but didn't have time to hook it up because he had to go to work, so i hooked it up! yep--that's right. i hooked up a brand new television all by myself. actually--even more impressive than all by myself--with 2 preschoolers helping me! i hooked up the dvd player and the cable and everything. i was pretty proud of myself.

we watched clifford and curious george on it and we were totally amazed by all the colors! i forgot that cartoons were colorful. i guess i had sort of thought that the shows were called, "clifford the big red dog, and all his friends are red too!", and "curious george, the little red monkey!"

anyway--something even more exciting happened after we were done watching cartoons. the girls and i went downstairs, and beaver was acting really funny in the living room. beaver is our cat, if you didn't already know that. he was kind of sniffing and pawing at one of my end tables so i lifted it up to see what he was looking at--and a mouse darted across the room! now--i am not afraid of mice at all, but it is a little shocking when a wild animal is running through your living room. i yelled. the girls came running to see what i was yelling about and i told them that beaver was chasing a mouse in the living room.

ruby ran away into the dining room yelling, "i scared! i scared!" and she climbed up onto a chair, and lucy said, "can i pet him? where is he? what do mice eat? i'm gonna name him roger! is beaver gonna eat him? what color is he?..." it was pretty hilarious so far.

so--lucy, beaver and i chased the mouse around the room for 15 minutes or so, and then beaver got bored. come on! this is the most exciting thing that is going to happen to beaver probably in the next year, and he gives up! what kind of cat is that!? so lucy and i chased the mouse around for a few more minutes and finally i had him cornered under a rocking chair and i caught him in a paper bag! beaver got bored and i caught the mouse! it was hilarious and fun and really satisfying. i let lucy look at (but not touch) the mouse for a little bit, and i showed it to ruby so that she could see that mice are not scary (she was still a little skeptical), and then i tossed him outside. i know--he'll probably just come right back inside, but maybe he'll remember how terrifying it is to have lucy, beaver, and i chasing him and he'll stay outside like a good mouse should.

valerie

Black Friday

2007-11-22T19:43:00.000-06:00

I'm preparing myself mentally for waiting in line at Target in the morning to attempt to put my grubby paws on a 37" Olevia LCD TV for $549.99, limit 2 per customer. I am posting my daring intent partially because declaring it out loud might keep me from chickening out when the alarm goes off at 5am. Fortunately for me, the girls have been waking up between 5 and 6 for weeks so this will not be far from the norm for me.

I wonder what percentage of people who participate in this have a sense of humor about it. I think it must be a lot, but some of them are probably just competitive classy americans who pride themselves on saving 12 bucks on the latest tickle me elmo limit 5 per customer.

If anyone reads this Thursday night, you're welcome to join me for some early morning amusement, if anyone else is participating in things of this nature, good luck and tell me about it.

Happy T-day

Shawn

Talking in your sleep

2007-11-21T06:17:00.000-06:00

You know how when you talk to someone who's mostly asleep but slightly awake, sometimes they talk hilarious nonsense? Well they do. I don't know why it happens that way, but it's true.

A couple nights ago, I heard Ruby crying like she does several times every night, and having trained myself to fly out of bed and be a responsible helpful dad, I jumped up, walked around the bed, paused, and it occurred to me that I was going to need something before I went in there.

"Hand me the- ... ... dessert."

Very matter of fact, as if I'd finally put my finger on it. Now that I think about it, I didn't need to take anything with me. I was just confused because I woke up too fast. Reminds me of the time a couple months ago, exact same scenario, wake up to go comfort a kid-

"I need the dynamite."

I don't know what sort of mental mixup that came out of. Sometimes when I say stuff like that, Val just sends me back to bed and takes care of it. At least I tried.

If you have a hilarious sleep-talking story, I'd love to hear it.

Shawn

Episode II: The crackhead menace

2007-11-17T08:52:00.000-06:00

Last week, the pending R2 change cleanup was interrupted by screaming girls and the front seat floor remained full of change, gold dollar coins and everything. The crackhead that ransacked the car looking for change a while back was apparently so focused on scraping up 35 cents that he missed the motherload on the floor by his feet. If he only knew.

Since we now have disclosed to the internet the location of this easy money, in order to protect the assets, I have moved R2 to a more secure location and assigned his previous duties holding up the magazines.

I don't know about you, but when I first read about R2 going flying, the visualization in my head included that R2 bleepy bloop squeak sound when he crashed into the dash.

I feel safe here. I mean, the car's only been sacked 3 times in 4 years and only once did they actually take it with them. And we got it back, so no biggie, right?

Shawn

If it's your birthday

2007-11-16T08:42:00.000-06:00

and what you really want for your birthday is a no pants day, I think you're entitled.

Shawn

'sup macaroni?

2007-11-15T23:12:00.000-06:00

There's a new guy at work who is doing very well named Mark Moroni.

Say it a few times fast, I think it's kind of funny.
I really want to say things like "sup macaroni" when I see him, but I'm not sure if he has a sense of humor about it, as I don't know him well.

It is my opinion that if you are able to laugh at yourself, that entitles you to make light of things about somebody else, like a name that sounds like macaroni. Not maliciously, just in fun, because I really like the guy, and it's not like it dominates his identity, there's just that one funny thing.

Mark, if you should ever in your lifetime google your own name and find my blog, know that from the start, I think fairly highly of you and I hope you make a million dollars at Energy Savings. I'm not making fun, just mild amusement.

Best google ever

2007-11-14T21:12:00.000-06:00

Google "Bacon Wrapped"

You can't go wrong.

Shawn