A conversation I just heard from Jeriah, standing on our front steps: "No, can't come in. This is my house. It's for boys. Go downstairs. Go to your house....please say ruf, please say ruf. ...Go. Go doggy. Get down. Hi...Bye. Bye." Our neighbors puppy had come over and wanted to follow Jeriah into the house, apparently.

The picture to the left is our family with Eric holding the 15 lb ahi yellowfin tuna he caught while he and the boys were out fishing with our neighbor on his red zodiak.

We have not had any house action for a few weeks. I guess that is good since my house is currently strung with empty bins, boxes half-packed, clothes piled that no longer have a dresser to rest in, and as always, toys strewn on the floor.

Guess Who?
I walked into the bathroom yesterday and one of my children was squatting on the floor, sticking his pee tool into a bathroom cup. I moved him toward the toilet and he began urinating in the trash can until i turned him toward the toilet.

One of my children just bought an electric guitar (toy) at our garage sale. I awoke at 545am today with the guitar music playing and my son scream singing. A great new alarm clock!

Update
Eric was in CA last week Sunday to Sunday and goes again this Thursday. When we picked him up at the airport Clayton said, "I so glad to see you again, Daddy." It was a heart-melting moment.
While Eric was gone last week I held 2 garage sales and got rid of a lot of stuff. I am trying to pack a few things here and there and prepare them for shipping. Some things I am not sure if i should ship or not, like my nice Pfaltzcraft dishes. If anyone has any suggestions on packing and shipping, please let me know. 3 1/2 wks and counting!
Sarah

Kiddie tales, Doggie tails and Moving tales

10/06/08 "Daddy....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I so excited to see you. I feel better to see you, daddy." -Clayton

11/13/08 Jeriah was acting like a dog so I tried to convince him otherwise by saying, "Doggies eat dog food and only drink water, no milk, no cookies; and they pee on trees and chase cats." So, what does my smart 2 1/2 yr old do? He heads toward the front door and says, "Wanna go pee on the tree and chase kitty cats, mommy..." and continues to say so until i let him outside where he proceeds to a tree, pulls his diaper down, and says he is peeing on the tree. So much for my bright idea. I guess next time I will stick to the no ice cream and cookies statement.

Jeriah just had his last day at preschool. He has been doing school 5 hrs/week and clay goes all day everyday. Clay just started soccer but his younger brother is much more interested in playing than Clay is! Funny how different their personalities are :) I am posting a cool shot of Clay's thoughts on soccer (throw the ball right at mom while she tries to take a soccer photo!)

As for our moving update, it is a little overwhelming trying to figure out what is worth keeping and what is worth sending back to Michigan but we are slowly working on the process. We go to Kalamazoo first to have the baby and let clay finish school for the year (till May or June probablyly) and then we will head up to the great white north. Eric will still be making a lot of business trips out here to Maui, where the main company location is, and maybe to California, but for now we can live either in Maui or in Houghton, where one of the company owners is still a professor at MTU. The kids and I leave for MI Nov 15 and Eric will come a few weeks later.

Speaking of Eric, he is in CA for work all week (on a one-way ticket so far) so hopefully he comes back to help me pack :)

Sarah

Conversations with Children and Other silly occurences

Pics: Daddy's helpers; Jeriah "making a line"; and Eric's lates home improvement project, the tiled shower downstairs and our new paint job

Mommy and Clay

"What are you doing mommy?" (Clay)

"I am sweeping the floor."
"Oh, that's great! .. I am getting some water." (Clay)

Daddy and Jeriah and Mommy

Background: Jeriah had a nightmare about a bug, so he came in our bed for awhile. While I was in the bathroom, Eric was telling Jeriah he just needed to "squish" the bug next time he saw it. He was telling him he could "squash them with his feet or run over them with his bike......."

Jeriah lays his head down and says, "Daddy, I wanna go to sleep now" (In other words, 'be quiet and go to sleep, daddy. It is not time to ride bikes.')....

...............................

I come back in the room to lay down and Jeriah is taking up most of my spot, so I say,

"Jeriah, how about you scooch over that way more and 'squish' your daddy instead of me."

Jeriah is quiet for a second and then responds, "Daddy is a bug?"...(pause from Jeriah and laughter from me)..."I dont want to 'squish' daddy."

Things in Odd Places

1. Calculator in fridge (Clayton, a couple yrs ago)
2. Liquid sweetener in dishwasher (Jeriah, a couple days ago). I searched for this one for about 10 or 15 minutes before I found it!

MORE TO COME.................

Funny Boy Stories

Story #1:
Recently our boys discovered that when we hose down our tiled deck to clean it off that it is slippery and they can slide on it like a "slippery slide." Now whenever I try to clean the deck I hear, "you make a slippry slide, mamma?" Then they get on their bellies and start sliding around. I told them it is too dangerous to do without a helmet, but I've pretty much just been trying to avoid the whole thing. Anyway, today I was just cleaning a small portion of the deck where they had spilled milk and behind me i hear Clayton say, "Look Mom, I can make a slippery slide with my pen*s" so I am thinking, "what?" I turn around and they are both naked and Clayton is peeing on the deck! So I turn my head away so I can laugh before I scold him and when I turn back Jeriah is sliding into first, right through the fresh puddle of urine! I yelled at him that he was in pee pee, but I could hardly do anything but laugh!! Hopefully they dont hate me in 10 yrs for putting this on the internet :)
Story #2:
The boys and I were in the bathroom the other day cleaning up or something. I was facing the sink, helping Jeriah, when I suddenly feel wetness running down the back of my leg. I whip around to see Clayton there, buck naked, about 1 foot away from the toilet, but facing me instead and peeing on my leg!! I am sure you can figure out my reaction to that one! I know he did not pee on me on purpose but it floored me that he could not think fast enough to turn and face the toilet instead of me!
Story #3:
The last couple days when Clayton has gotten off the bus he said, "I had fun at school today, mommy. And I listen to Mr. Arthur" (his teacher) I ask him what he did and he says, "I play with my friends and listen to Mr. Arthur." Then today he also said, "you happy tonight. yeah, you happy" i am not sure what that was all about, but it was cute.

Ultrasound

So, we had our 2nd trimester ultrasound yesterday at about 17 weeks. The votes are in and the verdict IS.......................................................................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................................................................................We
are having A Baby (a boy OR a girl) !!!!!!! Yeah, you already knew that, but we did not find out the sex, so all you impatient people will just have to be patient and all you old-fashioned people (ie: Dad T), will be proud of us this time :)
Everything looks good so far. The ultrasound tech said i am measuring like 8 days ahead of my due date but I told her that is just because I have big babies (#1 8lbs 14 oz and #2 8lbs 5oz)!
Unfortunately I am going to have to try to give up ice cream and hit the pool because sciatica has been keeping me less active and I gained 6lbs this month--aaaaaaahhhhhh!!! On a positive note, my doctor suggested I use a pregnancy support belt to help with the sciatica; so she wrote me a prescription for it and my insurance covered like 90% of it. It is definiteyly not fashionable, but it should help reduce my pains with all the bending over cleaning and lifting of my children that I do.
Well, that is all for now. I will post ultrasound pics as soon as i find someone to scan them for me.
Sarah

So my last day at Boeing was yesterday. It was bittersweet. The hardest thing was giving up my computer in which I have been using and developing for 3 to 4 years. We went to "Fat Daddy's Smokehouse" for the going away lunch. Then we had rosalani (sp?) ice cream in the break room for good meausre. Anyway, off to PDS. -Eric