Kid Question Tag

KID QUESTION TAG

Here are the rules.

1. Ask each of your kids the 4 questions.
2. Write down their answers.
3. Blog the questions and the answers with each of your children's names and ages.
4. Tag 3 or 4 other people.

• What is your favorite kind of pet? Why?

1. Ruth (almost 11): I Don't know, because there's a bunch and I can't count them all.
2. Kate (9) : Dogs and Cats. Cats because I have just always loved them. (Are you putting this on your blog? Ughhh..) Dogs because, you know, they are friendly.
3. Johnny (7): Red eyed tree frog and a cat. Uhhhh...I like frogs, and I love cats. I think frogs are cool.
4. Adam (4): Umm cat and dog, cause they're my favorite.
5. Rachel (nearly 3): A dog. Dogs say woof.

• What do you like to do the most? Why?
  

1. Ruth: At school, I'd say recess. At home I don't know. I like recess at school because, let's just say, we get free time. I don't know at home because there are so many things I like to do and I can't name them all.
2. Kate: I have no idea because there are a lot of things to choose from that are really fun.
3. Johnny: Oh!! At school I like recess and math. At home I like playing with my family and computer games. I like reading at both. Oh yeah, piano.
4. Adam: Play with you. Cause I like to.
5. Rachel: Be a ballerina. Ahhhh..I like it.

• What do you want to be when you grow up? Why?

1. Ruth: I don't know because um... I don't know which of my talents I want to use for (long pause) a job.
2. Kate: A third grade teacher just because I think third graders are easy to teach and it would be fun.
3. Johnny: When I said I wanted to be a librarian, I said so because I bet you get to read every book in the library and I love to read. Also, a computer game programmer because I love computers. Would you like to read every book in the library?
4. Adam: An Airplane driver. Cause I like it.
5. Rachel: I want to be a ballerina. (Why?) yes.

• Why do you love your Dad?

1. Ruth: He's my dad. (In a "well duh", tone of voice.) He's nice and fun and everything.
2. Kate: He's my dad. (In a "well duh", tone of voice.) He loves me. He does a bunch of nice things for me.
3. Johnny: Uh, cause he's my dad. He's fun to play with. He's really nice blah, blah, blah... you know, I love him.
4. Adam: Cause I love him (thinks.. puts out his hands a little...asks if this is little) I love him the littlest.
5. Rachel: (crying) Kate made me sad.

I tag: Janna, Bethany, Emily M., and Amy H.

AAaaaaaa.......I am NOT Ready

Two weeks ago, Kate and her friends made up a cheer that had a line it saying, "Boy's are not our friends." Kate was excitedly repeating this to Ruth who very plainly stated, "Don't say that to fifth graders, because fifth graders like boys." I was a bit surprised. As far as I knew, Ruth has despised all boys since she was 3. Teasingly I said, "I think Ruthy has a crush." Instead of complete denial like I expected, Ruth named off about 5 boys that she likes. Then tonight, I went shopping with just Ruth. Ruth talked about middle school next year, and who was going to which middle school. Then she said, "all of the boys that we like are going to msms, and we (meaning herself and about 4 other girls) are going to mms. So we have decided that we will share our feelings with them on the last day of school." It was the word "feelings" that did it. I can't believe this is happening so soon. Ruth will be 11 in 27 days. I thought I had a good 2 years. Oh well, at least she still plays with dolls.

Cute Rachel

Today at my visiting teachers house (a brand new, beautiful home) while Rachel was using the bathroom she said, "Whose toilet is this?" I told her that it is Dylan's toilet. Rachel said, "Oh, it is beautiful."

Our family home evening lesson was on dressing modestly. I asked Rachel if she wanted to be modest and she replied, "No. I want to be Snow white."

Well Medicated

When we go to the Temple here, we pack up all of our kids, drive 170 miles, and then we take turns babysitting our kids and going into the Temple. Then we drive the 170m miles home. I usually take the kids to the park for a picnic or to McDonalds playplace. We planned on going to the temple today for a few weeks. So with Adam who has been sick with a cough and a fever since Tuesday, and because we have only had one weekend since Christmas without having at least one child sick, we decided to pack up the medicine and go ahead and go anyway. We just planned on leaving out the play place part.

Well, while we were rushing to get the kids breakfast, and all of the stuff done that we needed to have ready for the trip, John sat down by Adam to take his temperature. I brought John the children's ibuprofin and the cough medicine and placed them in front of John at the table. Then I went to finish clearing the dish washer, and to shower. Apparently, John did not realize I had brought him the medicine and didn't feel like he had the time to get Adam medicine just then. So he left the table with all of the kids and the medicine to get ready for the temple. After, I had gotten out of the shower, but not gotten dressed, I heard Kate say, "Adam got his own medicine, but I just cleaned up the spill." I dashed out in my towell to find out what Adam had done. I found Adam, naked on the toilet getting ready to get dressed. John ran out in his towell at this point. John had just been preparing to shower. So between John and I we got Adam to tell us that he did indeed get his own medicine and what he did exactly. Apparently, Adam had filled up the medicine measuring cup and drank it down. He also had spilled some on the table. I ran and got dressed and then called poison control. Between Adam's description and the amount of medicine left in the bottle, John figured Adam took about 3 1/2 teaspoons. Adam is still in the 1 tsp weight catergory. Fortunely, he took ibuprofin and not tylenol. The Poison control official said that Adam could take twice as much as he did and still not have to go to the emergency room. She did say that he would feel sleepy and nauseaus. So then there was the question of going to the temple and risk having a kid puke in the car. We went and eveything was fine. But because Adam had taken his full 24hours dose in one, we could not medicate him on the trip. The poor kid mentioned he felt sick all day and went to bed with a fever above 102. I guess I will be taking him to the doctors on Monday or Tuesday. Oh and those caps may be child proof, but they are not Adam proof.

Kate the Movie Critic

Kate said, "I saw the dumbest movie ever made in the library, so I turned it over on the shelf so no one could see it." She then explained, "The dumbest movie in the world is 'Happily Ever After'. It's so dumb because it's dramatical --like when Snow White says, 'I'm in love with him.' When the only times she saw him was when he saved her and attacked a bad guy. She didn't even have a chance to know him yet. That is just so dumb."

Ratatouille

For our February fancy dish that I have never made before meal, I made ratatouille, and much to my surprise it was very, very good, and very easy to make. Johnny and Adam would not try it, but the girls all loved it and even went back for seconds. I actually used and combined about three different recipes. I read that you can serve it over rice or egg noodles or eat it plain. I made the egg noodles because I did not want the baby rice mess and I knew that if my kids would not eat anything else, they would eat the egg noodles. I also sliced up and sauteed some italian sausages and served that on the side for the meat eaters of the family. Thus it became a meal suitable for many. Here is the basic recipe. I reccomend it to every one. Even my husband, John, who can't stand egg plant admitted that the combination of herbs and vegetables had a really good flavor.

Ratatouille
2 cloves garlic
1 med onion
1 med eggplant
2 small zucchini
1 med green pepper
2 med tomatoes
fresh basil 3 or 4 leaves
1/4 c. olive oil
1 1/2 t. salt
pepper
thyme

I sauteed the onions and garlic first, then added all the other vegetables except the tomatoes, sauteed that, and then let it simmer covered on med/low for about ten minutes. Then I added diced fresh tomatoes (a lot of recipes call for tomatoe paste or stewed toamtoes.) I let it simmer about 5 more minutes and it was well cooked and well bended. Other recipes did not have any peppers and used mushrooms. Obviously there is some variety out there. But I will definitely make this again and probably often, even if it is just a side dish. I think our entire meal took about a half hour to prepapre.

July 21, 2009

Why I Love the Internet

Here is why I love the Internet despite all of the evil that comes from it.

1. Whenever I have to substitute for a class at church I do not have to get a manual. I just have to look the lesson up at home.
2. I can listen to the scriptures for free while I am cleaning the house.
3. I get to listen to general conference again and again while I clean and I know the talks almost by heart. I feel like I can sustain the prophet because I know what he has said, or maybe I just clean too much.
4. When my kid asks, "Is a a firefly a beetle," I can just type that into google and bammo the answer's at my fingertips.
   
5. We do not have to have volumes of encyclopedias to dust. We have wikipedia.
6. When my kids have a report, all the information they need is right in our own home on the computer, including pictures.
7. I can read lots of different news articles with differing opinions and never have to watch the tv news or buy the newspaper and stay well informed.
8. I can get maps very easily.
9. If I want to eat out I can check out the menus before I go to the restaurant.
10. It is so easy to find out the orgin of toilets and ketchup if I am feeling curious.
11. I can look up health information for my family without having to call a nurse or go to a university library.
12. We can see trailers for all of the movies, decide if we would like it, and then look up the content on screenit.com to decide if it is appropriate for us. Our movie watching is much cleaner now days.
13. I keep in touch with people that I admire and am glad to be friends with, but I am certain I would not have any contact with if it had to be through letters by mail.
14. Email is great. Remember when we used to write letters full of questions and the person responding would never answer those questions in their next letter, so we just never knew. That does not happen with email.
    

Anyway, I am thankful for the Internet. It is a great way to stay in touch and to answer all of my questions and to listen to important things. I do not know how my parents lived without it.

Ruth's Prayers

Ruth has been saying some interesting thank you's in her family prayers. Today she thanked Heavenly Father for: toilets, toilet paper, hair brushes, carpeting, ceilings, roofs, doors. She also includes the regular uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, friends, brothers ans sisters, good food and chocolate. After one prayer John and I gave each other that this is humorous look and Ruth said, "I really am thankful for toilets." I believe her 100% because so am I.

Finding and Solving the Problem

Rachel has a Disney Princess Aurora Polly-pocket doll that she takes with her everywhere including to bed at night. If she happens to forget about it for a few minutes she will begin crying and we will not have any peace until we have found this precious toy. Yesterday John found Rachel unrolling an entire roll of of paper towels. She was saying over and over, "I have to get my princess..." John told her to stop that right now. Rachel kept unrolling the paper towels and saying, "I have to get my princess..." John was pretty frustrated and said, "Your princess is no excuse to disobey." Then he took the roll of paper towels from Rachel and started rolling them back up. Rachel began to bawl and still kept saying, "I have to get my princess..." As John was rolling the paper towels back up he got a glance inside the cardboard roll and saw Rachel's princess. Then he laughed and told me and we got her princess back for her.

The above picture is a magna doodle drawing of Princess Aurora by Rachel.

Economic Stimulus Plan Thoughts

I am a bit of a nerd because I have read part of the gigantic economic stimulus plan that was sent to the house of representatives. (Well maybe a big nerd.) I understand that it is suppose to be a complete restructuring of the U.S. economy. It is suppose to be putting money into places where spending has been cut to keep jobs that may be lossed and add new jobs. Whenever John and I have had financial trouble the solution has come in the form of not spending so much to pay off debt in order to increase the amount of money we actually have to spend. Another method that we have not tried would be to borrow a whole bunch of money in order to start a business. The start a new business seems to be general approach of the bill. I feel uncomfortable with the spend more to increase the future income option as a sole resort. I can see its worth. The church even teaches people with financial trouble to get a better education or to invest in some way to make one's future income more sure and suitable to that person's needs. However, one would think that while trying to start a new business that person should also work on getting rid of old debts and decreasing their general cost of living. I think that is probably what the government should be doing now. That is, getting rid of unnecessary expenditures while investing in a way that would make the future better. I do not think sending millions of dollars to Hollywood producers for film is investing in a safer financial future or cutting down on unnecessary costs. A lot of the items in the bill seem like good things, but not necessarily helpful things and the government does not seem to be even considering the option of getting rid of unnecessary spending in any meaningful way. So what I would have to say is that I think spending some is a good idea, but that it has to be followed with cutting back too, and I do that think this bill does that.

THings I Wanted to Blog But Forgot

1. Adam said, "Mom, I do not know everything." I said, "well, you know some things. You know how to write your name." Adam very seriously repplied, "Mom, I do not know karate."
2. On their day off, Ruth, Kate, and Johnny really wanted their dad to take them to this neat park with all sorts of swings, spinning things, and climbing things. On Friday, we decided to go at 5:30 when Dad finished working, and then go all together to target for Mom to finish grocery shopping, and for Dad to look at toys and puzzles with the kids. At the park John pushed the kids on the neat swings, played tag on the climbing things, and the spun the the older kids on the spinners. The kids kept asking for more and more. I thought, "I am not sure about this." John thought the same thing but went ahead and spun the kids more and more. When we got into the car, Johnny said his head really hurt and that he felt sick. When we got to Target, Ruth could hardly stand up, and Kate said that actually, she felt sick too. So we immediately took Dad, Ruth, Kate, and Johnny home. Put the three kids in bed with a bucket and left Dad to take care of over spinning. I took the three youngest grocery shopping. Before I left, I looked in on the kids and they looked terrible. They were hardly moving, very pale, and laying curled up on their beds. They looked liked they had had a very bad stomach flu all day. When I got home after 8pm, they were feeling better. I felt bad because all I could get for them easily enough was cold cereal for dinner, but since I had just bought new cereal, they were really excited and ate 2 to 3 bowls each. John and I ordered out Chinese for an at home date after we put the kids to bed and all was well.
   

Bon Apetit: A Good Book I Found

I just finished reading this really cute book, and I loved it. I happened upon it in the new book section of the library. I checked it out because the first two sentences of the on the back made me think I would enjoy the story. But I expected that it would get sleazy and that I would not finish it. On the contrary, it is perfectly clean and some what religious. It is about a girl who goes to Paris to work in a bakery and to attend school to become a pastry chef. It had a small amount of enjoyable romance and I loved the descriptiveness of Paris and of France in general. Apparently it is a middle book in a 3 part series. The third book comes out in the fall of the this year. So I ordered the first book from the library. At the beginning of each chapter there is a quote and I wanted to put in one that just made me laugh and laugh.

Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior
There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection IS the entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstances can food be omitted.

I think I will see if the library has a copy of Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. If it has more along those lines, I look forward to a good laugh.

Anyway, I just feel really thankful to find a good new book every now and then because I love to read. And I wanted to recommend it to anyone who is like me and would like to go to Europe but cute, and enjoys a cute, girly story.

Following with Exactness

This morning when I went into the boys bedroom, I noticed Johnny laying in bed with nothing on. I asked Johnny where his clothes went. Johnny said that I did not give him time to put them on last night. I felt rather confused and asked him what he was talking about. He reminded me that when he got out of the bathtub last night I told him that he had to go straight to bed. I laughed a bit and told him that I still meant for him to put his pajamas on. (I wonder if he was cold last night??)

I need to make a history note with this story. There is no school today and tomorrow, so yesterday after school I let the kids watch a movie and play computer games. I asked Johnny to feed the cats three times before he did. I also asked him to take a bath about a half hour after dinner, which he ignored. So when I realized at 9:15 last night that he still had not taken his bath, I told him that he was not going to play computer games for one day. I said he lost that privilege because he ignored everything I told him to do because of computer games. So he took me very seriously when I told him to get straight to bed at 9:45.

Kind of Dancer

While telling Rachel that I would be taking her to the park the next two days I noticed that she was doing a little potty dance.
After listening to my plans, Rachel said to me, "I want to go to the park."
I said, "You need to go potty right now, and we will go to the park tomorrow."
Rachel said, "I need to go to the park right now."
I replied, "You are doing a potty dance, so I know that you need to go potty right now."
Rachel said, "I am not a potty dancer. I am a ballerina dancer."

Tagged: Photo

This is Adam 11 months ago at Swanson's Park about 2 miles from our home in Wichita. We call it the prickily park because most of the trees have very large thorns and there are a lot of prickly bushes around the trees. But it has great walking paths around the River, and a bridge that we like to play pooh sticks at. This was the first of March when we finally had a warm day, so I took the kids to the store, bought a bunch of pre-made picnic items and we spent a couple of hours exploring in the woods around the river and getting stuck in the mud and prickers. It was actually a very nice day. In this picture Adam is holding a pink bunny ring pop that we bought for the picnic dessert, and of course a stick in case any bad guys came by.

Now here are the tag rule I got:
1. Go to your documents/pictures.
2. Go to your 6th file. (For me I thought it meant the sixth folder.)
3. Go to the 6th picture.
4. Blog about it.
5. Tag 6 other friends.

I tag: Becca, Emily M., Rozanne, Amber, Shannon, and Bethany