Illness, Joy, Books

This past week was a week of illness but there were some bright spots in it too! Here's the good and the bad.

On Friday Allicia texted me asking me if I could watch the kids while she took Ivy to the doctor. No problem. We all walked Nico to school. Allicia called and told me they were heading to the ER so Ivy could get some blood tests and an IV. Allicia's mother in law came to take the kids to Jump Time for the morning, and I met them back at the house at noon. In the mean time I went to see Allicia at the hospital and brought her some supplies.

Got Avery down for a nap and Evelyn off to Kindergarten. But then received a phone call that Nico had a potty accident at the school and that I needed to come get him. Avery was napping so I called Tiffanie and had her come over and sit while I walked over to get Nico. By the time we got home, Allicia and Ivy were back.

Nico had a virus (we think), and he felt good and bad over the weekend. Since things were moving quickly through him at first, he was very hungry Saturday morning, so 3 waffles it is! Then he started feeling sick and late that night he threw up. Sunday he was munching on stuff and felt good enough to request pizza that night and we let him eat what he wanted, which was almost his entire personal pizza. On a good day he eats the whole thing and is stuffed. Guy and I regret that we didn't stop him from eating so much. He had stomach pain all the next day and couldn't get up off the couch. Tuesday morning was much better and he popped out of bed and wanted to go to school. He asked me if I had bought more waffles. He didn't get a waffle that day, in fact he barely ate any breakfast and I was worried about him at school. He looked so tired after walking to school. But he made it, and was happy. We are pretty much back to normal now.

The bad stuff is over! That was quick. The rest is good stuff.

This evening while Nico was getting dressed for bed we were talking about feelings, and he stood and thought for a minute and said. I am feeling... happy, and JOY! God puts bottles of joy inside of me and then he pours them out. I asked him questions about it and while he was bubbling with... joy.. he told me again. God fills up bottles with joy while God's inside his heart. Then God peeks out of his heart ("like this" and then he pretended he was peeking out) and dumps all the joy from the bottles into Nico. Then it just comes out and Nico said "I feel it right now!" Then we sat down on the couch and read through the Life and Work of Rube Goldberg. We flipped to all the pictures of his inventions. For example,

Nico in fact came up with his own invention. While Nico was sick, Guy ran to the library and brought us each back a book. He brought me Tale of Sand and brought back the Rube Goldberg book for him and Nico to look through. They sat on the couch and read through invention after invention, and then Nico came up with his own.  He still needs to draw a picture for it, but here it is..

Mouse (A) sees convincingly real wooden cheese (B) and comes out for a bite.  Biting cheese causes the mouse's teeth to fall in bucket (C). Grabber (D) takes teeth from bucket and into

blender (E) which blends them up into teeth juice, which is poured into glass (F).

Man (G) drinks juice, making him sick and throws up in bowl (H).  He throws

vomit out window (I) and into soil (J), which causes monster teeth plant to grow.

I would show you the picture of the monster plant that Nico wanted in the story but it is very scary. Not one that he drew but one that he found on the internet after Guy searched "monster plant". In fact, if you want to see it, you can search google for "monster plant" and click on the "Images" link and it's the first one.

We also discovered a drawing contest advertised in the scholastic book order form. If you win, then Eric Litwin (the original author of Pete the Cat books) will come to your school. You have to draw a picture of your favorite animal singing a song. Nico got right on it. I provided no ideas, he did it all on his own.

I just showed this picture to Guy and he told me where Nico got this from!! Apparently an episode of StoryBots has a Tiger Song that they had shown me a few weeks ago and I had forgotten. Anyway, watch the video... you will see where the Tiger goes rawr rawr rawr rawr rawr rawr. Hilarious! Nico cracks up crazily at this video, it is so fun to see him laugh so hard.

We sent the drawing off to New York, NY yesterday. We printed out a US map so we could see how far away New York was.

Monday night was Financial Peace University. Guy stayed home with Nico and I went. They had a CAKE for us! The special thing about this cake is that it had a great big ZERO candle on it, signifying that we were OUT OF DEBT!

Allicia told me that she was so excited to hear the news about us paying off debt that she submitted our story through Dave Ramsey's website. It wasn't the fanfare she expected, but a message saying "We receive a lot of these, so listen to Dave's radio show to see if we mention yours!" Dave's radio show is 3 hours long every day, so I'm not sure that's practical, but if you happen to be listening, you might hear our story!

Monday night when I got home, Guy was reading "George's Marvelous Medicine" to Nico. This is a chapter book, and Nico was very interested. On Tuesday at school Nico chose a chapter book from the school library, one of the Magic Treehouse books. We've been kind of slow in reading that one, but the world of chapter books MIGHT be opening up to us. I'm not sure quite yet, but it certainly is exciting!

This week turned out to be a pretty good one despite the weekend illness. Here's to another great week! Love to you all!

Tonight. Bedtime for the banjos!

DEBT!

We are officially debt free! We paid our last debt payment yesterday.

Nico colored in the chart and asked "Are we going to move to a new house?" I told him that eventually we would.

Guy wasn't able to come on Monday night to Financial Peace University because of a fever. He has been struggling with colds for the past few months.

Last Friday we went to see GG! Because Nico is now in school all day, we didn't visit in the morning. Instead we drove over right after school. We scheduled our next visit for a Saturday and I think we'll try doing that from now on! This will also give Guy a chance to come with us! It was great to see her. She gave Nico one of her peaches and he loved it. She cut it up for him and he ate it while watching a show on tv. She loaded us up with pureed tomatoes and another thing of relish. We love to use those tomatoes for pizza sauce. Tomorrow I am making a roasted red pepper and tomato bisque soup and I cannot wait to see how different it will taste using her tomatoes.

Here's a picture of Nico and Aadam and Evelyn all playing together inside Aadam's room. Nico loves going inside their house.

I also wanted to take some time to record one of Nico's favorite ways to spend "You and Me Time". With me. He likes doing other things with Daddy during their You and Me Time, but with me this is his consistent choice. The Spring Fair consists of a green van, a green truck, and Thomas the train.

Thomas has a trailer that holds a sign that says "Spring Fair" on it.

The windmill and the sign are set up and then they dance while the light on the sign flashes. This is the way it always begins.

Then, while they are dancing, something happens. A helicopter will bring over an item and drop it right in front of them ...

... and then the rest of the time is spent interacting with that object. It's become a way for Nico to share things with these car characters and talk about some of his favorite things. After his birthday the helicopter brough legos. Conversations go like this: (these things are said by alternating cars)

Woah look there's a helicopter over there, it's carrying something really big. I wonder what it is?!
He's bringing it over here, watch out, he's dropping it!
WOAH! It looks like a book
Can you read, green van? Tell us what is says!
"Dot to dot book"
COOL!
Wait look the helicopter is coming back
Watch out it's dropping something!
AH!
Look it's a pencil!
I bet we use the pencil with the dot-to-dot book.
I love dot-to-dot books! Who wants to go first?

For a time the helicopter would drop a deck of cards and they'd play flap-jack or solitaire. It changes to include the latest interest that Nico has.

It's been such an interesting time where Nico gets to share something that he loves with three very excited cars that are super interested in whatever it is he drops in front of them. Friends that are excited about everything you show them are pretty sweet!

Today, the helicopter dropped a flashlight (recently acquired gift from Aadam and Sam) and when they opened up the flashlight they found it had a treasure map inside. So, they went on a treasure hunt into a dark cave.

Video of us "walking" home from school. Aadam is in front, the Evelyn, then Nico.

Financial Peace University, Bigfoot

Monday was our very first meeting for Financial Peace University (FPU). We went around the room telling the others why we were there. There were several other couples there and a few people from our church. The class was at our church. When it came to us, Guy told everyone who we were and that we had gone through FPU 8 years ago and have been on Baby Step #2 since that time (Baby Step #2 is to pay off all your debt). And that we were very close to paying off debt and it's been so long we're not sure what to do after we're done.

That was a good way to put it! We weren't sure what Baby Step #3 entails and we could also use a good group of motivated like-minded people to keep us moving in the right direction. We are literally six days away from paying off our debt. And to the week it has been 2 years since we moved in here!

Baby Step #3 is to save up for a "fully funded" emergency fund. In Baby Step #1 we just saved up for $1000 emergency fund, to get us through until our debt was paid off. So a fully funded emergency fund will hold 3-6 months of our expenses, so that if something were to happen to our income we would be able to exist for 3-6 months before needing new income. We plan to do this but we have other things on our plate first, one of which is to find a new place to live (we're about 6 months out from this). This new place will hold us for a while as we get through Baby Step #3, because this baby step has another part to it, #3b, which is to save up for a down payment on a house.

We understand that things can change, but this is our vision of the future for now!

And so, wait, you came here to hear about Nico? Oh right. He came with us to the meeting on Monday.

:)

and he was so well behaved. We plugged him into the iPad and he played games the whole 2 hours.

On Sunday we got to see the Grandparents Salisbury, plus Lexie! The Grandparents Salisbury recently returned from a trip to St Louis. They brought us back a license plate from Russell, KS that says "RUSSELL" on it! Nico and Lexie both got a Bigfoot toy that pops foam balls out of its mouth. Apparently Lexie and Nico are both very big Bigfoot fans. At Grandma Camp they would watch Finding Bigfoot together. I had no idea Nico was so interested in it! He said to Grandma "want to see what I got from the library?" and he pulled out a graphic novel about the history of Bigfoot! I had no idea he had checked that out. Lexie was so excited about it and looked through it.

Grandma asked Nico if he liked Grandma Camp and he said "Yes, no, kind of" and put his thumb in the middle instead of up or down. Grandma asked him why and he said he didn't like sleeping alone because he got scared (he was usually the first one in bed, and his bed was made up in Grandma's room). Grandma asked him what could make it better next year and he said "Maybe I could sleep in your bed and then when you go to bed you can snuggle me or something?" That was pretty sweet. But then we came up with a different plan - that he sleeps where the big kids sleep. He was happy with that. Grandma asked Lexie what she didn't like about Grandma Camp and Lexie laughed and said she didn't like getting sprayed with water from the kitchen sprayer. Apparently there were a lot of water fights with that thing! And apparently she got Grandma really good in the back one time when Grandma wasn't looking! Nico told us that story.

More bike rides with the boys.

Sorry for the lack of pictures!

We've been doing lots of dot-to-dots, color by numbers, and then this morning he pulled out the mazes. Picture day was on Wednesday. He's been wearing his suspenders to school a lot. He has been asking to go to school early, so, we do! He can't show up before 8:15 but we arrive at about 8:25, the bell rings at 8:40. I suspect he gets there early so he can have first pick of the basketballs. There are a few that are flat.

Nico's Journal, Bike Ride, and Tornadoes

So last week I told you that at the Parent Orientation I wrote a note to Nico in his journal, well on Friday afternoon I received an email from his teacher and she had taken a picture of the note Nico wrote back to me in his journal. I assumed that she had done this for all the kids and parents, but when I talked to her this past week she told me it was just him because what he wrote was so adorable and he did such a good job writing :) Then he wrote a journal entry for Guy, too...

Guy took Friday off from work and we watched Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell on Netflix, the first of the mini series. We have both read the book and so this was very fun. We went downstairs in the basement to watch it.

This past weekend, Allicia's sister got married, so there were lots of family in town and they actually stayed at a house rental in Eagle for the weekend. It was strangely quiet around here. I didn't have any henna booths so we were able to really enjoy spending time together. Nico and I went to the Sensory friendly movie on Saturday, they played Ice Age: Collision Course. It was funny. Tiffanie and boys also went.

Tiffanie took the boys plus Nico for a bike ride on Monday, everyone had the day off! They went by the golf course.

Nico is always excited to go to school in the mornings. This past week he has had to wear certain colors to school so he searched for the right shirt every morning. He's been struggling to eat all of his lunch so this morning he told me to just pack him half a sandwich. It doesn't seem like enough food, just half a sandwich and some veggies, but he did eat it all.

He likes to chatter while we walk to school and tell me things and ask me questions. I love it.

No Spendtember is going swimmingly. Would you believe it if I told you we only have $850 left of our debt?!??!?!??!? I can't believe it! The blog update in 2 weeks might have some super good news about debt payoff... Nico is excited about the huge Star Wars lego we are going to buy when we pay off debt.

Not much else happened this past week!

Oh but I have a funny story. A few nights ago Nico crawled into bed with us and seemed a little restless. Then I heard "Mommy?" and I said "What?" and then he asked me if there were any tomatoes in Idaho. Tomatoes? Yes, there are tomatoes.

N: There are tomatoes in Idaho?

M: Yes

N: A boy at school told me there were no tomatoes in Idaho

M: Oh, well, Jeff and Allicia grow tomatoes in their garden and we've eaten them!

N: But there are no tornadoes?

M: OH, tornadoes? Yes there are tornadoes in Idaho but they are small and don't last long

N: I don't want to live where there are tornadoes

M: Oh but you know what? If there is ever a tornado in Idaho we are in luck because Mommy knows exactly what to do when a tornado happens and we will be fine.

N: I don't want to live in Idaho

I assured him that tornadoes in Idaho are rare and small. They get confused around mountains. Then he fell back to sleep. A few weeks before this, we had been watching tornado videos on YouTube because Nico didn't know what a tornado was, and then I told him I had to turn it off because it was making me nervous because I didn't like tornadoes. Whoops. I'll have to work on that.

School school

On Saturday our neighborhood had a block party at the end of our street. I set up a little henna booth there just like last year, but this time the people who organized it said I should charge, so I did! There was a bouncy house just like last year, and just like last year Nico jumped so much he started feeling sick. Guy took him home to bed and he was soon feeling better.

Sunday was Aadam's birthday. He didn't have an official party but he did come over with his brother Sammy and the boys played out front at our table for a while, eating watermelon and playing. Aadam had treat bags for all the kids, it had some sweet treats in it that Nico could eat and a hotwheels car and a Minions cup.

Then another week of school started! Nico has been doing well. We figured out that library day is Tuesday. Our routine after he gets home from school is--> homework-->snack & iPad. It's been good so far. For a few days he wasn't eating his sandwich in his lunch but just eating his crackers and carrots. I told him to focus on eating his sandwich first and ever since then he's been eating his sandwich too.

Last night (Thursday night) was the Parents Orientation. We heard a speech from the principal (very good), and then we went to the classrooms and met our child's teacher. Nico now sits in the very front row. I sat at his desk and Mrs. Smith told us we could look through our child's stuff, so I did. I pulled out all the stuff he had in his desk and looked through it. Oh fun! She explained how homework works and the kinds of things they're doing in the class. "Walk to Read" and "March to Math" are both daily/weekly things that they do with the other 1st grade class. They are put into groups dependent on their skill. At the end she asked us all to write something to our child in their journals. That was very cool. He is at school right now and has probably already read it!

She also talked about "Mindset", about teaching kids that doing hard things grows your brain and making mistakes is how we learn. She said that a good question to ask our kids every day is "What hard thing did you do today, how did you grow your brain?" I did notice that he started saying something new just the other day, he was saying it to himself while trying to put on his suspenders without luck "I can do this, I can do this, I CAN do this." Way to go teacher!!

Thursday was a late night for me so that's why I'm updating this morning! Guy has today off and we are hoping to watch some Netflix together today while Nico is at school. It is a long weekend so Guy also has Monday off!

I perfected the gluten free tortilla! It can fold!!

15 minutes before bed: Can I have some henna? Nico told me where to put every part. "Put a vine here, and here, and here and here"

Treasure Hunt and First Day of School!

Monday was Nico's 1st grade Sneak Peek. We went and found his classroom, found his hook and his very own desk with his name on it! We put his folder and notepad in his desk and his crayons and other supplies into his very own bin. We found out which of his friends are in his class this year.

Tuesday morning was the treasure hunt!

We gathered at 9 AM right outside the clubhouse. I told them all the rules, gave them popsicles to eat and then Allicia hung out with them while I went and hid all the clues. Some of the clues were in the park so I rode my bike there. I came back and we started. They took turns grabbing the clues (youngest first - Ivy!) and Sammy was our reader. We were done a little after 10 AM and then they spent the rest of the time writing their own clues for their own treasure hunts. Sammy, Evelyn, and Nico, all made their own treasure hunts and had the others go through it. We broke at 11 AM for lunch!

Here's some pictures that Allicia took!

Check out the treasure hunt video at the end of the post!

Wednesday was the first day of school! The bell rings at 8:40, so we left at 8:25-ish. There is a line outside that those in Room #2 line up at when the bell rings, so we found that. Then he ran onto the playground and... goodbye! It was quick. 

Wednesday was an early release day, so today was the first full day of school for him. He loves it. He had homework today, just reading through flash cards. We need to do this every day and then on Friday is "Flashcard Friday" where we go through our stack and any that he can read quickly "in a flash" we discard, and only keep the words in the deck that he still struggles with and needs to practice.

Guy and I decided to embark on a "No Spend-tember". We are so close to paying off debt that we are going to try to finish it off by the end of September! We are selling things and reducing our budget significantly. We still have to spend money on stuff like food and gas and rent, etc., but all other spending is cut off for September. We also decided to go through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Univeristy (FPU) again to keep us motivated to stay out of debt. Our church is having an FPU class and we have decided to go to it! Our first night will be next Monday. After we pay off debt we are going to celebrate. Not sure exactly how yet but it will be extravagant (for us) and probably involve a lot of food.

Guy is also going to be helping out at church in the sound booth on Thursday nights and then will be running the sound sometimes on Sunday. He is there tonight for his first training session.

Enjoying pizza on Saturday using GG's tomatoes. The sauce was REALLY good!

Nico didn't want to go to bed so he moved his pillow outside his bed and fell asleep on the floor. He's asleep in this picture. I turned the light on just so I could take his picture :)

That's it for tonight... enjoy the video!

G.G., and a postcard from 1st grade

On Friday Guy worked late and I had a henna booth that I had to leave early for, so Nico got to hang out with Evelyn for a few hours and eat dinner with them. It was a busy henna weekend, I had a henna booth at the Nampa Art Festival all day Saturday and Sunday. Guy and Nico came to say hi on Saturday. I gave Nico a quick owl tattoo and then he played on the playground that was right behind our booth.

Guy and Nico made pizza by themselves on Saturday night and watched Three Stooges and Wallace and Gromit.

Monday we had a play date at the park with just Allicia and kids, no Tiffanie. The kids pretty much know I carry fruit strips with me, so Avery asked me for one even before we left the driveway. When we got to the park I gave them each one and they like to eat it while sitting on this big rock.

On Tuesday we went to see GG! It was a great visit. On Monday night Nico had looked at the calendar and remarked "Tomorrow we go see GG! Yaaay!" Then on Tuesday morning I reminded him what we were doing that day and he said "Awww GG is my favorite Grandma!"

GG had some books for him there, a little book that used to belong to his Great Grandpa Bud. It's a small yellow book called "Bugs of America" the date inside says 1939. It has pictures of bugs and descriptions of them. She also had a book called "Jeremy Draws a Monster" that is very cute. Thank you GG! Nico loves them both. In fact Nico is in bed right now reading Jeremy Draws a Monster.

I had another henna booth on Wednesday at the College of Western Idaho, their new student orientation. Nico spent a few hours with Evelyn since I had to leave before Guy got home from work.

Today he received a post card in the mail from his new teacher, Mrs. Smith! Nico read it.

When he got to the end where she signs off with her name, Mrs. Smith, he says "What??? Mrs SMITH?? But I told them I wanted Mrs. Hoff!" He was pretty sad. He wanted to write a card to Mrs. Smith to tell her that she's not his teacher. With more probing he told me that he liked Mrs. Hoff's classroom and that they get to do lots of fun stuff and go to recess THREE times per day! I assured him that in Mrs. Smith's class he would still get to go to recess three times per day.

A random funny - Nico was leisurely washing his hands in the sink, he was mumbling under his breath like his hands were talking to each other. I turned the water off for him (he can't reach it at the kitchen sink) and he stood there and said softly "I like the rain, and now the rain has stopped. I am not a happy pig!" that is a quote from a Piggie and Gerald book.

I've got two videos today! One from Grandparents Russell visit and one from his Birthday party! Enjoy!

Typo ahead...

Board games, apples, stories!

Got in a little late last night so I wasn't able to update!

The last Grandma Camp of the summer has wrapped up, here are some pictures! This was the Board Game camp.

Grandma Salisbury is writing out stories from the Grandma Camp experience about each of the grandkids. She wrote out two stories about Nico and here they are:

Story#1

This past week at “Camp” we found ourselves talking about the saving grace of God.  As we sat around the picnic table, our 7 grandchildren (ages 5-13) asked questions.  In the midst of a rather deep conversation about Christ our youngest grandchild came to me and whispered he had something to say to me.  For a slight moment I was worried that his insistence on talking to me would disrupt the movement of the dialogue that had found its way to our table.  I bent down and he whispered in my ear that he wanted to say something to the group.  I saw the look in his eyes and knew it was important to him that he address his cousins.    So I quieted the group and announced that Nico wanted to speak.  The kids all stopped in great respect and Nico began his speech which went something like this:  “They made a crown with stickers coming out and put it on his head and it hurt him, then they nailed his hands to the cross right here (he pointed to his wrists), and then he died.  Do you know why he died?”  Nico gave a pause and looked around the table.  Then he proceeded to say, “He died for our sins!”   Wow… there was silence around the table for a moment.  This was followed by discussion on Christ’s death and how he saved us all.  It was a blessed moment indeed to watch this child deliver a powerful message in a very matter of fact, influential way. 

Story#2 - Private Talk

With so many different personalities you can expect some difference of opinions circulating playtime and conversations.  Most of the time the kids were able to use their social skills and compromise.  The younger ones though needed some help and guidance at times and so they would come to me and ask, "Grandma, can I have a private talk with you?"  I would always respond with "Of, course!"  So we would head into my bedroom where at the foot of our bed sat my cedar chest.  We would take a seat on the chest and I would ask them what they had on their mind.  It mostly consisted of their feelings being hurt or something they did they wished they hadn't or wanting to do something I had previously said no to and them wanting to practice their negotiating skills to convince me otherwise.  (They are good negotiators and made a good argument and many times I gave in!!)  The "Private Talks" mostly were the two younger girls who were between the "life revolves around me" stage and the "you mean theirs more than me on this earth" stage.  It became a popular theme during camp and the youngest camper, our grandson Nico, was observing these girls going in and out of my room for these talks.  With his curiosity rising, he wanted to find out what the hype was in these talks so he pulled me aside, whispered in my ear and said, "Grandma can I have a private talk?"  I was a bit surprised and probably just as curious why he wanted this talk with me as he was.  So in we went to the room.  He looked a little confused because he wasn't sure of the routine.  I motioned for us to take a seat at the cedar chest and we sat down.  I paused a moment and then asked him what was on his mind.  He looked a bit puzzled for a moment and then realized he had my full attention and he could talk about anything.  He took a deep breath and began.  "Grandma, I think you should go in the kitchen and take the sprayer and spray Kai and Bruce with water!"  I looked at him and said, "Okay, let's do it!"  Nico jumps up with great excitement and runs into the kitchen where Bruce and Kai were sitting.  He took a position away from the line of fire.  I went to the sink, turned on the water, lifted the sprayer and gave a quick squirt in the direction of the boys which caused a leaping action as they sprinted out of the room.  Nico was laughing hysterically and very proud of himself.  Later that afternoon, unbeknownst to me, Nico had a "private talk" with Kai.  The outcome of that talk was a thorough drenching from Kai to me.  I think I need to have a private talk with Nico!!!

.......

Monday we had another playdate with the whole crew, we went to Quarry View Park. Behind the tennis courts there are a few apple trees that we took some apples from. We figured they weren't sprayed because most of them had worms! Chomp chomp

The rest of the week has been outdoor play time with Evelyn and Aadam & Sam. School starts in two short weeks! Are we all ready??

Yesterday was Grandpa Russell's birthday - Happy Birthday Grandpa Russell!

Now some videos... still working on the birthday video!! But here are two from Grandma Camp!

Nico showing his dance moves as part of a board game

 

Papa came home late Friday night, so while Guy hung out with the older kids at the cabin playing Minecraft, Grandma Salisbury took the younger kids with her to welcome Papa off the plane. Here's the video!