Easter (Eve) 2008

Before the big egg hunt, it is imperative to look tough and hunter-like. At stake are eggs, 600 of them to be exact, but even more important than eggs, and even more important than candy, are the bragging rights and title of 'the egg master' until next
Easter.
600 eggs between only three boys still equals a hecka' lot of eggs per child, as evidenced by the large garbage bags Jonah and Gable have here.
The aftermath.

Every year the eggs mysteriously come and every year there is a new theory based upon ages: did they fall from a helicopter? did a truck spill them? was it you mom? And every year there are more eggs covering more of our yard. And every year Scooby eats some and we find wrappers later when cleaning the yard....

The Most Beautiful Smell on Earth

An Easter Lily has the most peaceful, beautiful smell on earth.
I have one that I carry from room to room with me because I am enjoying the smell so much. It stays next to my bed when we sleep and it goes in the kitchen during the day. It is truly the most amazing smell. Actually, stargazer lilies are my absolute favorite. They are the flowers that surrounded us at our wedding. But lilies are my close second favorite.

Just Climbing a Tree

A few weeks ago, Jack decided that we all needed an outdoor picnic for lunchtime. He called it a 'Fun Bun'. He explained to us that a Fun Bun meant that we have a party, but only with the people that are already at our house. So, he set up the table and chairs in our driveway (the only place not covered in mud right now), and made sandwich and grape plates. He also made little tickets for 25cents for games. One of the 'games' that we could choose was called 'climbing the tree'. Gable and I bought tickets to this game.

We have a tulip tree in our front yard and it really is a nice tree. It is tall and beautiful and has two wooden planks nailed into it to help get little feet started on their climb. After I climbed for a while, (near the bottom of the tree), I got down and went back to the Fun Bun. Gable (near the top of the tree) kept climbing.

A few minutes later, I heard a police siren chirp and looked over to see three police cars by our climbing tree. (Hidden Valley has it's own deputies, which apparently are real deputies now, complete with guns and ticket-writing abilities) The man in the passenger seat of the first car leaned out his window and said to Gable, "I want you to come down from that tree right now, son." Granted, it wasn't mean, but it was a man in authority, so it sounded pretty tough. I started over towards the police car and although it sort of embarrases me to say this, I was slightly intimidated. I have always believed that I would not even flinch when it came to defending my children, but with three police cars there, I flinched. Fortunately, I got myself together. I walked over to the police car sort of laughing saying, "WHAT?" The guy told me that my son was too high in the tree and that he simply asked him to come down. I knew exactly where Gable was, I was outside with him and frankly, boys climb trees! So, I just said, "No, he's okay."

It was at this point that things got a little unsettling. He should have just driven away. At that point I would have thanked him for his concern and everything would have been okay. But he persisted. I think it was his ego. He looked at me and then at Gable again, and then said it, "Son, I still want you to come down from that tree."

And I did the only logical thing to do: "JONATHAN!"

Mind you, Jon is not a big guy, but you wouldn't have known it from the way he plowed over the driveway and up through our yard. Jon had been on the driveway playing his guitar at the Fun Bun, so he had seen part of our exchange with Mr. Deputy Dog. Jon tore through the yard, headed toward the police cruiser and demanded, "Sir, what is your name?"

The guy said, "I'm Bruce Keller and I'm the Community Manager here in Hidden Valley."

Jon shoved his hand in through the cruiser window and said, "Bruce Keller, I'm Jon Price and that is my son in the tree. Is there a problem?"

Mr. Keller proceeded to tell Jon that his son was too high in the tree and that he might fall. Jon crossed his arms over his chest, turned to the tree, looked it up and down and turned back to the police cars and said...wait for it...here it comes...

"Well, he might"

I love that man.

Braveheart and Robin Hood rolled into one.

Mr. Bruce Keller then tried a few different lines, and ultimately, he drove off. I thanked him for his concern, but inside I felt weird. Sort of a hodge-podge of amusement and disturbance at the same time.

As the three cars drove off, Jon summed it up perfectly and simply. He said, "Do you know what that man's problem is? He's forgotten what it was like to be a boy."

And that's just plain sad.

Easter is Almost Here!

I'm not quite sure of when or why it started, but our family gives up 'stuff' for lent. Well, except me because I am a quitter. No willpower. But that's another story.

Jack decided to give up water this year. Yes, water. He only drank milk this whole Lenten season. It took three and a half weeks to convince him that it was okay to take a shower.

Jon gave up chocolate, silly, silly man that he is. What he failed to take into consideration was my frequent trips to the candy store. The poor guy! You should have seen him pass up the Dove chocolate and turtles everyday. Willpower score: Jon- 1, Melanie - 0.

I don't know what Jonah and Gable gave up. I think Gable gave up anything to do with Tony Hawk, but I just can't remember what Jonah gave up. I'd ask him but he's sleeping and I'm enjoying my quiet time simply too much.

I wonder if I can get away with dressing up the boys for Easter. I have threatened the whole suit and tie thing before, but they know I'm totally bluffing. I think what we're going for is a nice t-shirt. I'd really, really like to dress all three of them alike, but I think they are also too old for this fine Easter tradition. And I know I can't fix all of their hair all pretty.

Sigh... the days of 'Mommy gets to choose clothes and fix hair for holidays and pictures' is getting more difficult.

Jon's just not going for it anymore.

Happy Easter!

Scooby's Tattoo

After highlighting my hair last week (ahem...covering gray), I had some leftover dye. I decided to give Scooby a tattoo of an 'S', because he is such a super de-dooper dog. I only wished that I would have drawn the super symbol around the 'S'. Then I spilled a spot of dye next to the original tattoo, so now it is some sort of unknown symbol. I think he is in a gang of some sort. He has been shot before, remember???

I best keep my eye on that dog.

Date Night

Don't do it
On our date night last night, we went to Macaroni Grill (finally used our gift card and ended up paying just $7.00 additional for our whole meal!!!) and then decided to check out Ikea.

Crazy!

At the exit, there was a large marquee that said 'event parking'. The 'event' was shopping at ikea. It was crazy, but it was fun. There was only one time that I thought I may hyperventilate. I think I'll wait until the crowd dies down to go back. It kind of cheapens the whole experience now that it is in Cincinnati and so accessible. I liked the thrill of a roadtrip to ikea. But anyway, it's here and I'm just not sure that I like that. I love ikea, but I don't think I like it that everyone knows what it is now. I liked it when people would see something in my house and comment that they had never seen something like that around here. I feel sort of possessive...

I may have a problem.

Before and After

These are my guys at Kelly's Salon before the clippers started...

And.....

These are my guys after!!!!!

Look at this cutie'

Do you recognize this lil' cutie without all the curly locks? Gable Patrick is going for a haircut tomorrow and he wants to return to his much shorter hair days. He always insisted on a buzz, even when everyone else in the family had long hair. And then one day, he saw one of his friends that could put his hair into his own mouth. It was then and there he decided on longer locks. But now, he is going back to his shorter roots, no pun intended.

On another note, we are now stalking this little, tiny, scrawny cat in our woods. It is caked with mud but won't let us near it. Unfortunately, our own cats keep kicking it's butt, but the cat won't leave. What to do? We went for a long walk in the woods yesterday and put food out for it waaayyy far away from our house. Don't know why I started on that, but this may mean another cat for the Price home if it will let us rescue it.

God has blessed us so much with this Honduras trip. We didn't want to go in debt over it. We truly believed that this trip would be important to Jonah and Jon together, but didn't know how we could come up with $2400. People have been so kind, so generous. My friend even made a black light puppet for Jonah to auction for his trip and it looks like it has a buyer!!! It touched me so much to see how people give of not only their money, but their time and talent.

So, although this blog is boring as a staff meeting (staph according to some...), I am bright and cheery today because IKEA OPENED TODAY!!! And we have nutty friends who camped out there! But they got tons of great free stuff! They got two free chairs, oh, I can't think of the name of the chairs, Poang, I think. You may see them on the news with their kids in blue sweatshirts, each with one letter on them to spell out i-k-e-a. They're nuts, but nutty with two free chairs!

Apparently, I am supposed to make a picnic with Jack now, so I'm off.

Someday

Someday...
Jon will have a big boy pillowcase instead of this one.

A Bit Discouraging

When we set out to begin our homeschooling journey with our boys, we thought that we'd keep them home 'for the first few years'. Although we had many reasons for homeschooling, one of our thoughts was that we wanted the boys to be well grounded and secure before entering a large public school.

Now that we've been doing this for eight years, it is clear that those 'first few years' have been extended. We have absolutely, positively no regrets. All of our early fears for homeschooling have proven to be totally unfounded and we settled into a routine long ago. Things run pretty smoothly and the boys are all used to school at home.

But, I tell you, it is one thing to go through 7th grade math while in 7th grade, and quite another to teach it to a 7th grader. There is nothing quite like it to make me feel totally and completely dumb. If and/or when I do figure out Jonah's math, it's just to the point where I can do it and get the correct answer. It's not as if I know the logic behind it enough to explain the ins and out of it.

More than once, twice, or a hundred times, I have gotten things wrong. Now that may seem like no big deal, but if you think about it, it's pretty sad that I, as a 30 something college-educated woman have a hard time with 7th grade math. And not just math, but Bible, Language Arts, and let's not forget, Science. Oh, science. I took a test today on weather patterns and got a D. Do you know anything about weather patterns? Apparently, I don't. And the sad thing is that I thought that I did.

So much of what I learned as a student didn't 'stick'. And not only did it not stick, it's doesn't even ring a bell with me. I wonder if my kids will remember these things any better than I did. Does technology really help kids be a bit smarter? I don't know. Does having library books all over the house really help? I don't know. Does homeschooling really help? I don't know.

Jon always has said that it's not important, nor is it possible, to teach a child every single thing. He says that you just equip them with the tools and confidence and then they are able to learn, be it from you or from others or from books or whatever. It just seems like such a big job sometimes.

Especially when it's 7th grade again.

At least I don't have bad acne and raging hormones this time around. Well, one out of the two ain't bad.

Scooby Busted

My neighbor took this picture on little Emma's birthday. She named it, very appropriately I think, Scooby Busted. It makes me laugh.

And I wonder why I spend so much on plants just to have absolutely no success. I thought it was because of all the deer...

Oh yeah, I'm a Quitter...

I am a quitter.

I have come to terms with this fact long ago. I don't fight it, I accept it. I don't have willpower.

My husband, on the other hand, has tremendous willpower. He will fight his way through anything. He is a tenacious bulldog, I tell you. Poor man, he is in love with me, of all people...

The ski trip - keep in mind I have never skiied until yesterday. First of all, no one told me that everything about skiing is uncomfortable. It started with the snow pants...I wore Jon's. Men don't have hips, you know. Jon had to pull on the zipper with pliers just to get it up. By the time we got everyone into the van, my feet were numb from lack of circulation. I got a headache and was feeling hot and grumpy. Then came the snow boots. Okay, they weighed at least ten pounds each! And Jon kept saying that they needed to be tight, they NEED to be tight, Melanie. And then he did them up TIGHT since I could not bend over to buckle them in my lovely snow pants. Fine, do them up tight, what do I care. At least I looked good.

Picked out my poles like an old pro and got outside. Popped my feet into the skis and was ready to go to the bunny slope with Jack and Jon. Jonah took off on a snowboard with Gable on skis. I fell down the bunny hill and was totally and completely stuck. It's impossible to get up in skis. They're like ten feet long and, helloooo, skis don't bend doggone it. I was laying there all tangled up like a pretzel with Jon trying very unsuccessfully to get me up. As I lay there with my toes numb from way too tight snowpants, feet tingling from the gigantic snowshoes, and a headache from, again, lack of circulation, I decided then and there to quit. I was done. No use fighting it, I'm done. Jon, the bully that he is, would not show me how to get my stupid feet out of the stupid skis because he said I wasn't allowed to quit. Yeah, whatever, just get me up out of this snow...

I finally got up and got back on the little moving sidewalk that kindly delivers one to the top of the bunny hill. I was trying to figure out how to get the stupid shoes off and Jon proceeds to tell me that I simply can't quit. Why? Because I'm a Price and Price's aren't allowed to quit. I told him that I am a good Price and yet, a good quitter. He lapses into Braveheart mode, saying something about courage and fortitude and blah blah blah. I wasn't buying it...until I saw little Jack. He was having a hard time. Things weren't coming as easily as he had hoped and his little head was hanging down.

Daggone it....How in the world could I encourage him by throwing in the towel after just ten minutes? I thought of a few excuses to offer to him, but none of them seemed just right. (note to self, practice excuses ahead of time next time)

So, lo and behold, I hung in there. Jon loosened up my boots and my feet began to breathe a little. And I skiied! It weren't pretty and Jonah can do a pretty good imitation of me with my poles sticking straight out to the sides like I was walking a highwire or something, but I did it! By the end of the night, I was looking over at the people going tubing and I felt a certain smugness over them. I looked down my nose and thought 'just look at those lazy people riding the conveyor belt up the hill and laying in a tube to come down. ohhhhh, that's so hard.

And just incase you are thinking that pride comes before a fall, just know that I did fall. Plenty of times. But I skiied!!