A Letter To The First Lady.

Ruthie is not happy with her lunch tray at school.  The loss of "treats", like a cookie or brownie, has had an effect on her.  So she took action.  She wrote a letter to Mrs. Obama to share her thoughts on the first lady's hand menacing her lunch tray.

Loss of Sweets

Dear Michelle Obama,

I just wanted to know why you have cut dessert at all schools in the country? .... Anyway, when I used to get school lunch I want to have something sweet like a cookie or a brownie.  I think that if you would put desserts back on you would make kids happy.  Also the lunch ladies are putting corn and lots of vegetables in our Navajo taco and chicken on our nachos.  I get home lunch because I don't like school lunch.  It was an honor writing to you, you are my role model and I think that just because you weren't born in America doesn't mean you can't be president.  I'm Chinese and I'm adopted and I'm proud of it.

Sincerely,

Ruthann....





Art Night.

On Friday night Abbie and Poppy came up to take our family to dinner.  We went to Burrito Grande.  Obviously.  After dinner we went to the elementary school for Arts Night.  I headed to a kiva to be a volunteer curator for a bit.  Ruthie and Sam took Abbie, Poppy, Isaac and dad around to each kiva to look at all the art.  Abbie and Poppy bought Ruthie's art and then Sam's art.

After a bit Ruthie got on stage with the other 4th graders for their performance. 

They sang This Land Is My Land.  Awesome!

Shortly after that the 6th graders got on stage to dance.  Sam did some dancing and had tons of fun.

Then the choir, including Sam, got up to sing.  They did such a great job.  They ended with What Does The Fox Say.  Then some teachers got up and lip synched and danced to the same song.  It was so much fun.

It was a fun filled night.  Our school made lots of money from the art and auction to help purchase safety items for the school. 
Thanks Abbie and Poppy for coming and sharing with us!

New Things.

Ruthie went in for her 2 year eye exam.  She's wanted new frames for a while, so we got some.

She chose the "dork" look.  They are black on the outside and blue on the inside.  She is a doll!  And certainly NOT a dork!

Sam has this deal where he has to be constantly moving.  And if his energy isn't specifically geared in one direction, it gets splattered all over.  And we don't like that.  So I did what any mom would do.  I got him a mini trampoline.  Best Mom Decision EVER!  He just gets on it and jumps.  And jumps.  And jumps.  And jumps. And jumps.  And jumps.  And jumps.

And jumps.

It's awesome!

This Month Is Such A Special One...

It's Birthday Time For YOU!!

Today Ruthie is 10

Double Digits!

She was off to school and I was off to prepare. 

All her gifts...

Art supplies

Art drawers

Legos

And...

A skateboard!

We went to dinner at Burrito Grande and she got to wear the birthday sombrero.

 

******

10 years ago today, a mom had a baby girl. You.  She knew she couldn't give you all you would need.  She placed you in front of the Bo Ai Hospital in FengCheng China.  The placement spoke volumes to the love she had for you.  You were found and taken to the orphanage around the corner.  You were weighed, measured and named.  Feng Li Qiu.  Beautiful Autumn Thunderclap.  The Beautiful and Autumn are a given.  Literally.  But Thunderclap?  You must have had some lungs or a striking personality to get a name like that.

 

When I got the translation of your name, I KNEW you were mine. My Beautiful Autumn Thunderclap.  I knew you'd go nicely with my Handsome Spring Thunderclaps, Isaac and Sam.

 

On February 16, 2005 I finally held you in my arms.  I cried tears of joy as you cried tears of fear and unknown.  We spent the next week and a half holding you in our arms.  Saying Mama and Baba while pointing to us.  Saying Qiu Qiu (ChooChoo) and Ruthie while pointing to you in the mirror.  You listened to her brothers' voices on the phone each  morning, loving the sound but unsure of what it was.

 

When we finally got you home, we went to pick up your big brothers.  You kept looking at your boys and then looking at me as if to say, "Are they mine? Really mine?".  You called them "my boys" for a couple of years. 

 

I always say, and truly believe, that I couldn't have made you more "mine" than if I'd made you myself. Heavenly Father was watching over each of us during this process of bringing our family together.

 

Ruthann LiQiu, we love you, and are so so so happy you belong to us.  Eternally.

We are also so so so very grateful to your birth mom and her great sacrifice to give you an opportunity to live a life she couldn't give you.  She loved you so so so very much.  I can't wait to meet her and hug her and thank her for giving you life.

 

Happy Birthday sweet Autumn Thunderclap. 

Double Digits!!

Biography Day.

Today was Biography day for Ruthie.  She chose a book about Florence Griffith Joyner.

Ruthie dressed in a shorts outfit, 3 gold medals and a silver medal.  At the end she raised the baton and cheered.  She did put on some long fake nails.  But when I walked into the room she came up to me and said "I can't pick anything up with these on!"  She was very upset.  I told her that's why I don't have them.  It's like having a plate at the end of your finger.  She took them off and did a tremendous job anyway!

Today is our favorite 3rd grade teacher's retirement open house.  

This is what I made for her.  I hope she likes it!

Are You Jolly Or What?

Are you having a jolly week? I sure hope so. Considering tomorrow is the end of the world. But then again, maybe it won't end. So I hope your week is jolly so you can keep going after tomorrow with the jolliness. Or something.

 

I know it's been a tough week and it's kept me from blogging.  I don't want to move into funny and stuff too soon, but I also don't want to be sad.  Here is where I am...  We live in perilous times.  No laws or confiscations or medications or anything else will stop bad guys from doing bad things.  Or from getting guns.  Satan has got a hold on the hearts of the children of men and he will not let go or even loosen his grasp until Christ comes. I hope you are praying, as we are, that He will come soon.

 

On to the happy.  Because happy is good.  Happy is Joy.

Last week our cub scouts went to the Veteran's home in Ogden to pass out ornaments.  It was so fun to watch our cute cubs and their sibling go into the residents' rooms and give them an ornament.  Or 15.  I took pictures as they passed them out then took a picture of the group.  Sam wouldn't stand with the group so I snagged this one.  

Sam wrote this special piece in school.  I love the last line.

**********

AAAAGGGHHHHHH!!! Isaac just texted me from school and said his science fair project is going on to the district!!!!!   AAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

*******

We got our tree up last Saturday night.  Sunday was the family party and since it was a Christmas party, I figured it would be nice to have a tree up.  Plus, it's Christmas next week.  Notice there are only like 2 decorations on it.  Those are Ruthie and Sam's ornaments they just made in school and gave to me this week.  The lights are part of the tree.  Luckily. And there are really presents under it too, much to our kids' delight!

And here is the play room minus the toys and games and clock and other such things.  Also minus the chairs and tables for people to eat dinner Sunday.  The basement, for which I have NO pictures, mostly because I don't go down there since Sunday because it was a disaster and there were games destroyed and toys EVERYWHERE!, is awesome.  Well, messy.  But still awesome.  And it was a big hit.  It was so hot and crowded in my house that it was a relief that it wasn't more crowded and hot because most of the children and teenagers were downstairs.

So now I'm ready for Christmas and am so grateful to celebrate with our home full of safety, peace, love, completeness and JOY.

On to more Jolliness!

Sewing, Bubbles and Cookies, Oh My!

All 7th graders take a class called CTE.  I only know the C stands for Careers.  T might be for Technology??  E may be for something that starts with E.  Just a guess on my part.  Anyhoo, Isaac's first quarter in CTE was all about wood and big tools.  He built a truss, a cart of some sort and other things that earned him an easy A.  This quarter is filled with clothing care, child care, family stuff, cooking.  And sewing.  Isaac was so excited about the sewing machine.  It's a machine and he does well with machines.  So I put him to work to cinch in his new church pants.  He got in there and sat down and asked if my machine was computerized.  ??  Um, no.  Mine is the cheapest of the cheap.  Story of my life.  I should show you my carpet.  So he threaded the needle and practiced a straight stitch on some extra fabric.  Then I put his pants in.  He had asked me to mark a line where he should sew.  Then he left.  I ended up sewing his pants.  But he did a fantastic job threading and getting the bobbin into place.  Do you know how funny it is to have your 12 year old son talk freely about bobbins?  Funny I tell ya. 

Sam was taking a bath and had asked Ruthie if he could use some of her bubble bath.  Sure, she said.  Then he called us in for a picture. Gives a new meaning to the term bubble boy.  Sam has recently made a list of all the Godzilla movies ever made.  I do believe he knows every single one.  There are 2 that are rated PG-13, so he has to wait a bit to see those.  He has big plans for his 13th birthday.

Sunday was the annual Abbie's Christmas Cookie Party.  We got to see our cousins who have been in North Dakota for a bit.  They're back and we are so happy they are.  Ruthie made beautiful cookies and even brought them home.  The boys left theirs on the table.  The other day Ruthie said, "We get our cuteness from mom and our tallness from dad.  I wasn't born from mom's tummy, but I am still tall."  So there you go.  I just so happy the cuteness came from me.  I'm glad it wasn't that they  had gotten hairy toes from me. Cuteness and tallness and so many other things that all 3 of my kiddos inherited from us.   

We still don't have our Christmas tree up.  Still in storage.  Daniel is home today so we can finish with the primer on the basement walls and ceilings.  I won't have time to paint colors on the walls till after this weekend.  The tree will go up Saturday and I'm putting a marbles circle in one bedroom and hopscotch runs in another.  Then the main area will have a rug and tables with toys and games.  The kids will be banished to the basement  for the evening.  Oh, did I tell you we are hosting Daniel's family Christmas party this Sunday?  Did I tell you that it should be around 55 people?  That's why the basement is being done quickly.  Though it's not finished, it's good enough to have people down there.  Pictures of the basement will be forthcoming.  But, just a warning, white primer on walls is boring. 

Yay Pictures!

Well, we couldn't figure out the problem with posting pictures to my blog.  So we had to move into Flickr and work through that.  I have finally figured out how to get everything done using Flickr.  So I have pictures.  For some reason I have been unable to just write-blog due to the lack of pictures. 

Here we all are with my 99 year old grandma.  We were so excited she got to come to Utah to see us all.  She will be 100 next April and we hope to have a big party for her!

 Isaac is taking Art at school.  He loves to draw so we figured it would be a good fit.  He is awesome at it.  His last assignment was a city drawing.  It was technical.  Here he is holding it.  He is next to he picture of my brother Aaron.  Aaron drew like this.  In Isaac's drawing, he added a little homage to his uncle.  He put a crack in the sidewalk with a flower growing out of it.  It's something my brother drew and titled "Beauty Amidst Bleakness".  (I need to put a close up picture on sometime!)  At parent teacher conferences yesterday, Isaac's art teacher was talking to another student before us and telling his dad that this assignment was a tough one and his B- was excellent.  Then we get up there and Isaac had 200/200 on it.  An A.  His teacher was so impressed with his work. 

Last week was our annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.  Officially it is our family's last one.  Not officially, I will be doing Pinewood Derbys as a leader for a while yet.  Sam's car came in 6th overall.  He had fun, though, which is most important.  Sam earned his Webelos badge a couple months ago (I'm so far behind) and has a compass point to boot.  He has been working on more badges to earn more compass points.  yay Sam.  (hi Laurie)

Isaac worked on his 7th grade Science Project recently.  I can honestly say I took no part in the creation and putting together of this project.  I will be earning no grade this year.  Isaac chose to use the hop switch on his air soft gun to shoot at 10, 15, 20 and 25 feet.  He had a great hypothesis and the results were very different than he expected.  And that's as far as I go.  Because I didn't do it, I didn't help, I didn't put the data in.  All I did was buy the board and glue where he told me to glue.  I will, however, much to his dislike, be judging the fair this year.  Only I can't judge his.  But it is awesome!  And this is the basement before the insulation and drywall.

 So here is a recent lesson I've learned.  First, something I already know.  I have a condition called Aquaphobia.  It's a fear of water and it's very real.  So I used that fear as a reason to never have my children learn to swim.  Sick, I know.  But you would think that I would have had them learn very early so that they wouldn't drown.  I mean, I wasn't going to jump in and save them.  But then I would always have Daniel with them in the water.  So it really wasn't a problem.  But then my dear Isaac was working on his 1st Class rank in Scouts.  And one of the requirements is to pass the BSA swim test.  Now Isaac can swim pretty well enough as a self taught swimmer.  But the BSA swim test was more complex.  So I did it.  I signed them up for swim lessons. 

Here is Ruthie (in purple). She is a great little swimmer and has no fear.  Luckily.  She began in level 2 and has advanced to level 3.  Ruthie has recently been sick.  She finally went back to school yesterday.  Whew!

Sam is a little more timid in the water, but he is an awesome swimmer too.  He was in level 2 with Ruthie and advanced to level 3. Here he is doing the back stroke.

Isaac loves this.  He was in level 3 and I was told level 3 is the most difficult level to pass. So I just reasoned that the next set of classes we do they will all be in level 3 together.  No such luck.  Isaac passed and is going into level 4.  As soon as he can do the 75 yards without tiring so much, we'll do the BSA swim test.  Cool!

And then there's the basement.  We had the dry wall guys come in all day Saturday to put it all up.  They are coming each evening and doing tape and mud. It's a long process and my house stinks.  By the family Christmas Party on the 16th, we hope to have  primer on all the walls, the ceiling painted, light fixtures put up and maybe the walls you see here painted.  But most likely the walls won't be painted.  I borrowed a large piece of carpet from my brother and that will help the floor.  Then we'll put some tables, chairs, games, toys and stuff down there.  In 2 of the bedrooms I am going to use chalk to make hopscotch runs and marbles rings.  Then the kids will have something fun to do and the carpet will go down over it all later. 

So there you have it.  There is probably so much more I need to catch up on, but I can't remember right now.  And now that I can get pictures back up, I hope to be blogging more.  After all, this will be a volume to add to my blog book collection! 

Happy Birthday To You!

Today is the long awaited day.  Ruthie turns 9! Saturday we had a small party with a few friends.  The theme was Hawaiian.  I did the hula.  We had lots of fun!

Today we have a white cake with chocolate icing and..  wait for it.. raspberry filling.  Cake Boss.  Rememba?

We also have had goat club tonight so we offered to bring treats for the special day.  I did little mini sized cakes with powdered sugar on top.  Goat club has since been canceled due to sick people.  So they will be the PTA meeting treat tomorrow.  Come and enjoy some!

Happy birthday beautiful girl.  We love you and are so so so happy you belong to us.

Catching Up Again.

Remember when I said I killed the last fly?  Um.  Never mind.  I wish a cold snap would come and just stay.  It's November for pete's sake.  And I'm not even gonna capitalize that pete.  I still don't know who he is or why we are concerned for his sake. 

So if November is here, must mean October is gone.  And I need to catch up.  On Halloween.  How was yours?  Ours was fun.  We had 2 jack o lantern pizzas from Papa Murph's.   

We do homemade costumes.  Have you seen the prices of costumes?  We have done store bought in the past,  but homemade and ingenuity are far more fun.  Ruthie was a Gypsy.  She didn't have her crystal ball for the picture, but she carried it around with her.  She had loads of fun and loads of candy.

Sam was not committing to anything costume-wise.  He was just gonna go as a person.  When he got home from school Wednesday he said he wanted to be a pumpkin head.  So we cut open the biggest pumpkin we had and cleaned it out and put it on his noggin.  He almost fell over 'cause it was so heavy.  So rather than be spine squashed and not able to stand, he copied his brother's idea.  He found a box and used the rest of the spray paint and we cut out the eyes and he became a creeper.  It's a Mine Craft thing.  You can tell who plays Mine Craft as kids yell out "It's a creeper!" with much enthusiasm. 

Isaac is the original creeper of the night.  He has been planning the outfit for weeks.  Weeks I tell ya.  He stole the box while we were loading up the storage unit.  Now we have to go get another one.  The green spray paint is what had me in Walmart earlier in the week when I met the sweet swearing old lady.  Isaac met up with some friends and apparently got some good houses.  Apparently full size candy bars means you're rich.  Guess where he'll hang out next year?  He got home late and had a haul.

So now November is officially here and that means....  It's Ruthie's month.  This gal will be 9 on Monday and so tonight we went to Jade Buffet for dinner.  Tomorrow she will have some friends over for a little party and Monday, the big day, we will take treats to Goat Club.  Isn't that where you want to spend your birthday?  If there's cake?  Why not?

Ruthie ate some octopus and my boys are creeps.  I mean creepers.  I'm gonna go kill some more flies. For the last time.

Reflections.

Ruthann decided to enter the Reflections contest this year at school.  The theme was "the magic of a moment".  Ruthie decided to draw a picture. 

This is called "The Magic of Spring" 

It is a look at a tree growing its leaves. 

Steri Strips And Pull Overs.

On Saturday Ruthie sliced her knuckle on a can.  Sliced it right open.  We put bandages on it and she just bled right through them.  All weekend.

This morning we woke up to another soaked bandage.  So we thought it best to take her in and see if she needed stitches.  So I bandaged her finger up again and we went in. 

The doctor looked at it and said if I had brought her in on Saturday he would have put a few stitches in.  But now it is starting to heal around the edges.  He opened the "flap" to look at the inside.  He had a nurse come in and clean it and put steri strips on it.  Better than stitches!!

On our way back to school I was just driving safely along.  Not bothering a soul and keeping all my points in check!  All of a sudden there were flashing lights behind me.  Seriously?! Where did he come from and what did I do wrong??  So I pulled over and when he got out of his car he went right to the back window and it all made sense!  Our tags expired last month.  We are waiting for the sticker and have the paper saying we've done the registration in the back window.  He came to my window and said it looks like the paper has expired.  So I got out the paper that Daniel put in the glove compartment and the paper expires on September 20!  Whew!  Got time.  So he sent me on my way with a smile and have a nice day. 

Have a nice day!

Aaaaand... They're Off!

Our day began at 6:30 am.  Isaac's first words when I woke him up were "I hate this".  I told him to get up and get it over with then.  But first!  I got stuff for my kids' first day of school treat.  Here it is.  I got them each a cup and did card stock dividers and then filled each section with candy.

Kisses, Tootsie Rolls, StarBursts, lollipops, Smarties...

But the Fruit by the Foot didn't fit, so they hung out next to the cups. 

And here's the note.. 

When Isaac read the note he said "That's really cool".  He ate breakfast, got dressed, brushed his teeth, checked on the goats, then headed for the bus stop.  Doesn't he look excited?!  He gets out in a few minutes and then I'll find out about his day when he gets home.  Yay 7th grader! 

Sam recommended I just take his picture in the car before we even left.  He is excited to have Isaac's 5th grade teacher.  At least I got a slight smile.  Yay 5th grader!!

Ruthie changed her outfit a couple times.  Decided on purple.  She has the same 3rd grade teacher both of her brothers had.  YAY!  And Yay 3rd grader!! 

The 2 younger kids don't get out for another hour. Then we'll see how their day went.  Me?  Laundry is done, my name is on the PTA checking account and my house is still a mess.  Well, relatively speaking.  It is an early out day after all. Yay mom!!

The Goat Girl.

Hey there boys.  Waiting in the arena on Friday afternoon.  Waiting for the goat show. 

Bye boys.  We were waiting for a while.

Hey!  It's show girl Ruthie.  She had just the hour before done the following... Bathed Iris.  Watched as our 4-H friends blow dried Iris.  Walked in circles with Iris while I played judge and she practiced moving around the front of Iris depending on where the judge (me) went.  Then she put Iris in to rest and got dressed in her show duds.  Then we walked into the arena with Iris and watched the dairy goats show.  Then we went around to enter the arena.

Here she is waiting for the Pygmy/Nigerian 0-6 month group.  The gal in green is Maureen, our 4-H leader.  She gave Ruthie small hints and loads of encouragement.

And...She's off!  Into the arena she goes.

Watch this!  It's so funny to see.  You train the goat to walk by tugging under the chin and pulling the tail.  When Iris would stop, Ruthie would just touch her tail and Iris would bolt.  I leaned over to Daniel and said her tail is an "on" switch.  Watch!  Wait.  Sorry.  You can't watch.  But it's fun to see.  Trust me.

They all lined up and waited for the judge.  The real one this time.  She kept turning around and smiling.  It was working!  Iris was doing great and Ruthann was awesome!

They walked around the arena again. 

They lined up again.  This time the judge went to each goat.  She looked at their teeth, their unders and felt their backs.

Then she sent them each to the center of the arena one by one.  Ruthie was the third over.  She was just so smiley!  It was fun to watch her. 

There they all are.  Ruthie is 3rd from the left.  It's the little ones on the right that were first and second.  I quote what Ruthie said when it was finished, "I wasn't dead last!  I was dead third (from last)"

She got a blue ribbon for her showing.  She also got $3 for that blue ribbon.  Awesome possum.

The blue ribbon is now hanging on her lariat on her bedroom wall.  She's already making plans for next year's show!.  And so are the boys.