Noises from downstairs

Sounds a little like the title to a horror flick.  :)  It's really just noises from the rec room where the kids spend the majority of their time with toys, books and tv.

I consider quiet time as no noice.  The absence and pure void of anything from downstairs.  And usually when the downstairs is quiet, yet all four kids are awake, this means trouble.  It seldom means they're all just playing nicely, though it has happened on occasion.

Then you have medium noise.  It's not a constant clammering of children's voices.  It's just talking here and there as they play and converse.

Then you have LOUD!  It's a tad more of a constant  echo in the house.  It usually consists of at least one child yelling at the other or someone ends up crying.  Most times it begins with laughter and turns into someone crying.  Hard to punish when someone ends up crying after they all thought it was a fun activity in the beginning, so we don't.  :)

The quietness only occurs about 10-15% of the time they're all together.  The medium and LOUD is the remaining of the 100%.  They're fairly split with LOUD having a slight lead on medium.

I will have to record them when they're LOUD sometime.  It's hard to catch them doing that because generally they're watching for us to come down the stairs and they can even see us at the top and catch us and quickly go quiet or start blaming each other.  :) 

I taped the medium today on Cole's MP3 from the top of the stairs.  I was able to get to the bottom without being caught and record them from behind a wall.  Here are the sounds you hear in our house.  Just click on the link below, open the file and click on the arrow button to page through.  The LOUD page is incomplete at this time.

ppt-kid-sounds4

Oh joy...the first ice of the season.

Just sitting here and suddenly I hear the pings of ice on the screen, siding and deck.  Tomorrow morning ought to be fun trying to get kids to daycare, possibly school and myself to work.  I can handle some snow, but I HATE ice!

Wonder what tomorrow morning will bring?

It's only starting....

Our K and 3rd grader had their Christmas program tonight.  After the program was over I went to get the 3rd grader and then we made our way to get our kindergartner.  Right when we got over to her class there was a little girl, held by her dad, saying "hhhiiii Chasie".   He was polite enough to say high back, but was practically shrinking down like it was painful.  :)  Turns out this little girl is a friend of Kaelin's.  Apparently, Kaelin tries REALLY hard at recess to bug her brothers, as do her friends with her, if she can.  For now, it's driving the boys nuts!  But, after next year even Chase will be in separate school from her and as they get older he may very well appreciate her friends hangin' around.

Actually, I'm willing to bet this will happen in several more years.

Lisa

Pre-Christmas

We're going through the motions of all the Christmas hullaballoo...the Christmas programs, decorating, the Christmas card pic.

They love the decorating and watching movies together.  Yes, we usually, actually, watch a few Christmas movies together as a family.  Christmas movies are my favorites, so I'm inflicting that habit on my children and so far they seem to enjoy it.  :)  First, I have a picture of the kids in front of the tree in their pj's.  This is a tradition, but the tradition is usually to use the picture on our Christmas card.  However, I was proactive this year and took a picture in early November so I would have plenty of time to get the card printed and glad I did with all of the flus going through the house.  Chase was sad we didn't take a picture in front of the tree in their pj's so they asked that I do that even though we would not use on a card.  I asked them to make a goofy face and this is what I instantly got:



Here are the kids decorating the upstairs and downstairs trees.





My little Christmas reindeer being the ham she is.

Reflections of Thankfulness

A little gushy, but year end, you're supposed to be, right? 

I wrapped the kids' presents today, so they can stare at them for 3 weeks and try to guess what they're getting from mom, dad and Great Grandparents. :) :)  My daughter is going to her very first birthday party and for a Chinese adoptee friend in her class.  I'm so excited for her to be going to her first party.  For a girl it's a big thing!

I think today how fortunate we are.  Fortunate for 4 wonderful (fighting sometimes, but wonderful) kids and a wonderful (annoying sometimes, but wonderful) husband who survived what could have been a horrible accident this year.  We all survived a very sickly year of appendectomies, febrile seizures, house remodel/addition, over six weeks without our husband/father and plenty of unknowns with it all. 

Kaelin is 6 and began kindergarten this year.  Something that's hard to believe she's already there.  In a town of less than 1,000 and a school of 400 (K-6) she has 18 children in her immediate classroom (almost 60 in K) and she has 3 adopted Asian children (Korea, China and Vietnam) in this small communities' classroom. I'm glad for this.   My daughter is a very popular girl in her class.  I've never seen so many kids run to be around her when we go to a school function.   She's a very sweet girl and that's why she has so many friends.

Chelsi is 3 and has begun reading sight words, since Grandma has run out of things to teach her at daycare and she loves it.  She's a cuddle bug like no other and momma's little baby.  Not potty trained yet, but she's my baby, so oh well. 

Cole and Chase are 11 and 8 are working harder than ever to get good grades and retain the ability to play sports.  Cole can be so grown up sometimes.  He has been there when mom needed a man in the house and he's beginning to show a lot of maturity.  Chase is transitioning through maturity and it's been a little hard on him, but he still let's mom kiss him and hug him and that's the best.  He's a BIG boy and I forget sometimes he's only 8. 

My children show their love and affection for each other and us.  I know they're not perfect and neither are we, but we must be doing something right.  When I hear that Chase was sick at Grandma's after school and everyone went outside except Kaelin.  She stayed to eat and talk and keep my 8 year old company.  I know my kids are wonderful, caring human beings who I'm very privileged to raise.

Lisa

Let's Be One Nation Under God

I've heard so many people who are truly and utterly upset that McCain lost the election.  I don't mean disappointed, but I mean in anger and thoughts of fear that this country is going to hell in a handbag.  I can't imagine being that extreme.  I guess some might say it's passionate, I still say extreme.  I would have been a little let down if Obama had lost, but far from angry.  I figured whomever won, it was part of God's plan for us all....this world, this country.  I realize we all have free will, but do you think anyone other than God could compell us all to vote a certain way for any other reason.  I hope this election taught everyone something.  1.  Don't sit by idly and let things happen.  Get involved.  Know your reps and voice your opinion to them.  2.  Our votes count...all of them. 

I hope that we see some real changes.  Not just for today, but for tomorrow.  It would be nice to see some actual changes in the way politics are run and Washington functions.  That's a tall order though.

Anyways, here's a great link I found and enjoyed.  It's from people who voted on both sides and just want us to be one.

http://www.zefrank.com/from52to48withlove/index.html

I guess this is it....a new President?

I guess, they've pretty much, officially, called it since McCain gave his concession speech.  I didn't expect it to be this early.  I expected an unexpected tight race.  Tighter than what they were thinking with the unofficial polls.  Judging by the people around us, I figured we'd be a minority voting the way we did, but that's okay.  I'm okay with my vote.  I read and educated myself.  I made the best decision I could and he is now our President-elect.  I know some family are probably not happy with me, but I am an adult and as long as I have tried to educate myself you can't fault someone for an opinion they've made based on their best educated judgement. 

I pray that those that did not vote for Senator Obama and were vehemently against him find their fears unfounded.  There is nothing wrong voting either way.  I never vote Republican OR Democrat.  But, now that we have a new President, he needs to be supported.   And I pray he truly earns that support as I hoped he would as I voted for him.  I pray that some barriers of racism fade some.  I pray my children do not have to deal with racism and that this important event in history changes that.  We're all scared of change, but sometimes that change can be some of the best unexpected things to occur  in our lives. 

I have to say that I'm happy to see our country slowly changing.  We are seeing interacial families, couples and now a biracial President.  I try my hardest to make sure my children never believe any person, trying to be a good person, is any less than anyone else.  They have too many times brought home questions about something said at school that I would have never anticipated coming.  You have to know some of these comments are not thought of by these children, but brought on by the people around them.  My children are not caucasian in the sense some people assume.  They are a great example of this country and the melting pot it was meant to be.  My children are Korean-American, and a mixture of German, Irish, Native-American, English and Spanish.  I love that about my children.  They are perfectly beautiful...all four.  And I would not have these perfectly beautiful children without this country being exactly as it is and going through the times it has encountered.  I love going somewhere and people are all so different.  I can't remember the teacher now, but when I was in elementary school, I remember a teacher telling us that it would be such a boring place if we all acted alike and looked alike.  And she was right.  You can see so many beautiful people walking down the street in just about any city in America.  They're not one race.  They're many.

I think a lot of great things can come out of this.  Either way that was possible.  I think people are very disenchanted with Washington as a whole and pray that the recent events and turns of the economy are enough for all in Washington to take the people supporting them serious and make things fair on all sides.  Make folks skirting the laws and policies (rich or poor) accountable for what they do.  And not reward people for bad decisions made without due diligence.  I pray God is watching out for our new President-elect and all of the folks in Washington.  I would have that prayer regardless of who got in.  Things need to change and I pray God guides them appropriately and they listen.

It's a new world now.  I hope it's a great one!