Chris and Erin

Chris and Erin surprised us today with a visit. When I got home from school, my brother Chris was in my driveway. Chris was down for a short visit from Alaska(a couple days), lets call it a second honeymoon. The little one is Ariel. The next older is Bella, and Kameron is the oldest. Chris took a little trip over to Everett to check out a car he was thinking about buying while the kids played. He had a hard time getting back because the traffic was so bad and it had started snowing again. I got on Google Earth on the computer and talked to him on his cell phone to tell him where to turn and everything to get around the slow spots. It was like when you see those spy movies and you can see the dot on the screen and a person is telling them which way to turn. Anyway it was a nice visit and we had pizza from one of the places that was actually still delivering in the crazy snow. It's 9:30 now and it just stopped snowing. I just went out and measured 9 inches of snow. The weather report said we could get another 1-4 inches tonight. One foot of snow on march 1st, who would have thought?

Dreaming of a White St. Patrick Day!

Today was supposed to be the 3rd day in Mackenzie's bicycle training. When I went out the door in the morning I was surprised to see a little snow on the ground. I'd say it was about half an inch or so, I had to clear my windshield. It was melting at the time and little tiny snow or sleet or something was coming down. After first period was over the ground was totally covered in snow. It snowed from when I left home all day and is still snowing right now at 5PM when I'm writing this. It's also dumping more now than it has all day. When I left school I had to clear the windshield again and now it's covered again when I look out the window at it. I had to take a picture of it. I've never seen it snow in this area all day long. It usually snows overnight or for a few hours it dumps a bunch. I'm hoping for a day off tomorrow. We already have a teacher late start day, so if they just start two hours late I'll have to be in meetings. However, If we miss school, I miss the silly meetings. What a last day of February.

Are You Ready To Ride?

Winter is almost over and it's time to dust off the old two-wheeler and hit the road. I've done a horrible job teaching Mackenzie to ride her bike. She's not really that brave and my patience was lost on it. Last fall I tried again and she was doing ok. I had a hard time listening to all the screaming. Yesterday I pulled out the bike and gave it another go. She's doing great. I'm thrilled that she's working hard to get it down. Joshua was riding his bike at 3 without training wheels probably because I took him out every day. I guess child number 2 didn't get as much attention. My bad. Well at least she's learning now. I think by her birthday she'll be ready for a new bike, this one's getting a little small.

Hide and Go Seek?

Levi loves crawling into things. Today he found that when he opened this cabinet door, there was exactly nothing inside. He quickly remedied that problem. Can you see how proud he is to have made it all the way inside? He gets into everything. I'll have to send a picture of him up on the kitchen table. That happens every time we leave a chair slightly out. The computer chair is another favorite. And, should he make it ahead of you up the stairs, you'll know it. He starts chuckling with glee that he isn't getting stopped. It's funny because it's him laughing that betrays his ability to climb all the way to the top. He just can't help it. He's such a happy boy.

Sunday Morning

The pastor who started our church 18 years ago, Bob Legg, is moving on. Many are sad to see him go, and I am too. At the same time I'm really excited about our new pastor, Eric Spangler. He is finishing his job currently with world missions and so he has only been at church once or twice a month until April. He was there today and we were able to stay after church and have lunch with him. He talked with the whole group of us that stayed after and answered questions. In the sermon he said something that I thought was a great analogy. Let's say you're driving west towards the rockies. As you get closer they loom ever bigger in the sky overwhelming the horizon. Do you stop there and call that good? Or do you go on all the way into the rockies to explore. You go on for sure! It's the same with God. Are you content to know about God and look at his wonders from afar, or are you ready for the real adventure that only comes from following him further and searching for him at the peak? The concert last night was phenomenal. Audio Adrenaline and Mercy Me were awesome. Aaron Shust was great too. Although I'm not sure I'm spelling his name correctly. Have a great week.

Fridays

Sometimes Friday just feels so great! Did I say sometimes? Well, maybe it always feels great and sometimes it feels fantastic. I'm really excited for this weekend. On Saturday Joanna's going scrapbooking from 10-4. I get to play with the kids all morning. Who could possibly guess what we will come up with to do? Then we are going with Sara and Tim Elenbaas to the Audio Adrenaline and Mercy Me concert. On Sunday we get to have lunch after church with our new pastor. It'll be nice to meet him and talk. Tonight I made 6 videos for my Calculus Blog and I just need to upload them now. I hope you have a great weekend too! :)

AP Calculus Videos

I'm really excited about a new project I have started at school. At the beginning of May the students in my class take a test that determines if they get college credit for calculus. AP stands for advanced placement. Since we are a west coast school and have a large amount of material to cover, we don't have much time to review for the AP test. We cover all the material in class and may have a week to review. This just is not adequate for the amount of material that students are expected to have mastered and be able to show it on the test. This made me go through and organize all the past AP questions from the last 5 years. I categorized them by topic. I gave all the students a copy of the problems and am having them do them one at a time. After they finish the first problem, they go onto my blog and watch me doing the problem on the video. Then they can go onto the next problem, and so on. When they finish all the problems in a certain topic, I will have them come in for an extra study session to review anything that still was unclear to them. Along the way if they have questions for each problem they can post questions as comments on the blog where other students can see how I responded and maybe get their questions answered as well. I'm thrilled to say the least and can't wait to see how it turns out. Click here to check out the blog.

Number 4

It seems fitting to have 4 kids. 4 has always been my favorite number. I never really thought that meant I would have or want to have 4 kids, but here we are. 4 is 4 ever so don't you 4 get it. We'll still have one more spot in the van for a friend. I guess the kids can draw straws to see who gets to bring a friend.
Today Joanna swung by and picked me up after school for a trip into Everett. The kids and I dropped her off at the hospital and went over to the children's museum. Check out these pics. While we were there, Joanna had an ultrasound and found out that the baby is doing great! There were some other pictures that Joanna could see where you could see the arms and legs, but this happened to be the one they printed off. By the measurements of the baby Joanna was told that she is due on September 23. For the last three baby's she has given birth 3 weeks before the ultrasound determined due date. So, I'm thinking it'll be born September 2.
They are not able to tell us the sex of the baby yet. That should happen at the next ultrasound. We did find out ahead of time with Joshua and Mackenzie. With Levi we waited and were surprised. Joanna says that Mackenzie was the only baby she was really really sick with and with Joshua and Levi just a little sick, like this time. hint hint. Joanna's mom meter guess then is that it's a boy.
The reason were are going to find out with this one is because Mackenzie really wants a sister, and we want to give her some time to warm up to the idea of another brother if that's the case. She says that if we have a boy she's running away. Joanna asked her where she would go and Mackenzie replied, "I have a long time to figure that out."

Fort #2

Ok, so I actually got into the game and helped create the blanket fort. Here is what we came up with. There is not much to say except that the kids watched The Lion, The witch and the Wardrobe in it after we took this video. They pretended that they were going into the wardrobe while going into the fort. Enjoy. Click here to see the one Joshua made on his first attempt.

Denny's

Breakfast at Denny's - Good idea!
Breakfast in bed - Great idea!
Eating in Pajamas - Super idea!
No one having to cook - Excellent idea!

Last night as we were falling asleep Joanna came up with this great idea of going to Denny's in the morning and leaving the kids in their PJ's.
So that's just what we did. It was awesome. Wake them up, pile them in the car and go go go. Breakfast was good and inexpensive as well. The only downside was when these two guys came in and sat down at the both next to our table. They didn't check in at the front and said "whatever" to the waitress when she asked about getting them a menu. She came back a few times while they sat and talked on their cell phones. They said that they probably wouldn't be getting anything. They weren't 'dirtbaggers' but close. They missed the chance for a job and were trying to call their various girlfriends for something else to do. I have to admit that we were wondering what these girls must have looked like. The whole thing was annoying for sure. Then the guy dropped a couple of choice words and immediately apologized for talking that way in front of the kids. I don't think the kids even heard him but how lame. Joanna beat me to it and said that she would really appreciate it if they didn't speak that way. I was thinking that I'd really appreciate it if they just left, or at least buy a coffee or something. They did leave a few minutes after that and are you surprised to hear that they never bought a thing. I really wish that I took their picture on my phone so I could post it here.

Woodland Park Zoo

Today we went to the zoo. We all had a great time.
Our favorties:

• Me - I saw an orb spider being fed a cricket.
• Kenzie - the bears
• Josh - Zoomazium
• Levi - the parakeets
• Joanna - orangutans

The zoomazium is pretty cool. There is a indoor playground for Levi's age kids and also one for older kids. They also have an area where they have rocks, fossils, bones, shells and things. They all have point values on them. If you earn enough points, you can 'buy' things. You earn points by doing different projects they have when you come in. They are different each time. I'm not sure how often they change but enough. Kids can also bring in items they found and explain to the person working where they got it and what they have found out about it. They earn more points for this. Kenzie was able to get a hat shell and Josh bought a cool little rock. The parakeet cage is fairly new and you can get a stick with seeds on it when you go in. When you hold up the stick the birds will fly down and land on it. The elephants were fairly uneventful today. We brought our lunch, but on the way out we stopped at Dick's for milkshakes and fries. The milkshakes are great and the fries are super greasy. I think we can handle that twice a year or so. I learned today that if you have a membership there are certain other zoos that you can get into for free. There are many in each state, but the Portland zoo is one of them and it's relatively close. Well, it's drivable. I don't see us traveling to a bunch of other zoos, but it's cool to know in case.

Birthday Worms

Today is my birthday. Joshua's cub scout den went to the worm farm, and since I was off work I got to go too. It was thrilling to say the least. They had a whole wall of boxes that were 3ft X 3ft x 1ft. There were eight boxes along the wall and about 6 boxes high. They were on this really heavy duty steel shelf. I'm talking industrial strength shelving. The kids got to fill one of the boxes. First they put in soil. Then horse manure went in which was from organically fed horses. The lady had made this other mixture of wet cardboard that had been through some sort of pounding mixer or something. While the boys poured that in with metal dustpans Mackenzie spread some shredded paper over the top. Then the kids grabbed worms out of a bucket and put them on top. They were encouraged to look for worm eggs while they were spreading the worms. The lady also had a video about worms and the kids enjoyed hearing how a worm moves and eats. They also could see it's hearts. A worm has 10 hearts. 5 sets of 2. We also learned that when a worm is cut in two, only the side with the hearts regenerates. It's a myth that both sides grow into worms. It was a pretty cool trip.

Just pee in a cup.

Yesterday morning I was awaken 2-3 times by sirens before I finally decided to get up 10 minutes before normal. They were distant, but they kept coming back. I found out at school that a 17 year old boy had been shot by police following an attempted burglary. The craziness seemed to subside when today during 1st period we had a lock down. They stated over the intercom that there was a situation near Elim (the church next to the high school). The class connected to mine had a roaming teacher in it and he couldn't lock his outside door. I had him move his class into my room and I locked the door into that room. When Mr. Cronin came in he had half finished his Venti Mocha. We all sat quietly in the class for over an hour from that point in time. I was checking out newsgroups on email to see what was happening. The first message 3 minutes after the announcement only said no students on cell phones. I was trying to find out how serious it was and if there was a possibility of danger on campus. 30 minutes later there was a message that was vague and said we were on continued lock down.
It was no surprise when kids then started asking to go to the bathroom. I e-mailed the office to find out what the protocol was for that. I was really concerned about Mr. Cronin with the large amount of coffee in his belly. By then the other classroom's outside door had been lock and we were joking about sending the boys in there to pee in a cup. According to a student in my class later that day 2 boys in their class did just that. They sneaked over behind the teacher's desk and did their business. It's a good thing they didn't have to go number 2. We were finally contacted by email that we could send kids to the bath room with an escort by 2's or 3's. After the second group was back the intercom blasted that the situation was resolved. I told the kids left that they better get down to the bathroom fast. We were given a 10 minute break, and their was a line to the bathrooms the whole time. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful.

Squeaky Clean Climbing Machine

Ok, so that last video of Levi wasn't exactly the cutest thing that I could have put on here. That's why I made it my mission to get a good picture of the little stinker posted. Levi had just taken a bath were he had a great time swimming around in the tub. Joanna was showing him her valentines roses and Levi thought they were hilarious. She would get him up close to smell them and he would start giggling harder and harder. Afterward he was on the floor and he wanted to see the roses again. He climbed up onto a chair and was about to go onto the table when I snapped this shot. Yes, it is true, Levi can climb onto the table. There have been many times when I have looked over and he is starting to stand up on the table. Our only defense is to make sure all the chairs are in. He can't yet pull the chairs out. I'm going on record right now to say that this little stinker is a smart one. And possibly a climber.

Levi's Grumpy Face

Levi was taking a bath this evening and I was trying to video him doing a slam dunk on his bath-sketball hoop. What ended up happening is me videoing his not yet famous grumpy face. It's hilarious to see this cute little guy with a scrunched up face mean as mean can be.

Blanket Fort

My Nephews David and Joel turn 18 on February 14th. Before their party Joel had created a giant tent with blankets, 2 or 3 couches, and a TV cabinet. When our kids got to the party they were thrilled to say the least. They crawled in to watch a movie and played in there for hours. I was disappointed that the TV was connected to the fort because why watch that hunk of junk when you can have more fun playing in the fort? Eventually we dragged them out of the fort and were on our way home. I went to work the next morning and somehow worked through the day without a thought towards building a blanket fort. Much to my surprise, when I got home that afternoon creativity was flowing out the door. Couch cushions, blankets and pillows were all over the family room. Joshua and Mackenzie were deep in the mess. A desire to jump right in and build along side them was overtaken by wonder at what they might build on their own. I watched as they put all the couch cushions in a circle and covered them with a blanket. It was low to the ground, but they were able to squeeze their little bodies in all the same. An occasional ripple on the blanket from them moving below was all I could see of them for a good 5 minutes. Joshua came out and decide that he would use the couch and some cushions propped up to form the walls. This seemed to be his best bet and he wanted me to take a picture. They are still creating right now after a break from dinner and I'm delaying my eventual contributions to their madness because they are playing so well together. This seems hit or miss. Boy - Girl. 2.5yrs between. Currently they are extending the fort in the picture to include an entrance tunnel. I'm thinking of using chairs and tables and their mess will surely become a whirlwind. Are you ever too old to build a blanket fort? I think not. If you are you need to reconsider. I'd love to see a picture of your best blanket fort.

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!
What is the deal with coming soon? Can you feel the excitement of something yet to come.
Personally, I feel a sense of disappointment that soon is not now. I guess those are close to the same thing. I would definitely rather have 'them' just surprise me when 'they're' done with a bold and blinking coming now! It also seems that sometimes coming soon is really coming never anyway and so personally I have a hard time coming back to see if 'it' ever came.

On the same note:
Websites love to have the label "Under Construction" plastered all over when they are partially completed. This is coming soon in disguise. Sometimes it's coming soon and sometimes it's coming again and like I said before, sometimes it's coming never.

So, anyway a post is coming soon!