Goofy Boy

A budding graphic novelist

My little Tiger has been quite interested lately in drawing his own comics and cartoons. It is so fun to watch him concentrate so hard as his draws, with his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth, and to watch his abilities improve with each attempt. Tiger loves Lego Ninjago and on our day off of school last week due to an ice storm, was inspired to draw his own story about the Hypnobride (I think that's how you spell it, but I really have no idea). In the end the book was about 15 pages long, but here are the first two. The swirly eyes and fangs are by far my favorite.

The last week

For the past week I have been knocked down with a cold and have been a big wussy baby who has done absolutely nothing. I wasn't alone though, Tiger was knocked down with a cold as well. The cold has been miserable, but the fact that I was able to take the time to rest and do nothing has been absolutely wonderful and much needed. Now it is back to business as usual with a busy week ahead of me. Bring it on.

Just for fun, here's an adorable picture of me on my first day of Kindergarten.

 

"Hampster" Day

Did you know yesterday was "Hampster" Day? I didn't. But when I looked at my calendar yesterday, there it was. I wonder how once celebrates this day? What is an appropriate "Hampster" gift? We may never know, although if celebrating this day involves crashing on the couch for a couple of hours while chaos ensues all around, then I knocked this one out of the park.

We've got some sweet moves

Last night the kids' school had a fundraiser skating party, so after a lot of debate (on my part) we dusted off the roller blades and headed out for a little school night fun. I was really kind of dreading the evening because I knew that Tiger would need a lot of help and that it would be loud and crowded, but lucky for me my Love knew that it would be a great time and so he made sure that he could come along and help out.

Here's Tiger as he gets his skates on. The excitement was still fresh.

Doug headed out first with Tiger. Doug is a fantastic skater and so he was the perfect person to take Tiger out on his maiden skating voyage. It was very slow going. There was some falling, a lot of frustration, and a few tears.

Then Tiger discovered that skating on carpet was much easier than skating on a hard surface. Woo was a very sweet sister and indulged her little brother for a bit. She has never been a very strong skater either, but over the course of the night she really improved.

The skating rink had these awesome skating helpers. They are genius. As soon as Tiger started using one he was finally able to move himself forward and his confidence soared. The helper was great because it made Tiger lean forward and actually skate in a much more natural way.

Here's my Woo showing off her skating skills.

Sparky has some pretty sweet skating skills as well. I loved watching him go around and around the rink. Sometimes he was surrounded by friends, sometimes he was just on his own and singing along to the music. It totally took me back to the skating parties of my youth when my mom would just drop us off at the skating rink and we would spend hours skating our hearts out. I love that I can still picture the rink and my own sweet moves, because in my head I was totally awesome.

By the time we were done, our heads were pounding from the noise, and our feet hurt from the skates, but we had a great time and I am so glad that my Love coerced me into going.

Laziness

I have a cousin who recently posted on Facebook that her problems were First World problems and I agree, my problems are most definitely First World problems. The problem is, they are still problems and these insignificant (in the great scheme of things) problems are shutting me down and causing me to become very, very lazy, plus it is winter which isn't helping anything. I don't know about you, but when faced with a bunch of tasks that seem overwhelming, I tend to do nothing, hoping that they will just fade away.  Sadly, they never just fade away. Instead, I just end up looking like a lazy flake. Really, I should be jumping in and attacking those problems and showing those problems who is boss. But who are we kidding? That's not going to happen. So, for today I will just enjoy the fact that the sun in out and attempt to at least do some laundry.

P.S. Mom, yes I have made a list. I just don't like what my list is telling me.

 Just for fun, here are a few pictures of my girl from 6 years ago. She kills me!

She cracks me up

This is the latest installment of "What Woo was doing instead of cleaning her room." This girl seriously cracks me up. Also, since I know there is no doubt in this house how we feel on the subject, I'm pretty sure she meant to write "Bahamas."

My morning routine

6:00 - My alarm goes off
6:15 - I finally get up, telling myself that tomorrow I will actually get up at 6:00, and that tomorrow I will start exercising as soon as I get up.
6:35 - I go into my sleeping Woo's room and tenderly start to wake up my sleeping princess. Like her mother, she does not embrace the morning. I rub her back a few times and then she rolls over and I climb into bed with her so that I can snuggle her awake and kiss her delicious cheeks. She moans and whines about being tired and that she wishes school was cancelled.
6:40 - Snuggle time is over and I turn her light on so that she has to wake up.
6:45 - I quietly sneak into the boys' room to wake up Sparky. I rub the top of his head a couple of times and he very considerately gets up, wanders into my bedroom, and then tucks himself into my bed to warm up and wake up.
6:50 - I start making breakfast, whatever that is for the day.
7:00 - Sparky and Woo find their way downstairs and eat breakfast and make their lunches.
7:25 - I go in and wake up Tiger. Like his sister, he prefers a gentle wake up and so I rub his back a few times and then crawl into bed with him to snuggle him awake. If he is in a good mood, he rolls over and wraps his sweet little arms around my neck and nuzzles my cheek with his cheek and says, "Good morning Mama," and then we snuggle for a few minutes while I scratch his back and he tries to wake up. Then, I pick him up and carry a floppy boy downstairs. If he is in a bad mood, he rolls over the other way and goes back to sleep and tells me he is too tired and that he doesn't want to wake up. I try to rub his back and snuggle him for a few minutes, but then I give up and tell him to come downstairs when he is ready.
7:30 - Ideally this is when we read scriptures and have our family prayer.
7:35 - When we usually start reading scriptures and have our family prayer.
7:40 - The older two kids run out the door to catch the bus.
The rest of the morning is spent in various ways, usually with me dreaming of a nap, until Tiger catches the bus at 11:30 am.

A picture of the clock from last Friday. It was 6 degrees. It was very cold. This morning was downright balmy at about 14 degrees.