el dia de los muertos

Because Michelle is in a bilingual program, they teach them about Hispanic (mostly Mexican) culture and traditions. They are learning about el dia de los muertos (the Day of the Dead) which is celebrated Nov. 1 & 2. It is a time when Mexicans remember their loved ones who have died. The students in Michelle's class were asked to make a little "altar" out of a shoebox to honor someone who has died. I showed it to Alfredo, thinking maybe he could help us make one about his dad who died when Alfredo was 11. All of Michelle's grandparents and great-grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins are still alive except Alfredo's dad. Alfredo read it and said no way that it seemed wrong. It felt to him like it would be breaking one of the Ten Commandments "thou shalt have no other gods before me." Alfredo was raised Jewish, and while they weren't that religious, this is one commandment that he takes very seriously ... and sees quite differently than I do. In his opinion, it is strange and even somewhat wrong to even have pictures or statues of Christ (such as a miniature Christus) in your home. We have a couple but he doesn't like it.

So he felt like this shoebox "altar" (which is what the school referred to it as) would be wrong. I respect his opinion but disagreed. The kids aren't going to worship these boxes or anything. It is more like a little memorial or diorama. So I helped Michelle make it (well, really, I did most all of it) and as we drove to school this morning I told her about her great great grandma Della Young who it was about. She seemed pretty interested and asked several questions. I started thinking it could be the basis for a short Family Home Evening lesson. So tonight we had FHE and I asked Michelle to tell us about her great great grandma and I shared some pictures. Then they wanted to hear more about her and her husband. I talked a little about them, showed some pictures and talked about how we can be together with our families after we die and how grateful we are for temples. We sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" and ate ice cream as a treat because Della loved ice cream. I was surprised and pleased how much Michelle remembered about her great great grandma (who died when I was about 10 or so). I have not been very good about doing FHE but have been really feeling lately like it was something I need to do better at. It ended up that this school project was a good one for my little family. I am committing myself to holding FHE weekly now. Maybe I'll even type a brief post here (not like this LONG one) to hold myself accountable. If I know that I have to report on how it goes, I'm more likely to stick with it. Or at least I hope so.

kitchen construction

So the linoleum in our kitchen has been peeling up since we moved into the house. It is also sunbleached in spots and never looks clean and is ugly in my opinion. I've wanted to change it since we moved in. So we finally have the money to put a new kitchen floor in. We bought Pergo wood flooring last weekend and Alfredo was planning to put it in yesterday. Except he realized that the old molding was big and the new molding is small so he'll have to paint a section at the bottom. Also the flooring we liked doesn't match the cabinets we have. Our cabinets are fine--in good condition-- so he's going to sand them and then stain them to match the floor. And he decided if he was going to do all this work that this would be a good time to widen the kitchen doorway. He's always wanted to remove part of the wall to open it up a little more. (I wasn't sure if I wanted him to do this or not, but finally said okay.) So while we went to the zoo yesterday, Alfredo and our neighbor Adan, knocked out part of the kitchen wall, moved all the electrical wiring so the outlets could be moved to where the wall would now be, removed the boards there, and added drywall to close it back up with a much larger entryway. So now, after two days, I have a much larger opening between my living room and kitchen but no new kitchen floor. That, I guess, will have to wait until next weekend (I HOPE!) I think it will look really nice once it is all done. But I also think that I don't ever want to tackle major home remodeling in my future. I would go crazy if my house was torn apart like this for very long. I'm impressed with Alfredo's willingness and ability to tackle projects like this. He got a lot of help on this one from Adan, but I wouldn't even try it. I'd hire someone to do it for me if I didn't have Alfredo! Here are a couple of shots of the work in progress. I'll add more when it is finished.
I know this is a terrible picture, but my kitchen entry is now much bigger than it was.. you can see the new drywall on the top and edges. There is dust everywhere.

Here is the old linoleum with parts peeling up under the sink... ugly!

boo at the zoo

Yesterday the girls and I went to Boo at the Zoo, Hogle's annual trick or treating event for kids. We got there about 12:30 and stayed for 3 hours. The girls wore their costumes: Michelle is Hannah Montana, Ella is a pirate princess and Gabrielle is a turtle. They did a little trick or treating but we only got candy from the spots where there weren't huge lines. We ran into our friends the Skadals while we were there. So we all went on the carousel together. The girls were thrilled to see Jackson, Olivia and Savannah. My girls love to see the "three babies" (who are 3, just like Ella, but we still call them the 3 babies... I'm trying to break us of that habit.) It was a beautiful day. The temperature was great and the girls had a lot of fun. I must admit that we saw very few animals. With so many people there, most of our time was spent getting candy, going on the train and carousel and playing at the playground. We did see the cats though. The tiger was the most active I've ever seen. It was pacing around, swimming, then hopping out of the water and pacing some more.

Sorry this picture is sideways, but here is my smiley, happy Gabrielle dressed as a turtle.

The beautiful tiger pacing right next to the fence.

Pirate Ella and Hannah (Michelle) Montana

she laughed

On Wednesday night, Alfredo was playing with and talking to Gabrielle and she suddenly laughed! It was her first (and so far only) laugh. It was so sweet. We're looking forward to lots more laughter with her around.

(This picture has nothing to do with her laughing, but I just thought it was cute.)

sleepy bug

3 girls. 1 mom. 2 asleep. 1 playing. This was how most of the last hour was spent. Ella crashed so I put her in Gabrielle's car seat in the stroller and let my little ladybug sleep. I put Gabrielle in my front carrier and after a few minutes she was asleep. Michelle was having too much fun to go home, so I let her run between 3 different bounce houses/slides while I sat on the front of the stroller, held Gabrielle and read. I've said it before, Ella can sleep ANYWHERE.
Well, as I was sitting there reading (and keeping an eye on Michelle off and on) a lady came up and said that it was too funny to see both Ella and Gabrielle sound asleep. She asked if I had my camera and said that I NEEDED a picture of this so that when my kids complained that I never did anything fun with them I could show them this picture and tell them I could have just gone home. She said if I'd give her my camera she would take a picture of all of us on the stroller. So I gave her my camera and she took the first shot. Then she told me that I should go back to reading and she'd take another. Which she did. She laughed and said she thought it was so cute how Ella was curled up in the car seat. I thought it was so funny that she came up and offered to take our pictures. I think it is great when people are so friendly ... I"m a little too reserved/shy to initiate talking to a stranger most of the time. (I had another mom also stop and want to see Gabrielle. She then proceeded to tell me that she was expecting and would find out next week how many babies she was having. I must have looked suprised because she then told me that she'd had two sets of twins. She lost one of the second set of twins. She told me she had four boys and that she was so glad she'd had her girls. Six kids with at least 1 more on the way! Her youngest is turning one tomorrow. Her oldest didn't look older than about 10 or 11. Adorable kids and beautiful lady. But wow! 6 kids!)
Anyway, Ella slept for quite awhile. I read almost 40 pages in my book while she slept and Michelle played and played.

Scarecrow festival is spelled F-U-N!

Today we headed down to Thanksgiving Point to the Scarecrow Festival. The girls wore themselves out having so much fun. Here are their words, from a mini-interview I gave them when we got home. Me: What was your favorite part?
Ella: Going in the crocodile slide.... I didn't like the crocodile's toes because he was real but I liked the slide.

Me: Was anything scary?
Ella: Uhn-uh.

Me: What else did you like?
Ella: I likeded when we goed in the shark. ( FYI: an inflatable slide/bouncy house)

Me: What was the best thing you ate?
Ella: Chocolate chip cookie dough (FYI: We stopped at Ab's as we were leaving to head down there and the girls shared a shake. This makes sense that this was their favorite because the only thing we bought at the festival was 1 churro and 1 soda to share.)

Me: Why did you choose the ladybug to have your face painted?
Ella: Cause I likeded it.

Me: What was your favorite part?

Michelle: Climbing up that rock so high. I almost got up there but I got scared.

Me: What was the scariest part?

Michelle: The haunted tunnel. (She wanted to go in by herself but after about 4 steps inside she came right back out. The baby was asleep so I told her we'd go back and go through it together, but we never made it back.)

Me: What was the worst part?

Michelle: I didn't have a sno-cone. (We waited in line for at least 10 minutes, and then they announced that the machine was broken and it would be at least another 10-20 minutes until they got it fixed. I gave up and bought them a churro, which didn't make them very happy. Neither did standing in line though.)

What was the best game?

Michelle: Throwing frogs into the nets.

Michelle: You know what I really, really loved was painting my face. And my favorite food was the corn dog and chocolate chip cookie dough (both from Abs).

I didn't think Michelle would make it, I wasn't sure I even wanted her to try, but she really wanted to do the rock climbing. We waited in line, she got the gear on and climbed up to the top. About one more inch and she could have hit the buzzer. But she got scared and came down without hitting it. Still, I was proud of her. She is "my little monkey." I should have known she could do it, wearing big flip flops no less!

Cornbelly's

On Wednesday, Michelle had a half day of kinder. As soon as she was done, we headed to Thanksgiving Point to meet my friend Brenda, her boyfriend Des and Brenda's 3 year old Aelora. We walked around the gardens for awhile, took the girls to the farm where they rode horses and fed the animals, and then went to Cornbelly's when it opened. Cornbelly's is set up next to the farm and had all kinds of fun activities. We went through the corn maze, jumped on the jumping pillows, rode a "cow train" pulled by a tractor. They had a princess castle and dress up clothes for the girls and a pumpkin princess read them a story. We were at Thanksgiving Point from 2 PM until 7 PM and the girls had a ball. Taking a short break from the fun... Gabrielle was getting tired, but other than this few minutes she was smiling and content all day. I love her shirt... it says, "I love my mummy."

Michelle, Aelora and Ella. Ella and Aelora were born one week apart. Aelora's mom, Brenda, teaches third grade with me. She is a great friend and colleague.
Most of the horses were little ponies. Ella chose to ride the only full sized horse. She loved it.
Ella was really nervous to get on the jumping pillow. But once she was on, she loved it.

Michelle loved it too. This was so much fun. I think we're going to head back down to Thanksgiving Point tomorrow to go to the Scarecrow Festival. This may become a new tradition at Halloween time.

I am loving being home for my 2 week break, and it has been so nice that Michelle had short days Mon.-Weds. for SEP's and then no school Thursday -Monday.

smiles

Here are a couple of shots of Gabrielle's sweet smile.
Look at that grin! She is so happy to be alive and to be near her sisters.

2 months

Gabrielle at one month old... as a comparison to the following photos.
2 months old

Gabrielle had her 2 month checkup on Tuesday. She weighs 11 pounds 6 1/2 ounces and is 23 1/4 inches long. She is in the 75th percentile for length, about 65-70th percentile for weight and 70th percentile for head circumference. The doctor said, "She has practicallly perfect proportions." She continues to be so sweet and easy to please. She eats well, she sleeps well, she smiles often, and she is just a delight to have around.

thanks chris

aka: I'M BACK!

Chris got our internet working again. Hooray. It only took 3 phone calls to Comcast and trying a bunch of different things to resolve the problem. I actually had to leave while he was talking to Comcast (I'd already tried once and Janene had too) so I'm not sure what the problem was. But I'm grateful to have internet access at home again. I have the internet at school so I wasn't totally cut off, but blogs and similar sites are all blocked. I've spent an hour now getting caught up on most of my friends' blogs. And tomorrow, I will add some posts about us. For now, I better go to bed. But thanks again Chris.

we're still here.

just wanted to say we are still here and doing well.

Alfredo likes his new job a lot, despite an injury this past week.

Michelle adores school and is learning so much.

I have finished 2 weeks of school. I have a nice class this year (what a relief!) and think it will be a good year. Also, I really like my new principal.

Ella is loving preschool. Check out the photos of her on her field trip on Nene's blog.

Gabrielle is almost 2 months old. She is growing so fast. She is so long. She is absolutely, the sweetest baby on the planet (in my opinion.)

My internet is still not working so I probably won't be on blogs again for a week, but hopefully we'll be up and running again soon. And while I work this week, I'm then off for two weeks and can get some pictures and stuff up on my blog.

Take care everyone! I miss reading your blogs and seeing how you're all doing.