Purple Toes

This past weekend Rus and I had a few days to ourselves...my mom supplied as the babysitter, two motorcycles for entertainment, an astro van loaded with a mattress, food, and gear, (no maps - whoops, Rus), and a vague idea of where we were going and what we were doing. Rus loves to be "fluid." Meaning flexible. He'd just say that, but he's an engineer and unwilling to dumb things down for the rest of us some times.
Thursday we said goodbye, headed south, had lunch at a great little place in Magdalena, took some pictures of windmills on the way down (Rus has a sort of obsession), on a road Rus had never been on before (that never happens),and stopped at Monticello box canyon with plans to ride our motorcycles there. But the sky looked like this, and the canyon is full of this, so we thought it smarter to save that for another day.

We headed south and west and finally pulled over on the side of the road just past Poverty Creek at a dirt road that looked fun so we could enjoy the bikes. We rode about eight miles in until we ran into a barbed wire fence and had to turn around. We had gone only about a mile when I rounded a corner, realized I was going too fast, panicked, locked the front brakes, and got a close up view of the ground rushing past my helmet. I felt my toes get crunched and the first thing I had Rus do after he turned off my bike was take off my already half-off boot. (Fashion Born boot, not a motorcycle boot...good lookin,' not so tough.) Then he took off my sock to reveal crinkle cut toes - all my little toes just looked smooshed, almost like a bike had fallen and smooshed them into the ground...wait...(here they are, three days later)

He made me put my boot back on so it wouldn't swell too much and not fit anymore. Then he had me show him my arm were a nasty bruise currently resides, but besides that I was fine. Well I was in maybe a teeny bit of shock, nauseous and shaky and about to cry but trying to not look like a wimp. Rus wanted me to get back on the bike and finish out the seven mile to the van, and while the Rambo Keri wanted to be accommodating, the Broken Keri was a wimp and rode out on the back of Rus's bike, leaving my bike off to the side of the road, alone. When we got back to the van (alive!) Rus wanted to go back right away and get the other bike. Rambo Keri would've said yes, but Broken Keri crawled into the back of the van (yay for the mattress!), and cried while Rus secured his bike.
It took us two hours to get to Truth or Consequences to the ER, (we saw a beautiful rainbow!)and in that time Rus almost lost his bike when a strap snapped in the rain, going 50mph. Somehow his bike stayed on the trailer and just got a nice dent in the gas tank (which he has wanted to replace anyway...are you keeping up with his new toy list? Boots, check. Bigger, better gas tank, check.)
Anywho, to make a long story short, we made friends at the ER who told me that my two little toes were broken, my next toe was okay, the next toe was "probably" dislocated, and "maybe" there was a fracture in my big toe. I don't know where they got that guy but he was gooood. I left with crutches, a funky bottom cast/ace bandage doohookey, and vicatin. The nice guy that Rus is put me up in a hotel that night. A second floor hotel room. In a hotel without an elevator. Not complaining here. Just stating the facts. I proved to Rus that I was really in pain by not sleeping well that night, despite my regular intake of vicatin.
Okay I want to insert here that day two of our trip might sound a little one sided. And it is. This is my blog, right? (And of course there was a day two, we had a sitter at home! No way we could cut this thing short!) On day two we headed back the two hours to get my bike back. I spent this time alternately trying to keep my foot elevated, my stomach down, and my head from snoozing. I found I did not like vicatin at all. I was happy to stop and let Rus out to fetch my bike just so I could crawl in the back and take a nap. I kinda wished he had taken longer, actually. Our awesome astro van made it in far enough on that wonderfully rutted-bumpy-muddy road that Rus only had to hike a mile to get the bike. The Lord held off quite a thunder storm until he got everything tied down and secured, and then we headed back out to the main road.
Then we drove.
And drove.
For Five. More. Hours.
On dirt roads.
Bumpy roads.
Windy roads.
Do you know how hard it is to keep your foot elevated in the front of an astro van? Mine hung out the window most of the day, except for when my butt got too numb. I even had to apply sunblock to my toes. Here I am taking a break and showing off my bruise.The scenery was absolutely beautiful. We were on a road that bordered the Gila Valley Wilderness area on one side and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness area on the other. We passed Wall Lake (more like Wall-Large-Pond). It was breathtaking. And super remote. We passed two cars the entire time. And it was totally fine that there was no place to eat lunch because I was nauseous anyways! (silver lining, right?)
Needless to say, when we got to Silver City we went no further. And the next day, after a wonderful day with Lloyd and Carolyn in Lordsburg (a.k.a. the convalescent home: Carolyn was recovering from gall bladder surgery, Lloyd has a broken wrist in a cast, and then there was me with my gimp foot), we headed back up to Los Lunas. Via the freeway. Rus hated it, it was such a smooth, boring ride.
The best thing about this whole "vacation" was Rus. He really is my best friend, and as much as I have teased him and despite breaking my toes, I really did have fun with him this weekend.
Plus now I have this awesome story. :)

How to Sell Lemonade

This past weekend the kids and I helped Rus's parents have a two day garage sale for all of Grams' stuff.
Lots of stuff!
Four tables, fully loaded, with boxes underneath, with more boxes in the corners of the garage, with an additional nine totes of quilting fabric, with at least a dozen boxes of books perched on the trailer nearby.
So. Much. Stuff. It was a quilter's paradise and some ladies came by both days, filling their husbands arms while emptying their pockets.
I knew the kids would need something to do so we built a lemonade stand. We made brownies and white chocolate popcorn, and we mixed some mean lemonade.
The first day of selling, Bekah and Jacob made a joint income of $16.00. They were both SO excited and were immediately planning what to buy with their loot.
The first thing I heard Saturday morning from Bekah was,

"So Mom, the cuter I am the more lemonade I sell, right? Can you help me pick out my clothes? And do my hair?"

I was having an internal fit of laughter and astonishment at this point. Who knew my little girl could be so bright? And calculating?
I did her up cute as could be and we went off to Day 2 of the garage sale. She started approaching people, giving them lemonade, and asking for a quarter, and that's when Rus's dad took her aside, bought out her stand, and encouraged her to just give the lemonade away, free of charge. Well that took the wind right out of her...she pocketed the money and went inside to watch cartoons!
I am not sure at all that she learned the honest old-fashioned value of work this weekend.
Anyways, the garage sale went great and things flew off the tables, especially when prices were drastically reduced from $1 to $.50 to $.25 for a pillowcase full. In the end we only had a trailer three-quarters full of boxes that was hauled off to Goodwill. We did pretty dang good, I thought!
In other news, the kids just finished up with 2 weeks worth of swimming lessons. Bekah loved it, always one to be a teacher-pleaser, while Jacob...um...not so much. The first week was not great, he cried everyday because he was cold. (Flashbacks to tball...ugg). Then I bribed him with goggles and all was well. It really helped that his teacher was a girl and he is such a ladies man. The last day he got sunblock in his eyes and pretty much hated everyone and everything again, except for the eye doctor, who he said we had to go see, right away.
And here are some random pictures...Please forgive me for not having any pictures of the lemonade stand or swimming lessons! I have a cute picture of my SIL DeAnn with a really, really cute purse we made while she was visiting, but I can't figure out how to convert it from a raw image to a jpeg, so you're outta luck for awhile. (My purse is almost done, too, DeAnn! Yay!)
Jacob in the awesome, slightly girly shirt I made him from one of my old shirts. The neckline needs some help...and so do the sleeves. It might get lost in the laundry for a week. Or two.A dog will wreck your yard. Here is proof:Bekah was given this dress at least three years ago, and yesterday she wore it to church because it finally fit her. She looked super cute, even with her gummy smile.

Natasha Rides

Last Saturday Rus and I hired a sitter and met up with the local motorcycle gang.
The over forty gang. (Rus and I brought down the average significantly).
Riding dual sports (mostly).
Organized by Rus's dad via adventure rider dot com.
We rode up to Lamy, NM, which is just southeast of Santa Fe, where Rus's mom and friends had lunch ready. Then we saw the Lamy train station and made the loop back around through Stanley and Edgewood to Cedar Crest, where our Astro van was parked. Rus says, "What's more manly that a minivan? TWO minivans! And loading two motorcycles in one of them!" It's true...we had both bikes in there, easy as pie, and we felt pretty cool about it too.
It was really, really fun and hot and pretty much exhausting. Who knew?!
I actually rode on roads with traffic and everything. I swear using my blinker has been the most difficult skill to master on that bike. My favorite part of the ride was a winding dirt road with lots of cattle guards. When my butt got numb I just stood up on the bike and welcomed the breeze. :)
Did I mention my bike tops out at 55 mph, 60 if I push it? And look at me..."my" bike...I've already grown attached. It's actually Rus's seventy+year-old uncle's bike. We were admittedly kinda happy to hear that he broke his hand punching a dog who was chewing on his dog's ear...now we can keep the bike a little longer. (Sorry, Uncle Lloyd about your hand!)
Anywho...here are some pictures as proof...Don't Rus and I look hot? No really. It was close to 100 degrees. I'm sporting Rus's mom's motorcycle jacket. She doesn't ride, but Roger is slowly getting her into the sport, fashion first. Want some interesting trivia on this picture (below)? The guy behind me in the blue only has one eye. He got a little out of control going around a corner right after a cattle guard, slowed down significantly, and just barely missed getting hit by the chic behind him in the red. She was not so lucky, however, and dumped her bike to avoid hitting him. I missed seeing all of this, darnit, as they were behind me, but everyone was okay, just some scrapes and no permanent damage.
In case you are curious, we are still working on our themes...last week was transportation and we went to the ABQ balloon museum where they have free storytime (and thus free entrance) every Wednesday morning at 9:30. The kids had fun; I was kind of a grump...something about them running off every two minutes. We also made box-cars one day...that was pretty much it. This week is sports and we have started swim lessons and we're planning a big family baseball game. We're going to learn about bones and muscles and we're going to try different exercise videos. Should be lotsa fun...

Memorial Day in Flagstaff

twisted pinon and juniper trees on red mountain

Last weekend we headed west to Flagstaff. Two parents and four children, if you count Colonel the dog as a kid. Don't. That's dumb, and totally not true. He might be as much work as our other kids, but you can't put them outside when they're bad, darnit.
We got to Flagstaff Thursday night, in time to enjoy the stars and put our kids to bed in Clay and GrandMary's downstairs room. We then got to chat with Clay and Mary while admiring Clay's matted spot on the carpet where he falls asleep in front of the TV every night.
I love Clay and Mary!
On Friday we hung out with Amy's kids, fixed them crepes, introduced Colonel to Luke's tshirt, welcomed Tyler and Gina when they arrived, talked about food, made food, ate food, talked some more, welcomed my Mom and Dad, and took the kids to the climbing wall at the aquaplex, saw Amy every three hours, and went home exhausted.
We decided to be more productive on Saturday.
We went garage sailing (I can spell it like that if I want to), went on a hike to Red Mountain, ditched the kids with a bewildered teenager so we could go eat lunch at Salsa Brava, went thrift store shopping, skipped dinner, decorated for a fiesta, ate Tyler's three layer Banana cake that was for Gina's birthday, ate smores with Grandpa, went back to Clay and Mary's, gave our kids a three minute bath because they were both screaming bloody murder for some reason (Bekah stayed with Sarah the whole time, lucky girl!), put them in bed, talked with Clay and Mary, and went to bed.
Phew.
On Sunday I was determined to not miss Tyler's pancakes like I had the day before. Buttermilk pancakes with sliced bananas, brown sugar and butter that all turned caramely on the skillet. Oh my yum. Tyler totally has a thing going with bananas...a good thing. We dawdled around until church startedat one (passing time by going to the park and rescuing Luke and his shirt again from Colonel). You know how it is just so fun to have grumpy tired kids, and then dress them up in their finest clothes (whilst crying) and then take them to church! Yay! It actually wasn't too bad, especially after the kids found that Grandpa's pockets were loaded with m&ms and Beau napped through one of the talks. My kids even went to their classes, all of them! All kids in all classes! (That means Beau went to nursery. Be excited for me.)
Sunday night Amy and Mike outdid themselves by grilling us some yumma chicken, boilin' some 16cent corn on the cob, making vanilla custard ice cream, and making a fresh blueberry pie. Eating is essential, so make it good. Right? That is totally my family's motto. And Chick-fil-a's.
We went to bed that night exhausted and full.
On Monday I stretched Rus to the full extent of his manly limits by taking him to Savers (the thrift store...notice a trend?) for its mega half off sale. Sixteen bucks can buy you a lot, but don't be surprised if your hubby winds up in the van with all the kids half way through and demands a Dr. Pepper after that. We made it back to Amy's in time to load up tons of goodies, say bye to Tyler and Gina, load up Colonel, and head out to Lake Mary for some water fun and hot dogs. Really our purpose was to completely exhaust our kids and Colonel for the drive home.
It worked...too well actually, I was tired too and it has taken me days to recover from the entire weekend. But it was completely memorable and fun and I LOVE my family!

Fiesta!

Well, I admit that while we have worked on our "theme" this week (Mexico), it really dwindled down to just two days of actual "Mexico" time.
Two productive, very fun days...We finished the bear/not-a-polar-bear-anymore who is red, and while he is adorable and is often confused with a hippo or pig, he is actually very fragile...Beau could punch a hole in him, and would, if I gave him the chance. The kids stopped helping me, so I didn't have the heart to do another layer of paper mache, and thus when all the balloons were popped (that make up his innards) with a needle and holes appear, I just patched the poor guy up with duct tape. Lots of it. And then I spray painted him and gave him his red crepe paper coat.
(For anyone who would like to make their own pinata: Mix 3 cups water with one cup flour in a saucepan. Stir constantly over high heat until boiling and thickened. Remove from heat, cool. Tear old newspapers into strips, dip them into the glue mixture and then apply to a balloon-shaped pinata of your choice. Or your kid's choice. Do about two to three layers to ensure a nice strong pinata. Or one if you're lazy like me. Patch with duct tape.)
We are taking the red guy with us to Flagstaff for memorial day, so he can be strung up and beat by our kids and their cousins.
On another day we stopped at a Mexican grocery store and bought hot chocolate and some chile-spiced watermelon candy. I thought the kids would hate the candy, but they actually did eat it! They also loved the hot cocoa with it's cinnamony spiciness, but I didn't really care for it.
We made corn tortillas..."we" as in "I" made them and the kids played with the dough. I don't blame them, it was cool dough...it would stick together fine until you tried to roll it out and then it'd crumble. We fried our tortillas into tacos that we had for dinner without too much whining (aahhgg! my kids and their awful pickyness!) We made these really fun papel picados for decorations...they are cut out of tissue paper and I really love how they look in my kitchen. I might keep them up all summer! Bekah and Jacob also made their own Mexican flags, and Rus was dismayed to come home and find the US flag placed below the Mexican on Bekah's little flagpole. I can't believe I didn't teach her about true patriotism.
It has been a fun week...Bekah now demands "Mexican music" every time we get in the van and she was scarred for life I'm sure by seeing a whole cow head for sale at the Ranch Market (little Mexico). Oh wait, that was me...

Next week...Transportation!

Mexico Week

Today we began.
After a 6am run.
And breakfast.
And a trip to Albertsons,
and then to Walmart.
And after 2 loads of clean laundry arrived on my couch,
patiently being ignored.

We began our hap-hazardous study of Mexico by filling in our passports with a picture and a name. You can't go to Mexico without a passport! Bekah was very proud of hers and now feels ready to cross the border with it. Jacob drew a very impressive likeness of himself. And don't they both look just thrilled.
Then we made the pinata. The kids decided yesterday on a polar bear pinata. It is not gender-biased, it is free of princess/villain/bad guy tendencies, and it's even politically correct...well not really. They decided today to buy red crepe paper for it. Yep. A red polar bear. You might not be able to tell from here, but according to Bekah and Jacob, one half of this baby bear is a boy and one half is a girl. I know. Creepy.
Personally (s)he looks more like a hippo than a polar bear, but what do I know.

Did you know that Bekah knows the pledge of allegiance in Spanish? Apparently they say it every day at school in both English and Spanish. I didn't find this out until a month ago. Crazy! She feels she has a very strong Spanish vocab, as she can also say "Hola!" Fluently. Too bad her blue eyes and blond hair give her away!

Somehow at lunchtime I wound up with a headache.
Could have been the cookies...or any of the previous activities.

So the kids watched Dora on netflix, which is also based on our theme. Sort of. Vaguely.

Viva Mexico!

Summer Plans to Outsmart Boredom

Bekah gets done with school tomorrow at 12:50, and then the summer will open up like a big gaping black hole...a place where I'll either do too much or nothing at all and my kids will constantly be hungry. It's the hungry part that frightens me, really. Bekah will snack me into the ground if she has nothing else to occupy her time, so I need to be prepared. Part one of that involved Sams club and lots of bulk snacks. Part Two is a weekly schedule of themes that we can learn about and have fun with. I thought I'd let you in on my plan in case you have any good ideas to go along with it, or if you'd like to adopt it and modify it for your family. There are ten weeks between now and the first week of August.

The libraries in ABQ have a summer reading program where the kids get prizes at the end of each week for reading. I'm hoping to make that a part of this whole thing as well and really use the libraries as my main resource for information on all the different topics.

Journals, reading, stories, worksheets, etc. will be included in each week. Also hopefully each day would have some sort of hands on activity.

Week 1: Mexico
Ideas include: Making Passports for each of the kids and stamping them each day when we finish an activity. Watching videos about the culture and history of Mexico, making a pinata, making a large topographical map with wood as the base, clay for mountains, and paint; learning about Mexican money and "buying" groceries with it; learning spanish words, making decorations for a fiesta and then having a fiesta with Mexican food and our pinata; going to the Ranchers Market (lil' Mexico) in ABQ for dinner. I like the ideas on this website. And this page, too.

Week 2: Transportation
Ideas include: Learning about planes, trains, automobiles; watching Monster Truck movies on Netflix; practicing counting with loads of blocks in a dump truck; going on a train ride, drawing a large car map on cardboard or canvas; making model cars; making modern art map drawings

Week 3: Sports
Ideas include: Learning about bones and muscles, the food pyramid; renting exercise videos from the library to try out; learn about famous athletes; go to a baseball game, make healthy foods like granola and smoothies; learning different sports; having a multi-family baseball game

Week 4: Space
Ideas include: Build a model of outer space (diorama, or styrofoam balls or sidewalk chalk outside), lauch a rocket, make cardboard box rockets, draw aliens, go to the planetarium

Week 5: Houses
Ideas include: Draw our own blueprints, visit funky houses in ABQ, make houses out of marshmallows and spaghetti (uncooked, use the marshmallows for joints), make house of cards, learn about different types of animal houses

Week 6: Music
Ideas include: Go to music in the park, make our own instruments, introduce famous artists and music to my kids, dance everyday

Week 7: Camping/Astronomy
Ideas include: Teach my kids all those wonderful skills from girls camp like fire starting and first aid, teach them camp songs; make flower presses; learn about different plants in the wild; learn camping games; learn about constellations, go camping as a family at the end of the week

Week 8: Book of Mormon
Ideas Include: Learn about Nephi (Nephi's bow), Alma the younger, Ammon, Joseph Smith; make our own gold plates, learn Book of Mormon songs, go to the temple grounds

Week 9: Plants/Trees
Ideas Include: Learn about seeds and roots, what plants need to grow; learn about redwood trees and different forests and climates

Week 10: Under the Sea
Ideas Include: Learn about plants and animals under the sea; ships, hurricanes in bottles, make our own sail boats and race them on the Rio Grande

You can tell I haven't given as much thought to the later weeks...If any of you have any ideas for more games/hands on activities or good resources, let me know! I'll update you on my lesson plans as the weeks go along, if you comment and let me know that you'd like me too. Otherwise I'll just leave it at this.

Here's to a happy, fun, adventurous summer!!