Tanner's first day of preschool

Tanner with Miss Teddie

This week Tanner had his first day of preschool. I asked him on the way if he was excited about preschool. His response: "I'm not excited, I am just going." He was so matter of fact, like it was no big deal. I was worried that he would not transition well. I underestimated the power of Miss Teddie. She took him and got him involved in playing with the other kids and that was that. I went and ran errands and felt naked without a child in tow. On Friday,after being at preschool for three mornings, we ran some errands together. After we left each store he asked "Now do we go to Miss Teddie's?" I think that is a good sign. This begins a new era for me. I have had visions of free time dancing in my head. Turns out the hours my kids are in school are not relaxing at all but a mad rush to get things accomplished before they hit the door and consume all my time and energy. When kids are born their world is so small and their needs so predictable and immediate. It is cool to see your kids world expand and open up. I was going to wax philosophic about my kids growing and how our family is changing, but it is just making my cry, so I am not going to do that. It sounds too ultra sappy on paper anyway.

Zoe's Nano sized reward

At the end of last school year I was inspired by a neighbor (thanks Tracy) to create an economy in our home as a motivation to do chores. The currency for this economy would be Monopoly money(Mm) paid out for the performance of chores and collected for such menial things as eating, sleeping in a bed, swimming, watching TV. It got off to a slow start. In fact, Heidi spent one night sleeping on the floor because she didn't have enough money to sleep in her own bed. Our experiment in capitalism took on speed as the kids expressed their desire at the beginning of the summer for some high priced electronics. It was agreed that if they earned the requisite amount of Monopoly money the bank of Mom and Dad would convert that into hard currency using the current exchange rate and the desired item could be purchased. Zoe took on the challenge with gusto. She vacuumed, did dishes, did laundry etc... at $10Mm per task and this past week was able to trade in her $1800 Mm Monopoly for $180 cash and purchase an Ipod Nano. If you are savy enough to realize that is more than a Nano actually costs, it is because Zoe was required to pay 10% tithing and put 10% in savings before she could go to the Apple store.
As a testament to Zoe's zeal, as she neared her goal at the end of the summer she set up a beauty salon in her bathroom where she charged $10Mm for pedicures and hairstyling. She also set up a private detective club and charged $20Mm joining fee. In the end she almost sold her proverbial birthright for a pot of porridge when Heidi offered to give her the $150Mm that it would take to get her over the edge in exchange for free reign over the Ipod after it was purchased. Zoe bought into Heidi's ploy very easily, but Reed and I invoked a 24 hour policy that would allow either party to back out of the deal within 24 hours. Zoe was able to see the folly of the bargain she had entered into and backed out the next day.
So the Ipod was purchased. Zoe is no longer chomping at the bit to do chores for me and Molly and Heidi, well, their lack of motivation was exposed the next day when I asked them to unload the dishwasher and they both told me "Zoe will do it", when in reality, Zoe had already said no. I guess they are going to have to step up their game to get their reward.

Chaos returns

Today was the first day of the second week of school. I was so excited (so were my kids) last week when Monday morning dawned. They were all up early and ready to go by 7am,even Tanner who insisted on having a water bottle and snack in his backpack. We pulled out the camera and documented their return trek to Lagos. It is a new camera because the old one died(of course the kids played with the old camera and got it to work two days later, so now we have two). I was a little nervous that Heidi would play shy and not want to go. I was wrong. She was the first one in and didn't look back. All those fuzzy warm feelings about your babies growing up were hampered by the fact that I was tired from getting up too early I had to run all the errands I had put off for the past two weeks (like grocery shopping) and then Tanner refused to take a nap. When the kids hit the door at 2:45 is when the real reality of back to school hit. My kids had been cooped up in a classroom all day and all that pent up energy exploded in my house like an atomic bomb. And that is what it has been like every day after school. Running, teasing, yelling, jumping, climbing, barbaric yawps, ignoring me when I ask them to perform routine chores, forgetting all manners, demanding, whining, tears over homework, teasing some more. Goths, Vandals, Visigoths. By the time Reed comes home I am on my last thread of sanity. He thinks the whole scene is fun to sit back and take in. He commented on Friday morning that I was not dealing well with the kids. I concurred. I was really glad I got to go to work on Friday. I am hoping that as the routine sinks in the chaos will subside. I am not getting my hopes up.

Mix reunion weekend

In honor of my Grandma Mary Mix's 90th birthday, and my Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Jack's return from three years of shepherding the missionaries in the Washington DC South mission, we had a reunion. It has been a few years. It was really fun to see all my cousins and meet their spouses and kids (I said it had been a while). Back in the day, when we were all hanging out and single we got together a lot, and we had some good times. It is amazing how even after a few years I really enjoy everyone's company. The years just melted away. There was good food, patterned after nostalgic foods of the past-the Croshaw's whole wheat pancakes for breakfast, which I think we have had at every reunion in memory. Sandwiches for lunch just like Grandma Mary used to send with her kids to school for lunch-deviled ham, tuna and good ol' PB&J. Dinner was intended to be a shout out to the future. Laurie Croshaw-Murray and her husband Freddy have fabricated a pizza oven that they have taken to various events and sell fabulous pizzas. They backed the oven into the backyard and in the process of unhitching it and unloading the gear it became unbalanced and the pizza oven slid off the back of the trailer. I would say that this was the capstone event of the reunion. It could have closed the whole show down, but it didn't. Freddy reacted like a champion. He had to walk away, but he came back smiling and ended up cooking pizza's in the oven (I picked up some tricks that have improved my own pizza making). Everyone rallied and put together a collection to pay for the replacement oven. It reminded me of why I love the Mix family. Anyone can have fun when the times are good, but the fact that we could keep the party going in the face of tragedy was a testiment to what family is truly about.
On Sunday we crashed Rosemary and Jack's church to hear their report from their mission. They are great people. It was so fun to see the number of missionaries who served with them who made the effort to be there and see them. They both spoke of the power of love and service and obedience. It was great to hear their testimonies of Savior and be reminded of the power of missionary work.
After the meeting we went to the Wixom's house for food and more good times. On the way home Reed and I decided we needed to make an accounting of everyone who had been there. It was great to know that after a day and a half together I could name everyone and their spouses and kids for a grand total of 72. I hope we can all make the effort to get together again soon.

Tanner's birthday, part 2

We recently made our pilgrimage to the home land. We always have hopes that is will be a respite from the heat, as usual it was pretty hot in Utah (but it cools off an night.) We had a great time. The day we arrived Reed's sister Zalia threw a birthday party for Tanner and her son Ben whose birthday is on the 16th. It had a baseball theme and was really cute. The kids ran through the water all afternoon, ate popcorn, nachos and hot dogs and drank root beer. Grandpa made ice cream-strawberry and chocolate, YUM! Good times.

Tanner's Three!

It seems like many moons ago, but my boy turned three on July 6. Reed was out of town (scout camp), but the rest of the week was super crazy so we just celebrated without him. We had donuts for breakfast, played on the Wii, went swimming and an ice cream cake to finish of the day.
As part of tradition we took some time during family home evening (the next night with Reed) to tell Tanner what we love about him.
Reed: Tanner is a champion wrestler, he pushes my car out in the morning, he lets me carry him like a baby, he is a monkey.
Heather: He is a good helper, independant, when he is in time out rather than getting out he will call me to "come talk to me" to get permission to get out.
Molly: Loves to play wii with Tanner
Zoe: Likes how he says sorry after he has been in Time out, likes to play throw and catch with him and likes how he sings-especially HSM songs and "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam"
Heidi: Loves wrestling with Tanner and Daddy and playing with him on the beach.
We all agree we love to have this little boy and his "boy things" around.

Where fourth art thou?

I have been thinking, the Fourth of July is really a celebration of an act of civil disobedience. I am listening to police helicopters flying around my house looking for some hoodlums that were intent on celebrating the holiday with some disobedience of their own. I wish I could say I was up late because I have been watching fireworks shows across America on some over rated cable channel, but no, I just returned from the ER. There was a scorpion in the towel that Zoe wrapped around herself after getting out of the pool at Grandma Chris' house. It got her (and I got it.) I was completely clueless about the effects of a scorpion bite. I didn't over react, I really thought it would be ok, but Zoe was not doing well so we packed up early to go home (you can imagine how happy the other kids were about that). In the car she got worse. I caved and called poison control, and they said they would call the ER for me. How nice. So this is what I have learned. Symptoms that indicate something bad is up:
hypersalivation-which means the victim has got a lot of spit. This is bad because they have some numbness in their tongue and throat and are at risk of choking (they also can't talk very well).
Nausea : This happens because the victims eyes are not focusing and their equilibrium is affected.
Rotary eye movement: Their eyes kind of roll around in their sockets and they can't focus. There is a fancy name for this, but I couldn't pick it off as the nurses and doc's were talking.
muscle twitches: victim shakes a lot and can't relax because the nerves that run the muscles are firing at random. This was more scary to me when I realized that the same phenomenon happening to Zoe's limbs was happening to her heart and throwing off the rhythm.
Things I am grateful for:
Antivenin. I lucked out and went to a hospital where they are running a trial on an antivenin for scorpions. Been using it for years in Mexico, but it is not approved by the FDA. Zoe was better in two hours. The alternative treatment:two days in ICU on sedatives and painkillers. In case you need to know, Chandler Regional and Gilbert Mercy are the places to go for this miracle elixir.
That it was Zoe. This may sound awful. But Zoe got out of the pool with her cousin Mia who is almost 3. If she would have had the towel with the scorpion wrapped around her I have to imagine she would have had a much worse go of it.
Mexican health care. American health care is great, but we don't have a corner on the market.
America. So our Independence Day Holiday was bogus (it usually is in Phoenix, to hot for anything other than swimming and air conditioning), but that doesn't change the fact that we live it a great country with a wonderful heritage of standing up for what is right and helping others do the same. In the words of John Hancock:We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, and so...fourth.